Hola amigos,

Make sure to read the About page first.

Here is a sample lesson for you to read, watch, learn, enjoy.

Today’s Vine is made by Nath Campos from Mexico City.  You can visit her Vine and Twitter profiles.

To pause or resume a Vine, click anywhere on the video.

To enable audio, click on the icon on on the bottom right corner of the video.

The Vine

Transcript

• Nath Campos: Larita, ¿qué te he dicho de chatear en la mesa?
• Larita: [laughter]

Explanation

• Nath Campos: Larita, what have I told you about chatting at the table?
• Larita: [laughter]

Larita is the little girl in the video.  Nath Campos is the one filming.  Nath tells Larita, “What have I told you about chatting [i.e. using chat apps on her iPad] at the table?”  Larita laughs.

Slo-Mo Version

Going Deeper

SENTENCE BREAKDOWN

• “¿qué te he dicho?” = “what have I told you?”
  • Pronunciation: “Keh teh eh DEE-cho”
• “de chatear” = “of chatting” or “about chatting”
  • Pronunciation: “De cha-teh-AR”
  • “de” can mean “of,” “about,” or “from,” depending on context.
• “en la mesa” = “at the table” or “on the table”
  • Pronunciation: “en la MEH-sah”
  • “en” can mean “at,” “on,” or “in,” depending on context.

FUN FACT

Chatear is not originally a Spanish verb.  It comes from the English word “chat” and is part of a family of Spanish words that derive from modern technology-related words.

• chatear = to chat
• textear = to text
• tagear = to tag (e.g. to tag someone on Facebook)
• vinear = to Vine = to make a Vine video.  This is probably the newest word yet, but people are using it on the internet! (e.g. “oye, estoy vineando” = “hey, I’m vining”) Cool to see language evolve right before our eyes.

TENSE

present perfect (presente perfecto)

• anytime we say “I have said”…”She has eaten”…”We have seen”…these are all examples of present perfect (presente perfecto)
• In Spanish, the presente perfecto is formed by: haber + completed verb
• In Spanish, the “h” is silent.  Always.
• Pronounce “haber” like: “ahhh-BEAR”
• haber must be conjugated:
  • I have said =  yo he dicho
  • You have said = tú has dicho
  • He/she has said = él/ella ha dicho
  • We have said = nosotros hemos dicho
  • Y’all have said = vosotros habéis dicho (only used in Spain)
  • They/y’all have said = ellos/ustedes han dicho
• (when reading these, remember that the “h” is silent)

 

OBJECTS

What about the “te” in “te he dicho”?  This little word changes the meaning from “I have said” to “I have said to you” or “I have told you”

• “te” is an IO (indirect object).
• In English, objects tend to come right after the verb (e.g. I told you something.  Charlie bit me!  They challenged us to the ALS ice bucket challenge.  Just do it!)
• In Spanish, you have two choices of where to put objects in the sentence:
  • right before the conjugated verb
  • glued on to the end of an infinitive verb (or a gerund, but don’t worry about that for now)
• In this example, there is no infinitive verb, so the object, te, goes right before the conjugated verb of he: “te he dicho”
  • (the infinitive form of “to say” or “to tell” would be decir but in this example, it only appears in its completed form of dicho)
    • If you’re really into grammar, another way to say “completed form” is “past participle”

• To learn more about objects, visit the OBJECT page.

VOCABULARY

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

• decir
• yo he dicho
• yo te he dicho
• la mesa
• chatear
• de
• en
• tú has dicho

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.