February 24th, 2007
CoffeeBreakSpanish.com
In this edition:
more language
to cope with
restaurant
situations and
special
requirements
Lesson 18
Notes
Soy alérgico a las nueces
Lesson 18
Programme Notes
Welcome to Coffee Break Spanish, the podcast
aimed at independent learners of Spanish. In
Coffee Break Spanish we’ll be guiding you
through the basics of the Spanish language and
helping you to learn to communicate in Spain
and Spanish-speaking countries.
“a” as the -o masculine ending, and the “a”
inside the circle as the -a feminine ending.
Continuing on from last week’s programme,
lesson 18 of Coffee Break Spanish deals with the
language you need for going to a restaurant.
You’ll learn how to explain that you have
allergies, that you’re vegetarian, or that your food
is too cold, too hot, too spicy, etc. This week’s
show also covers a number of grammatical
points.
We can now apply these rules to the first phrase
in today’s lesson. If you are a vegetarian you’ll
find the following phrase useful:
Special diets
soy vegetariano
I am vegetarian (m)
soy vegetariana
I am vegetarian (f)
¿Listo or lista?
In most of the Coffee Break Spanish shows,
Mark asks Kara:
Vegetarians may also wish to clarify this by
saying:
¿estás lista?
are you ready? (f)
no como carne
I don’t eat meat
In this show, Kara asked Mark if he was ready to
begin. She used the masculine form of the
adjective:
Note that the word como is different from the
word cómo, with an accent. Cómo means “how”,
and is normally used as a question:
¿estás listo?
are you ready? (m)
¿cómo estás?
how are you?
But,
Adjectives in Spanish have different forms for
male or female people, and indeed for masculine
and feminine nouns. The most normal male
form ends in -o and female forms tend to end in a. We have come across these forms in previous
lessons, and this is just a recap. In some books,
and particularly online, you’ll see list@, using the
@ symbol to show both masculine and feminine
endings: you can imagine the circle around the
1
como carne
I eat meat
Note that there is no change to the
pronunciation of como whether it has or doesn’t
have an accent.
Here are some other examples of things you may
not eat:
Complaints
no como carne roja
I don’t eat red meat
If your food has arrived and you wish to say that
it’s cold, or indeed hot, etc. then the word for “it
is” is:
no como marisco
I don’t eat shellfish
no como pescado
I don’t eat fish
You may also have to explain that you are
allergic to a particular food:
soy alérgico / alérgica a...
I am allergic to...
... las nueces
nuts
... los productos lácteos
dairy products.
See the Bonus Vocabulary section for more
examples.
Bon appétit!
In English we are sadly lacking a nice phrase to
wish people a pleasant meal. We can say “enjoy
your meal”, but often in English the French
phrase bon appétit is used!
que aproveche
enjoy your meal
Alternatively you may hear this phrase:
buen provecho
enjoy your meal
In Spanish the suggestion is that you should take
full advantage of the meal in front of you, and
savour every mouthful: aprovechar means to get
the most out of something.
Coffee Break Spanish: Lesson 18 está
it is
We’ve already come across this word several
times. It’s from the verb estar which we looked at
last week.
To say “it is cold”, you would say:
está frío
it is cold
You can add to this by saying “this is cold”:
esto está frío
this is cold
Note that the word esto means “this”. We’ve
already learned éste es mi hermano, meaning “this is
my brother”. When you are talking about
something general and impersonal you use esto.
Note that there is no accent on esto. It does get
quite complicated, especially when it’s followed
by está which looks like another word for “this”:
ésta es mi madre
this is my mother
In this exampe, ésta means “this”. Note carefully
the use of the accent:
ésta
this
está
is (< estar)
In addition to an accent differentiating the two
words, there is also a difference in stress. In the
word for “this” above you stress the first syllable.
In the word for “is” you stress the second syllable.
In fact there’s also a word esta which is another
form of the word “this”, but we’ll leave that just
now!
Getting back to esto está frío, let’s look at other
situations you may want to deal with in the
restaurant situation.
page 2
esto está demasiado frío
this is too cold
The form tráiganos is what’s called the imperative
form, the command form. It can therefore seem
just a little direct sometimes. In certain parts of
the Spanish-speaking world you’ll hear tráiganos
more regularly than nos trae. Both are correct and
both are appropriate. Our best advice is to listen
to other people and try to identify if they’re
asking if the waiter can bring more water (or
wine, bread, etc) or if they’re “commanding”
him to do so!
esto está demasiado caliente
this is too hot
I’m full!
esto está caliente
this is hot
To say something is “too cold” or “too hot”, you
use the word demasiado:
You may also need these phrases:
esto está quemado
this is burnt
esto está demasiado picante
this is too spicy
You may therefore want to say:
¿nos trae más agua, por favor?
can you bring us more water, please?
To say that you’re full in Spanish you could use
the word lleno which we encountered last week.
However, there’s a better word to use:
estoy satisfecho/a
I am full
Literally, this means “I am satisfied”.
Soy or estoy
Consider these two phrases which we’ve come
across in this lesson:
soy vegetariano
I am vegetarian
You can also say:
esto está buenísimo
this is excellent
Or, particularly in Spain:
esto está riquísimo
this is excellent
Trae or traiga
You may hear the following phrase:
tráiganos más agua
bring us more water
This is an alternative to:
¿nos trae más agua?
can you bring us more water?
Coffee Break Spanish: Lesson 18 estoy listo
I am ready
Both soy and estoy therefore mean “I am”, and it
may seem a bit tricky to know which one to use.
When you say soy vegetariano you are describing a
permanent state. It’s not the case that you just
decided to be vegetarian today; rather, you have
made a choice in your life and you are always a
vegetarian (even if you may change your mind at
some future date!) Therefore being vegetarian is
a permanent characteristic. The same would go
for “tall”, “Australian”, “Catholic”, “nurse”, etc.
However, when you say estoy listo you mean “I am
ready”. This is a temporary state. A few minutes
ago you may have still being packing your
suitcase or preparing for your meeting, but now
you’re ready. Indeed, if something else happens
like you lose your keys before going out the door
then you may no longer be ready! Estoy is used to
describe temporary things: being ready is a
temporary characteristic. The same would go for
“tired”, “sad”, “happy”, etc.
page 3
There is another situation where you use estoy
rather than soy. You always use estoy for position
or location. If we apply the rules we’ve already
learned and say
Are you
describing a
location?
estoy en Valencia
I am in Valencia
this makes perfect sense. Being in Valencia is
obviously a temporary situation. You are
currently in Valencia: you may not be there next
week, so it’s a temporary situation.
NO
Are you
describing
something
temporary?
Consider this phrase:
Valencia está en España
Valencia is in Spain
YES
estar
YES
ser
NO
This is where things get a bit more complicated!
You would be right in thinking that Valencia is
permanently in Spain, but we wouldn’t use es
(from ser) here because it’s a location.
This may all seem quite tricky. The decision
whether to use estoy (from the infinitive ser) or soy
(from the infinitive estar) is. in fact, quite
straightforward most of the time, if you apply
the rules which are outlined above. Here’s a flow
chart to help you:
YES
Are you
describing something
permanent?
CoffeeBreakSpanish: Lesson 18 - Basic Vocabulary
listo / lista
ready
vegetariano / vegetariana
vegetarian
como
I eat
comer
to eat
la carne
meat
la carne roja
red meat
el marisco
shellfish
el pescado
fish
alérgico / alérgica
allergic
alérgico a las nueces
allergic to nuts
los productos lácteos
dairy products
¡que aproveche!
enjoy your meal
¡buen provecho!
enjoy your meal
está...
it is...
frío
cold
caliente
hot
demasiado
too...
quemado
burnt
Coffee Break Spanish: Lesson 18 page 4
picante
spicy
buenísimo
excellent
riquísimo
excellent (lit. “very rich”)
tráiganos
bring us
satisfecho / satisfecha
full (satisfied)
CoffeeBreakSpanish: Lesson 18 - Bonus Vocabulary
no como carne ni pescado
I don’t eat meat or fish
soy vegano
I’m vegan
no como ningún producto animal
I don’t eat animal products
soy diabético / diabética
I’m diabetic
¿tienen comida...
do you have ... food?
... halal?
halal
... kosher?
kosher
... baja en sodio?
low sodium
... baja en grasas?
low fat
no he pedido esto
I didn’t order this
he pedido ...
I ordered...
¿tardará mucho nuestra comida?
will our meal be much longer?
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Coffee Break Spanish: Lesson 18 page 5