When Incorrect Spanish Is The Preferred Spanish

The sentence deconstructed here will illustrate Mexican colloquialism, the Spanish preterit conjugation of an irregular verb, and a demonstrative pronoun, all at once. For anyone learning Spanish, deconstructing simple sentences and reviewing them whenever possible is always way better than mugging up lists of Spanish words with their out-of-context meanings. We’ll also see here, how deliberately violating those rules of grammar and using incorrect vocabulary creatively could get you in the league of native speakers quickly. Obviously, there must be some method to this madness otherwise you run the risk of sounding naïve.

The sentence

Let’s see what we got here today; here’s the sentence in question along with its English translation in parentheses:

Todos los meseros fueron a la fiesta del cumple de su capi. (All waiters went to the head waiter’s birthday party.)

Before we begin our reverse engineering with this sentence, let’s stress again the importance of steering clear of rote memorization at all times and at all cost. The concept must soak into you gradually and naturally and be a part of your natural linguistic inventory. Only then can you ever reap any tangible benefit from all the efforts you ever invested in learning Spanish. Let’s start the autopsy now.

The nuts and bolts

Todos – This word, simply put, stands for the English “all”. However, there’s a twist. While the English word exists solely in one universal form regardless of context, todos doesn’t. First things first, todo is masculine while toda is feminine. That one’s a no-brainer but what about todos, then? What can possibly be the singular of “all”? Well, first of all, todo is used only with singular nouns and gives a sense of “whole”. So, toda la clase would mean “the whole class” and todo el mundo, “the whole world”. Now, in the same vein, todos goes with plural nouns and means “all” in the sense of several things or people taken together. For example, todos los libros means “all the books” and todos mis perros means “all my dogs”. Coming back to our sentence, the noun in question is masculine plural and hence takes todos.

los meseros – Los is simple to explain. This Spanish equivalent of the English article, “the”, goes with masculine plurals in situations as dictated by Spanish grammar which is not always the same as those applicable for its English counterpart. Los becomes el when followed by a masculine singular, la when followed by a feminine singular, and las when followed by a feminine plural. Mesero is a waiter so that makes meseros, more than one waiter obviously. Hence, in this sentence, the phrase, todos los meseros (all the waiters) forms the subject.

fueron – We are already familiar with the Spanish verb, ir (to go) and its present indicative conjugations. Well, never mind those heavy-duty, utterly useless, grammatical terms but the only intent behind those names being used here is to ease identification or reference. No need to memorize what they mean. Anyways, what we are seeing here is the form ir takes when used with third person plural subjects in the past tense; more precisely, when the action has been performed only once and completed in the past. Spanish grammar calls this the preterit form. If we were talking about just one waiter, el mesero, the fueron would have reduced to fue. Incidentally, both ir and ser share the same conjugations in their preterite forms; so, while in this sentence fueron means “went”, it might as well mean “were”. Needless to say, it’s the context that dictates which interpretation flies.

Fiesta time!!!
Photo credit: Municipio Piñas licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

a – While the Spanish a can take several interpretations depending on the context, it means “to” in this one. Don’t worry about other meanings as you will get them as and when you come across each of the several idiomatic expressions that use it.

la fiesta – La is the Spanish “the” for feminine nouns and it won’t hurt to believe that most English speakers would be familiar with fiesta. You guessed it right, it’s a “party”!!!

del – De is the Spanish for “of” and el is the Spanish for “the”; whenever the two come together, they become del, the Spanish for “of the”. Note, however, that this contraction only works with singular masculine nouns; de and la never merge, nor do de and los or de and las.

cumple – This is one of those words using which can make the difference between a native speaker and one who has spent months in the classroom learning Spanish. Your dictionary tells you that the Spanish for “birthday” is cumpleaños, which is why, feliz cumpleaños figures among the first few phrases in every dime-store phrasebook. However, cumpleaños becomes cumple in unofficial local lingo and you will obviously sound way more “native” if you use this grammatically incorrect contraction in your speech!

Cumpleaños often becomes cumple in Mexican Spanish
Photo credit: Mario Sánchez Bueno licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

de su capi – De (of) needs no introduction but su does. Su, in this context, stands for “their”; depending on context, it can also mean “her”, “its”, “his”, or even “your” (the polite form). This word takes a singular noun while for plurals, the word becomes sus. Capi is a Mexican slang for captain used in the same way as “cappy” is in English. In this context, it kind of indicates the “head waiter”. The correct word in Spanish, though, is capitán but the incorrect contraction, capi, not found in any dictionary nor approved by any grammar book, is what gets you the ticket to the inner-circle of native speakers! To summarize, de su capi, put together, mean, “of their captain” or, “of their head waiter”.

It would be reasonable to assume that you don’t really need any assistance with the word-order in this relatively straightforward sentence. Still, should there be any confusion stringing these nuts and bolts together, feel free to drop in a comment and we could try to make it a cakewalk for you.

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Fresh Spanish From The Mexican Barrio

The sentence that we are going to dissect today is a typical illustration of how Spanish sounds in the living rooms and the narrow alleys of Mexico. Loaded with not one but two local Mexican Spanish slang words, one of which might as well be the de-facto national expression of the country, it just doesn’t get any more Mexican than this! Other than its rich linguistic content (which is what must matter the most to those learning Spanish), there’s nothing special about this sentence which is neither a witty saying, nor a popular movie line. It is just something off a real conversation between real Mexicans in a real context.

Here’s the sentence in question along with its English meaning in parentheses (not to mention, it only translates the sense and is not a literal translation).

¡Este barrio es un cagadero, güey; es peligroso y asqueroso! (This neighborhood is a shithole, dude; it’s dangerous and disgusting!)

Time to get those knives and scalpels out now. Let’s start the disembowelment now and see if it helps expedite our process of learning Spanish by any degree.

The nuts and bolts

¡Este barrio es un cagadero, güey!
Photo credit: issa licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

Este – This is “this” in Spanish. A point to be noted here is that Spanish has different words for guys and girls no matter what we are talking about. So, even when it comes to pronouns like “this” and “that”, there is a male word and a female word in Spanish. Este happens to be for the guys and esta, for girls. And, why did we choose este over esta? Because the word it is pointing at is male. This is a key feature of all Romance languages and while learning Spanish, you must bear in mind that nothing exists without gender.

barrio – This is what made us choose este over esta in this sentence. A barrio roughly translates into a district or neighborhood of a town in a Spanish-speaking country and since it is a male or masculine noun (the -o ending gives it away), it accepts este instead of esta. So, now we easily know that este barrio simply means “this neighborhood”.

es – This is the simple present tense conjugation of the Spanish verb, ser, for a singular, third person, subject. And, I am just hoping we all know what ser means and, more importantly, why we chose ser over estar in this context. Just in case, if you don’t remember, ser is one of the two Spanish words for the English verb, “to be”, the other being estar. Since, we are talking about only one barrio, we use es and not son.

un cagadero – Must I explain here that un is one of the Spanish equivalents for the English article, “a”? Well, un is for the guys and una, for girls. Though, keep in mind that you don’t simply plug in an un wherever English uses “a”. The rules of article usage in Spanish are slightly different from those in English. Now, cagadero is interesting. It literally means any site where you would defecate, such as a lavatory, a john, or even a makeshift hole in the ground in some remote areas. However, in this context, we are using it as a common Mexican slang that means “shithole” in a disparaging tone and not necessarily an actual toilet. So, here, what we are indicating is a rundown neighborhood which the speaker obviously doesn’t find too appealing. Why, the second half of the sentence resolves the mystery.

güey – Here comes the word Mexicans love more than their bean burritos and tequillas! Ok, that might be a hyperbole but it is true that güey is the most frequently heard word in the Mexican world and identifies a Mexican pretty much in the same way as che identifies an Argentinean. And yes, you guessed it right, it just means “dude” in English. If you are learning Spanish as spoken by the Mexicans, you’d be better off making this word your top favorite. Incidentally, there are many other words for “dude” in Mexico but güey happens to trump all in popularity.

es – We have already discussed how ser morphs into es when used with a singular subject in the third person (of course, in the present indicative tense). But where is the subject? This brings us to another key aspect of Spanish which is omission of the subject pronoun unless there is an absolute necessity. Often, the context dictates your interpretation and, trust me, you will hardly make mistakes even if you have just started learning Spanish. Here, since the context already shows that it is “this neighborhood” that is under discussion, this es takes “it” (i.e., “this neighborhood”) as the implied subject.

peligroso – This is “dangerous” in English. Interestingly, it derives from the Latin, perīculum, from where English got its “peril”. My piece of advice for those learning Spanish here, try to dig out the etymology of the word you look up on a dictionary, whenever you do. Often, the word would share a common origin with some familiar equivalent in English and will make retention easier for you. Why? Because Spanish, being a Romance tongue, derives heavily from Latin while English, though essentially a Germanic language (which makes it closer to Dutch and German than to Spanish or Italian), has borrowed more than enough words from Latin!

y – This is the Spanish for “and”. Easy, wasn’t it? remember, though, that this y becomes e when the following word begins with the /i/ sound. Shouldn’t be hard to remember for, if you look closely, this is driven more by speech aesthetics than by mere grammar.

Peligroso y asqueroso
Photo credit: Oisin Prendiville licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

asqueroso – This Spanish word essentially represents the sense of something being unpleasant, loathsome, or disgusting, the magnitude of disgust often being dictated by the context.

Going beyond

Now that we are done interpreting the second half of the sentence, do you finally see why our Mexican friend called this neighborhood a “shithole”? Can you come up with a more apt description for a neighborhood that is both dangerous and repulsive?

We are hoping that playing with this typically Mexican Spanish sentence has loaded you enough to make learning Spanish a breeze. You will do well to start experimenting with your newly acquired Spanish at this stage. Try crafting your own sentences describing things around you and get them reviewed by your Spanish-speaking friends. Doing this is easier than it sounds. Start with modifying sentences that we have dissected from time to time and then gradually move on to more adventurous constructs.

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Kill Frustration With The Language Dojo

Ever wondered why an overwhelming number of Spanish learners end up quitting hardly a few months into their programs? Even better, ever wondered why you felt like quitting learning Spanish out of sheer frustration? Where did that zeal go? Where’s that battle cry you flagged off your Spanish language program with? Today, we’ll extensively talk about a blog that answers just these questions and more! We can comfortably wager that reading the radical, game-changing notes on that blog will change the way you see learning Spanish for good because motivation is everything when it comes to learning anything. Nothing else matters.

We ran into Ramses Oudt on the Internet after extensively reviewing his blog on learning Spanish – any language, for that matter – and stalking him on Facebook. Today, we have become friends of sorts and we could never thank him enough for his infinitely inspiring work, The Language Dojo. We could connect with Ramses on several levels, being fellow webmasters and, more importantly, being fellow linguists who dig Spanish. Our mutual flair for languages meant that Always Spanish had to draw more than a significant amount of inspiration from The Language Dojo. In fact, it’s The Language Dojo that gave us the final kick despite the plans for Always Spanish being in the pipeline for over a year before it actually took shape!

Why do language learners quit?

Now, that we have given you a fair idea of The Language Dojo being an inspiration behing Always Spanish, a little digression is in order here. Actually, let’s revisit our original question – What demotivates someone learning Spanish and what can help one keep that demon at bay? Now, let’s address this question in parts; it’s primarily important that we know what demotivates us. Surprisingly, the answer lies within. Look no further, you are your best counsel! Well, it all boils down to just one thing. There could be a hundred different ways of putting this across but when chopped finely enough, all reasoning and argument essentially reduces down to a single common theme regardless of whether you are learning Spanish or Swahili. That core cause of demotivation is absence of visible results!

Learning Spanish is really this easy!
Photo credit: Mike Burns licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

It’s only human to expect results whenever something new is started. That’s not the problem. The problem starts when your expectations cross that thin red line between what’s reasonable and what’s not. If you start learning Spanish with a goal of speaking like the natives in two months, you are most likely setting yourself up for failure. Have small, realistic goals. Take baby steps. In fits and starts, it’s nature’s honest truth that you’ll get there. As long as you are consistent. There’s no motivation bigger than success and there’s no teacher as effective as self-motivation.

So, higher your success-rate, the better your chances of getting fluent in Spanish or whatever you are learning. And the best way to ensure you succeed more often is by keeping a number of small, successive, and achievable targets. Every time you hit those targets, you’ll feel more charged-up, more empowered, and get a small baby-step closer to your ultimate goal of being native-fluent in Spanish.

What matters most is consistency. even if you can manage to dedicate only 30 minutes of your day to learning Spanish, keep it at that or more everyday. Do not bunk. Even 10 minutes of reps on Anki® is better than no reps at all. Even 10 minutes of watching a Spanish show is better than none at all. Even 10 minutes of reading your favorite comic in Spanish is better than not reading at all. Instead of fretting over how busy you are and how you don’t have time for learning Spanish anymore, think of ways to maximize your effectiveness with whatever time you have at your disposal! Even polyglots who speak a dozen unrelated tongues with native-like fluency (yes, they do exist!) have only 24 hours in their day, just like the rest of us. And most of them have jobs and families to attend to, all the while taking those baby steps toward their goals. Would you assume they would have complained about how little time they had to practice their language skills?

Well, so we have understood the importance of being consistent and keeping small achieveable targets in our language programs. Is there still something we could do to keep our motivation afloat? There, surprisingly, happen to exist some quite commonlace solutions to this problem which is what brings me to our next subject, The Language Dojo.

The Language Dojo

Ramses has been an acquaintance since his Spanish-Only days and, one must confess, he has never ceased to kick learners in the right direction ever since. If one were to summarize the qualities of this blog in one word, it would be, motivation. A casual trip to this blog will show you dozens of articles mostly by Ramses (and sometimes by Matthew, a co-author) that solely strive to keep you motivated in learning Spanish (or Xulu or Korean). What started as a hobby blog for those learning Spanish way back in the spring of 2008 has slowly evolved into a full-fledged self-hosted goldmine of motivating and resourceful articles for those learning just about any language, known by fans simply as TLD.

The best aspect of this blog is Ramses’ radical views on the various language learning methodologies in practice today. Ramses is himself a linguist from The Netherlands whose love affair with languages started when he chose to major in Spanish as a young college student. He has dabbled in several established methodologies, some conventional and others unconventional, while learning Spanish and has drawn heavily from the likes of Antimoon and Dr. Stephen Krashen. It is this assortment of extremely unconventional learning methodologies (read, for example, Input vs. Output) that make TLD an immensely indispensible resource. What motivates you even more is the fact that these methods, while being radically unorthodox, are also extremely easy to implement and it is this ease that makes them motivating (how difficult can watching TV for hours get? What can be harder than just letting a Spanish podcast rattle away in the background while you are cooking?). You start seeing learning Spanish as a more realistically achieveable enterprise when you see the methods are easy and natural and when you see that successes, though in tiny installments, are quick to come by, not to mention, visible.

Another way TLD helps you stay in the game is by offering you a couple of inspiring success stories. Nothing rakes up the adrenaline in us more than a story of someone who has started where we are today and has gone on to get where we aspire to be in a commendable span of time. As humans, we all love role-models. Read, for example, about James’ success with total immersion and tell us if it didn’t inspire you! Such tales of real success achieved by real people like us and unconventional language learning methods have revolutionized our approach to learning Spanish. And it’s our strong belief that you can draw more than just inspiration from this infinitely rich resource.

Have you ever been creative about self-motivation? Got any interesting ideas to help other lesser mortals like us find language learning a more interesting and rewarding experience? Feel free to share your thoughts!

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Let Beyoncé Sing So You Learn The Spanish Adverb, Ya

The Spanish word, ya is notorious for giving immense pain to those learning Spanish even in their third or fourth year. Honestly, most of us have struggled with this word enough to have even quit Spanish for at least a while out of sheer frustration! One particularly exhaustive lesson on About.com is dedicated to this topic and so are hundreds of others elsewhere on the Internet. So, learning is never an issue; the issue is with recalling it when required. Luckily, today, we have a gorgeous teacher just to ensure we never forget the word’s usage rules anymore. If Belanova can help with gustar, Beyoncé can help with ya!

The Child Prodigy

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter
Photo credit: Martin licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

Apologies if this sounds like an unfounded assumption but does this chick really need introduction? I mean really? We are talking about the sizzling hot powerhouse of talent who has won more Grammies than most can even begin to wish for! Well, when we are discussing this Southern belle, we are discussing the third most honored and second most nominated woman in Grammy history with 16 wins and 43 nominations as of today (not to mention the total tally of 173 awards and more than 500 nominations)!

Shooting to fame in the late 90s as the lead voice of one of the world’s most successful girl-groups of all times, Destiny’s Child, Beyoncé (also known as Sasha Fierce) has thus far won a Billboard Millennium Award, 12 MTV Video Music Awards, and a star on the Hollywod Walk of Fame with Destiny’s Child.

Irreemplazable

Now that we are pretty sure you are stumped enough with the prodigy’s stellar records, let’s get down to business. We were talking about this particular single that came out in the fall of 2007 as a part of Beyoncé’s first ever EP (extended play). Both the EP as well as the single in question were named Irreemplazable (Irreplaceable) and fared really well on the charts earning a nomination in the 2008 grammy Awards.

This song, written by Beyoncé herself (though Ne-Yo wouldn’t agree), celebrates female empowerment and is about a relationship’s breakdown because of a cheating partner (of course, the man). It is a catchy pop ballad with heavy R&B influences and bears quite a resemblance with those sung by Whitney Houston.

For Spanish learners

So what’s in it for me, the Spanish learner in you should ask by now; besides the soulful lyrics and hum-worthy music, that is. Well, for starters, the 5 occurrences of esta vez should do more than reinforce the Spanish for “this time” for those who were left still wanting by the previous article’s Belanova. Other than that, the song illustrates almost every color of the Spanish adverb, ya, with a good 24 reps! With that many repetitions of just one word in a single song (a karaoke-worthy pop at that), there’s no way you can ever have trouble using and interpreting it smoothly no matter what the context is. Have a look for yourself – Youtube® is teeming with copies of this song’s videos.

As always, here’s a small snippet of the complete lyrics with a broad translation for your reference. Read along and enjoy the music while your mind does all the boring work of remembering what’s useful.

Ya lo ves, ya lo ves (As you already see, as you already see)
Te olvidé, te olvidé (I forgot you, I forgot you)

Ya lo ves, ya lo ves

Ya lo ves, amor, esta vez te olvidé (As you already see, love, this time I forgot you)
En el clóset, en un rincón (In the closet, in the corner)
Están tus cosas, esto se acabó (Are your things, it’s over)
Te juro que no te aguanto más (I swear I won’t take it anymore)
No te quiero ya, ni como amante (I don’t love you anymore, not as a lover)
Esta vez no ganarás, te puedes marchar (This time you won’t win, you can leave)
Y no vuelvas jamás (And don’t ever return)

Y si acaso piensas que esta vez voy a perdonar (And if just in case you think that this time I will forgive)
Ya verás, que nunca más me vuelves a engañar (You’ll surely see, that you’ll no more fool me again)
Ya lárgate (Now go away)

Irreemplazable is not Irreplaceable!

Before we wrap up this article, one strong word of caution: Do not fall for the English version of this song if you are really keen on learning some Spanish. Talented as she is, Beyoncé has done this song in Spanish as well as English and even in Spanglish. While it is very easy to assume that the English version is just the English translation of the original Spanish, in reality it’s not. The lyrics are completely different and the only common factor among the versions is the message of female empowerment and the central theme of a girl dumping her guy after catching him cheating on her.

So in short, what you should ideally do is look for the English translation of this song and not the English version. It is the translation that will teach you Spanish. And even before you look up the translation, we strongly recommend just listening to the original several times, savoring just the music and the essence of her voice. This way, you will get a better hang of what rapid Spanish sounds like and only once you hit a hummable stage with the song, should you start with the translation.

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Vez Or Tiempo? Let This Latin Grammy Winner Teach You

Ever found yourself struggling with the quintessential dilemma every newbie learning Spanish faces at some stage: The choice between vez and tiempo? Both of them, says your dictionary, translate into “time” in English. Well, grammar dictates that vez is to be used when talking about instances or frequency of occurrences (e.g., this time, once, another time, twice, in turn, etc.) while tiempo fills in for all other situations. Fair enough, now how to remember this? Music to your rescue again – Here’s the perfect song to drill this piece of Spanish grammar right into you! The song in question is Por Esta Vez by Belanova.

Belanova

Belanova: Edgar Huerta, Denisse Guerrero, and Richie Arreola
Photo credit: Gozamos licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

Belanova is a promising name on the Mexican synthpop scene originating in what is widely accepted to be the cradle of Mexican music and arts, Guadalajara, in 2000. Officially, the band consists of only 3 members: Edgar Huerta on the keyboards, Ricardo “Richie” Arreola on the bass, and the lead vocalist, Denisse Guerrero. However, its live lineup is often attended by several non-member performers, most notably Richo Acosta on the guitar and Israel “Campanita” Ulloa on drums.

Each of the three have their own tales of passion that eventually brought them together. While Paul McCartney was the role model that drove Ritchie toward Belanova, Edgar was accidentally sucked into music after he started playing a keyboard that his brother received as a Christmas present. Denisse, on the other hand was already a member of a band called 40 Grados. While the guys are from Guadalajara, Denisse is originally from Los Mochis in Sinaloa. The three came together in guadalajara when Denisse and Edgar were already working together at a local bar.

A blazing success-story

Though the group has won several prestigious awards and nominated for many more, Fantasía Pop (Fantasy Pop) of 2007 is the album that landed them their first ever Latin Grammy, in 2008. And, more importantly, it is this very album that features the song under discussion here, Por Esta Vez (This time).

This groundbreaking album sold 50,000 copies and got certified Oro (Gold) in Mexico just within the first 3 days of release in the fall of 2007! Furthermore, it went on to hit Platinum in Mexico by the spring of 2008 and made history by recording digital sales numbers that were five times higher than physical sales.

Fantasía Pop made peak positions of #1 on both Mexican Albums Chart and Mexican Latin Albums Chart and #3 on the US Billboard Heatseekers (South Central). In essence, this was the album that made Belanova the household name of today.

Por Esta Vez

As will soon be obvious from the English translation of a snippet of its lyrics below, this song is a treasure trove of vez and the Spanish preterit! It is obviously in the title and then twice in the chorus, not to mention the innumerable reps elsewhere throughout the song. Master these lyrics and take it for granted that you are never ever going to have any problem recalling the situations where vez is to be used (and not tiempo) and recalling at least the first and third person preterite conjugations of some common irregular verbs.

Lo conocí en algún café (I met him in a cafe)

Él me miró, me sonrió (He saw me, he smiled at me)

Me dijo (He said to me)

“Hola, ¿cómo estás?” (“Hi, how are you?”)

Y yo le respondí (And I responded to him)

Le dije “No del todo mal, buen día” (I told him, “Not all bad, good day”)

Por esta vez (This time)

Puede ser de verdad (It may be true)

Podría ser real (It may be real)

Por esta vez (This time)

No tengo qué perder (I don’t have anything to lose)

No hay nada qué temer (There’s nothing to fear)

Lo vi pasar por algún lugar (I saw him pass by at some place)

A eso de las seis (At around 6 o’clock)

Él caminó directo a mí (He walked right up to me)

Me dijo (He said to me)

“Hola, ¿cómo estás?” (“Hi, how are you?”)

Y yo le respondí (And I responded to him)

Le dije “No del todo mal, buen día” (I said to him, “Not all bad, good day”)

Make the most out of this song!

Needless to say, always take these translations with a pinch of salt and enjoy the emotions behind the lyrics if you want to make the most of this activity. As with all lyrics and poetry, literal translation is often impossible given the various literary nuances unique to any organic language like Spanish. These translations are, instead, meant to give you a cue about the sense conveyed by the Spanish lyrics and to give you a head-start in decoding the rest of the song.

Listen to the song, refer to the lyrics, rewind, play over, read along the lyrics, and repeat the process as many times as it takes for the song to become etched in your heart. You must hit a stage where you often catch yourself humming away the song without reading the lyrics off the screen. That’s when you know, the song has served its most vital function, teaching you its share of Spanish grammar.

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Learn Gustar With Luis Fonsi

Not sure about all but quite a few rookie learners have often had a particularly tough time understanding the Spanish verb, gustar, which roughly – only roughly – stands for, “to like”. Well, knowing how to use gustar is no rocket-science and certainly not the hardest aspect of learning Spanish. The hard part is recalling the usage while actually conversing in Spanish. One song by Luis Fonsi appears to have been crafted specifically to address this problem. That’s the thing with Spanish music – it can do much more than just put you on the dance floor. It can simplify linguistic concepts enough to keep you in the groove!

Me gustas!
Photo credit: Yukari* licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

The pain with liking something

It can be a nagging pain in the neck for the average English speaker to understand that while we say, “I like cats,” in English (the straightforward way), we can’t do the same in Spanish where the correct order would be, “Cats please me.”

Well, the problem is that gustar, contrary to most dictionaries and grammar books, does not exactly translate into “like”. It, instead, stands for something similar in sense but slightly different in usage – “to please”. The effect is a swap in the word order and that’s why, “I like cats” becomes, “Cats please me”.

While this is a simple enough explanation, human minds always welcome any amount of musical illustration in order to reinforce such explanations. And while there might not always be a song meant for every grammar point that exists, at least for gustar, there is. We would recommend this song to anyone who is struggling with likes and dislikes in Spanish, not to forget, it’s quite a jingle too! With 17 occurances of this verb in its present indicative first and second person singular conjugations, you can’t go wrong.

Luis Fonsi

Luis Alfonso Rodríguez López-Cepero, better known as Luis Fonsi, is a Grammy winning singer and composer from Puerto Rico. As a child, his family moved to Orlando where he has been ever since. Fonsi’s affinity with music goes back a long way when he was ten and dreamed of singing with the Latin American boy band, Menudo.

Eventually, Fonsi went on to study music at the Florida State University, join the school’s choir, and sing with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and realize his childhood dream when, in 2005, He was invited to sing at a concert with Ray Reyes, a former Menudo member. This concert was widely labeled by the press (El Vocero, a free Spanish-language newspaper published in San Juan, Puerto Rico) as “Fonsi’s moment as a Menudo”.

Me Gustas Tú

Though Fonsi has to his credit quite a few compositions, it is Me Gustas Tú (I like you) that this article is interested in right now. He composed this number for his album Tierra Firme (Hard Ground) that released in the summer of 2011. While not necessarily a groundbreaking masterpiece, this song uses gustar enough number of times to be immensely important to anyone learning Spanish.

Here’s a portion of the lyrics along with the English translation for you to jump-start your educational listening. We are dissecting only the first 3 stanzas for your reference here but if you really want the complete translation, which we strictly advice against (jog your brains a bit if you wish to truly learn; trust me, it’s fun), there are tons of sites offering the lyrics and translations to this song and many others.

Please note that what’s being provided here is not an absolute literal translation because often, phrases in one language don’t have a literal equivalent in another that conveys the sense precisely as intended. Moreover, one must not strive for literal translations when it comes to songs and poetry anyways.

Me gusta el mar (I like the sea)

porque si lo veo (because if I see it)

pareciera que a veces (it appears that at times)

llega hasta el cielo (it stretches until the sky).

Me gusta soñar (I like dreaming)

con cosas que pueda alcanzar (of things that can reach)

como el viento que me da tu pelo (like the wind that gives me your hair).

Me gusta cantar (I love singing)

no me importa si lo hago bien (doesn’t matter if I do it well)

lo hago mal, lo hago con sentimiento (I do it badly, I do it with emotion)

yo no soy muy así (I am not much like that)

pero algo me pasa contigo (but something happens to me with you)

que me hace gritar lo que siento (that makes me shout what I feel).

The key to productive listening lies in the reps!

No amount of lyrics or translation can convey the essence of this song, or any for that matter, as beautifully as listening to it will. So, do scour through Youtube® for a video of this song and watch it in endless loops once you’re done reading this. Just make sure you loop through the video over and over again several times. The key is in the reps; repeat until you find yourself humming along to its tunes or, even better, singing it off your head in the shower. That's when you can say you have truly assimilated the lyrics and, in turn, the associated vocabulary and grammar. Actually, it is only at this stage when you should consider looking up the translated lyrics. Hasta luego!

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A Nursery Rhyme For The Spanish Reflexive

Kids enjoy learning and so do we. The only difference is while we know we are learning when we are because of all the conscious efforts we are putting in, kids rarely do. How many of you ever realized you were subconsciously absorbing new vocabulary and new grammar rules while you were having fun singing along those innocent-sounding nursery rhymes as kids? To kids, they are little more than fun-filled jingles. To the Spanish learner in us, they are, or at least ought to be, opportunities. And there is no reason why we adults should pass up any such opportunities of learning Spanish especially when they don’t cost a dime.

Nursery rhymes as a learning tools

Se hace de noche
Photo credit: Alex Pearson licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

Regardless of the language, nursery rhymes have always been one of the most playful tool for learning complex grammar and otherwise dull vocabulary, enjoyed by kids throughout the world. Incidentally, they also happen to be the only entertaining learning methodology adopted and employed by the academics who are notorious for their ridiculously dead-beat and ineffective learning systems.

This article is dedicated to one such rhyme that has been traditionally sung by and to kids all over the Spanish-speaking universe and enjoyed overwhelmingly. The song is called, Se hace de noche (night is falling or night falls).

Se hace de noche

Se hace de noche is a nursery rhyme in widespread use in every Spanish-speaking country in some form or the other. This cute little poem talks about some spooky things such as vampires, knives, castles, etc. and is often taken as a Halloween song by the Spanish-speakers even though the association wasn’t originally intended. The song opens with the description of nightfall and gets more and more spookier with the thickening plot and the growing suspense as it develops, finally culminating in a silly ending that makes the kids burst out in laughter. The kids just love it for the way an air of suspense builds up only to diffuse in a totally harmless and jovial finale.

This is a zero-calorie story that entertains and teaches without placing any overhead on one’s mind whatsoever. If you can become a kid, you can reinforce the spooky vocabulary with actions, gameplays, funny voices...the possibilities are only limited by your creativity! The rhyme itself is extremely short, one key trait of all nursery rhymes, and helps you painlessly absorb a key grammar concept, the reflexive pronouns. The vocabulary is basic and themed the grammar, light; it has every ingredient to stick to your memory for life with no mental stunts on your part.

The Luis Pescetti version

The most common version is the one by Luis Pescetti who has wonderfully performed it with an echo so you can easily practice along as you can see in the video below.

Here is the rhyme with an English translation for the Spanish learners in you:

Se hace de noche (Night falls),

Se ve un castillo (You see a castle),

Se abre la puerta (A door opens),

Sale un vampiro (A vampire emerges),

¡Toma un cuchillo (He takes a knife)!

yyyyy... (Anddddd...)

Unta pan con mantequilla (Spreads the bread with butter),

Unta pan con mantequilla,

Unta pan con mantequilla.

The harmless witch

There is another version that talks about a witch instead of a vampire and is equally fun to sing although there’s no rhyme scheme in this one. This one has an even simpler vocabulary and is good for those who want to add a little Mexican touch to their Spanish. It goes:

La bruja
Photo credit: Lee Haywood licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

Se hace de noche (Night falls),

Sale la bruja (Emerges the witch),

Volando en su escoba (Flying on her broomstick),

Llega a su casa (She arrives at her house),

Entra a la cocina (She enters the kitchen),

¡Saca un cuchillo (She draws a knife)!

yyyyy...

Y le unta mantequilla a su bolillo (And spreads butter on her bread),

Y le unta mantequilla a su bolillo,

Y le unta mantequilla a su bolillo.

All the culture in a piece of bread

One culturally interesting thing to note in the second rhyme above is the word, bolillo. It is actually a very Mexican word and you must know what it is if you aspire to become an authority on Mexican culture. It’s a type of savory bread often made of sourdough originating in Mexico and traditionally baked in an horno de piedra (stone oven).

They are known by various local names throughout Mexico, such as bolillos and pan blanco in the north, pan francés in the northeast, barras in the Yucatán, torcido and birote in Sinaloa, and birotes also in Sonora and Guadalajara.

The version from Chile

Coming back to the rhyme, Chile has its own variation that is equally enjoyable if your heart is closer to Chile than Mexico. This one goes:

Son las doce de la noche (It’s twelve o’clock in the night),

La hora más horripilante (The gruesome hour),

Sale un monsturo (Emerges a monster),

¡Peludo con un cuchillo filudo (Hairy with a sharp knife)!

yyyyy...

Le echa mantequilla al pan (He puts butter on bread),

Le echa mantequilla al pan,

Le echa mantequilla al pan.

No matter which version you choose, we bet you will have a tough time trying to get rid of the Spanish you absorb from them. Give it a shot!

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