No Water in White's Apartment

12.1 Basic Sentences — No Water in White’s Apartment

John comes into Molina’s apartment looking upset. There is no water in his apartment, and they need to get ready for a party at seven.

New Vocabulary

English	Spanish
(it) happens (to happen)	pasa (pasar)
(I) know (to know)	sé (saber)
don’t tell (to tell)	no digas (decir)
to bathe	bañar
to bathe myself (to bathe oneself)	bañarme (bañarse)
to shave	afeitar
to shave myself (to shave oneself)	afeitarme (afeitarse)
(I) was (to be)	estaba (estar)
cleaning myself (to clean oneself)	limpiándome (limpiarse)
the tooth	el diente
went, was going (to go)	iba (ir)
was going to give myself	iba a darme
the shower	la ducha
the joke	la broma
the boy	el chico
scarcely, barely	apenas
(we) have (to have)	tenemos (tener)
half	medio
to, in order to	para
to dress	vestir
to dress ourselves (to dress oneself)	vestirnos (vestirse)
the moment	el momento
(I) go (to go)	voy (ir)
(it) arrived (to arrive)	llegó (llegar)
the haste	la prisa
to hurry myself (to hurry oneself)	darme prisa (darse prisa)
listen (to listen)	oye (oír)
at last	por fin
a little fat (fat)	gordito (gordo)
the chubby girl	la gordita
the eye glasses	las gafas
to leave, to go out	salir
on leaving	al salir
to call	llamar

Dialog

English	Spanish
What’s the matter, John?	¿Qué te pasa, Juan?
I don’t know. There’s no water in my apartment.	No sé. No hay agua en mi apartamento.
Don’t tell me! Again?	¡No me digas! ¿Otra vez?
And here I am without having bathed or shaved!	¡Y yo que estoy sin bañarme y sin afeitarme!
I was brushing my teeth.	Yo estaba limpiándome los dientes.
I was going to take a shower, too.	Iba a darme una ducha también.
What a fix, chum!	¡Qué broma, chico!
The party is at seven.	La fiesta es a las siete.
We barely have half an hour to get dressed.	Apenas tenemos media hora para vestirnos.
Just a minute. I’m going to see if the water has come on.	Un momento. Voy a ver si llegó el agua.
Yes, it has.	Sí, ya hay.
I’m going, then. I’ve got to hurry.	Me voy entonces. Tengo que darme prisa.
Hey, who did you finally decide to take?	Oye, por fin, ¿a quién vas a llevar?
The chubby gal with the glasses.	A la gordita de las gafas.
Fine. I’ll call you when I leave.	Bueno, al salir te llamo.

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12.10 Notes on the Basic Sentences

(1) Reflexive verbs such as bañarse are not discussed in detail until Unit 24, but they appear with some frequency before then. Each one is built up in the form shown here: first the non-reflexive verb, then the reflexive form appearing in the utterance, and finally the reflexive citation form.

(2) This sentence is unusually difficult to approximate in translation. The actual meaning is best paralleled by “And I haven’t bathed or shaved yet!” but structurally, the cited translation is somewhat closer and more subject to variation drill later in this unit.

(3) This use of certain clitics in a fashion that can only be translated as possessive in English is rather common (examined in detail in Unit 25). Literally, the utterance is roughly: “I was cleaning for myself the teeth.”

(4) The “just” of “just a moment” is not stated in the Spanish, nor need it be in the English: “One moment” would be a satisfactory, though rather formal, translation.

(5) One of the striking differences between Spanish and English syntax is illustrated in this sentence: the occurrence in Spanish of the Past I form llegó in a situation where only the English present perfect construction can satisfactorily occur.

(6) The Spanish present perfect in the preceding utterance requires that the English confirmation continue in the same way. Spanish does not require this continuation, so the complete shift from “arrived” to “already there is (some)” is not startling.

(7) Por fin in this utterance means “finally after all that deliberation you were going through” or something similar. The translation is therefore not as literal as “Hey, who are you finally going to take?”

(8) The phrase relator a in al salir does not imply “when” or “before” or “as” in itself; but the context indicates that “on leaving” is equivalent to “when I leave,” since the more literal “on leaving” is much too formal an English equivalent.

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12.2 Drills and Grammar

Subject Pronouns

Spanish subject pronouns are usually used only for contrastive emphasis, when the reference of the pronoun is otherwise clear from the context. Since Spanish verbs carry person-number distinctions in their structure, pronouns that carry the same information are frequently considered redundant. A student’s tendency to translate all English pronouns into Spanish pronouns is very conspicuous to a Spanish speaker. Common abbreviations of usted and ustedes are Ud. and Uds.

	Singular	Plural
1st person	yo	nosotros, nosotras
2nd familiar	tú	—
2nd formal	usted	ustedes
3rd person	él, ella	ellos, ellas

Key points:

• Spanish tú is the structural equivalent of English “thou” but is much more frequently used.
• English has distinct gender forms only in 3rd singular (he, she, it); Spanish has distinct gender forms in 3rd singular, 3rd plural, and also 1st plural.
• English 3rd singular “it,” which is neither masculine nor feminine, is very rarely translated in Spanish.

Translation Drill — Subject Pronouns

English	Spanish
She’s American, but I’m Spanish.	Ella es americana, pero yo soy español.
I’m single, but he’s married.	Yo soy soltero, pero él es casado.
They’re from here, but we’re from Chile.	Ellos son de aquí, pero nosotros somos de Chile.
She drinks water and I drink whisky and soda.	Ella bebe agua y yo whisky con soda.
He’s in the patio, and she’s in the kitchen.	El está en el patio, y ella en la cocina.
They’re (f) Spanish, and we are too.	Ellas son españolas y nosotros también.
Are we going, or are they?	¿Vamos nosotros o van ellos?
Am I going, or are you all?	¿Voy yo o van Uds.?
Are they going, or are we?	¿Van ellos o vamos nosotros?
Who wants ham — you or he?	¿Quién quiere jamón? ¿Ud. o él?
Who works in the consular section, you all or she?	¿Quién trabaja en la sección consular? ¿Uds. o ella?
Who wants something else, you or they?	¿Quién desea algo más? ¿Ud. o ellos?
What does he want?	¿Qué desea él?
What do they need?	¿Qué necesitan ellos?
What does she want?	¿Qué quiere ella?

Pronouns after Phrase Relators

Pronouns that appear after phrase relators (prepositions) differ from subject pronouns only in the 1st singular and 2nd familiar singular forms: mí replaces yo, and ti replaces tú. When these two distinct forms occur with the phrase relator con, the special combinations conmigo and contigo appear. The subject and phrase-relator pronouns together can be classed as “nonclitic,” in contrast to the clitic pronouns that appear only with verbs.

	Singular	Plural
1st person	mí	nosotros, -as
2nd familiar	ti	—
2nd formal	usted	ustedes
3rd person	él, ella	ellos, ellas

Special forms with con: conmigo (with me), contigo (with you, fam.)

Translation Drill — Pronouns after Phrase Relators

English	Spanish
She’s going with me.	Ella va conmigo.
This sandwich is for me.	Este sandwich es para mí.
After them, John eats.	Después de ellos, come Juan.
They live near us.	Ellos viven cerca de nosotros.
He doesn’t work with me.	El no trabaja conmigo.
Carmen lives with us.	Carmen vive con nosotros.
John lives with them.	Juan vive con ellos.
The sheets are for us.	Las sábanas son para nosotros.
There’s eleven dollars for you and ten for us.	Hay once dólares para Ud. y diez para nosotros.
There’s two hundred dollars for me and two hundred for them.	Hay doscientos dólares para mí y doscientos para ellos.
There’s nine dollars for him and four for her.	Hay nueve dólares para él y cuatro para ella.

Components of Phrases

A phrase is a subordinate construction consisting of a phrase relator and its object (plus any modifiers of the object). The object of a phrase relator is a nominal form: a noun, a pronoun, or a nominalized form. The form of the verb most readily nominalized is the infinitive, and this is the form that follows phrase relators. The equivalent English construction very often shows an “-ing” form of the verb where the Spanish infinitive occurs, and the tendency to follow the English pattern is responsible for many mistakes by English speakers learning Spanish.

The regular exception is the English phrase relator “to,” which takes the infinitive form, just as in Spanish. The Spanish equivalent to English “to” is a, para, de, que, and other phrase relators, varying in different constructions.

Phrase relators introduced so far include: a, hasta, de, desde, en, que, como, con, menos, para, por, sin. Compound relators include: antes de, después de, lejos de, cerca de.

Translation Drill — Components of Phrases

English	Spanish
He always studies before going out.	El siempre estudia antes de salir.
She always cleans after eating.	Ella siempre limpia después de comer.
I’m going downtown before eating lunch.	Voy al centro antes de almorzar.
We’re going after eating.	Nosotros vamos después de comer.
Repeat this before writing it down.	Repita esto antes de escribirlo.
I don’t have time for studying.	No tengo tiempo para estudiar.
She always comes without calling.	Ella siempre viene sin llamar.
You can’t learn without studying.	No puede aprender sin estudiar.
Two hundred a month without including the electricity.	Doscientos al mes sin incluir la luz.
Because of talking so much, you don’t learn.	Por hablar tanto no aprende.
She charges four dollars for sweeping the whole house.	Ella cobra cuatro dólares por barrer toda la casa.
I don’t like the idea of going now.	No me gusta la idea de ir ahora.
What do you think of the idea of buying the house?	¿Qué le parece la idea de comprar la casa?

Normal and Contrastive Statement Intonation

Spanish has two main statement intonation patterns. The normal, uncolored pattern (/1 2 1 1 ↓/) resembles an English pattern often associated with expressions of disinterest or boredom — but in Spanish it carries no such connotation. The contrastive (emphatic) pattern (/1 2 3 1 ↓/) resembles a normal English pattern but in Spanish signals special emphasis. Students must master these differences, since transferring English patterns to Spanish can produce unintended meanings: the normal Spanish pattern may sound discourteous in English, while the normal English pattern may sound over-insistent in Spanish.

One other important feature is rhythm. Rhythm is syllable-centered in Spanish (each syllable is of approximately the same length), while it is phrase-centered in English. Imposing the English pattern of alternate long and short syllables on Spanish produces a distortion immediately noticeable to any Spanish speaker.

Review Drill — Adjective Agreement in Remote Position

English	Spanish
The house is pretty.	La casa es bonita.
The school is good.	La escuela es buena.
The books are expensive.	Los libros son caros.
The agency is no good.	La agencia es mala.
The apartments are comfortable.	Los apartamentos son cómodos.
The secretary is pretty.	La secretaria es bonita.
The lady is Spanish.	La señora es española.
The cars are American.	Los autos son americanos.
The suitcases are expensive.	Las maletas son caras.
The buildings are pretty.	Los edificios son bonitos.
The shirts are cheap.	Las camisas son baratas.
The furniture is no good.	Los muebles son malos.
The ladies are English.	Las señoras son inglesas.

Note: The full drills and practice exercises are designed for oral work with the audio recordings. Open the Student Text PDF for the complete drill sets.