Coffee Break Spanish - Coffee Break Spanish Espresso 004

Episode Date: October 25, 2014

In the latest episode of the Coffee Break Spanish Espresso you’ll learn how to use no with the infinitive to give impersonal commands, Fernanda looks at the subjunctive after quiero que and our Spanish quotation of the week focuses on the theme of giving advice – or not!This season of Coffee Break Spanish Espresso features a total of 10 lessons, all of which are included in the podcast feed. 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.

Coffee Break Spanish Espresso, episode four. Hello, and welcome back to the Coffee Break Spanish. Welcome back to the Coffee Break Spanish Espresso, in which we'll be bringing you a quick shot of Spanish to help you keep thinking about the language on a regular basis. Thanks again for all your comments, reviews and emails this week, please keep them coming.

We're going to get straight on with today's episode. Empetemos yeah. Os acordaise de the photo of the sameana pasta? Cockodrillos in all the laguna nichubte, Crocodiles in the Nichotay Lagoon in Cancun, Mexico? Well, the photo for this week's episode is linked to that. It's a simple photo with a simple message, but there is quite a lot we can say about it.

It's a warning notice, One Aviso, and this notice was hanging right by the water's edge, and it says simply not nathar. It's not difficult to understand. It means no swimming. If you're listening to this episode on the podcast app of your mobile device, you should be able to see the photo. If not, head over to coffeebreak Spanish espresso.com.

Now, nadar is, of course, the infinitive form of the verb, and we can use no plus the infinitive to give a generalized command or instruction. No nadar, no swimming, no entran, no entry, no fomar, no smoking. Or perhaps in a gift shop you might see a sign saying, no tocair, no touching or do not touch. In each case, we're not talking to anyone in particular. It's not a real imperative form, a command form. We're not saying, for example, no toques, do not touch when you're

talking to a tu, in a two situation, or no entres, or no nades, or anything like that. It's simply an instruction telling us what we've not to do. Let's think about how we translate this in English. No nadar means no swimming as we've seen. No enterer, no entry. So where Spanish uses the infinitive, we tend to use a noun as in no entry or a gerind form of the verb, no swimming, no smoking. And the reason I mention this is that we need to remember how to translate this into Spanish. So if we're translating this kind of general command, a general instruction, from English into Spanish and we're using the gerin form or a noun form, then we need to remember that in Spanish we don't use the same situation.

We don't say no nadando or no fomando or anything like that. It's the infinitive that we use. Generally, infinitives are used more regularly in Spanish than they would be in English. Think of me gusta to tocaer el piano. I like playing the piano. So we go from the Jeryn form in English playing, but you can't say me gusta to to tocando el piano. You have to say me gusta toca el piano.

Let's come back to our no instructions, our negative instructions here. If we wanted to say, let's say no eating in a taxi, if there was a sign in a taxi saying no eating, how would we say this? It wouldn't be no comienda using the Jeroen form. It would be no comer. no comer using the infinitive

There's one other thing that we can mention about the use of the infinitives But this time in a positive sense We can sometimes use A before the infinitive to mean Let's do something Common examples of this could include Aver, let's see

Or we'll wait and see Aver, or A Travacar Let's get to work We'll see more examples of these In future lessons You can practice these constructions with our translation exercise in this week's lesson notes which form part of our premium materials. If you've not already signed up for a membership, then you can find out

all you need to know at coffee break Spanish espresso.com. Okay, it's time for Subjunctive of the week. It is indeed time for the subjunctive of the week and this is when we say Hello, you, Fernanda. Hello, Mark, how you go? Very good. And you, what do? I'm very well. Well, the subjunctive of this

is, I want that. Sounds a little funny, but I'm sure it'll make more sense when we hear some examples. See, here are some examples. So, the first example is, I'm going to me listen and that you do

Let's go. Let's hear you. I'm that you hear you what you do you. It's a

little difficult this this time. Yes. What the part is that has what

does what means the or the oration. Okay, well let's think about this

one because if we translate it literally, it would mean, let's go through it

word by word. So, I want that you listen to me me and that you do what I tell you. That which I tell you.

It's a little bit rarro, no? Yes, in English, it's a rarer, but in Spanish, it's perfect. So in English, I want that you listen to me and that you do that which I want. We wouldn't say that. What we would say is, I want you to listen to me and to do what I tell you. So in Spanish we have to change that into the subjunctive form because there are two different subjects. I want that you do something. Yes, it's a petition. So you want to do something.

Well, we're going to be the verbs that are conjugated in subjunctive in the oration. The first is, that comes from the verb, So, listen to listen to. Yes, very well, Mark. And the second is, Agas, that comes a little more irregular.

This one, Acer or Acer, as Fernanda says, becomes Agas, Tu Agas. I want to Agas. Yes, excellent. So we just need to remember when there are two subjects,

we don't use an infinitive like we do in English. I want you to do something, we change it to I want that you do something. We're going to another example. Well, the second example is, My parents want to play to the video games.

I think that my son, no? Yeah, well, I mean, me passable too, I'm also, too, I'm going to repeat it. My parents want to get to play to the video games. So what are the video games?

Well, what you think, you Marquess? Like the video games, I know. Very well, very very well. And also there's a phrase

interesting in this oration, to have to do something that means to stop doing something. So let's let's repeat

the phrase. Yes, my parents want to dej. And the subjunctive in this

oration is Deh. that comes to and as Mark said, is when someone

wants to do you do you when someone want to do you do you

do you do do two subcutives no? Yes, very well.

Well, much thanks Fernandah. Of the next Mark,

until the week. Okay, we'll be back in just a moment. In between lessons

of coffee break Spanish, why not check out our social media accounts

On Facebook, just search for coffee break Spanish. We post regular language challenges and cultural information. We are Learn Spanish on Twitter. And you can come behind the scenes with the coffee break team by searching for coffee break languages on Instagram. Practice your Spanish and join the conversation with coffee break Spanish. Okay, let's get on with the lesson. And now it's time for the final part of this week's espresso.

And that is our quotation of, the week. We've been looking at an viso this week, a warning. So we've chosen a nice quotation for you, which comes from the French novelist Louis Botach. It goes like this. Mas value, un consejo, but more value than a year ago than 10

consejos. I'll say that again. more value a consejo than 10 abysos but more value

a help than 10 consejos so let's think about what

this means more more is worth so it's better to have or it's worth more

a one piece of advice that 10 abysos than 10 warnings

so So rather than warning someone about something, it's better to give a piece of advice. But more value una yuda, que deyth consejos. But it's worth more or it's better to help someone, to give someone a helping hand, una a yuda, than ten pieces of advice. So this quotation is all about helping people rather than giving them advice. indeed giving them warnings. And that's where we're going to leave you for the coffee break Spanish espresso this week.

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