Today’s Vine is by Slobotzky, from Mexico City.

He walks up to a Duracell saleswoman in a mall, and shows us another example of a bad pick-up line (una frase seductora).  (though maybe not as bad as this one)

The Vine

Transcript

• Guy: ¿No tienes pilas para este corazón enamorado que late por tí?
• Girl: [pauses…then laughs]

Explanation

• Guy: Don’t you have batteries for this heart that’s in love that beats for you?
• Girl: [pauses…then laughs]

It’s kind of awkward in English because we don’t have a nifty word that means “in-love.”  But in Spanish we have one!  It can work as an adjective or a noun.

enamorado = in love

el enamorado = the person who is in love

los enamorados = the lovers / the people who are in love

So a literal translation would be,

“Don’t you have batteries for this in-love heart that beats for you?”

Slow-Mo Version

Useful Phrases

• ¿Tienes…? – Do you have…?
  • Useful when asking a question at a store.
  • In formal contexts, conjugate for usted: ¿Tiene…?

• ¿No tienes…? – Don’t you have…?
  • In formal contexts, conjugate for usted: ¿No tiene…?

• Es por tí = it’s for you (as in, it’s because of you) 
  • One of my favorite songs is “Es Por Tí” by Juanes.
  • Part of the chorus is, es por tí que late mi corazon (it’s for you / because of you that my heart beats).
  • It is very pegajosa (catchy) (“peh-gah-HO-sah“).

The word “que”

You may notice that this word keeps show up in different contexts.  Does it mean “what,” “how,” or “that”??

Well, kind of all three.  Depends on context.

“Qué/que” is like an actor – it plays different roles in different movies.

Qué as “what”

• ¿Qué pasa? = What’s happening? / What’s wrong?
• ¿Qué haces? = What are you doing?
• ¡¿Qué?! = What?! (as in, I can’t believe it)

Qué as “how”

• ¡Qué guapa te ves! = How pretty you look!
• ¡Qué bueno! = How good! / That’s great!
• Qué bonito está el día = How nice is the day / What a nice day.

Que as a “that” (notice there’s no accent over the “e” this time)

• Este corazon que late por tí = This heart that beats for you.
• La cosa que me dijiste = The thing that you told me.
• Es importante que escuches = It’s important that you listen.

VOCABULARY

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

• latir (this is the infinitive of late – to beat)
• el corazon
• ¿tienes una mesa?
• ¿tienes pilas?
• las pilas
• es por tí

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.