Let's start today's lesson with a quote from the Argentinean telenovela, Yago:
Pero si no te casás,
But if you don't get married,
no tenés nada para aportar a la sociedad.
you don't have anything to contribute to the company.
No sos nadie, Melina. No sos nada.
You're nobody, Melina. You're nothing.
Captions 27-29, Yago - 9 Recuperación
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What's going on here (aside from a seemingly very dramatic situation)? Since the speaker is addressing this character as "you," shouldn't these verbs be conjugated as (tú) te casas, tienes, and eres?
What's going on here, grammatically speaking, is that in Argentina, Uruguay, and many other regions (including parts of Paraguay, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Mexico, and Venezuela) vos is used in place of tú as the informal second person singular pronoun ("you"), causing some of the verb conjugations to vary slightly.
"Do I really have to learn another verb tense?!" you might be saying. However, even though el voseo (the use of vos instead of tú) might seem intimidating at first, there is a lot of "good news" regarding vos, particularly if you are already familiar with el tuteo (the use of tú):
1. The verb conjugations for vos only differ from those with tú in two tenses: the present indicative and the informal imperative (command). All of the other verb tenses (preterite, imperfect, etc.) are exactly the same as with tú, as are many of its pronouns (e.g. direct object, indirect object, reflexive, and possessive).
2. The formulas for conjugating verbs with vos in both present indicative and imperative are extremely simple.
3. With the voseo, there are a lot less irregular verbs than with tú. In fact, in the present indicative of vos, there are only three irregular verbs, while in the present indicative of tú, there are over one hundred irregular/stem changing verbs to memorize.
Let's start with how to conjugate -ar, -er, and -ir verbs with vos in the present indicative: Simply take the infinitive, replace the "r" with an "s," and add an accent to the final vowel. Let's look at some examples with the infinitives escuchar (to listen), saber (to know), and subir (to go up).
Qu'... Vos no me escuchás ni cuando yo te estoy contando
Wh'... You don't listen to me, not even when I'm telling you
una cosa que para mí es importante.
something that is important to me.
Caption 50, Yago - 2 El puma
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Si vos sabés muy bien que yo me sé adaptar.
You know very well that I know how to adapt.
Caption 43, Cuatro Amigas - Piloto
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En el segundo piso, de ahí subís y ahí es tu salón.
On the second floor, you go up there and there's your classroom.
Caption 49, La Sucursal del Cielo - Capítulo 1
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In the case of these regular -ar and -er verbs, you will note that their conjugations with vos are virtually identical to their tú forms (escuchas and sabes) with the addition of their written (and spoken) accents. However, regular -ir verbs like subir, which are typically conjugated with -es in their tú form (subes), retain their-i vowel plus an accent.
As previously mentioned, verbs that are irregular or stem-changing with tú are regular with vos. To get an idea, let's take the common verbs comenzar (to begin), tener (to have), and decir (to say), all of which have irregular forms when conjugated with tú. With vos, on the other hand, these verbs follow our regular pattern of replacing the "r" with "s" and adding an accent to the final noun:
| Verb in Infinitive: | Present Indicative with Tú: | Present Indicative with Vos: |
|---|---|---|
| comenzar | comienzas | comenzás |
| tener | tienes | tenés |
| decir | dices | decís |
Let's look at a couple of these in action:
Y decís: "Bueno, pará que mañana tenés que seguir."
And you say, "Hey, hold on 'cause tomorrow you have to continue."
Caption 66, Biografía - Natalia Oreiro
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There are only three irregular verbs in the vos form of the present indicative, one of which we already saw (ser) and two of which share their forms with tú (haber and ir). All three of these appear in the following clip:
Además, vos ni vas al colegio, has perdido un montón de años.
Besides, you don't even go to school, you have missed a ton of years.
Vos no sos nadie.
You're [a] nobody.
Captions 33-34, La Sucursal del Cielo - Capítulo 1
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Now, let's take a look at these captions again, substituting the verb tú for vos:
Además, tú ni vas al colegio, has perdido un montón de años. Tú no eres nadie.
Besides, you don't even go to school, you have missed a ton of years. You're [a] nobody.
While the vos form of ser, sos, does differ from the tú form (eres), the verb conjugations for ir (vas) and haber (has) are exactly the same for both tú and vos.
Conjugating verbs with vos in the imperative (command) form is even easier: Simply take the infinitive, remove the r, and add an accent over the final vowel. Let's look at some examples of the vos command forms for each type of verb ending, utilizing the verbs tomar (to drink), tener (to have), and venir (to come).
Sabés que no tomo whisky. -¡Pero tomá!
You know that I don't drink whiskey. -But, drink it!
Caption 22, Muñeca Brava - 2 Venganza
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Este... tené un poquito de paciencia.
Umm... have a little bit of patience.
Caption 7, Muñeca Brava - 45 El secreto
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Vení, vamos a bailar.
Come, let's go dance.
Caption 33, Muñeca Brava 7 El poema - Part 6
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Once again, verbs like tener and venir that are irregular in the imperative form with tú (ten and ven, respectively) are regular in the imperative form with vos. While ir (to go) is the only irregular verb in this category, its formal conjugations, id or ite, are almost never heard, and the command form of andar (to walk/go), andá, is often used in its place.
Keep in mind that, due to the Spanish accent rules, the addition of a pronoun to a command form with vos may lead to the omission of the written accent:
Olvidate, divertite, hacé algo. -No quiero,
Forget about it, have fun, do something. -I don't want to,
Caption 8, Muñeca Brava 46 Recuperación - Part 7
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To conclude, remember that in all of the other tenses besides the present indicative and informal imperative, vos is conjugated in exactly the same way as tú. In the following example, we see the preterite form of ser (to be) fuiste as well as the imperfect form of estar (to be), taking into account that the indirect object pronoun te is also identical for both vos and tú:
Porque a vos no te hice absolutamente nada.
Because I've done absolutely nothing to you.
Todo lo contrario.
On the contrary.
Fuiste la protagonista de la fiesta, estabas maravillosa.
You were the star of the party, you were looking wonderful.
Captions 15-17, Muñeca Brava - 41 La Fiesta
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We hope that this lesson has made conjugating verbs with the informal second person pronoun vos seem a bit less daunting. For more information on this topic, we recommend this Yabla series on the Voseo, ustedeo, and tuteo as well as this video on the use of vos in Argentina— and don't hesitate to contact us with your comments and suggestions.
In this lesson, we will learn how to describe people in Spanish using the verb ser (to be). In particular, we'll focus on five different uses of the verb ser that you can use to identify and describe people. Let's take a look.
Eh... Luis, ella es mi mamá, mamá, él es Luis.
Um... Luis, this is my mom, Mom, this is Luis.
Y ella es mi abuela Carmen.
And this is my Grandma Carmen.
Captions 18-19, Los Años Maravillosos - Capítulo 4
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It's worth mentioning that the example above shows a very common way to introduce people in Spanish.
Es un hombre que se dedica a lo que yo hago.
He's a man who devotes himself to what I do.
Caption 61, Confidencial: El rey de la estafa - Capítulo 4
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Paul es estadounidense, de los Estados Unidos.
Paul is American, from the United States.
Caption 16, Carlos explica - Geografía y gentilicios
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Mi padre es arquitecto
My father is an architect
Caption 25, Leif - El Arquitecto Español y su Arte
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In particular, when we refer to essential traits, such as height, weight, and physical appearance.
Es bajo, es gordo.
He's short, he's fat.
Caption 33, El Aula Azul - Mis Primos
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Alguien que es delgado tiene poco peso.
Someone who is skinny doesn't weigh much.
Captions 32-33, Lecciones con Carolina - Adjetivos - Descripción de personas - Físico
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Carolina tiene treinta y cinco años
Carolina is thirty-five years old
pero parece que tiene veinte.
but she looks like she is twenty.
Es muy guapa.
She's very pretty.
Captions 2-4, El Aula Azul - Mis Primos
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Ellos son muy majos. Mi prima Marta es muy simpática.
They are very nice. My cousin Marta is very nice.
Caption 8, El Aula Azul - Mi familia
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Ricardo es muy... es muy tranquilo, ¿viste?
Ricardo is very... he's very calm, you know?
Caption 84, Biografía - Natalia Oreiro
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Porque mi mamá es una persona muy difícil.
Because my mom is a very difficult person.
-Eso a mí no me importa.
-That doesn't matter to me.
Caption 20, Yago - 10 Enfrentamientos
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That's it for today. Can you describe someone you know using the verb ser? We invite you to try it out and don't forget to send us your comments and suggestions. ¡Hasta la próxima!
There's a bit of lunfardo
-- that is, slang particular to Argentina and Uruguay -- that slips into the Biography of our Uruguayan-born, Argentinean-raised Natalia. For example, listen to this line:
Yo creo que tuvieron una relación muy linda, muy intensa, muy... muy copada.
I think that they had a very nice relationship, very intense, very... very cool.
Captions 34-35, Biografía - Natalia Oreiro - Part 10
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Podemos sacar algo copado esta noche y lo estrenamos en la bailanta.
We can get something cool tonight and wear it at the disco.
Captions 87-88, Muñeca Brava - 7 El poema - Part 3
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The adjective copado / copada is translated as cool, but what does it mean exactly? As in English slang, cool can be hard to capture. "Cool!" can mean "great!" (or "chévere," "guay" or even "chido" in Mexico). A cool kid could be laid-back or up on the latest trends (or "en la onda"). He or she could also be someone who helps his friends ("genial" or "macanudo" in Latin America). So, what is "una relación copada" trying to convey? Well, the relationship wasn't cool in the sense of temperature, obviously. It wasn't laid-back if it was also "very intense" ("muy intensa"). That leaves us with the kind of cool that's great ("genial"). There are a number of lunfardo dictionaries online with different shades of the meanings of copado. Cool?
In the latest installment of Natalia Oreiro's Biography, we learn more about the young actress and singer's accomplishments. For a vocabulary boost, let's listen to some of those sweet words of success.
In the very first line, we hear:
En muy pocos años, Natalia Oreiro logró convertirse en una auténtica diva de la televisión y de la música pop.
In just a few years, Natalia Oreiro managed to become a true television and pop music diva.
Captions 1-2, Biografía - Natalia Oreiro - Part 10
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"Logró," past tense of the verb "lograr," should sound familiar to our devoted subscribers: In videos Yabla posted during the campaign of one of the former Presidents of Mexico, Felipe Calderón, we heard the verb "lograr," oh, six or seven times in less than five minutes of the tape.
The verb means "to achieve," to obtain," "to manage" or "to succeed in." As with the English words "achieve" or "succeed in," the Spanish "lograr" implies that there was a purpose or goal in mind and, further, it also implies effort. So, note that Natalia Oreiro quickly succeeded in becoming a big star -- which was not only her aim all along, but something she put a lot of work into.
[Usage note: If you're wondering what to say at a graduation ceremony or at the end of a marathon in the Spanish-speaking world: "¡Felicidades! ¡Lo lograste!" ("Congratulations! You did it!") usually does the trick.]
An approximate synonym for "lograr" is "ganar," which has several shades of meaning -- including "to win," "to gain" or "to earn." In our new Natalia Oreiro video, a few lines later, we hear that her show was a winner (un ganador):
"Muñeca Brava" ganó en dos ocasiones consecutivas el Martín Fierro a mejor novela.
"Muñeca Brava" won two consecutive times the Martín Fierro award for best soap opera.
Captions 19-20, Biografía - Natalia Oreiro - Part 10
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Note that one may, for example, win a prize (ganar un premio) with hard work and talent, win the election (ganar las elecciones) with popular ideas or win the lottery (ganar la lotería) by pure chance. To clarify that something was won with intention, you may hear "logró ganar" which means "managed to win" or "succeeded in winning." For some context, check the sports pages for a story of a deserving team that managed to win (logró ganar) an important game or match.
Keeping following the beautiful Ms. Oreiro and you'll encounter more sweet words of success. For now, we'll leave you with two more lines from Part 10 of our Biography video:
Natalia había superado sus sueños.
Natalia had surpassed her dreams.
Caption 23, Biografía - Natalia Oreiro - Part 10
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Con su música, Natalia había conquistado mercados alrededor del mundo.
With her music, Natalia had conquered markets around the world.
Caption 39, Biografía - Natalia Oreiro - Part 10
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