Coffee Break Spanish - CBS 2.35 | The imperative

Episode Date: February 26, 2011

We’re continuing our soap opera featuring María-José and Andrew and in this week’s episode Andrew needs some help with an assignment for his Spanish class. We’ll also be looking at the imperative – the command form – in this lesson. Please note that lesson 35 of Season 2 was originally known as lesson 235 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.

Goodos days, Qutare we are Weizabeth. It's lesson 75 of Coffee Break Spanish and in this lesson we're talking about pastimes.

Andrew and Mary Jose are talking about what they like to do and we're also going to be investigating a particular aspect of Spanish grammar and that is

using the command form or as it's sometimes called the imperative. I hope you find this lesson useful. So to begin with we're going to listen to a conversation

between Andrew and Maria Jose. And in this week's conversation, Andrew is working on a piece of work for his class. Una Terea. One Tarea is like a piece of homework. Una Tarea. Una Tarea. Okay.

And so he's working on this piece of work and he's finding it a little boring. Pesada. Pesada. And to solve the problem of it being rather boring, Maria Jose offers to help Andrew. Let's listen to the conversation and see how much you can understand of it. A couple of questions you might want to consider while listening are, first of all, what does Andrew like doing in his spare time? And also, what does Maria Jose like doing in her spare time?

Hello, Maria Jose. Hello, Andrew. How are you today? I'm How I'm in Spanish I need

I need practice Well, tell you know I feel awful I'm tired

and hungry and fed up But well well I'm in Castellano

and do the real I'm okay I'm phenomenal I

I'm I I'm I do your course I

but I'm a little bit a little pesada this week. Come here and show me what you have to do. Well,

it's well, we're doing we're doing so you're not you want to get to

all the time with my tasks I'm I'm let me help

to help you well if you about your pastimeys. So, what do you

do you do with your time free? Well, I like much to go

to other countries and talk other other other other

other your pastime preferido? Yes, it's one of my

past times but also I think the music

I also I do a music to some

instrument ? Yes, I took the piano. What do you? I talk the guitar. When I was a young, to talk the piano, but me costable much.

I think that the guitar is more easy. Devere we're talking together. Talbeth, yeah we'll be. So, another conversation between Andrew and Maria Jose.

The question I asked you before we started was, what does Andrew like doing in his spare time and indeed what is Maria Jose like doing in her spare time Kara, did you pick up anything there? Andrew said that he likes to travel

and speak other languages in the spare time. Very well. He said me gusta much to beajar a other spaces. So, biahar means to travel. To travel.

A otros paces. To other countries. Exactly. Now that word pais is a word that people often pronounce wrongly, ba'is. Paiz. And in the plural, baeises.

Paeises. And it's the accent on the I that makes it ba'is. Ba'is. Paiz. It's spelled P-A-I with an accent S. And if you think of the verb form, for example, Ablais, think of where the stress goes on that. Ablais.

Where does the stress go? On the A. On the A, so Ablais, as opposed to Ablais. For example, with Paeis, we've got the accent on the I. So it's Paiz. If it were on the A, it would be Paiz. You see the difference? Yes.

So Paise, Paises. Paais, Paais, Paises. So you said, Me Gusta Much, to travel to other countries and to speak other languages. And speak other languages. Exactly. Can you remember the other word for a language? We've got unidima and also

A Lengua. A Lengua. Very bien. Una Lengua. Literally a tongue. One Lengua, la Lengua is the tongue when you're talking about the tongue as in part of your mouth, your body. La Lengua. But probably a better word to use for a language that you speak is an idioma. an idioma A note that idioma is masculine

even though it ends in A It's one of these words that comes from the Greek Idioma Idioma And it's linked of course to the English word idiom Now I also ask you What does Maria Jose like doing

Did you pick up anything there, Kara? Yes, just before we leave Andrew He said that he liked music And then Maria Jose agreed She liked music too. Absolutely. She said, me encaca. I'm encaca la music.

Now, let's look at this, A me, too, in a little more detail. If you say me too, normally, which word would you use for me? Yo. Okay, in actual fact,

you say, I too in Spanish. For example, Ible Spanish. Yo, also. Okay, so yo, too.

I also, I also speak Spanish. In English we say me too, but in Spanish you have to say I too. Now, let's think about me en canta, because me encapta doesn't mean I love. It really means... It pleases me.

Yeah, it pleases me. In the case of encanter, it enchanes me because I love it, it enchanes me lots, okay? So me encaanta, it's... pleases me lots, it enchants me. So I can't say me too. I would have to say it enchants me too. So to me it also enchance. And in that case we have to say, a me, too. A me, too. Exactly the same with gustar. If I say, me gusta la music, Kara, how would you say me too? I also like music. A me too. So to me,

pleases also. Ami also. A me too. And if you wanted to include the Gusta here,

you would say Ami Tambien Me Gusta the music. You have to put in the me again.

Ami also me musta the music. A me too me just as Maria Jose

said, A me too me me can't the music. A me

too me encente la music Now Maria Jose asked Andrew Tokas some instrumento What would that mean? Tocker

means to play? It does mean to play It actually means to touch but when you're playing an instrument you tend to touch it so that's how it becomes to play when you're talking about an instrument note that you can never use the verb

Jugar which is the normal word for to play when you're talking about a musical instrument Jhugar is only used for sports. So, Juga at football, Jhugar al balancesto, juggar

at volleyball, or whatever. So, Jhugar used for sports, but when you're talking about instruments, you use tokar. Tocar.

So... It means, do you play a musical instrument? Yeah, do you play any instruments? In Spanish, tokas some instrumento in the singular.

But in English, we would probably say, do you play an instrument or do you play any instruments in the plural? And did you know just what Andrew said? Lo Siento, Matt, no see. No, you know. No, soes. Well, Andrew toca el piano. He plays the piano. Yeah, of course.

And Maria Jose said, I talk the guitar. Mary Jose plays guitar. And then she goes on to say something else. She says, when she was younger she played two used to play the piano exactly which tense are we using there the imperfect it's the imperfect and there are two imperfect examples there when era joven which verb is era from it's from ser very well when i was young

tocaba el piano so tocaba comes from to car Toca, obviously. And toca is a regular AR verb. It's certainly regular in the imperfect tense. Tocair, becomes tocava. Tocaba el piano. She then goes on to say, me costava much.

But me costava much. And this is quite a complicated idiomatic phrase. Well, it's not actually too complicated, but it's something that you might not immediately understand. What does cost normally mean when you say, when you say, when do costa? How much does it cost?

Costar to cost. to cost. So if you are looking at something that costs quite a lot, it might not necessarily cost a lot in monetary terms, but in effort or in difficulty and your capability. So me questa much to be Spanish. That's the equivalent of saying, I find it really quite difficult to speak Spanish. Me cuista much. It costs me a lot. It doesn't mean that you've got to pay in order to speak Spanish, but me cuista much to be Spanish.

Me costa much to be Spanish. And so what is me questa much followed by? The verb Ablar is in its infinitive.

So is it always followed by an infinitive? It is, in this construction, it's always followed by an infinitive. Me questa much

to talk the piano. Me questa much to talk with the people or or whatever it happens to be.

But you can also use it followed by a noun, but we'll not go into that at the moment. Okay, we'll be back in just a moment. When you're not listening to Coffee Break Spanish, you can still practice your Spanish with our regular posts on social media. Find us on Facebook, just search for Coffee Break Spanish. We're Learn Spanish on Twitter. And you can keep up with the team through our regular posts on Instagram. Follow Coffee Break Languages. It's our mission to help you turn your downtime into your.

your due time. Okay, let's get on with the lesson. So that was just some vocabulary and some of the constructions from this week's dialogue. What I'd like to do now is concentrate on one particular construction. And what we're going to do is listen to the first part of the conversation again. And each time this construction comes up, you'll hear a little sound like this. And that way you'll recognize these particular constructions and we'll talk about them afterwards. Have a listen to the first section of the conversation again.

Hello, Maria Jose. Hello, Andrew. How are you today? Preguntam, how are you in Spanish? Necessito practicate. Well, tell you guys? I feel awful. I'm tired and hungry and fed up. But, well,

he's in castellano. And do the truth. Okay, this is stupendo. Genuine. phenomenal. I'm Ilegro. What's

your course? All good, but I'm a little

piece this time. Come here and show what you

have to do. Well, we're we can't do

do you want to do you don't you want to all

the time with my times I don't let me

help to help you Now each one of these examples, each time you heard that little sound, is an example of the imperative. The imperative is a command form. And in this case, because Andrew and Maria Jose know each other, it's the two form, the informal imperative. At one point, Andrew, in a rather bad English accent, I have to say, replies, in English, I feel awful, I'm tired and hungry and fed up.

and Maria Jose says to him buto well, Abla in Castellano Perueno is a very, very common Spanish phrase but bueno but bueno

oh, come on something like that but well Abla in Castellano Abla comes from Ablar

which of course means To speak That's right To speak And The Castellano Abla in Castellano What's Castellano

It's another way of saying Spanish Yeah it's the word for Spanish another way of saying Spanish, very, very common to describe the Spanish language as Castellano. So when Maria Jose says, Abla in Castellano, she's saying to Andrew, speak in Spanish. She's not saying, you speak in Spanish, but she's giving him a command, Abla in Castellano.

If Maria Jose had said, you speak in Spanish, using the normal form of the you, the two form of the verb, what would she have said? Ablas in Castelliano. Yeah, that's a Ablas in Castellano, the tu form. However, she said, Abla in Castellano.

So the imperative form, the two form of the imperative, is formed by taking the two form, as it normally would be, which in this case is Ablas, and taking off the S. So, Abla in Castellano is the correct to form of to speak.

Okay, this is the imperative form here. We're not talking about the normal form of the verb. The imperative or command form, you take off the S of the tu. Abla in Castellano. Abla in Castellano. How would you say play the piano? Toca el piano. Toca el piano, exactly.

How would you say play at basketball? Cuega at balancesto. Balloncesto. That's it. Balancesto. basketball or in Latin America balancesto Juega

Al balancesto Juega Toca, Abla Now all of these are AAR verbs and the normal two form would be

Ablas Juegas Tokas but to inform the imperative we take off the S and just use the word on its own

Abla toca Juega with ER verbs let's take Bender exactly the same thing happens

take off the S of the two form. So how would you say normally you sell the house? Bendez la casa. Bendez la casa. So how would you say sell the house in an imperative command?

Bende la casa. Bende la casa. Bende la casa. But well, bend de la casa. Come on, sell the house. Okay. Bende la casa. And let's take an IRR verb.

Abri means to open open yeah that's right so how would you say using the same construction open the window abry la ventana exactly because the two form would normally be avres abro avres averys avarice avery abris so the two form is avres take off the s and you have avre avre la ventana abre la ventana okay now some of the examples in the conversation combine the imperative with some kind of pronoun. Think of this example. Preguntame,

how I'm in Spanish. Preguntame. Ask me how I'm feeling in Spanish. That's what Andrew said at the beginning of the conversation. Preguntame. So Pregunta comes from Preguntar, and Preguntame means... Ask me.

Exactly. And it's... It's actually, if we want to be really correct here, it's almost like saying ask to me. Ask the question to me. Preguntame. The same thing as used later when Maria Jose asks Andrew to show me what you've got to do. Mouestrame. Mouestrame.

Moustramme. Muestra me. And with these two forms of the imperative, the me, or indeed any other pronoun, goes on the end. Muestra me. Preguntame. Now do you remember the word that we've used hundreds of times

for saying, tell me? Dime. Dime. That is an imperative form, a two form, and then the me is added on to the end. So,

Dime, Dime la Verda. Tell me the truth. Dime la Verda. Now, Maria Jose earlier says, di la verda, just tell the truth, not necessarily to me. Di la verda. Di la verda.

And you'll be thinking that D is not following the same process as the others that we've mentioned, taking off the S of the two form, because what's the two form of de'er? Dithes. Dithes, that's right. That's the two form of de'er. But we don't, in this case, take off the S, of Dices, we've got an irregular imperative here. And the good news here, there are only a few irregular imperatives.

D is the irregular imperative in the two form of D'i. D'i. D'i la verda. D'i la verda. Dime. Come, how are you? Dime. Dime.

Okay, now another irregular that was used in this conversation was ben. What verb do you think ven comes from? And I'll give you a clue. The first letter is not a B, but a V. Okay, the Spanish peculiarity there that bees and Ves sound very similar. So, ben here. Ben here. And vener means to come.

Exactly. Ben here. Ben here. Ben here. Benaki. And in some parts of the Spanish-speaking world, you'll hear more likely, Ben-ac-ac-ca. Benaka. Aca is here as is

here. Aki. Aca. Aki. How do you say there? Aie? Ayi. And if you want to have a further over there, in Spanish you use Aya.

Aya. So we've got Aki, Aka, Aji, Aya. Aki, Aya. But with Ben, you'd be more likely to say Benaki or Benaka. Now, all these imperatives that we've learned today are two forms. And that's all we're going to cover today because the other forms, the Usteed and Ustead and indeed the Bostodros form, are a little more complicated. They actually need us to look at the subjunctive again. And yes, we will be looking at that in the next couple of lessons.

So we'll cover the imperatives after we've done some of the subjunctive. don't worry about it all. I'm sure you'll find it very, very easy by the time we get to that. Let's listen to the conversation one last time, and this time, nearer a normal speaking speed. See if you can recognize the imperatives in the first section, and also see if you can pick out the constructions and the vocabulary that we covered earlier in this lesson. Hello, Maria Jose. Hello, Andrew. How are you, tot? I'm how I'm

in Spanish I need I'm well tell you're all you're

I feel awful I'm tired and hungry and fed up but well well he's

and tell the real okay I'm okay, I'm superend

phenomenal phenomenal I I I'm I do what you

do do do do I'm all I'm a

time this Semana. Come here and show me what you have to do. Well, it's all right. We can do it together if you want. Oye, no to you want to molest all the time with my Tareas.

Tranquil, let me help you. I like to help you. Well, if you want. It seems to prepare a dialogue about your passatempos. So, what do you do do in your time-liber? Well, I like much to go to

other countries and to other other languages. Is your pastime preferred? Yes, it is one of my past tempestepos preferrido, but also me I can't the music. A me also

I also me can't the music. Do you? Do you? Yes, I took the piano. What do you? I took the guitar. When I was

a young, I had the piano, but I costed much. I think the guitar is more easy. We should

talk together We'll be 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 coffeebreak Spanish and follow at Learn Spanish

on Twitter Much thanks and this is the production of the Radio Lingua Network. Find out more at Radiolingua.com Thank you.