Ok… forgive me.  This Vine might not help you too much with your Spanish accent, but it made me laugh so hard that I had to share it.

(and it will help you with grammar and vocabulary)  🙂

The Viner is Andrea Compton from Madrid.

She is walking by some fruit vendor, where the vendor has misspelled the word fresas (strawberries) on two different signs, both on the same box of strawberries.  One sign that says “fersas” and one that says “ferisas” (neither one is an actual Spanish word).

The Vine

Transcript

[speaking in a Russian accent]:

• ah, productos de alta calidad.
• Mira, uh, ferisas por dos veinticinco,
• y aquí, fersas por… eh, tres cuarenta.

(the end of “cuarenta” gets cut off so you can only hear “cuaren-“)

Explanation

She speaks in a fake Russian accent the whole time.  Yet, she still uses proper Spanish – the only incorrect words in this Vine are the two words she reads: ferisas and fersas, both misspellings of fresas (strawberries).

• ah, high-quality products.
• Look, uh, ferisas for 2.25,
•  and here, fersas for 3.40.

Here are the things that made me laugh in this Vine:

• hearing someone fake a foreign accent in Spanish
• the fact that there are two signs, with two different misspellings of the same word, AND two different prices, on different sides of one box of strawberries.

Important grammar details:

• alta calidad = high quality.
  • The word alto/alta means “high.”
  • She said alta (the feminine version) because la calidad is a feminine noun.
• Notice for each price, she says por (for).  There are two words that mean “for” in Spanish: por and para.  Para is generally used for “in order to” and “towards” while por is used for “because of,” “through” and “in exchange for.”  There are exceptions but this general guide helps me distinguish between them.
  • es para tí = it’s for you
  • es por tí = it’s because of you
• Since prices are an example of exchange, this Vine uses por.
• You can visit this page for more information about por vs. para.

Slow-Mo Version

Useful Phrases

• aquí = here

• Mira, …  = Look, …
  • This also a useful filler word at the beginning of a phrase, just like in English.
  • Mira, lo haría si pudiera. = Look, I would do it if I could.

• La fresa = the strawberry
  • This word was never mentioned in the Vine, but good to be aware of!  The real word for strawberry!
  • It’s also got a slang meaning in Mexico, describing a social stereotype similar to “preppy” in English.

Understanding the Caption

“ferisas y fersas para toro mundo”

The caption was intentionally written incorrectly.  First she uses ferisas and fersas, the two fake words for “strawberries.”  Then she says para toro mundo.  The correct way to say it would be:

para todo el mundo = for the whole word

Toro means bull; todo means all.

I’m guessing she wrote “toro” to imitate the fact that todo sounds like toro when spoken in a foreign accent.

VOCABULARY

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

• la calidad
• una persona alta
• el estrés alto
• aquí
• la fresa
• veinticuatro horas
• veinticinco euros
• cuarenta años
• dos bromas
• tres fresas
• dos veinticinco
• tres veinticuatro
• ¿por qué?

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.