Today you’re learning the poder Spanish conjugation using chunks instead of a conjugation table.

Welcome to Spring Spanish, where Paulisima will tell you all you need to know about this grammar topic.

¡Empecemos!

1. Poder Spanish conjugation for yo: puedo

¿Puedo? (May I?)

You can use it, informally to “request permission”, it’s similar to saying “may I?”

Actor 1
(Paulisima not able to open a jar)

Actor 2
¿Puedo?
(Can I?)

—

Actor 1
(Paulisima not able to open a jar)

Actor 2
¿Te ayudo?
(Can I help you?)

Actor 1
No, gracias, yo puedo sola.
(No, thank you, I can do it myself.)

Yo puedo sola or Yo puedo solo if you’re a man.

—

Actor 1
¿Le puedo ayudar en algo?
(Can I help you with something?)

Actor 2
No, gracias, nada más estoy viendo.
(No, thank you, I’m just looking.)

Le puedo ayudar en algo is a chunk you’ll definitely hear when shopping in a Spanish-speaking country.

Actor 1
¡Ay no! Estoy demasiado cansada, ¡ya no puedo más
(Oh no! I’m too tired, I can’t do this anymore!)

We use no puedo más (I can’t do this anymore) when you give up, when you’re tired, when you’re just exhausted.

2. Poder Spanish conjugation for tú:: puedes

Puedes (You can)

Actor 1
¿Puedes ayudarme con algo?
(Can you help me with something?)

Actor 2
Sí, claro, ¿en qué?
(Yes, of course, with what?)

¡Tú puedes! (You can do it!) This is a classic phrase to cheer someone up!

Actor 1
¡No puedo!
(I can’t!)

Actor 2
¡Sí puedes! ¡Tú puedes!
(Yes, you can! You can!)

Actor 1
Amor, hoy es mi presentación
(Love, today is my presentation.)

Actor 2
Suerte mi vida ¡tú puedes!
(Good luck sweetie (Lit.: my life), you can do it!)

3. Poder Spanish conjugation for él and ella: puede

Él, ella, ello puede  (He, she, it can)

Actor 1  
¿Quién puede ir a recogerme al aeropuerto?
(Who can go pick me up to the airport?)

Actor 2
Yo no puedo, pero mamá sí puede. O sino, también Josecito puede.
(I can’t but my mom can. Or else, Josecito can.)

Actor 1
¿Disculpe, se puede llevar en el carry on un perfume de cien mililitros?
(Excuse me, is it possible to bring a 100 milliliter perfume in my carry on?)

Actor 2
Sí, sí se puede.
(Yes, yes you can.)

This is a cheering phrase to be used like in an sports events.

Actor 1
¡Sí se puede! ¡Sí se puede!
(Yes, we can! Yes, we can!)

(Pau speaking on the phone, call is cut)

Actor 2
Bueno, bueno… ¡No puede ser!
(Hello, hello… No way! (Lit.: It can’t be!))

Actor 1
Pau, ¿me aceptas una salida a cenar?
(Pau, can I take you out for dinner?)

Actor 2
Puede ser.
(Perhaps.)

4. Poder Spanish conjugation for nosotros: podemos

Nosotros podemos (We can)

¿Podemos hablar? (Can we talk?)

Uhh, we don’t think anyone likes to hear this phrase…

Actor 1  
Paulísima, ¿podemos hablar?
(Paulisima, can we talk?)

—

Actor 2  
Gracias llamar al servicio de atención al cliente. ¿Cómo lo podemos ayudar?
(Thank you for calling customer service. How can we help you?)

Actor 1  
Quiero saber si me puedo cambiar de plan.
(I want to know if I can change my plan.)

Actor 2
¿Podemos cambiarnos de mesa?
(Can we change tables?)

Actor 1
Sí, claro.
(Yes, sure.)

5. Poder Spanish conjugation for ustedes and ellos: pueden

Pueden (They can)

It’s the same conjugation for both. We know by context.

So many of you have gotten all the way to this point and have not subscribed to the Spring Spanish channel.

¿Pueden creerlo? (Can you believe it?) Do it now.

Actor 1
Sigo sin internet. Los del internet no pueden venir sino hasta el lunes.
(I still don’t have internet. The internet guys can’t come until Monday.)

Actor 2
Y te dijeron a qué hora pueden venir?
(And did they say what time they can come?)

Actor 1
No, me dijeron que no me pueden dar una hora exacta. Solo que pueden venir entre nueve y cuatro.
(No, they told me they can’t give me an exact time. Only that they can come between 9 and 4.)

If you live in Mexico, you might need to use the phrase: Me dijeron que no me pueden dar una hora exacta. (They told me they can’t give me an exact time.) more times than you like when talking about dealing with service providers.

Actor 2
¿Podemos hacer la junta el viernes?
(Can we have the meeting on Friday?)

Actor 1
No, cualquier día menos el viernes, porque los de ventas no pueden.
(No, any day but Friday, because the sales team can’t.)

Los de ventas no pueden, ellos no pueden. (The sales team can’t. They can’t.)

As you may have noticed, Ustedes (You (plural) and ellos (they), share a conjugation: pueden. We know who we’re talking about by context.

Actor 2
¿Podemos hacer la junta el viernes?
(Can we have the meeting on Friday?)

Actor 1
No, cualquier día menos el viernes, porque los de ventas no pueden. ¿Ustedes qué día pueden?
(No, any day but Friday, because the sales team can’t. What day can you all make it?)

Actor 2
Nosotros podemos los miércoles y los jueves.
(We can do Wednesdays and Thursdays.)

6. Poder Spanish conjugation table

Ahora para los que les gusta. (And now for those who like it.)

Did you notice that ¿Quién habla? (Who’s calling?) or that no puedo hablar (I can’t talk)

The verb hablar is one of the most used ones in Spanish, it can be tricky because it can translate as talk, speak, discuss or even call as in phone someone.

To make it easier for you to remember, in this lesson we will teach you the hablar conjugation Spanish it using chunks instead of a conjugation table.

1. Chunks with hablar

Ni hablar. (No way Lit.: No talking.)

”Ni hablar” is a common interjection in Spanish.

O sea.. ¿él te invitó a salir a ti, pero quiere que tú pagues la mitad?
(So… he asked you out, but he wants you to pay half?)

Sí, bueno, no lo dijo abiertamente, pero lo implicó. ¿Tú irías?
(Yes, well, he didn’t say it openly, but he implied it. Would you go?)

¡Ni hablar!
(No way!)

Necesitamos hablar. (We need to talk.)

This Spanish phrase has the same weight as its English counterpart. Nobody wants to receive a text like this:

Hola, necesitamos hablar.
(Hello, we need to talk.)

¡Ay no, qué feo! ¡Mi ansiedad señores, mi ansiedad! (Oh no, how awful! My anxiety gentleman, my anxiety!)

Another chunk with the same meaning is: Tenemos que hablar. (We have to talk.)

No podía ni hablar. (I couldn’t even talk.)

¿Cómo te fue en tu cita?
(How did your date go?)

¡Increíble! Pero al principio estaba tan nerviosa que no podía ni hablar.
(Amazing! But at the beginning I was so nervous I couldn’t even talk.)

In these four chunks “hablar” (talk) is in its base form.

It’s not conjugated.

Learn them because you’ll hear them a lot.

This is a great time for you to subscribe to the Spring Spanish channel, in case you haven’t done it.

2. Hablar as speak

Hablar means “speak” when it’s used in the general sense of articulating sounds or words.

Cuando no me cae bien la gente, casi no hablo.
(When I don’t like people that much, I barely speak.)

Notice here, speak is conjugated in the first person.

Yo hablo. (I speak.)

Hablar also has the sense of “speak” when we use it to refer to the ability of speaking a certain language.

Paulísima, ¿tú también eres políglota, como los fundadores de Spring Languages?
(Paulisima, are you also a polyglot like the founders of Spring Languages?)

No, yo solamente hablo español, inglés y un poquito de francés.
(No, I only speak English, Spanish, and a little bit of French.)

Again, hablo is conjugated for the person yo (I).

Let’s see some examples for the person you.

Tú hablas. (You speak.)

Caroline, ¿cómo es que hablas español tan bien?
(Caroline, how come you speak Spanish so well?)

Es que practico todos lo días con mi mejor amiga y además soy miembro del Inner Circle de Spring Spanish.
(I practice everyday with my best friend, and also I’m a member of the Inner Circle of Spring Spanish.)

Are you a member of the Inner Circle? If not, join now!

3. Hablar as talk

We translate hablar as talk when we refer to a conversation, when it’s implied that another person is involved.

We’re going to see two examples with hablar for the third-person singular.

I hate grammatical terms, and I know my Spanish students do too. At Spring Languages, we don’t rely on grammar, instead we keep it simple and we use chunks, phrases that are commonly used by native speakers.

Get your free copy of our Essential Spanish Chunking Kit in the link in the description.

Cheat Sheet with 54 essential Spanish Chunks you’ll hear and use yourself in ANY Spanish conversation (and example sentences). Taken from our YouTube Teacher’s most popular videos!

2 Bonus Cheat Sheets with Travel Chunks and Dating/Relationship Chunks

A Spanish Chunking Tutorial showing you the 1 technique that’ll help you make 100% of the Spanish from our videos roll off the tongue in just 5 minutes a day (you’re probably only using 50% of our lessons’ potential right now…)

Yes! Send me my FREE Spanish Chunking Kit

For our first example, let’s use a very Mexican expression. Talk your ears off (Lit.: Talk even through the elbows.

Me cayó super bien tu sobrina Paulina, nunca se le acaba el tema de conversación.
(I really liked your niece Paulina, she never runs out of conversation.)

¡Sí! ¡Habla hasta por los codos!
(Yes! She talks her ears off.)

Notice that “habla hasta por lo codos.” Ella habla. She speaks.
Now let’s do with “él habla”.

¿Tu esposo es muy cercano a su familia?
(Is you husband very close to his family?)

Sí, bastante, con decirte que habla con sus papás todos los días.
(Yes, a lot, to the point where he speaks to his parents every day.)

¿Todos los días? El mío no les habla más que en sus cumpleaños.
(Everyday? Mine doesn’t talk to them except on their birthdays.)

¿No es mexicano, verdad?
(He is not Mexican, right?)

No, es danés.
(No, he’s Danish.)

No wonder!

Mexicans and Latin Americans in general are quite family-oriented.

¡Continuemos! (Let’s continue!)

Now let’s look at examples with “we” and you.  We talk. You all talk.

Ya me dijeron que te vieron en la plaza hablando con un chico.
(The’ve told me that they saw you talking to a guy at the mall.)

¡Sh! ¡Sh! Ahí viene mi mamá. Luego hablamos.
(Sh! Sh! Here comes my mom. We’ll talk later.)

Las veo muy sospechosas. ¿De qué hablan?
(You guys look very suspicious. What are you talking about?

De nada.
(Nothing.)

The conjugation for “ellos” (they) is the same as for Ustedes hablan. Ellos hablan. (You all talk. They talk.)

¿Cómo se llevan tus papás después de que se divorciaron?
(How do your parents get along after their divorce?)

Mal. No se hablan.
(Bad. They don’t talk to each other.)

¿Cómo son tus compañeros de clase?
(How are your classmates?)

No sé, no me hablan, y estoy casi segura de que hablan mal de mi a mis espaldas.
(I don’t know, they don’t talk to me, and I’m pretty sure they talk bad about me behind my back.)

I’ve seen the following line in many small restaurants:

No hay WiFi, hablen entre ustedes.
(No WiFi, talk to each other.)

4. Hablar as discuss

¿Algo más en que le pueda servir?
(Anything else I can do for you?)

Sí, me gustaría cancelar mi otra línea telefónica.
(Yes, I would like to cancel my other phone line.)

Eso tendría que hablarlo directamente con el gerente de la sucursal donde contrató la línea.
(That you would need to discuss directly with the manager of the branch where you contracted the line.)

Another example:

El tema de los derechos reproductivos lo tenemos que hablar desde un punto de vista científico
(The subject of reproductive right needs to be discussed from a scientific point of view.)

5. Hablar as call

Sometimes “hablar” is better translated as “call” as in phoning someone.

¿Ya te habló el chico con el que saliste?
(Has the guy you went out with called you already?)

No, todavía no, pero estoy segura de que me va a hablar.
(No, not yet but I’m sure he will call me.)

Or like the example I use at the beginning:

¿Quién habla?
(Who’s speaking? / Who’s calling?)

6. Impersonal use of hablar conjugation Spanish

I’m sure you’ve seen this one:

Se habla Español.
(Spanish is spoken.)

And what about this:

No se habla de Bruno, no, no, no. No se habla de Bruno.
(We don’t talk about Bruno, no, no. We don’t talk about Bruno.)

En una reunión mexicana, no se habla de política ni de religión.
(In a Mexican gathering, we don’t talk about politics or religion.)

What else is considered taboo? Find out in this video:

7. Hablar Conjugation Spanish table in present simple

I’m only including this for those who need the visual summary to learn better. Please don’t learn it by heart!

Learn the chunks instead.

Ver (See, watch) is an important verb in Spanish. It’s an irregular one, which makes it a bit hard to conjugate.

In this lesson you’re going to learn to about ver Spanish conjugation – to see. And you’re going to do it using chunks instead of a typical conjugation table.

Spring Spanish teacher Paulísima will explain everything you need to know about it!

1. Veo: ver Spanish conjugation for Yo

Oye, ya vi la de “Los Renglones Torcidos de Dios”.
(Hey, I already saw the movie “God’s Crooked Lines”.)

¿Y qué tal?
(And how was it?)

Buenísima. Me encantó. ¡Qué buena historia! ¡Y las actuaciones! ¡Increíbles! Ya veo porque te gustó.
(Very good. I loved it. Such a good story! And the acting! Incredible! I see why you liked it.)

¡Qué bueno que la viste! Sabía que te iba a gustar. Aunque no es como las películas que siempre ves, sabía que te iba a gustar.
(I’m glad you watched it! I knew you’d like it. Even though it’s not like the movies that you always watch, I knew that you’d like it.)

Sí, muchas gracias. Me encantó. ¿Sabes cuál te va a gustar a ti? La de Pinocho, la nueva versión, de Guillermo del Toro. Ayer la fui a ver al cine y me encantó. Vela, te va a encantar.
(Yes, thank you very much. I loved it. Do you know which one you’re going to like? Pinocchio, the new version by Guillermo del Toro. Yesterday, I went to watch it to the movie theater and I loved it. Watch it, you’re going to love it.)

¡Ah, sí! Vi una crítica en YouTube. Decían que estaba buenísima, muy conmovedora.
(Oh, yes! I saw a critic on YouTube. They said it’s really good, very moving.)

¡Pues ve a verla! Vas a ver que te va a encantar.
(Well, go watch it! You’ll see that you’re going to love it.)

Pff, so many Spanish Chunks with “ver”.

We’re going to explore each one of them. In case you don’t know what a Chunk is, Chunks are phrases or word combinations that native Spanish speakers use all the time.

They do wonders for your fluency because they save you time.

Using chunks you don’t have to come up with your own way to say things, you just resort to a pre-made phrase. Get a free copy of our Spanish Chunking Kit in the link in the description below.

Cheat Sheet with 54 essential Spanish Chunks you’ll hear and use yourself in ANY Spanish conversation (and example sentences). Taken from our YouTube Teacher’s most popular videos!

2 Bonus Cheat Sheets with Travel Chunks and Dating/Relationship Chunks

A Spanish Chunking Tutorial showing you the 1 technique that’ll help you make 100% of the Spanish from our videos roll off the tongue in just 5 minutes a day (you’re probably only using 50% of our lessons’ potential right now…)

Yes! Send me my FREE Spanish Chunking Kit

In this case, the verb “ver” is conjugated for the first-person in past.

• Ya veo. (I see.)

We use this like the English “ I see”…

En esta película no sabes qué va a pasar. El argumento es muy cambiante.
(In this movie you don’t know what’s going to happen. The plot changes a lot.)

Ya veo. Ya veo.
(I see. I see.)

Vela. (Watch it.)

In this case we’re ordering someone to watch something.

Because película (movie) is a feminine word we use the ending “la”, vela. Which by the way, also means candle.

If we’re telling someone to watch something that is masculine, the order would “velo”.

Which by the way, also means veil.

¿Ya viste el nuevo especial de comedia de Carlos Ballarta?
(Have you seen the new comedy special of Carlos Ballarta?)

No, no lo he visto.
(No, I haven’t watched it.)

¡Velo! Te va a gustar.
(Watch it! You’re going to like it.)

Vas a ver. (You’re going to see.)

In the conversation we use it as “you’ll see”.

¡Pues ve a verla! Vas a ver que te va a encantar.
(Well, go watch it! You’ll see that you’re going to love it.)

También podemos usar esta frase, “vas a ver”, como una especie de regaño.
(We can also use this phrase, “vas a ver”, as a kind of scolding / threatening.)

¿Viste la de “The Crown” sin mí?
(Did you watch “The Crown” without me?)

Sí, perdón.
(Yes, sorry.)

Vas a ver. Vas a ver.
(You’ll see. You’ll see. (Lit.: You will see what I will do to you.)

¿No te has suscrito al canal? Vas a ver.
(Haven’t you subscribed to the channel? You’ll see.)

2. Ves: ver Spanish conjugation for tú

Let’s go to the movies to watch “Avatar” or let’s stay at home to finish watching “The Crown”. What do you think?

Como tú veas.
(As you wish. (Lit.: As you see.)

¿Cómo ves? (What do you think?)

Ves is the conjugation in present simple for the person “tú”. In the second phrase, we use “ver” in it subjunctive form.

Como tú veas (As you wish (Lit.: As you see.) is similar to saying como tu quieras.

A phrase you should know is: ¿Qué me ves? (What are you looking at?)

It’s like saying “What are you looking at?”. It’s a bit rude. But people do use it.

Here we encounter the conjugation for the person “tú” again. Ves. ¿Qué me ves? (What are you looking at?)

3. Ve: ver Spanish Conjugation for él and ella

¿A ti te molesta cuando tu pareja ve una serie sin ti?
(Does it bother you when your partner watches a series without you?)

No, para nada. Mi pareja ve series sin mi todo el tiempo. No pasa nada.
(No, not at all. My partner watches series without me all the time. It’s all good. (Lit.: Nothing happens.))

Él ve. Ella ve.
(He watches. She watches.)

4. Vemos: ver Spanish conjugation for nosotros

¡Nos vemos! (See you later!)

Just kidding, w’re not going anywhere yet.

”Nos vemos” is a very common way to say goodbye in Mexico.

Other variations:

¿Vamos al cine hoy en la noche?
(Shall we go to the movies tonight?)

¿A ver cuál?
(To watch which one?)

Avatar.
(Avatar.)

Ok, ¿paso por ti o ahí nos vemos?
(Ok, do I pick you up or do we meet there?)

Nos vemos ahí .
(We’ll meet there.)

5. Ven: ver Spanish conjugation for ustedes and ellos

For the next section we will interact.

We’re going to ask you some questions about you, answer in the video’s comments.

Me preocupa cuánto tiempo pasan los niños frente a las pantallas. Creo que los niños ven demasiado contenido.
(I worry about how long children spend in front of screens. I think children watch too much content.)

Yo creo que todos vemos demasiado contenido. No solo los niños. Por los menos ellos ven cosas lindas, divertidas y educativas.
(I think we all watch too much content. Not just children. At least they watch cute, fun, and educational stuff.)

Es cierto, ustedes los adultos ven muchas cosas raras.
(It’s true, you adults watch a lot of weird things.)

Could that be true? What kind of content do you watch?

As longs as it’s coming from Spring Spanish, it’s okay. Keep watching us!

6. Ver Spanish conjugation table

For those who love to have a visual:

The conjugation of plural you and they is the same: Ven.

Not to be confused with the order: ¡Ven! (Come here!)

Me gusta, in general terms, means “I like”.

But there’s more to it. Tal vez estás diciendo “me gusta”, cuando en realidad quieres decir otra cosa. (Maybe you’re saying “me gusta” when in reality you mean something else.)

Spring Spanish teacher Paulísima will explain 5 different meanings of me gusta in Spanish.

1. Saying me gusta in Spanish instead of “me cae bien”

This one must be one of the most common mistakes in Spanish that students make.

Actor 1
Acabo de conocer al novio de mi mejor amiga. Es buena onda. Me gusta.
(I just met my best friend’s boyfriend. He’s cool. I like him.)

Actor 2
O sea, ¿cómo? ¿Te gustó?
(What do you mean? You like him?)

Actor 1
Sí, me gustó, es muy chistoso.
(Yes, I like him, he’s very funny.)

Actor 2
Creo que lo que quieres decir es “me cayó bien”.
(I think what you mean to say is “I liked him as a person”.)

—

Actor 1
¿Conoces a Pablo Martínez? El maestro de Economía.
(Do you know Pablo Martínez? The Economics teacher.)

Actor 2
Sí, me cae bien.
(Yes, I like him.)

In Mexico we say “me cae bien” to say” I like” but I “like” because they’re funny, a good person. Saying me gusta in Spanish about someone means that you find them attractive.

”Me cae bien” is widely used in Mexico, and also its version in the past “me cayó bien”.

Actor 1
¿Qué te pareció la novia de Daniel?
(What did you think of Daniel’s girlfriend?)

Actor 2
Me cayó muy bien. Aunque no sé si yo le caí bien a ella.
(I really liked her. Though I don’t know if she liked me.)

From this option, we’re going to be sharing different ways to say me gusta in Spanish.

There’s nothing wrong with “me gusta”, but people do use other expressions. Let’s check them in real Spanish conversations!

2. Amo, Amé (I love it)

Actor 1
Mira esta foto de mi sobrina.
(Look at this photo of my niece.)

Actor 2
¡Ay, qué bonita! ¡Amo!
(Oh, how pretty! I love it!)

This way of saying that you like something is quite new and young. Unlike American English, in Mexican Spanish it is not as common to use the verb “amar” to describe your likings.

But nowadays, I keep hearing kids saying this stuff.

Actor 1
¿Cómo estuvo la cena de ayer
(How was dinner yesterday?)

Actor 2
¡Amé! ¡Estuvo increíble todo! La decoración, los cocteles, la comida… amé.
(I loved (it)! Everything was amazing! The decoration, the cocktails, the food… I loved it.)

Actor 1
¿Te está gustando el café?
(Are you liking the coffee?)

Actor 2
¡Ay, sí! ¡Amo!
(Oh, yes! I love it!)

3. Me gustó (I liked it)

Ok, technically this one is almost the same as “me gusta”.

But observe it “Me gustó”. This is in the past.

And it’s really useful because we use it in the past a lot.

Actor 1
¿Qué te pareció el cafecito
(What did you think of the coffee?)

Actor 2
iMe gustó! Tiene un saborcito diferente.
(I liked it! It has a little flavor that’s different.)

Actor 1
Prueba esta salsa.
(Try this salsa.)

¿Qué tal?
(Did you like it?)

Actor 2
Sí, me gustó.
(Yes, I liked it.)

Actor 1
¿Cómo estuvo Cuba?
(How was Cuba?)

Actor 2
Me gustó muchísimo.
(I liked it a lot.)

4. Me mama, Me mamó (I love it, I loved it)

We don’t really like this chunk very much.

Remember that chunks are word combinations that native Spanish speakers use all the time. You can get a free copy of popular Spanish chunk in the link in the description.

Cheat Sheet with 54 essential Spanish Chunks you’ll hear and use yourself in ANY Spanish conversation (and example sentences). Taken from our YouTube Teacher’s most popular videos!

2 Bonus Cheat Sheets with Travel Chunks and Dating/Relationship Chunks

A Spanish Chunking Tutorial showing you the 1 technique that’ll help you make 100% of the Spanish from our videos roll off the tongue in just 5 minutes a day (you’re probably only using 50% of our lessons’ potential right now…)

Yes! Send me my FREE Spanish Chunking Kit

These two chunks come off as a bit vulgar.

Because It comes from the verb “mamar”, that means “to suck”.

People are actually using “me mama” to say “me gusta” in Mexico.

Actor 1
¿Qué onda, cómo estuvo el Oktoberfest?
(What’s up, how was Oktoberfest?)

Actor 2
Me mamó.
(I loved it.)

This chunk is very informal.

Actor 1
¡Güey, prueba esta salsita! La acabo de comprar y me mamó.
(Dude, try this little sauce. I just bought it and I loved it.)

Actor 2
¡No manches! ¡Me mamó también!
(No way! I loved it too!)

Actor 1
Tienes que escuchar el nuevo disco de Bad Bunny. Me mama.
(You have to listen to Bad Bunny’s new album. I love it.)

Actor 2
Ya lo escuché. Me mama su música.
(I heard it already. I love his music.)

5. Me encanta, Me encantó (Really like something)

Actor 1
Es que me encantas tanto, si me miras mientras canto..
(It’s just that I like you so much, when you look at me while I sing…)

Check out how to use songs to learn Spanish in this video:

We use “Me encantas” when we really like something.

You know that McDonald’s campaign: “I’m loving it”?

Well, in Mexico it is “Me encanta”. Y sí, la verdad es que a mí, McDonald’s me encanta, me encanta, me súper encanta… (And yes, the truth is that I love McDonald’s, love, súper love…)

Actor 1
Pau, ¿te gusta el reggaeton?
(Pau, do you like reggaeton?)

Actor 2
¡Me encanta!
(I love it!)

Let’s learn some variations of “me encanta” as well:

Actor 1
¿Ya fuiste al nuevo restaurante cerca de tu casa?
(Did you already go to the new restaurant near your house?)

Actor 2
Sí, ya fui. ¡Me encantó!
(Yes, I went already. I loved it!)

Now, if the thing that we love is plural… then we we say me encantan or me encantaron in the past.

Actor 1
¿Te gustaron los stickers?
(Did you like the stickers?)

Actor 2
Sí, mi amor, gracias, me encantaron.
(Yes, my love, thank you, I loved them.)

Actor 1
¿Qué opinas de los marcadores con punta doble?
(What do you think about the dual tip markers?)

Actor 2
Fíjate que a pesar de las malas reviews, a mi me encantaron.
(You see, in spite of the bad reviews, I loved them.)

Now you have more options and will sound better when speaking Spanish.

We honestly think quedar is the craziest verb we’ve covered so far. It has too many definitions, it’s irregular and it can be reflexive!

But, us being us, we only care about you being able to go out and use this as soon as possible.

Para ello (For that purpose), we’ll focus on its most common conjugations and uses. ¿Estás conmigo? (Are you with me?)

¡Empecemos!

1. Quedar Spanish conjugation with Yo

Después de esto, no me quedan ganas de estudiar más verbos.  
(After this, I don’t have any desire to study more verbs.)

Es comprensible, pero me quedo más tranquila si conversamos un par de cosas al respect.
(It’s understandable, but I’ll remain calmer if we discuss a couple of things about it.)

Two very common things quedar can do is talk about things that are left and things that remain or stay.

So:

Me quedo más tranquila (I’ll remain more calm) if you access to our Essential Spanish Chunking kit which is free and made just for you!

Cheat Sheet with 54 essential Spanish Chunks you’ll hear and use yourself in ANY Spanish conversation (and example sentences). Taken from our YouTube Teacher’s most popular videos!

2 Bonus Cheat Sheets with Travel Chunks and Dating/Relationship Chunks

A Spanish Chunking Tutorial showing you the 1 technique that’ll help you make 100% of the Spanish from our videos roll off the tongue in just 5 minutes a day (you’re probably only using 50% of our lessons’ potential right now…)

Yes! Send me my FREE Spanish Chunking Kit

Let’s go through more examples for each.

Things that are left:

To stay or to remain:

Also, no me queda, by itself, will mostly refer to a piece of clothing that doesn’t fit.

Pero ya repasaremos ese uso más adelante. (But we’ll go over that use later on.)

2. Quedar conjugation with tú

¡Genial, gracias! Por cierto, te quedan bellos esos zarcillos.    
(Great, thank you! By the way, those earrings look beautiful on you.)

¡Gracias! Te quedas loca si te digo cuánto me costaron. ¡Fueron una súper inversión!
(Thank you! You’ll go crazy if I tell you how much they cost me. They were a super investment!.)

Another thing we tend to do with quedar is talking about how something fits or looks on someone, so:

• Te quedan bellos esos zarcillos. (Those earrings look beautiful on you.)

Also, to talk about becoming or transforming into a different state. So:

• Te quedas loca. (You’ll go crazy.): this would essentially mean, you will turn or go crazy.

More examples for how things look or fit:

More examples for becoming or transforming:

3. Quedar Spanish conjugation with Él, Ella, Usted, Eso

Before we forget, we’ll continue to check uses along with the conjugations.

But, at the end, we’ll do a little summary of these uses which, on average, account for 80% of what this verb is used for on a daily basis.

¿Dónde los compraste?  
(Where did you buy them?)

En una tienda que queda cerca de tu trabajo, de hecho.
(In a store that is close to your work, in fact.)

Voy a pasar. ¡Maura! ¿Este humus lo hizo Victoria? ¡Le quedó buenísimo!
(I’ll stop by. Maura! Did Victoria make this hummus? It turned out great!)

Alright, something else we do quite a lot with quedar is talking about location, so:

• Una tienda que queda cerca de tu trabajo. (A store that is close to your work.)

Honestly, isn’t this verb insane? If you haven’t had enough, we also use it to talk about results, how things turn out. So:

• Le quedó buenísimo. (It turned out great.): in this case, talking about the hummus.

More examples with location could be:

For more examples with results or how something turns out, we have:

4. Quedar Spanish conjugation with nosotros

¡Sí! Su receta es lo máximo. El otro día lo llevamos a casa de unos amigos y quedamos como unas chefs. Nadie se creía que lo habíamos hecho nosotras.
(Yes, her recipe is the best. The other day we took it to a friend’s house and we looked like chefs. No one believed that we had made it ourselves.)

¡No lo dudo! Compártemela y así también quedo bien con la gente cuando vengan a casa.
(I don’t doubt it! Share it with me so I also look good in front of people when they come to the house.)

The last use we’ll cover, though we’ll continue to check examples for all of them, is to talk about how someone seems, looks or comes across.

In this case: quedamos como unas chefs.

More examples could be:

5. Ustedes, Ellos, Ellas se quedan

¡Seguro! ¿Sabes si las chicas se van a quedar en Madrid este fin de semana?
(Sure! Do you know if the girls are staying in Madrid this weekend?)

Les pregunté, pero se quedaron calladas y no me dijeron nada concreto. Yo creo que están planeando algo sorpresa.
(I asked them, but they remained silent and didn’t tell me anything concrete. I think they are planning a surprise.)

The two examples in the dialogue correspond to the same use of quedar, which should tell you how common it is to use quedar to mean to remain or to stay.

Even more examples for this use could be:

6. All-in-One table for Quedar Spanish conjugation

Now for that little table you’re only supposed to use as a guide. Take into account that with “quedar” you do have three different options per person, or pronoun, depending on what you’re talking about. Check it out in the table:

Summary

Let’s review all of the uses we covered in this lesson with some examples:

• “Quedar” for things that are left:
  • Queda una cerveza, ¿quién la quiere? (There is one beer left, who wants it?)
• “Quedar” to mean stay or remain:
  • Quedamos como amigos. (We remain friends.)
• “Quedar” for how something fits or looks:
  • ¡Ese color de cabello te queda precioso! (That hair color looks beautiful on you!)
• “Quedar” for transforming or turning:
  • Se quedaron dormidos de inmediato. (They fell asleep immediately.)
• “Quedar” for locations:
  • Puedes ir caminando, no queda tan lejos. (You can walk there, it’s not that far.)
• “Quedar” for results or how something turns out:
  • Esta torta me quedó deliciosa. (This cake turned out delicious.)
• “Quedar” for how someone seems or comes across:
  • Quedó como un imbécil después de insultar a la mesonera. (He looked like a jerk after insulting the waitress.

We bet this was a lot of information but, as always, trust the chunks, adapt them and use them confidently knowing they’ll be right because you’ve heard them like that before!

Maura, our teacher from Spring Spanish will talk about the super common verb: tomar Spanish conjugation.

We use this as much as English does but, since it’s irregular and it can be reflexive, like “tomarse”, it can be a little annoying to learn.

¡Que no cunda el pánico! (No to panic!) Chunks to the rescue. ¡Empecemos!

1. Tomar Spanish conjugation in the present tense

Tómame una foto, porfa.
(Take a picture of me, please.)

Vale.
(Ok.)

Pero así súper tonta, como que no me tomo en serio.
(But like super silly, like I don’t take myself seriously.)

Es que tú no te tomas nada en serio.
(You don’t take anything seriously.)

Algunas cosas sí. Pero en general sí pienso que hay que tomarse la vida a la ligera.
(Some things I do. But in general I do think one has to take life lightly.)

Before we jump into it, we just have to make sure you’ve downloaded our free Essential Spanish Chunking kit through that link in the description. You’ll find chunks natives use every single day!

Cheat Sheet with 54 essential Spanish Chunks you’ll hear and use yourself in ANY Spanish conversation (and example sentences). Taken from our YouTube Teacher’s most popular videos!

2 Bonus Cheat Sheets with Travel Chunks and Dating/Relationship Chunks

A Spanish Chunking Tutorial showing you the 1 technique that’ll help you make 100% of the Spanish from our videos roll off the tongue in just 5 minutes a day (you’re probably only using 50% of our lessons’ potential right now…)

Yes! Send me my FREE Spanish Chunking Kit

Ahora (now), let’s figure out that dialogue, shall we?

• Tómame una foto. (Take a picture of me.): tómame is reflexive. Victoria used the root toma because she was talking to a tú (you). The, she added me : tómame, because she wanted me to take a picture of her. Así funcionan los verbos reflexivos. (That’s how reflexive verbs work.) Their conjugation includes the person who you’re taking to and the person who’s affected by the verb. She could have also said: toma una foto. (take a picture.) The only problem is that toma, by itself, doesn’t specify what or who should be in the picture.
• No me tomo en serio. (I don’t take myself seriously.): if you want to say this about him or her, for example, you would change the reflexive pronoun me to se: Ella no se toma en serio, él no se toma en serio. (She does not take herself seriously, he does not take himself seriously.)
• No te tomas nada en serio. (You don’t take anything seriously.): this is the same but talking about tú (you), that’s why we use te tomas.
• Hay que tomarse la vida a la ligera. (One has to take life lightly.): do you want to know something funny? En Venezuela, decimos: Hay que tomarse la vida con soda. (In Venezuela, we say: You have to take life with soda.) Or, simply: Tómatelo con soda. (Take it with soda.) And it means the same thing.

Now, let’s look at a general table of conjugation for this quirky verb in the present tense.

¡Apréndete los chunks y úsalos con confianza! (Learn the chunks and use them with confidence!)

2. Very common chunks with “tomar”

One of the good things about “tomar” is that you can use it almost exactly as you use “to take” in English.

There is one big difference, though, which we’ll cover at the end.

¡Maura, apúrate que se nos hace trade!
(Maura, hurry up, we’re running late!)

Nos va tomar diez minutos llegar. Y si salimos mas tarde, yo pago el taxi, no te preocupes.
(It will take us 10 minutes to get there. And if we leave later, I’ll pay for the cab, don’t worry.)

¿Segura? Mira que te tomo la palabra.
(Are you sure? I’ll take your word for it.)

Que sí. Anda, tómate un break mientras yo termino.
(Yes. Go, take a break while I finish.)

In the previous examples we’ve already seen chunks like:

But, there’s many others.

Here are the chunks with “tomar” which we use the most:

• Nos va tomar diez minutos llegar. (It will take us 10 minutes to arrive.): Notice the reflexive pronoun nos which means I’m referring to “us”.
• Te tomo la palabra. (I’ll take your word for it.): almost exact same idiom, right? ¿No les encanta cuando esto pasa? (Don’t you love it when this happens?). Again we’re using te before tomo because I’m talking about tú (you).
• Tómate un break. (Take a break.): we could switch break for un descanso: tómate un descanso, but I wanted to use break so you’ll know this is one of those words many Latin Americans would borrow from English. La mayoría de la gente citadina lo entiende. (Most city people understand this.)

Outside the dialogue, we could also find:

• La tercera toma es la mejor. (The third take is the best.): Esto pasa en mi vida todo el tiempo. (This happens in my life all the time.) We also use this verb to talk about shots, or takes you make while shooting something.
• Quiero tomar clases de boxeo. (I want to take boxing classes.): with classes we do the same as English, we take them.
• Este fin de semana voy a tomar un baño largo y tendido. (This weekend I’m going to take a long, extended bath.)

3. When “tomar” is not “to take” in English

Toma.
(Here.)

Gracias, pero acuérdate que yo no tomo café.
(Thank you, but remember that I don’t drink coffee.)

Ay, verdad. Pero si tomas té, ¿no?
(Oh, right. But you do drink tea, don’t you?)

Sí, tomo té de cualquier tipo de hecho. Así que el que tengas está bien.
(Yes, I drink tea of any kind in fact. So whatever you have is fine.)

Here’s what’s up:

• Toma (Here (lit.: take this)): we used this in the first dialogue and we used it again here. You could certainly say “take this” to translate but, “here” might be a better fit. Nonetheless, every time you hand something to someone you can simply say: toma. Or, even: ten.

Now, let’s talk about the the big difference between both languages:

All of these examples represent the same use of tomar that does not translate as “to take” in English.

Basically, we use tomar in Latin America to mean “to drink”.

Spain does use this for everything you could have, whether food or drinks. Para mi, esto solo significa “beber”. (To me, this just means “drink”.)

We had a laugh researching this verb because we thought it was super simple.

Then Spanish did its thing.

As it turns out, this verb is not only irregular but very confusing since it looks exactly the same as an entirely different verb.

Spring Spanish teacher Maura will explain everything you need to know about saber Spanish conjugation!

1. Yo sé (I know, taste)

Yo también sepo dulce. ¿Será la crema corporal que me prestaste?
(I taste sweet too. Could it be the body cream you lent me?)

No sé, puede ser. Esa crema es de cacao después de todo. ¿Sabes? Según lo que sé, no se dice “sepo dulce”.
(I don’t know, maybe. That cream is cocoa after all. You know? As far as I know, it is not said “sepo”.)

¿No? ¿Es en serio? ¿Y entonces?
(No? Are you serious? What then?)

Se dice “yo sé dulce”. Igual que “yo sé que tú sabes” aunque sea otro significado.
(It is said “I taste sweet”. The same as “I know you know” although it has a different meaning.)

I have a confession to make: Yo siempre he dicho “yo sepo” cuando hablo de sabor (I have always said “yo sepo” when I’m talking about taste.) Apparently, it is a very common mistake, give me a break!

So, there. Ahora sabemos algo que la mayoría de los nativos no saben. De nada. (Now we know something that most natives don’t know. You are welcome.)

All natives would know, though, the chunks inside our Essential Spanish Chunking kit. Make sure to access the link in the description so you can download it for free!

Lo que pasa con “saber” es que (What happens with “saber” is that), it means two things: to know and to taste. The conjugation for both is exactly the same. So, you’ll know if it’s one or the other by logic and context. También (also), “saber” as “to know” is far more common.

Let’s check out more example for both uses:

Yo sé (I know) when it means “to know”.

• Yo sé hablar inglés. (I know how to speak English.): notice Spanish doesn’t need the “how” English does, to talk about what you know how to do. Yo sé nadar, sé pintar, sé coser. (I know how to swim, I know how to paint, I know how to sew.)
• Me sé esa canción. (I know that song.)
• No sé nada sobre astrología. (I know nothing about astrology.)

Do notice that the very common expression “I know” has two equally common modalities in Spanish: Yo sé y lo sé. You can choose the one you prefer or use both of them as you please.  

Yo sé (I taste) when it means “to taste”.

• Después de ir a la playa, yo sé salado. (After going to the beach I taste salty.)
• Con esta crema, yo sé dulce. (With this cream I taste sweet.)

Take into account that “to taste like something” is definitely a weird idea. Meaning, you won’t come across this or the need to use it almost never. Este “saber” es más común conjugado con otras personas, pero no con “yo”. (This “saber” is more common conjugated with other people, but not with “I”.)

2. Tú sabes (You know, taste)

¿Sabes si tenemos que hacer algo antes de meterlo al horno?
(Do you know if we have to do anything before putting it in the oven?)

Creo que solo hay que ponerle aceite de oliva.
(I think you only need to put olive oil in it.)

¡Sabes a gloria!
(You taste like glory!)

¿Estás hablando con la salsa?
(Are you talking to the sauce?)

Before I forget, stick around till the end where we’ll talk about how come the word “se” can have four different meanings in Spanish.

More examples with “tú sabes” (you know):

• ¿Sabes si tus amigos vendrán a la cena con sus parejas? (Do you know if your friends will come to the dinner with their partners?): this ¿sabes si…? (do you know if…?) is the chunk you should learn. Then you can add whatever you want afterwards.
• ¿Sabes? (Do you know?): by itself this little question works as the “you know” in English. It’s a filler word so, not a real question. Very common to say it before or after expressing a thought.
• ¡Si no sabes tú! (If you don’t know!)

For example, every time I asked my mom things like: ¡Mamá! ¿Dónde está mi delineador de ojos? (Mom! Where’s my eyeliner?) She would say: Si no sabes tú (If you don’t know). She might have known, but she was kind of teaching me to grow up and account for my own things.

More examples with “tú sabes” (you taste):

• Sabes a café (You taste like coffee): you can use something like this after you kiss someone.
• ¿Cómo sabes tan sabroso? (How do you taste so tasty?): I would playfully bite a baby and say this to them, for example.

Por supuesto (Of course) there’s a time and place where telling someone that “saben a algo” (they taste like something) might be sexual. Pero, ey (But, hey) you’ll only know how they taste if the situation is sexual already, so go ahead and use it as such.

Conjugating this “saber” (to taste) with “tú” (you) is far more common that conjugating this “saber” with “yo” (I). Aunque sigue sin ser la conjugación más común. (Though it’s still not the most common conjugation.) What I want you to see is that conjugating this verb is just as common for every person when it means “to know”. But when it means “to taste” that is not at all the case.

3. Él, Ella, Usted, Ello sabe (He, She, Formal You, It knows / tastes)

¡Sí! Es que esta salsa sabe buenísima. Quedó genial.
(Yes! It’s just that this sauce tastes so good. It turned out great.)

Mauricio sabe lo que hace con las salsas.
(Mauricio knows what he is doing with sauces.)

Realmente sabe cocinar en general.
(He really knows how to cook in general.)

Sí, pero mejor que no lo sepa que después se pone insoportable.
(Yes, but it’s better that he doesn’t know it, or he’ll become unbearable.)

More examples with “él, ella, usted, ello sabe” (he, she, formal you, it knows):

• ¿Quién sabe? (Who knows?): this also works just as in English. It’s mostly a way to say that nobody knows. Paulísima made a video you can check out here, where she discusses this and other alternatives to “no sé” (I don’t know).
• Pregúntale a tu hermana, ella seguro sabe. (Ask you sister, she surely knows.)
• Nadie sabe qué pasará en el futuro. (Nobody knows what will happen in the future.)

More examples with “él, ella, usted, ello sabe” (he, she, formal you, it tastes):

• El té verde sabe a tierra. (Green tea tastes like dirt.): I like it though.
• Esto no sabe a nada, ponle sal. (This doesn’t taste like anything, put salt in it.)
• Sabe cómo la comida de mi mamá. (It tastes like my mom’s food.)

Now, this is the common conjugation for “saber” when it means “to taste”, since you’re usually talking about food and food is an “ello” (it).

4. Nosotros, Nosotras sabemos (We know)

Vale, igual nosotras también sabemos cocinar muy bien.
(Okay, we also know how to cook very well.)

Es verdad. ¿Sabes de quién no hemos sabido nada?
(It’s true. Do you know who we haven’t heard from?)

¿De quién?
(From whom?)

De Victoria. ¿Será que sabe que sabemos que está molesta con Mauricio?
(From Victoria. Could it be that she knows that we know she is upset with Mauricio?)

Por cierto (By the way) Juan does have a video about “saber vs conocer”, which you should watch to not confuse this two very similar verbs.

With nosotros, nosotras (we) we’re not even gonna bother with “saber” when it means “to taste ”. Too unlikely and too useless. Let’s focus on more examples for “saber” when it means “to know”:

• No sabemos nada de Victoria (We have not heard from Victoria.): this one’s interesting because English wouldn’t use “to know” for this. Spanish does talk about people you have heard from or not with “saber”.
• Las mujeres sabemos de discriminación. (We women know about discrimination.)
• Nos llamaron para que sepamos que llegarán tarde. (They called us so we know they’ll be late.): “sepamos” is still the present tense but in the subjunctive. ¡Por si acaso! (Just in case!)

5. Ustedes, Ellos, Ellas saben (Plural you, They know)

Que nosotras sabemos, sí. Pero no creo que sepa que los demás saben también.
(That we know, yes. But I don’t think she knows that others know too.)

La verdad, ustedes supieron antes que yo. Yo solo me enteré por ti.
(To be honest (Lit.: The truth), you knew before I did. I only found out from you.)

¡No! Ahora quedo yo como la chismosa porque todos saben.
(No! Now I come up as the tattletale because everyone knows.)

Isn’t it a good thing that it’s the same conjugation for ustedes, ellos y ellas? (plural you, and they?) Eso pasa bastante, ¿sabes? (That happens a lot, you know?)

Let’s drill this into your head with more examples, shall we?

• Los latinos saben salir de fiesta. (Latinos know how to party.): not all. Well, yes, all.
• Ustedes saben que yo agradezco mucho que estén aquí. (You know how grateful I am that you are here.): I mean it.
• Ellos no saben que nosotras sabemos que ellos saben. (They don’t know that we know they know.): you can play with this verb in Spanish, just as you do in English.

6. Los diferentes tipos de “sé” (The different types of “sé”)

Before we go into that table, remember I said we’d talk about the word “sé”? Esta es la cosa (Here’s the thing), you could find more “sé” in Spanish y no quiero que te confundan (and I don’t want you to be confused by them.) Let’s cover them real quick. We’ll omit the one that means: “I taste like” because it’s too weird. So we have:

• Yo sé patinar. (I know how to skate.): this is the verb “to know” which we’ve been focusing on. Use the accent mark!
• Se llama Alicia.æ (Her name is Alicia.): this “se” doesn’t use an accent mark and it’s a type of pronoun in Spanish. Check out Paulísima’s video here if you want to understand this better.
• Por favor, sé amable. (Please, be kind.): now this “sé” is actually the verb “ser” (to be) and it also needs an accent mark.

Sé que el español puede volverse un poco loco cuando hace cosas como esta. (I know Spanish can get a little crazy when it does things like this.) Just remember to put the accent mark when it’s a verb. Trust that 90% on the time, it’ll be the verb “to know”.

Let’s jump into that table. What do I always say?: ¡Concéntrate en los chunks! (Focus on the chunks!). They’ll give you the right conjugation without you needing to memorize abstract rules!

7. Saber Spanish conjugation table

Whether or not you have seen Harry Potter is not so important at this time.

The important thing here is learning how to use the verb haber conjugation (to have) like a native!

Spring Spanish teacher Maura will cover the most common chunks we use the haber in the present tense.

1. Yo he (I have)

Entiendo. Yo he leído los libros un par de veces al menos.
(I understand. I have read the books a couple of times at least.)

¡Qué fanática! Yo creo que no he leído ningún libro más de una vez en mi vida.
(What a fanatic! I don’t think I’ve read any book more than once in my life.)

¿En serio? Yo lo he hecho con varios, no solo los de Harry Potter. Por ejemplo, Demian, de Hermann Hesse. Lo he leído como cuatro veces.
(Really? I’ve done it with several, not just the Harry Potter ones. For example, Demian by Hermann Hesse. I’ve read it about 4 times.)

¡Te pasas! Yo nunca lo he leído. Quizás debería.
(You overdo it! I’ve never read it. Maybe I should.)

Just as in English, it is very common to use haber (to have) to talk about how many times or if you’ve ever done something in your life. So we say:

We always want to use this chunk with you guys in the comments, but I’m always afraid it won’t get across.

If somebody does something very nice for you, you can say te pasas to mean something like: Te pasas de amable (You overdo it with kindness.) But you don’t have to say de amable (of kindness), it’s implied.

Or if somebody says something stupid you can use te pasas to mean: Te pasas de estúpido. (You overdo it with stupidity.) Realmente se adapta a la situación (It really does adapt to the situation.) Do use it with people you’re somewhat close to, though.

Also, do check that link in the description. En caso de que no lo hayas hecho aún. (In case you haven’t done so yet.) So you can get more chunks and resources to continue improving your Spanish with us.

Cheat Sheet with 54 essential Spanish Chunks you’ll hear and use yourself in ANY Spanish conversation (and example sentences). Taken from our YouTube Teacher’s most popular videos!

2 Bonus Cheat Sheets with Travel Chunks and Dating/Relationship Chunks

A Spanish Chunking Tutorial showing you the 1 technique that’ll help you make 100% of the Spanish from our videos roll off the tongue in just 5 minutes a day (you’re probably only using 50% of our lessons’ potential right now…)

Yes! Send me my FREE Spanish Chunking Kit

By the way, I’m going to sound super classroom teacher-y, but can you guys tell us the difference between these two: haber y a ver.

2. Tú has (You have)

Si, definitivamente deberías. Cambiando el tema, ¿has hablado con Alejandra últimamente? Porque yo la llamo y no me contests.
(Yes, you definitely should. Changing the subject, have you talked to Alejandra lately? Because I call her and she doesn’t answer.)

Esta semana no he hablado con ella. No has debido insistir suficiente. ¿Cuántas veces la has llamado? Porque ella revisa su teléfono muy poco.
(This week I haven’t spoken to her. You must not have insisted enough. How many times have you called her? Because she checks her phone very little.)

Hoy no la he llamado, pero ayer la llamé un par de veces al menos. Más bien he debido dejarle un mensaje.
(I didn’t call her today, but yesterday I called her a couple of times at least. Rather, I should have left her a message.)

Before we forget, we’re using sections to go over the conjugation for each person or pronoun.

But, know that at the end we’ll put them all together in a little table. ¡No para que la memorices! (Not so you memorize it!)

But so you can see them all together and notice how much or how little they change.

Back to our dialogue another very typical thing to do with haber, is talking about things you’ve done in a time period that is still going on, like this week or today.

Other examples could be:

We also use the chunk has debido (you should have) to talk about things you, or anyone for that matter, should’ve done or must have not done properly.

For instance:

3. Ella / Él /Eso/ Usted ha (She / He / It/ Formal You has)

Probablemente. Lo que yo sé, es que ella ha estado sintiéndose un poco rara en el trabajo. Yo creo que quiere renunciar.
(Probably. As far as I know, she’s been feeling a little weird at work. I think she wants to quit.)

Sí, me acuerdo que la última vez que hablamos me dijo que el jefe ha estado presionándola muchísimo sin motivo aparente.
(Yes, I remember the last time we spoke she told me that the boss has been pressuring her a lot for no apparent reason.)

Exacto. Y eso, más que el clima ha estado súper frío de repente y ella siempre se enferma cuando eso pasa… es más que suficiente para que se pierda.
(Exactly. And that, plus the weather has been super cold all of a sudden and she always gets sick when that happens… it’s more than enough for her to be missing.)

Es verdad, este ha sido un otoño particularmente frío.
(It’s true, this has been a particularly cold fall.)

Sí, ha sido el más frío que yo he vivido en Madrid.
(Yes, it has been the coldest I have ever lived in Madrid.)

Just in case, none of this is true. Madrid is not a cold city at all.

This ha estado (has been) can help you talk about things that have been going on continuously.

For example, in my life, lately:

Now, why don’t you try telling me in the comments what has been happening to you lately!

Also, you can use haber to talk about things that are the most anything ever. Like in the dialogue when Victoria says:

• Ha sido el (otoño) más frío que yo he vivido en Madrid. (It has been the coldest (fall) that I have lived in Madrid.)

More examples could be:

4. Nosotros/ Nosotras hemos (We have)

Por cierto, ¡no hemos hablado de tu cita de ayer!
(By the way, we haven’t talked about your date from yesterday!)

No, porque no hemos parado de hablar de Ale.
(No, because we haven’t stopped talking about Ale.)

Bueno, pero también hemos hablado de libros un ratico. ¡Cuéntame cómo te fue, entonces!
(Well, but we’ve also talked about books for a while. Tell me how it went, then!)

Another typical thing to happen, is using haber (to have) to talk about things we, or anyone, haven’t done just yet but still have the intention to do so.

Or reaffirm things we’ve recently done.

Por ejemplo (for example):

5. Ustedes / Ellas / Ellos han (Plural you / They have)

Bueno, hasta ahora no nos han tocado citas malas. Siempre nos va bien y todo fluye.
(Well, so far we haven’t gotten any bad dates. We always do well and everything flows.)

O sea que han tenido suerte. ¡Me alegro!
(So you’ve been lucky. I’m glad!)

Sí, nos han impresionado constantemente cuántas cosas tenemos en común.
(Yes, we have been constantly impressed by how many things we have in common.)

¡Qué ilusión! Y¿han comentado algo sobre ser pareja o siguen manteniéndolo casual?
(What a thrill! And have you commented anything on being a couple or are you still keeping it casual?)

For ustedes (plural you) and ellas y ellos (they), the conjugation is the same: han (have). Remember ellas y ellos (they) can also refer to things.

So we can say:

6. The table for haber conjugation

Let’s review of all of this so far by putting all the conjugations together in a little table.

Focus on the chunks, repeat them out loud, write them down, use them as soon as possible.

That way you’ll give your brain more to hold onto so you can retrieve this information when needed.

Spring Spanish teacher Paulísima will tell you about some of the best and most useful podcasts you can start using right now… para mejorar tu español (to improve your Spanish).

And the first one is…

1. Spanish and Go with May and Jim

Showcasing primarily Mexican accent with interviews from many different Spanish-speaking countries, Spanish and Go with Jim and May teaches Spanish through natural conversations about language, culture, and travel between a native Spanish-speaker and a Spanish student.

Jim and May are a gringo/Mexican international couple on a mission to connect English speakers to the Spanish-speaking world. I met them recently, on Day of the Dead in 2022, at a language creator meetup. I found out that Jim and May are not only great teachers and content creators, but they’re also adorable people .

Before we continue, make sure to download the Free Essential Spanish Chunking kit with tons of useful Spanish chunks.

Cheat Sheet with 54 essential Spanish Chunks you’ll hear and use yourself in ANY Spanish conversation (and example sentences). Taken from our YouTube Teacher’s most popular videos!

2 Bonus Cheat Sheets with Travel Chunks and Dating/Relationship Chunks

A Spanish Chunking Tutorial showing you the 1 technique that’ll help you make 100% of the Spanish from our videos roll off the tongue in just 5 minutes a day (you’re probably only using 50% of our lessons’ potential right now…)

Yes! Send me my FREE Spanish Chunking Kit

Jim and May co-host the weekly Spanish education podcast, Learn Spanish and Go, share travel and language tips on their blog, and host Spanish Immersion Retreats in Mexico.

Each episode has bonus materials available in their Podcast Membership. With interactive transcripts, such as a detailed English section covering the most important words and phrases in each episode.)

Important note:

May speaks Spanish super clear, with a neutral accent and at a perfect speed even for beginner students. I love her voice!) If we all speak like her, everyone would have an easier time learning Spanish!

2. How To Spanish Podcast

Ana and David the hosts of How To Spanish Podcast, they have created over 200 episodes where they discuss culture, language, and all kind of interesting topics. Their Spanish is Mexican and the topics they covered are incredibly diverse!

We also had the opportunity to meet Ana and David, they’re so cool! We love their podcast because they cover varied subjects.

They cover grammar, history, culture, interesting facts, etc. I really like the interviews with Ana’s parents, where they talk about their life experiences,

Listening to intergenerational conversations in Spanish is amazing listening practice that you don’t often get. Ana and David’s content is phenomenal, we love it.

How To Spanish Podcast is everywhere, you can find them with that name on Spotify, Apple Podcast and other podcasts platforms, Youtube, Twitch, Discord…

Important note: Their website is super easy to navigate.  

3. Coffee Break Spanish

Coffee Break Spanish is a fun bilingual Spanish-English podcast.

This podcast is structured like a classic language course and is divided into 4 sections:

• Sección uno para principiantes (Section 1 for beginners)
• Sección dos para el nivel intermedio bajo (Section 2 for lower intermediate level)
• Sección tres para el nivel intermedio superior (Section 3 for intermediate superior)
• Sección cuatro para usuarios avanzados (Section 4 for advanced users)

With Coffee Break Spanish you can start as a beginner and progress to an advanced level. You hear language teacher Mark and his student talking about interesting and diverse topics in each episode.

In addition to the free podcasts, there is also a paid online course with audio and video lessons and associated transcripts.

4. Duolingo

The Duolingo language learning app is very popular and a first stop for people who want to start learning Spanish.

So it makes sense that Duolingo also offers a podcast.

The Spanish Duolingo podcast is bilingual (English and Spanish), so it’s easy for beginners to start.

You would probably expect a podcast that (like the app) is a kind of language course.

The Duolingo Spanish podcast is much more than that, it tells fascinating stories in easy-to-understand Spanish.

5. SpanishPod101

With 1800 episodes, this is one of the most extensive Spanish podcasts out there.

What’s great about SpanishPod101, is that you are learning from a range of native speakers from different parts of the Spanish-speaking world: for example, Peru, Costa Rica and Mexico.

That way, you can get a better feel for how they speak the language in those different regions.

You’d be surprised how many new words (or chunks) you’d come across if you hear someone from Costa Rica speak Spanish!

SpanishPod101 has high-quality audio lessons with different hosts for beginners all the way up to advanced Spanish learners.

6. Spring Spanish

A podcast with lessons designed around the concept of Conversation Based Chunking!

I’m a teacher here, so of course I’m biased. Regardless, if you want to learn Spanish through fun dialogues, lessons, and role-plays, this is an excellent resource. There are tons of lessons on a variety of topics, including travel Spanish, grammar, Latin culture, and much more.

Each episode is based upon a real Spanish lesson in this Youtube channel. We made it into this format so it’s easier to consume on the go, which is of course more difficult with video.

Transcripts and flashcards with the most important chunks are available as part of a membership. There’s a free trial available too.

You should totally try it out!

7. Radio Ambulante

Radio Ambulante is an award-winning podcast in spanish that uses long-form audio journalism. It is a pioneer podcast in Spanish that features Latin American audio chronicles.

They offer different topics such as news, talk, music, entertainment programs and a lot more.

The level is pretty high, and the podcast is not necessarily aimed at language learners. If you’re at a high intermediate level, this is an excellent resource to expand your vocabulary!

A transcript is included with every episode.)

Can you think of which one? Embarazada (Pregnant).

The result: “It won’t leak in your pocket and impregnate you”.

This is so funny and it happens all the time when people with little knowledge of Spanish try to translate it, and end up with translation failures in Spanish.

Spring Spanish teacher Maura will explain some of the hilarious translation failures in Spanish and what they should’ve done so this never happens to you!

1. Chevy Nova

General Motors introduced the Chevy Nova in South America without paying any attention to Spanish whatsoever. ¿Cuál es el problema? (What’s the problem?) you ask.

Déjame preguntarte a ti, ¿qué significa “no va” en español? (Let me ask you, what does “no va” mean in Spanish?)

• No: this is obviously a negation.
• Va: this comes from the verb ir (to go).

Put them together and you get: “no va” which translates to “won’t go”. Considering that the product is a car, is there a worse thing to say about it than “it won’t go”?

In Spanish, we use “no va” in 2 ways:

To talk about machines that don’t work, so you get:

To literally say someone won’t go somewhere or won’t do something:

2. Starbucks

I’m sure that if you’re learning Spanish, you’ve heard the expression “false friends”.In case you haven’t, here you have a perfect example.

On this “Exit Only” sign at a Starbucks you can read “exit” being translated as éxito (success).

Both words, “exit” and “éxito”, look very similar, so that should be correct, right? No.

The result reads: Éxito aquí (Success here) which might not be a bad thing to say, but in no way it conveys what it should have:

• Salida aquí (Exit here).

And, we would go a step further and say that a better translation would include a proposition:

• Salida por aquí (Exit through here). Conviene tener esto en cuenta. (It is convenient to keep this in mind.) Many, many times, Spanish needs a preposition when English doesn’t and vice-versa.

3. Laguardia Airport

We’re saving the most hilarious and slightly offensive one for last, so you better stick around for it.

The La Guardia Airport team just seems to have given up mid way.

They had to translate: Pet relief area.

The result

: Area de mascotas relief.

Tipo (Like), were they even trying? How would you have translated this?

They actually stopped at the tricky word, which immediately tells me that whomever did this, either does not speak Spanish, or doesn’t speak fluent English.

Though the latter seems less likely.

Usually, “relief” would be translated as: alivio (relief).

Now, if you use “alivio” in Spanish here, there’s no way we would know that means a bathroom. We could even mistake that for “a place where they can walk and play”.

Anyways, the right translation wasn’t literal.

They should’ve said something like:

4. Pool sign

I absolutely love this one.

It is one of those typical signs that you see by the pools of certain places.

Everything, absolutely everything, is wrongly translated.

So much so that the result does not mean anything in Spanish.

Originally in English they had: Please turn off showers when you are done.

The result: Por favor vuelta lejos chaparrones cuando usted es hecho.

This is a perfect example of poorly translating word for word. Let’s break this down, shall we?

• Please: por favor. They nailed this one. I’ll give them that.
• Turn off: apagar. They translated it as “vuelta”. Only “turn” by itself, without the “off”, could sometimes be translated as vuelta (turn). Por ejemplo (For example):
  • Turn here: da vuelta aquí.
• Showers: duchas. Only in a very explicit weather related sentence you would translate “showers” as “chaparrones” as they did. Like:
  • Heavy showers are expected to hit the northern hemisphere this spring: Esta primavera se prevén fuertes chaparrones en el hemisferio norte.
• When you: cuando usted. Fair enough. And lastly:
• Are done: termine. See why literal translations are dangerous? They translated “are done” as “esté hecho”.

The actual result should’ve been: Por favor apague las duchas cuando usted termine. (Please turn off showers when you are done.)

Very, very far away from the gibberish they produced.

5. Got milk?

Remember this very famous tagline? I always thought translating this would be horrible.) I was right.

The literal translation of “got milk?” would be something like: ¿Tienes leche?

This either doesn’t make sense in Spanish without the context or means something very off like: “Are you lactating?”. And, in my very Venezuelan Spanish, it could even mean “¿tuviste suerte?” (were you lucky?) but in a very vulgar way.

Apparently, they caught it early enough and shifted the messaging in Spanish to something like: “Familia, amor y leche” (Family, love, and milk)

Lesson: Sometimes translations don’t work and you have to come up with an entirely new idea in the other language.

6. Tag washing instructions

If the company that made the clothes doesn’t care enough to properly instruct you how to wash it, we don’t think it really matters.

This is what these instructions found online said in English: “Hand wash, do not bleach do not tumble cool iron”. Without enough commas or anything.

Here’s their very wrong Spanish translation: Mano se lava, no blaquear no caiga, hierro chulo.

This is very similar to the pool sign example.

It feels as if they went word for word with the translation. They didn’t miss out on making some comical mistakes, though.

Let’s break it down:

• Hand wash: lavar a mano would be the right translation. They used: mano se lava, which barely means anything. This is a good example of Spanish needing a preposition when English does not.

What they said literally translated “hand” for “mano” and “wash” for “se lava”.

The correct translation also required to switch the word order which, again, ocurre mucho entre estos dos idiomas. (happens a lot between these 2 languages.)

• Do not bleach: no blanquear. This is fine. I might have said: no usar lejía. But, it’s fine.
• Do not tumble: no usar secadora. They said: no caiga (don’t fall), which is almost a good advice for people but it is a stupid thing to say about clothes. “Tumble” can be translated as “caer”, but only if it makes sense. As in:
  • You could tumble, be careful: podrías caerte, ten cuidado.
• Cool iron: planchar en frío would be the right translation. This one is hilarious because it feels like they actually tried to use Spanish from Spain and ended up with: hierro chulo.

“Iron” means two things in Spanish: hierro y planchar. It’s obvious which one makes more sense here

“Cool” can also mean two things: frío and chulo, if you’re from Spain, or “chévere” if you’re Venezuelan like me.

The right result should read:

• Lavar a mano, no blanquear, no usar secadora, planchar en frío. (Hand wash, do not bleach do not tumble cool iron.)

7. One of the most hilarious translation failures in Spanish: Mazda

We saved the best for last so I would have time to prepare. This one gets us every time.

Mazda has a minivan called “Laputa”. That’s it.

If you know a little Spanish, we shouldn’t need to say anything else. But I will. In the name of learning and on YouTube.

“La” is a feminine article in Spanish. “Puta” means prostitute, if you’re being scholastic.

The exact translation is more, let’s say, violent.

Mazda couldn’t care less and described the “Laputa” minivan as something than can be translated as:

We have designed Laputa to deliver maximum utility in a minimum space while providing a smooth and comfortable ride.

We don’t know how this works but they really should have changed the name in the Spanish-speaking countries.