Episodios 37-38
 

These were generally quite good, especially for the first entry.  Remember that the more you write, the more feedback you'll get.  I'd like everyone to focus particularly on the past-tense questions.  Verb aspect is extremely tied to context, so it really takes at least a paragraph to see how you're doing with preterite and imperfect, etc.

There were a few "problems" that were pretty common, and I'll mention those here.
 

Objects and object pronouns:

This problem was almost universal in everyone's entry, and in fact it's SUPPOSED to be hard at this point.

Almost all of you mentioned either the fact that Arturo gave Raquel a photo, or the idea that Carlos should tell the truth to his family.  What makes these sentences "special," from a grammatical point of view, is that each of them has 3 entities (represented by nouns) that are somehow involved with the action.

In the first situation, for example, you have a person (Arturo) who does the giving.  This is the subject; it answers the question "Who (or what) verbed?" You then have a thing (the photo) that gets given.  This is the direct object; it answers the question "Who (or what) got verbed?"  Finally, you have a person (Raquel) who was somehow affected by the giving of the photo.  This is the indirect object.  Often the indirect object is the recipient of the direct object (Raquel is the recipient of the photo), but other times the indirect object is someone who benefits or suffers from the action, even though it's not done specifically to them.  The indirect object answers the question, "Who else was affected by the verbing of the direct object?"

The trick is that, since we all remember (from our "gustar" lessons) that the order of these nouns  in the sentence doesn't tell us anything about their grammatical role.  They have to be marked in some other way.  You remember that you need an "a personal" whenever you have a person in the sentence who is not the subject.  What you may not remember (or may not ever really have known) is that anytime you have an indirect object, you must have an indirect object pronoun.  (Indirect object pronouns are me, te, le, les, nos).  This is true even if it's redundant.  The pronoun is a clue to the listener/reader that there are three entities involved with the action, instead of the usual two.  (Again, in English the word order takes care of that.)

Knowing that, how would you say, "Arturo gave Raquel a photo?"  (Answer at the bottom of the page)

In the case of "Carlos should tell his family the truth," can you identify subject, direct object, and indirect object?  How would you construct that sentence in Spanish?    (Answer at the bottom of the page)

Many of you are at the point where you could benefit from the pronoun review page.  It doesn't have any new information, but it's a summary of old information that you've never seen together in one place.
 
 

Vocabulary items

1)  A few of you were over-using the verb decir.  It means to say or to tell (a fact).  To tell a story (tell about) is contar (ue).  Just to talk about something is hablar.  So if you were describing the scene where Mercedes tells Arturo about Mexican history, you could say,
 

Mercedes le cuenta la historia mexicana a Arturo
Mercedes le habla a Arturo de la historia mexicana / Mercedes habla con Arturo de la historia mexicana.

The only way you would use decir in this context would be something like:

Mercedes le dice que la historia mexicana es interesante.  (She tells him a specific fact, tells him that...  [As opposed to contar-- tell about.]
 

2)  Another fairly common problem was with the kissing scene.  In this case, Arturo and Raquel kissed each other.  In English, if you say two people "kissed," everyone guesses that you mean each other.  In Spanish, you have to make that explicit.

Raquel y Arturo se besaron en el jardín.  Carlitos vio que se besaban.

3)  Family names do not inflect (change for gender or number), so it's "la familia Castillo."  Arturo les cayó bien a los Castillo.  (If you were talking only about the female members of the family, you'd say "Las Castillo."
 
 

---

Answers to object pronoun examples:

Arturo le dio a Raquel una foto.  (It's also possible to say "A Raquel le dio una foto Arturo, A Raquel Arturo le dio una foto, Arturo le dio una foto a Raquel," etc. )

Carlos is the subject (the one who should tell).  The truth is the direct object (What should get told).  His family is the indirect object (Who receives the truth, who is affected by the telling)

Carlos debe decirle la verdad a su familia.
 
 
 

Episodios 41-42

The one most common problem with this entry was in the answer to the question about why don Fernando needs to go to Guadalajara.  Many people suggested that this trip would somehow have the power to cure the specialist of blindness.  You might have said:

*Don Fernando necesita ir a Guadalajara para que vea un especialista.

Remember, though, that word order in Spanish is more flexible than in English.
...para que vea un especialista is identical in meaning to para que un especialista vea.

So how do you make it clear that don Fernando is the one doing the seeing and the specialist is being seen?  You have to show that "especialista" is NOT THE SUBJECT of the verb "vea."  That's the job of "a personal."  Remember that, as we discussed when talking about "gustar," English is a subject-verb-object language. The order of the words tells us which one is the noun and which is the object. Word order in Spanish doesn't relate to grammatical role.

Episodios 43-44

Most of the bluebooks are beginning to look very good. The vast majority of you have very nearly mastered comparisons, even complex ones, and those of you who write enough to show it seem to be getting a good handle on preterite and imperfect. There were a few general problems to mention, though.

Travelling and vacations: This vocabulary was difficult for almost everyone. A few clarifications:

1) Vacaciones-- siempre plural. (The word "vacación" exists, but it's used almost exclusively as a technical term for job vacancy.)
2) To go on vacation-- Ir de vacaciones  (To go on a trip-- ir de viaje)
3) To take a vacation/a trip-- hacer unas vacaciones/ un viaje (To take a romantic vacation-- hacer unas vacaciones románticas)

Leaving: A handful of you are still (or again) getting confused about leaving a person or object behind vs. leaving from a place.  Here's a reminder.

Pronombres: Some of you are at the perfect point to master these-- you've realized that you need them, but none of your books have them organized so you can look them up.  If you have lots of little marks around "a él" or you're not sure what to put after "con" when you mean "with him," see if this pronoun review helps. It's very basic, but if you feel that you're starting to know when you need a pronoun, it may be enough to help you figure out which one to use.

AT -- The Spanish "a" means "to."  If you want to say someone's at school, at Pedro's house, etc, that's "en la casa de Pedro." (The confusion stems from one exception: "a las tres" for "at three o'clock.")