Visit to Air Mission (continued)

20.1 Basic Sentences — Visit to Air Mission (continued)

The visit to the air base continues. Molina, White, and Harris discuss the base facilities, equipment, and squadrons.

Dialog

English	Spanish
Do you all buy your supplies here?	¿Compran sus provisiones aquí?
No. The C-47 brings them in to us once a month.	No. Nos las trae el C-47 una vez al mes.
The runway is quite long, isn’t it?	La pista es bastante larga, ¿verdad?
It’s 1500 meters.	Tiene mil quinientos metros.
How many planes are there on the base in all?	En total, ¿cuántos aviones hay en la base?
Thirty-three.	Treinta y tres.
Three bomber squadrons…	Tres escuadrones de bombardeo…
…and two fighter squadrons.	…y dos escuadrillas de caza.
That’s not many.	No son muchos.
It’s just because it’s a small base.	Es que la base es pequeña.
You see that airplane that’s flying over the control tower?	¿Ven ese avión que vuela sobre la torre de control?
The inspector is coming in it.	En él viene el oficial de inspección.
Do you have to go meet him?	¿Tiene que ir a recibirlo?
Yes, so I’ll leave you with Lieutenant La Cerda.	Sí, los dejo con el teniente La Cerda.
See you later, Colonel.	Hasta la vista, Coronel.
And don’t forget our golf date.	Y no se le olvide lo del golf.

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20.10 Notes on the Basic Sentences

(1) We remind you again that “you all” is used here as the English second person plural pronoun, a discrimination which all but certain Southern-Midland and Southern dialects of American English lack.

(2) The form verdad, occurring under this particular intonation pattern as a confirmation question after an assertion, must be translated by a wide variety of English phrases like “isn’t it, didn’t he, hasn’t she, weren’t they, can’t we, doesn’t it” and so on.

(3) Students whose experience with the military has been sufficiently extensive to make them wonder how there could be only thirty-three planes in three bomber squadrons and two fighter squadrons are hereby reminded of two facts: other countries do not organize their units in the same way we do, though the American Air Force is coming more and more to be used as a model for standardization in Latin America; and it is not uncommon in peacetime to have rather badly undermanned and underequipped squadrons representing only a skeleton of the full force. The difference between escuadrón and escuadrilla is somewhat elusive: both apparently mean “squadron,” the first of big aircraft and the second of smaller aircraft, just as in English the item “squad” refers to a unit of men and “squadron” to a unit of machines.

(4) This is an instance of the occurrence of both a reflexive clitic and an indirect clitic in the same construction. It will be examined closely in Unit 25, and in the meanwhile it should not be confused with the examples of direct clitic and indirect clitic that are examined closely in the present unit.

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20.2 Drills and Grammar

20.21.1 Direct and indirect clitics in the same construction

When direct and indirect clitics occur in the same construction with a verb, the indirect always precedes the direct, and both precede a conjugated form of the verb (except in affirmative commands, see Unit 29), but follow an infinitive or -ndo form (if these are the only verb forms in the phrase, see Unit 29).

The 1 sg and pl and the 2 fam forms rarely if ever occur as direct clitics in the same construction with indirect clitics.

The important feature of this pattern is the change of /le/ and /les/ to /se/ when a direct object /lo, la, los, las/ appears in the same construction. Thus le doy el libro, when lo replaces el libro, becomes se lo doy.

Indirect	→ Before direct clitic	Direct
sg: le	→ se	lo, la
pl: les	→ se	los, las

The number distinction shown by le and les is lost in se, and therefore there is an increased need in many contexts for redundant constructions (presented in Unit 16) to restate the person of se. The indirect clitic se can have any of the following possible references: to you, to you all, to it, to him, to her, to them.

Form substitution drill

Full noun phrase	Clitic replacement
El señor me revisó las maletas.	El señor me las revisó.
El chofer nos subió los muebles.	El chofer nos los subió.
La señora le alquiló la habitación.	La señora se la alquiló.
Mi novia me mandó el periódico.	Mi novia me lo mandó.
Él les presentó las morenas.	Él se las presentó.
Mi secretaria me escribió los anuncios.	Mi secretaria me los escribió.
Yo les mandé el regalo.	Yo se lo mandé.

Translation drill

English	Spanish
The menu? I passed it to John.	¿El menú? Se lo pasé a Juan.
The drinks? I passed them to the gentlemen.	¿Los tragos? Se los pasé a los señores.
The list? They haven’t given it to me.	¿La lista? No me la han dado.
The car? I bought it from Joseph.	¿El carro? Se lo compré a José.
The furniture? I bought it (them) from John.	¿Los muebles? Se los compré a Juan.
The gifts? I sent them to Carmen.	¿Los regalos? Se los mandé a Carmen.
The chairs? I sent them to Louise.	¿Las sillas? Se las mandé a Luisa.
The table? I sent it to my sister.	¿La mesa? Se la mandé a mi hermana.
The room? I already rented it to Joseph.	¿El cuarto? Ya se lo alquilé a José.
The overnight case? They already checked it for us.	¿El maletín? Ya nos lo revisaron.
The ham? They haven’t brought it to me.	¿El jamón? No me lo han traído.
The prices? They haven’t given them to him yet.	¿Los precios? No se los han dado todavía.
The names? He wrote them for me.	¿Los nombres? Él me los escribió.

20.21.2 Exclamatory qué and cómo

A common pattern for Spanish exclamatory phrases is qué plus a noun or adjective, or cómo plus a verb.

Pattern	Structure
qué + noun	¡Qué café! (What coffee!)
qué + adjective	¡Qué bonita! (How pretty!)
cómo + verb	¡Cómo habla! (How you talk!)

The difference between “what a” before singular count nouns and “what” before plural count nouns and mass nouns (“What a man!” but “What men! What patriotism!”) doesn’t occur in Spanish, where the exclamatory modifier is an invariable qué. These Spanish constructions also translate equivalent English expressions with “some, such” (as “Some man, such men, such patriotism”).

In English, a noun in an exclamatory phrase can be modified by an adjective which precedes it; in the equivalent Spanish phrase the adjective normally follows and usually is itself modified by más or tan. Thus: ¡Qué muchacha más bonita! (What a pretty girl!)

Translation drill

English	Spanish
What a girl!	¡Qué señorita!
What an idea!	¡Qué idea!
What an order!	¡Qué orden!
What a headache!	¡Qué dolor de cabeza!
What women!	¡Qué mujeres!
What water!	¡Qué agua!
How small!	¡Qué pequeña!
How ugly!	¡Qué fea!
How fat!	¡Qué gorda!
How narrow!	¡Qué estrecha!
How she talks!	¡Cómo habla!
How she dances!	¡Cómo baila!
How she learns!	¡Cómo aprende!
How she works!	¡Cómo trabaja!
How she eats!	¡Cómo come!

20.21.3 Question intonation patterns — Choice questions

Choice questions consist of at least two intonation phrases. In essence, a choice question is a combination of a yes-no question pattern followed immediately by an information question pattern. The common yes-no pattern /1222↑/ is changed to /1122↑/ in the first phrase of a choice question, delaying the pitch rise to coincide with the point of contrast which is established by the choice.

Key examples

Choice question	Spanish
Does it go up or down?	¿Baja o sube?
Does it face the street or the patio?	¿Da a la calle o al patio?
Are they coming by plane or by boat?	¿Vienen por avión o por barco?
Did he start at six or at eight?	¿Empezó a las seis o a las ocho?
Is the house ugly or pretty?	¿La casa es fea o bonita?
Do they eat here or there?	¿Comen aquí o allí?
Do we go now or later?	¿Vamos ahora o después?
Does she pronounce well or badly?	¿Pronuncia bien o mal?
Is he missing something or everything?	¿Le falta algo o todo?
Do they include the lights or the water?	¿Incluyen la luz o el agua?
Does it face the street or the patio?	¿Da a la calle o al patio?
Is he coming Thursday or Saturday?	¿Viene el jueves o el sábado?
Does she dance well or badly?	¿Baila bien o mal?
Do you want a room or an apartment?	¿Desea una habitación o un apartamento?
Is he arriving soon or later?	¿Llega luego o después?

20.24 Review drill — Postposed full-form possessives

English	Spanish
He’s a friend of mine.	Es un amigo mío.
He’s a neighbor of mine.	Es un vecino mío.
It’s a check of mine.	Es un cheque mío.
It’s a book of mine.	Es un libro mío.
She’s a sister of mine.	Es una hermana mía.
It’s a cup of mine.	Es una taza mía.
He’s a friend of yours.	Es un amigo suyo.
It’s a book of yours.	Es un libro suyo.
She’s a sister of yours.	Es una hermana suya.
It’s a check of yours.	Es un cheque suyo.
He’s a neighbor of yours.	Es un vecino suyo.

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.

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20.4 Reading — La Primera Visita

The reading selection tells the story of the Fuentes family visiting their new American neighbors, the Robinsons. Don Ricardo Fuentes had spent the entire day studying English, memorizing conjugations and practicing a carefully rehearsed English greeting. But when Virginia Robinson opens the door with a perfect “Buenas noches” in nearly flawless Spanish, Ricardo abandons his English plans. The humorous exchange explores the cross-cultural awkwardness of language expectations, as Ricardo is somewhat dismayed that his English preparation was wasted, while Virginia graciously welcomes her neighbors into her home. The story sets up the developing friendship between the two families.