Buenos días, amigas. ¡Otra miércoles, otra canción! Esta semana, os traemos Julieta Venegas’ “Eres Para Mí” (“You’re Made For Me”), con Anita Tijoux a su lado.
Me lo ha dicho el viento…
Another accidental find! Mi jefe (my boss) and I often send each other new or old favorites on YouTube during the workday. A few days ago, he was sending me some favorites of this from Noelia (¡hermosa voz, esa chica!) and from La Oreja de Van Gogh, when I saw this young lass lurking in the suggested songs sidebar. Something about the expression on that face convinced me that I’d be sorry if I didn’t at least give the song a try. Very glad I did.Turned out to be a double-my-pleasure-with-Double-Mint diversion, inasmuch as she is joined about halfway through the vídeo by another singer/rapper, Anita Tijoux, whose silky-smooth voice really adds some seasoning to what was already a very pleasant little number. And to top it all off, the Village People-esque crew dancing along behind the singers — the construction worker, the cop, the nun, the… octopus man? (Okay, a skosh stranger than the Village People, even, but fun nonetheless!)
¡Gramática!
A few of you might remember how I mentioned earlier on that it was (is) important to me to understand this language I’m learning — not simply be able to parrot words and phrases in Spanish that convey what I’m thinking over here in my English-speaking brain. I’m not in this to take a trip to Cancun and order a piña colada and find the public restrooms — I really want to be fluent at some point.
That’s why it gives me such great pleasure to be in Module 9 of my Rocket Spanish studies, where they’re beginning to discuss verb conjugation more and, in general, explain why things are said/written a certain way instead of just asking me to memorize the sounds I need to attempt with my clumsy, English-speaking mouth.
For the word nerds among you, here are some conjugations, for example, of the preterite form of a verb ending in “-ar”, the most common (80%) verb type:
First person singular (e.g., Yo):
hablé
Second person familiar singular (e.g., Tú):
hablaste
Second person formal/third person singular formal (e.g., Usted, Ella):
habló
First person plural (e.g., Nosotras):
hablamos
Second person formal/third person singular (e.g., Uds., Ellas):
hablaron
¡Viva las reglas!
These are pretty good-and-solid rules to play by, mi amigas. Any verb ending with -ar (in its infinitive form) will take these verb endings in the past preterite tense — the tense that something happened at a definite point in the past. The same holds true for -ir and -er verbs — the other 20% of the language’s offering — though the endings are, of course, a little different from these.
Now, it’s not that it’s going to be an easy trip from here on out. I still have several different verb tenses and moods to memorize. However, it does appear that it’s at least going to be straightforward, and that helps considerably.
Y, ahora, adiós…
Well, that’s all there is for this week. Sorry to geek out on you there for a bit with all the verb endings. We word nerds get excited about the strangest things. If you like this week’s canción, please consider purchasing it using my Amazon link below and support el viaje.
¡Hasta luego, amigas!
