Coffee Break Spanish - CBS 2.29 | Hiring a car

Episode Date: December 23, 2010

In the long-awaited 29th lesson of Coffee Break Spanish we look at tips to help you pronounce double -r- in Spanish and we build more language in the context of hiring cars in a Spanish-speaking country. Please note that lesson 29 of Season 2 was originally known as lesson 229 of Coffee Break Spanish. We have renumbered the lessons of each season as lessons 1-40 to make things more simple for our listeners.This season of Coffee Break Spanish features a total of 40 lessons, all of which will be included in the podcast feed. Just stay subscribed to the podcast to enjoy each episode. If you’d like to benefit from video versions, lesson notes and bonus audio materials, you can access the premium version of Coffee Break Spanish in the Coffee Break Academy.Don’t forget to follow Coffee Break Spanish on Facebook where we post language activities, cultural points and review materials to help you practise your Spanish. Remember - a few minutes a day can help you build your confidence in the language. Access the Coffee Break Spanish Facebook page here.If you’d like to find out what goes on behind the scenes here at Coffee Break Languages, follow @coffeebreaklanguages on Instagram.You can also check out our Coffee Break Spanish Twitter page and the Coffee Break Languages YouTube channel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and bienveninos a coffee break Spanish. Welcome back to coffee break Spanish. Now, it's lesson 69. And again, we're continuing this process of phrase building based on the constructions that you already know and that you've been learning in the course of coffee break Spanish. The context today is hiring a car. And we're also going to be practicing the double R sound in Spanish.

Carro, like that. Okay, it's over to you. I hope you enjoy this lesson. So let's begin by learning. the word for a car. Now we've probably done this before. In fact I'm certain we've done this before. In Spain the word for a car is umcote. Umcoche. However, in Latin America and in certain parts of Spain, particularly the Canary Islands, you may well hear the word, um carro. Un caro. Now, that is the perfect opportunity

for us to practice rolling your ars. Un carro. Un caro. Okay. Carr, yeah, that's the one. I'm obviously overruling my ars here. I'm making a quadruple R rather than a double R with caro. Carro.

The trick to getting this correct double R sound is the realization that in Spanish, a double R has to have quite a lot of breath going out of your mouth. Okay, so what you need to do is put your tongue up to the top of your mouth where you would pronounce the single R in Spanish. Remember like, I think you said it in an American accent, Kara. You said bottle in an American accent. Can you say that?

Bottle. Barrel, yeah, or barter. And where your tongue goes to pronounce that T sound with an American accent, in words, for example, like, Beiro, meaning but, then you need to keep your tongue there and then just blow through your tongue so that the front of your turn comes back down. Okay, it's really complicated to describe, but it sounds something like, perrro okay it's kind of like that

perro perro perro perro perro means dog double r perro perro as opposed to pero but yeah so pero pero

and perro again I'm kind of overrolling a little there is a tongue twister that is very common in Spain and it certainly will help you practice your double r's and it goes something like this. R with R with R cigarro, R with R baril,

rapid, corren los carros, the carros de ferrocaril. Can you say that, Kara? Well. Okay, let's take it line by line. R with R cigaro. R with R cigaro. Okay, so that literally means

it's lots of tongue twisters. It doesn't mean a huge amount. So R with our cigar. R with R with a cigar. R with er cigar. R cigaro. And that would be cigaro if you're Latin America. R con r baril.

R with our barrel. Okay, so R with our barrel. Rapid, corren los carros. Rapid, corren los caros. Okay, so that's coming back to caro. Carro in this situation are the coaches of the railway that we're going to find in a moment. Rapid, corren los carros, so quickly run.

the carriages? Rapid, corren the carros? Rapid, corin those caros? Los carros de ferro caril. Los caros

de ferro caril. Okay, so the carogies, the coaches of the real way, the ferro caril. El ferro caril.

So ferro is the root for iron. Ferro carill, the iron way, the real we. Okay. R with R-cigarro. R with R-R-R-baril,

rapidly corren the caros, the carous de ferro-caril. Erre with er-cigaro, R-con-R-R-R-R Racid-R Racid corin the caros the caros of ferro-caril.

Very well. So, just getting back to the point about the double R, I know that for Scottish people saying a double R isn't particularly difficult, but I know that for some speakers, particularly those who perhaps would pronounce Kara's name more like

Kara, er, that kind of, I think it's a retroflex R. So the er, there's very little breath going out your mouth when you say er. So can you try saying Kara? Kara. Yeah, okay, but with a double R. Carra. Yeah, that's the one. Carra, carro.

Carro. Okay, so carro is the male form of Kara. Anyway, let's not go there. We're getting back to car and coche now. And the other word for a car in certain parts of Latin America is an auto. An auto. Okay, makes sense. So all this from I would like to hire a car.

I would like... Me Gustaria. Yeah, me gustaria or quisiera, the one that we looked at last week. And the verb to hire is alquilar. Alquilar. Quisiera alquilar a coche. Quisiera alquilar a coche. Kisiera

an car Kisiera Alkilar a car caro Yeah, you kind of give that one hour there

Carro Carro Okay Kisiera an auto Kisiera an auto You may want to be

specific about what type of car or vehicle you would like to hire You might want to see

therefore a coche or a car or an auto automatic An coach or a caro or an auto, automatic. Automatico. So an automatic transmission car.

Automatico. Automatico. Okay. Now, obviously, you may well need to say for a day or for a week or for so many days. Now, if you would like to hire a car for one day, what kind of four will that be in Spanish? Para? Para, yep, because if you wanted to use por, then that's kind of in exchange for. You're not giving them a day if they give you the car.

You're paying for the car, it's para one day. Quisiera alquilar a coche for a day. Quisiera alchal a coche for a day. But of course you may want to double check how much it costs per day. Okay, now this time it's not para, but... Por. Remember, por is often used for per. in English. So how much does it cost per day? Quanto cost per day?

Quanto cost per day? You also may hear Quanto cost al-dia. That's kind of like in English saying how much does it cost by the day? Al-dia. Quanto cost al-dia. And notice the way these words all run together. Quanto cost all day. Quanto costa al day That's sad Now if it's not by the day

Maybe by the week Quanto Cuesta A la Semana Quanto Cuesta a Semana Or using perhaps the more normal version Quanto Cuesta Per Semana

Quanto Cuesta per semana Okay So you're given the price Perhaps It's 200 euros How much would that be Cara

That would be 200 euros Yeah Or it may be 500 pesos 500 is the word for 500? Yeah, 500 pesos

pesos, okay, 500 pesos. But you might want to make sure that you know what that price includes. Now, the word to include in Spanish is include. Incluir. Okay, it's quite tricky to say that. Incluir.

Incluir. Okay, and it's slightly irregular. So in the present tent, it becomes include. Incluye. So does it include the insurance, for example? Incluje el seuro? Incluye el seuro.

Yeah, el seuro. Seguro is an adjective in Spanish also. It means safe or sure. So, for example, estes sure, are you sure? Kara, is ta seura? Yes. Okay.

So seuro, when it's used as a noun, is used as the insurance. insurance. So, Incluye el seuro? Incluye el seuro. That's right. Just watch the G sound there. It's a nice soft G sound. Remember, most Gs in Spanish are soft, unless they're followed by an E or an I, in which case they're very hard. General, gigante, and so on. But otherwise it's ugh, seuro. Securo. Incluio el seuro?

Incluje el seuro. That's it. So does it include the insurance? You may also want to double check. if it includes the mileage or the kilometerage, if there's such a word. In Spain or in most other Spanish-speaking countries, you'd be talking about. El kilometrage. El kilometrage. Okay.

Incluye el kilometrage. Incluye el kilometrage. Okay. Okay, we'll be back in just a moment. Now, if you'd like to get more out of your coffee break Spanish experience, then you can sign up for the full print. premium version of our course and that includes video versions of our lessons where you'll see the words and phrases on the screen of your device while you listen. There's also a set of lesson notes for every lesson with vocabulary and additional examples and bonus audio. All of our premium courses are available at the coffee break academy. That's at coffeebreakacademy.com. Okay, let's get on with the lesson. Right. How do you say to want? in Spanish.

Kare. Kare. So let's work this out. Kare is what type of verb? One of those slightly irregular ones. It's called a... Radical changing verb. Yeah, it's called a radical changing verb

because it becomes, I want... Kiro. You want... Kieres? He or she wants. Kierre? So, Kierre. And then we're going to put this together with

to drive. And to drive is condo thier. Conducer. Conducir. Conducir. And in Latin America, Conducir. So he or she wants to drive would be...

Kere conducure? Kare, how would you say therefore? My friend also wants to drive. My amigo, also, Kere conduciar. Very good. My amigo also

care conduci or, for example, my wife also wants to drive. drive. My esposa also care conduce. If you want to use a generic

word for your partner, you can say my pareja, my pareja also care can conductir.

My parche also care conductir. Okay. So you've specified that someone

else wants to drive, you've included the mileage and the insurance and so on, or indeed you've checked that

the price includes that. You're very likely to be asked, of course, for su

your passport, yeah, and also, particularly regarding cars, supermiso de conducier, for favor. Your driving license. Yeah, supermiso.

Supermiso. Now, that obviously is perhaps known as a driving permit or other ways of explaining the same thing in other countries. Here in the UK, we would call it a driving license. So, can you give me

your driving license, please? me da your permission of for favor me do his permission to

do your for favor yeah or indeed me can't or can

give me based on our discussions last time can give me your

permission to do do please do do do

do do so exactly okay you've given your

driving license over you've perhaps given a passport or

some kind of identification you might want to ask

do I have to pay a deposit. So which verb are we going to use for to pay? Pagar. Pagar to pay. So do I have to pay using do I necessitate to pay? Necessito.

Pagar. A deposit is a deposit. A deposit is a deposit. A deposit. A deposit. Necessito pay a deposit. Necessito pay a deposit. deposit. Very well. So that I would suggest is about as much as you need to know when it comes to

hiring cars. Of course there will be other things that you might have, might be asked, for example, your name and to fill in addresses and so on in forms. But that hopefully will help you get the transaction done. One other thing that does occur to me when we were talking about cars is that there is the chance, of course, that you will break down, which hopefully won't happen. But if you wanted to say in the simplest possible terms that the car has broken down, how would you say that based on what you know from hotel rooms and problems that you found in hotel rooms? For example, your television not working. El Cote no functiona? Yeah, you could say, El Cote no functiona. So that would of course get your meaning over. But there is a word, obviously, for to break down. In fact, there are two ways of saying to break down depending on where you are. You might be talking about my coche, my car in Spain, or my caro, elsewhere.

My coche se a stropeado. My coche se a stropeado. Yeah. Stropearse literally means to spoil. Okay, it can be used particularly with food, which goes off. Estropearse to spoil, but when you're talking about a car, it's spoiled itself, it's broken down. my coche se a stropeado my coche

se a stropeado yeah and there's another word that you can use and that's Averiado My coche se a averiado My coach

se a aberriado Yeah and we're using more perfect tense here because it's a averiado but it's a reflex of one

so it's C averiado My coach se a averiado My coach se a bearado or And if you've ended up with no petrol or no fuel, no gas, you could say,

me he quedado sin gasoline. Me e. Kedad is to end up to finish. Me eke, or rather, Kedarsse is to end up to finish. Me ekeh gotto sin gasoline. Me have kept to get to gasoline. Okay, so I have ended up without petrol, I've run out of gas. You might have a puncture.

An pinchazo. An pinchazo. A pinchazo. Or in Latin America, a pinchasso. An pinchasso. So I have a puncture. Tengo a pichazo. Tengo un pinchazzo.

Or indeed, you might not know what's wrong with your car. In which case, you would say, I don't know, which is... No see. No say, or no-lo-see. But I don't know what's... happening, you could say, I don't know that which happens. No see what happens. No see what happens. No see what what happens. No see what what happens. My coach is

stropeao, but no see what what happens. My coach has stropeaed, but no, what what happens. Very so your night and shining armor has arrived in the form of a van to pick you up and to take your car away. And of course, you might have to say then, can you take me to this address? See if you remember how you would say this from last week. Me can't leave a this direction. Very well. Me can't get to say that I really do hope this does not happen to anyone while you're abroad or while you're traveling in a Spanish-speaking area. And if it does,

at least you will have the basics of how to cope with this. And most importantly, I'm sure by speaking in Spanish, you will impress the people who are there to help you and they will be much more interested in helping you rather than if you just say, my car's broken down in English. And that's where we're going to leave it today for this edition of Coffee Break Spanish.

Thanks for joining us and we hope it's been useful. You can join the Coffee Break Spanish community on Facebook at Facebook.com slash Coffee Break Spanish and follow at Learn Spanish on Twitter. Mucha gratis and hasta pronto. This is a production of the Radiolingua Network. Find out more atradolingua.com.