Complete Spanish

Track 25

1. Resist translating "to", "for" and "from" Rule

Me covers me, to me, for me, from me and myself. The same goes for te and nos. Spanish tends not to need these words as much as English does.

me habla = he speaks to me  ·  me lo compra = he buys it for me

Do not let the to confuse you about where the word goes either. It still goes before the changed verb.

Me habla · Me hablan · Me lo hablan · Me lo compra · Te lo compro · ¿Me lo quieres hacer? / ¿Quieres hacérmelo?

¿Te lo compro? can mean shall I buy it for you? or shall I buy it from you? Context sorts it out. Street sellers calling "buy me something" are asking you to buy something from them.

Shall in English is really only turning the sentence into a question, so in Spanish you just make it sound like one.

2. quedar, and staying by remaining yourself Vocabulary

Quedar is to remain or to be left over, and it is quite a flexible verb with several other meanings. To say I stay, Spanish says I remain myself.

quedo
I remain
me quedo
I stay

The e does not split here.

Me quedo aquí hasta las diez · Nos quedamos hasta las nueve · Te quedas aquí · ¿Te quedas aquí?

That me or te is not the emphatic one and it is not optional: you need it to get the meaning of stay at all. Emphasis is a separate thing you add on top: yo me quedo, tú te quedas, nosotros nos quedamos.

3. qu is always a k sound Pronunciation

Resist any temptation to read quedar as /qwedar/. The combination qu in Spanish is always a k.

quedar
/kedar/
que
spelled q-u-e
quiero
spelled q-u-i-e-r-o

4. Numbers, and telling the time Vocabulary

At six o'clock is a las seis. What you actually mean is a las seis horas, "at the six hours", a little like the English "at sixteen hundred hours". People said the horas historically, but not any more.

seis
six
ocho
eight (octagon, octopus, October)
nueve
nine (November)
diez
ten (December)

The month names are the hook: in the Roman calendar there were only ten months, so October was month eight and December was month ten. Nueve and diez are both splits, from nov- and dec-.

He cocinado a las seis · Hemos cocinado a las ocho · Diez sounds /dieth/ in most of Spain.

5. More vocabulary Vocabulary

comprar
to buy
la cocina
the kitchen
cocinar
to cook (English concoction, "with cooking")
hasta
until (hasta la vista)

Cocinar is simply a verb made from cocina. Hasta la vista is literally "until the view", until we see each other.

Cocino · Cocina · Cocinas · Tú cocinas · Cocinan · Ellos cocinan · Ustedes cocinan · Cocinamos · Nosotros cocinamos · ¿Me puedes cocinar algo? / ¿Puedes cocinarme algo?

6. This past is used more than in English Note

In English it sounds much more natural to say I cooked at six o'clock. In Spanish there is no problem saying I have cooked at six o'clock.

He cocinado a las seis

Vowel harmony creeps back the moment your attention is elsewhere. Asked for we are staying while concentrating on the rest of the sentence, the student produced "nos quedemos". It is quedar, so it is nos quedamos.