Today’s Vine comes from a Spanish Viner named Berry.

The Vine

Transcript

• Berry: A mí cuando me gusta una persona, insisto.
• Berry: …insisto…
• Berry: ¡Insisto!
• Berry: Así la consigo…
• Berry: …a una orden de alejamiento.

Explanation

• Berry: When I like a person, I insist / I keep at it.
• Berry: …I keep at it…
• Berry: I keep at it!
• Berry: And that’s how I get…
• Berry: …a restraining order. (literally, “an order of distance”)

Not very funny in English.  But in Spanish, it’s a pun, a doble sentido (double meaning).

A literal translation of “así la consigo” is “like that, I get her/it.”  In this case, “la” refers to “una persona” since “una persona,” though generically representing a woman or a man, is a feminine word.

So, we’re watching the Vine and it sounds like she has just said, “That’s how I get the person!”

But then she adds, “…a una orden de alejamiento” (a restraining order).  She has now changed the meaning to: “That’s how I get a restraining order.”

In Spanish, you can use a pronoun and an object’s real name in the same sentence.  This would be a bit like saying “I got it the restraining order” or “I read it the book” – not ok in English, but it works in Spanish.  (e.g. Dile a tu mama = tell your mom = literally, tell her (your mom) to your mom)

Slow-Mo Version

Useful Phrases

• Insisto = I insist / I persevere / I keep at it.
• Lo importante es insistir = what’s important is to keep at it.
  • Pronunciation: “Lo eem-por-TAHN-teh es een-sees-TEER”
  • FUN FACT: this is the phrase Berry used to caption her Vine.
• Cuando = when
  • Pronunciation: “CWAH-n-doh”
• ¿Cuándo? = When?
  • This time there’s an accent over the a!  Still pronounced the same.  The accent just means it’s being used in a question.
  • All words like “where,” “when,” “what,” “how,” obtain accents when they are written as part of a question.
• A mí me gusta _____ = I like _______
  • (adding the a mí just puts more emphasis on the fact that I like it)
  • Pronunciation: “ah MEE meh GOO-stah”
• así = like this / like that.
  • It came up again!  That super useful word from this week’s Monday Vine.
  • One of the reasons it’s so useful is, this one word fills the spot of many combinations of English words.  See the next examples.
•  así la consigo = that’s how I get it/her
• así me gusta = that’s how I like it
• así me gusta a mí = that’s how I like it / that’s the way I like it
  • (adding the a mí just puts more emphasis on the fact that I like it)

Going Deeper

 SENTENCE BREAKDOWN

• “a mí” = “to me”
  • Pronunciation: “ah MEE”
• “cuando” = “when”
  • Pronunciation: “la cah-mee-SEH-tah”
• “me gusta una persona” = “I like a person”
  • Pronunciation: “meh GOO-stah una pehr-SOH-nah”
• “insisto” = “I insist” / “I perservere” / “I keep at it”
  • Pronunciation: “een-SEES-toh”
• “así” = “like this” (or “like that,” depending on context)
  • Pronunciation: “ah-SEE”
• “la consigo” = “I get her/it” (in this case, the person)
  • Pronunciation: “lah cohn-SEE-go”
• “a” = “to” (this word didn’t show up in the English translation because in this sentence in English, we wouldn’t use the word “to”)
• “una orden” = “an order”
  • Pronunciation: “OOH-nah OR-den”
• “de alejamiento” = “of distance”
  • Pronunciation: “deh ah-leh-ha-MIEN-toh”

WHEN YOU REALLY WANNA SPECIFY WHO LIKES SOMETHING

In the last lesson, we learned how to say “I like you, you like me, we like it, etc.”

What about when we want to say, “well maybe you don’t like it, but I do.”

There is actually a special construction for this.

• Don’t say: “MEEE gusta.”
• Do say: “a mí me gusta.“
• Literal translation: “to me it pleases me.”
• Effective message: “I like it”

Here’s how to say it for each person:

• a mí me gusta x = to me x pleases me = I like x
• a tí te gusta x = to you x pleases you = you like x
• a ella le gusta x = to her x pleases her = she likes x
• a él le gusta x = to him x pleases him = he likes x
• a nosotros nos gusta x = to us x pleases us = we like x
• a vosotros os gusta x = to y’all x pleases y’all = y’all like x (Spain only)
• a ustedes les gusta x = to y’all x pleases y’all = y’all like x (LatAm)
• a ellos/ellas les gusta x = to them x pleases them = they like x

Some more examples:

• Maybe you like the table but I don’t.
  • STEP 1: rephrase it in English to match a Spanish construction.  Maybe to you the table pleases you but to me it doesn’t.
  • STEP 2: Tal vez a tí te gusta la mesa pero a mí no.
• We don’t like Vine.  Does she like Vine?
  • STEP 1: rephrase it.  To us, Vine doesn’t please us.  Does it please her?
  • STEP 2: A nosotros no nos gusta Vine.  ¿A ella le gusta?
  • ALTERNATIVE: A nosotros Vine no nos gusta.  ¿A ella sí?

• I know you like me but I don’t know if he like me.
  • STEP 1: I know I please you but I don’t know if I please him.
  • STEP 2: Sé que a tí te gusto pero (but) no sé si a él le gusto.

No, it’s not necessary to go through STEP 1 every time you build a sentence about liking something.  It will be come second nature.  I’m just writing out STEP 1 for now, you can see more clearly how the construction breaks down.

TENSE

There are two verbs in this Vine, and they are both in the present tense.

conseguir = to obtain / to get / to achieve / to reach

Pronunciation: “cohn-seh-GEAR”

• yo consigo = I get (“cohn-SEE-go”)
• tú consigues = you get (“cohn-SEE-guess”)
• él/ella consigue = he or she gets (“cohn-SEE-geh”)
• nosotros conseguimos = we get (“cohn-seh-GHEE-mohs”)
• vosotros conseguís = y’all get (“cohn-seh-GEESE”) (Spain only)
• ustedes consiguen = y’all get (“cohn-SEE-ghen”) (Lat Am)
• ellos/ellas consiguen = they get (“cohn-SEE-ghen”)

insistir = to persist / to insist / to persevere / to keep at it

Pronunciation: “een-SEES-teer”

Note: insistir is more versatile than “insist” in English.  It can also be used for persevering and persisting.  You can sometimes translate it directly to “insist,” but always look for context as insistir might be appearing in one of its other capacities (such as in this Vine – it means more, “to keep at it” and “to persist” than “to insist”).

• yo insisto = I insist (“een-SEES-toh”)
• tú insistes = you insist (“een-SEES-tes”)
• él/ella insiste = he or she insists (“een-SEES-teh”)
• nosotros insistimos = we insist (“een-sees-TEE-mohs”)
• vosotros insistís = y’all insist (“een-sees-TEES”) (Spain only)
• ustedes insisten = y’all insist (“een-SEES-ten”) (Lat Am)
• ellos/ellas insisten = they insist (“een-SEES-ten”)

OBJECTS

In this Vine we have an example of a DO (direct object): “la consigo” = I get the person.

• La is a stand-in (a pronoun) for la persona.
• La is a DO (direct object) and it goes right before the conjugated verb of consigo.
• The twist at the end of the Vine is that the la no longer represents la persona, but instead la orden de alejamiento (the restraining order).
• Clever choice of words by the Viner, Berry: two feminine words (la persona and la orden) that are both represented by la when used as DOs (direct objects).
• For more info about objects, visit the OBJECTS page.

VOCABULARY

See if you can identify these words/phrases in English.

• gustar
• conseguir
• insistir
• una orden
• una persona
• la consigo
• así la consigo
• a mí no me gusta
• a tí no te gusta
• a mí no me gustas tú
• importante
• lo importante
• el alejamiento
• una orden de alejamiento
• alejar (we never mentioned this, but take a guess.  It’s a verb.  Hint: it’s related to the word alejamiento)

If you’re still reading this, watch the Vine again!  Then try to speak the words of the Vine out loud again, as slowly as you need to.