White & Molina Go to a Party

13.1 Basic Sentences — White and Molina Go to a Party

After being introduced to Carmen, José’s fiancée, and meeting his own date, John goes with the others to a party which a Latin American official is giving in honor of the newly arrived Americans.

New Vocabulary

English	Spanish
often	a menudo
from time to time	de vez en cuando
terrific	estupendo
to fix, to pay attention	fijar
notice! (to pay attention)	fíjate (fijarse)
dancing (to dance)	bailando (bailar)
brunette	moreno
the care	el cuidado
don’t go (to go)	no vayas (ir)
to put in	meter
the paw	la pata
to put your foot in your mouth	meter la pata
the daughter	la hija
the owner of the house	el señor de la casa
look (to look)	mira (mirar)
(I) believed (to believe)	creía (creer)
(they) were, were being (to be)	eran (ser)
quiet	tranquilo
that way	por ahí
the colonel	el coronel
come (to come)	ven (venir)
the goblet	la copa
yours	la tuya
to confuse	confundir
don’t get confused (to confuse oneself)	no te confundas (confundirse)
hers	la de ella
Carmen’s	la de Carmen
the girl	la chica
at once, right away	en seguida

Dialog

English	Spanish
Hey, do they throw these parties here very often?	Oye, ¿dan estas fiestas aquí muy a menudo?
No, just every now and then. Why?	No, sólo de vez en cuando. ¿Por qué?
I think this one’s terrific.	Esta me parece estupenda.
Look how that brunette’s dancing!	¡Fíjate cómo está bailando esa morena!
Careful. Don’t go making any cracks!	¡Cuidado, no vayas a meter la pata!
That’s the daughter of our host.	Es la hija del señor de la casa.
Say! I thought Americans were more reserved.	Mira. Yo creía que los americanos eran más tranquilos.
That man going that way is Colonel Harris.	Ese que pasa por ahí, es el Coronel Harris.
Come on over and I’ll introduce you.	Ven y te lo presento.
Let’s take our drinks.	Vamos a llevarnos las copas.
Here’s yours.	Aquí tienes la tuya.
Don’t get them mixed; that’s hers — Carmen’s.	No te confundas. Es la de ella, la de Carmen.
Oh, sorry.	Ah, sí, perdón.
Will you girls excuse us? We’ll be right back.	Bueno, chicas. Con permiso. En seguida volvemos.

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13.10 Notes on the Basic Sentences

(1) “Hey” is not a very good translation of oye, but neither is anything else. Oye is an attention-attracter whose equivalent in English is usually some sort of gesture, such as raised eyebrows or an upward lift of the head — something to indicate that a remark of importance, however slight, is to be made.

(2) Note that the verb form here, an irregular Past II form (to be dealt with in Unit 18), is indicated as being Past II rather than Past I by the presence of two translations: simple past “were” and durative past “were being.”

(3) Mira, like the equivalent given here, “Say,” is essentially an empty exclamation of mild surprise. It may also be used like oye as an attention-attracter.

(4) The occurrence of two clitics in succession will be treated in Unit 20. For the moment, be certain you realize that te lo presento means “I’ll present him to you” and not “I’ll present you to him.”

(5) The reflexive clitics will be treated in Unit 24. Literally this sentence means “Let’s take the cups for ourselves” — i.e., “which belong to us.”

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13.2 Drills and Grammar

The -ndo Form and the Present Progressive Construction

The progressive construction in Spanish closely parallels the English “be + -ing” construction. In Spanish it consists of a conjugated form of the verb estar plus the -ndo form of a verb. The -ndo forms are invariable — they never inflect for number, gender, etc.

Theme class	-ndo ending
-ar verbs	-ando (e.g., hablando)
-er, -ir verbs	-yendo (e.g., comiendo, viviendo)

	estar conjugation
yo	estoy
tú	estás
usted / él / ella	está
nosotros	estamos
ustedes / ellos / ellas	están

While estar is the most frequent verb in this construction, others such as andar, venir, llegar, ir, seguir can appear with -ndo forms with related meanings. For example: están aprendiendo (they’re learning), van aprendiendo (they’re beginning to learn), andan aprendiendo (they’re out learning), siguen aprendiendo (they’re still learning).

One important exception: the progressive construction in Spanish is limited to present or customary actions. Unlike English, where “He’s coming tonight” is normal, Spanish would never use the progressive for future reference — simple present would be used instead.

Translation Drill — Present Progressive

English	Spanish
I’m working at the Embassy.	Estoy trabajando en la Embajada.
We’re living downtown.	Estamos viviendo en el centro.
They’re writing now.	Están escribiendo ahora.
I’m looking at the glasses.	Estoy viendo las gafas.
Who’s calling?	¿Quién está llamando?
Where are you living?	¿Dónde está viviendo?
What are you all learning?	¿Qué están aprendiendo?
What time are they arriving (these days)?	¿A qué hora están llegando?
The girl is making the beds.	La muchacha está arreglando las camas.
We’re speaking less English.	Estamos hablando menos inglés.
I’m not giving tips (these days).	No estoy dando propinas.
They’re always studying.	Siempre están estudiando.
He’s going up in the elevator.	Está subiendo en el ascensor.

Possessive Constructions with de

A possessive construction is a phrase consisting of the phrase relator de plus a noun or pronoun. This phrase appears immediately after a noun and indicates the possessor or owner. Because the 2-3 form suyo can be the equivalent of at least six different constructions (de usted, de ustedes, de él, de ella, de ellos, de ellas), the constructions with de give more definite information. Since suyo / su most often means de usted, the other constructions are more frequently used to refer to “yours (pl.), his, hers, theirs.”

Possessive form	Possessive construction
la casa mía	—
la casa nuestra	la casa de nosotros
la casa tuya	—
la casa suya	la casa de usted
—	la casa de ustedes
—	la casa de él
—	la casa de ella
—	la casa de ellos
—	la casa de ellas

Translation Drill — Possessive Constructions with de

English	Spanish
Their (f) apartment is nice.	El apartamento de ellas es bonito.
Her family is very large.	La familia de ella es muy grande.
His room (number) is fifteen.	El cuarto de él es el quince.
All your friends are Americans.	Todos los amigos de Uds. son americanos.
Your suitcases are very good.	Las maletas de Ud. son muy buenas.
His girl friend is Spanish.	La novia de él es española.
We can’t find her house.	No encontramos la casa de ella.
Their bedroom is small.	El dormitorio de ellos es pequeño.
You should see his car.	Hay que ver el auto de él.

Nominalized Possessive Constructions

Possessive forms (full forms only) as well as possessive constructions can occur nominalized — that is, with the noun omitted. These nominalized constructions serve to make a second reference to a noun that has just been mentioned or is readily understood from context. Thus el libro mío becomes el mío, where mío, now nominalized, is the head of the phrase. Note that the English equivalent “mine” never occurs preceded by “the.”

Full construction	Nominalized
la casa mía	la mía
la casa nuestra / la casa de nosotros	la nuestra / la de nosotros
la casa tuya	la tuya
la casa suya / la casa de usted	la suya / la de usted
la casa de él	la de él
la casa de ella	la de ella
la casa de ellos	la de ellos
la casa de ellas	la de ellas

The neuter lo suyo usually appears only in nominalized form, since there are no neuter nouns in Spanish. For example: Todos iban a traer lo suyo — “They’re all going to bring their own stuff.”

Translation Drill — Nominalized Possessives

English	Spanish
There’s my car; and there’s yours, too.	Ahí está el auto mío y el de Uds. también.
My family isn’t large. What about yours?	La familia mía no es grande. ¿Y la de Ud.?
This is our table. Which is theirs?	Esta es nuestra mesa. ¿Y la de ellos?
This is John’s check. Which is hers?	Este es el cheque de Juan. ¿Y el de ella?
My daughter is single. What about theirs?	La hija mía es soltera. ¿Y la de ellos?
Carmen’s family arrives on Friday. What about yours?	La familia de Carmen llega el viernes. ¿Y la de Uds.?
My friends are arriving on Saturday. What about yours?	Los amigos míos llegan el sábado. ¿Y los de Ud.?
John’s apartment doesn’t have gas. Does hers?	El apartamento de Juan no tiene gas. ¿Y el de ella?
My girl friend is staying at the American Hotel. Where’s yours staying?	La novia mía está en el Hotel Americano. ¿Y la tuya?

Information Question Intonation

Information questions are those that cannot be answered by a simple yes or no, but must be answered by a statement. They normally begin with a question word equivalent to “who, what, when, why, where,” etc. The intonation patterns appropriate for information questions are the same ones used for statements: /1 2 1 1 ↓/ is normal, and /1 2 3 1 ↓/ adds special emphasis or, in some cases, politeness.

When a contrast is implied by the occurrence of entonces after an information question, the /1 2 3 1 ↓/ pattern is almost compulsory. Since these questions very often begin with the stressed syllable of the question word, the first number of the intonation pattern formula is often lost.

Placement of Negative Particle

English	Spanish
I’m not married.	No soy casado.
I’m not single.	No soy soltero.
I’m not Spanish.	No soy español.
I’m not American.	No soy americano.
I’m not English.	No soy inglés.
I’m not ready.	No estoy listo.
I’m not comfortable.	No estoy cómodo.
I’m not busy.	No estoy ocupado.
I’m not helping.	No estoy ayudando.
I’m not studying.	No estoy estudiando.
I’m not learning.	No estoy aprendiendo.
I’m not writing.	No estoy escribiendo.

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.