¡atrévete! = dare yourself! / be bold! / go for it!
Today’s Vine is by Dimirex, from Mexico. The caption is:
Cuando retas a tu mamá!!! = When you challenge your mom!!!
retar = to challenge
el reto = the challenge
CAUTION: today’s Vine is fast and dialogue-dense! You’ve been warned! You might find that you understand what’s being communicated, even if you don’t understand every word of dialogue.
The Vine
Transcript
- Mom: Y el cambio del mandado.
- Adult son: Ahí lo dejé.
- Mom: Tú me estás mintiendo.
- Adult son: Para na’ que yo te voy a mentir…
- Mom: Te voy a pegar.
- Adult son: Atrévete…te….te…
Explanation
- Mom: And the change from the order. [as in, “where is it?”]
- Adult son: I left it over there.
- Mom: You’re lying to me.
- Adult son: Why would I ever lie to you?
- Mom: I’m gonna hit you.
- Adult son: I dare you….you….you (literally: dare yourself…self….self)
na’ = abbreviated form of nada = nothing
para nada = not at all
“para nada que yo te voy a mentir” = “not at all am I going to lie to you” – an expression that I loosely translated as: “why would I ever lie to you?”
In the second part of the dialogue, the son is quoting a famous, Grammy-nominated song called “Atrévete-te-te” by Calle 13, a Puerto Rican group that has won 19 Latin Grammys and 2 Grammys.
Slo-Mo Version
https://soundcloud.com/spanishin6seconds/monday-vine-atr-vete
Useful Phrases
- ¡Atrévete! – Dare yourself! / Dare! / I dare you!
- Atrévete a … – dare to…
- ¿Estás mintiendo? – Are you lying?
- Voy a … – I’m going to…
- Te voy a … – I’m going to… [do something to you]
Dare to be different.
Verb Tenses in this Vine
I’ll point out the verbs and tenses, and link to places where you can read more about each tense.
- ahí lo deje = There I left it.
- this is the past preterite tense of dejar (to leave/quit)
- tú me estás mintiendo. = You are lying to me.
- this is the present progressive, i.e. the “-ing” form in English.
- mentir = to lie
- te voy a pegar = I’m going to hit you
- this is the present tense form of ir (to go)
- “voy a…” is a common way of talking about the future
- see these previous posts (1, 2, 3) for more examples and info
- ¡atrévete! = dare! / dare yourself!
- this is the command form of atreverse (to dare oneself / to have courage)
- atreverse is a reflexive verb – a verb that the doer does to him/her/itself.
Different ways of saying “you”
Skip this section if you already know the difference between tú, te, and tí.
In English, we have “me, myself and I” – several different ways of referring to the self.
In Spanish, we have this for just about everyone.
Yo = I
a mí = to me
¿me hablas? = are you talking to me?
me amo = I love myself.
Tú = you
a tí = to you
¡te hablo! = I’m talking to you!
te amas = you love yourself.
As a rule of thumb, don’t stress too much about this. The differentiation will come naturally with practice. If you want, though, you can read a whole series of lessons about this.
VOCABULARY
See if you can identify these words/phrases in English.
- el cambio
- el mandado
- ahí
- para nada
- pegar
- mentir
- no voy a mentir
- no te voy a mentir
- no estoy mintiendo
- dejar
- dejé el cambio en la mesa
Spanish in Six Seconds 