Buenos días, amigas. ¡Otra miércoles, otra canción! Esta semana, os traemos HA-ASH’s “¿De Dónde Sacas Eso?” (“Where Do You Get That?”).
Sacar: to take out, to remove
This week’s canción features, yet again, the verb “sacar” (conjugated sacas herein), in its lyrics. The word is quite the chameleon, being used to express ideas from “remove” to “leave” to, in this case, “get/understand”. Versatile; eh? The lyrics in this one are quite clever, reminding us somewhat (in spirit) of those in “Perdón Perdón“:
No vayas a pensar,
Que te sueño a diario,que te extraño tanto.
Solo es algo normal,
Te ame demasiado, pero ya es pasado!
…which translates to…
Don’t go thinking,
That I dream about you daily, that I miss you so much.
It’s just something normal,
I loved you too much, but that’s already in the past!
Amigas, por favor, disfrute las hermanas hermosas cantando “¿De Dónde Sacas Eso?”
Fui, Fue, Fuimos…
No, I’m not the giant in the tale, Jack and the Beanstalk. I’m just getting a chuckle from (and a better understanding of) the conjugation of two separate verbs — ser (to be) and ir (to go) — that share the same past preterite exactly!
The ironic thing is that I’d noticed the preterite tense used interchangeably for both ser and ir in Duolingo and wondered whether I was misunderstanding something. Or, perhaps, whether some of their exercises were wrong. Never took the time, though, to check it in an online translator to see.
But, while going through one of my recent Rocket Spanish lessons, Amy and Mauricio explained that it was, indeed, an anomaly of the language, that these two irregular verbs share the same preterite tense forms. The only way to know which you’re hearing or reading is context! Por ejemplo…
“Nosotras fuimos a su casa” = “We went to her house”
…whereas…
“Nosotras fuimos sus amigas” = “We were her friends”
See? Context! I’m sure there are examples in Inglés of similar word ambiguity, but I don’t have the energy to research or think of any at the moment. It’s time to relax and listen to these wonderful sisters a little longer before getting on with my day. I’ll do my best to learn something new before the next time I write to you, though. And, with that…
¡Hasta luego, amigas!
