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Today we’ll learn a bunch of new Spanish adjectives, including the words for “wonderful”, “excellent”, and “fun”.
Hagamos algo divertido.
Intro: Join us on a rigorous, step-by-step journey to fluency. I’m Timothy and this is LearnCraft Spanish.
Today we’re going to learn a few new adjectives. We’ll start with a few positive adjectives, the words for “fun”, “excellent”, and “wonderful”. The word for “fun” is divertido. It’s related to the antiquated use of the word “diversion” or “diverting” in English to refer to something fun. Divertido. Here are a couple of examples:
Let’s do something fun.
Hagamos algo divertido.
This song is very fun.
Esta canción es muy divertida.
Next, the word for “excellent” is excelente, spelled e-x-c-e-l-e-n-t-e. Excelente. For example:
Yesterday his work was excellent.
Ayer su trabajo fue excelente.
And the word for “wonderful” or “marvelous” is maravilloso. This is a long word, but think of it as being related to the word “marvel”, with a stress on “yoso”. Maravilloso. For example:
The room was small, but the view was wonderful.
El cuarto era pequeño, pero la vista era maravillosa.
Note that these adjectives are often used in this sentence template that we’ve been practicing to express an opinion about something, using a subjunctive:
How wonderful that they’re staying!
¡Qué maravilloso que se queden!
Let’s practice divertido, excelente, and maravilloso.
She is wonderful.
Ella es maravillosa.
If she pays me, it will be excellent.
Si me paga, será excelente.
How wonderful that you’re here!
¡Qué maravilloso que estés aquí!
How fun that we’re going to the party!
¡Qué divertido que vayamos a la fiesta!
Those movies were excellent and so fun!
¡Esas películas fueron excelentes y tan divertidas!
Now for a few adjectives that can be used in a very similar way, but that are more neutral rather than positive. The word for “interesting” is interesante. For example:
How interesting that they don’t have that!
¡Qué interesante que no tengan eso!
Our next word is raro, which can mean “rare”, but it’s more often translated as “weird”. For example:
It was a very weird dog.
Era un perro muy raro.
When raro means “weird”, it’s basically a synonym for extraño, which we tend to translate as “strange”.
Next, the word for “impossible” is imposible. For example:
Doing that would be impossible.
Hacer eso sería imposible.
Let’s practice interesante, raro, and imposible.
If you win, it’s impossible to be sad.
Si ganas, es imposible estar triste.
How weird that she didn’t come to the party!
¡Qué raro que no viniera a la fiesta!
How interesting that you don’t have to pay!
¡Qué interesante que no tengas que pagar!
I think your job is interesting.
Creo que tu trabajo es interesante.
Do you think it’s impossible to get something weird for the project?
¿Crees que es imposible conseguir algo raro para el proyecto?
Next let’s learn a couple of negative adjectives. The word for “terrible” is terrible, spelled just like the English word. And the word for “stupid” is estúpido, spelled e-s-t-u-p-i-d-o, with an accent on the U. Estúpido. For example:
The event was stupid and the music terrible.
El evento fue estúpido y la música terrible.
Our last adjective is the word for “welcome”, which is bienvenido. This is basically the word bien, which means “well”, and the word venido, which is the participle of Venir or “to come”. So it’s interesting that it’s literally just like the English word “welcome”. Bienvenido.
This word tends to be associated with Ser. So for example:
Dogs are welcome here.
Los perros son bienvenidos aquí.
And just like in English, you can use this word by itself to welcome someone to a place. Just make sure to modify the ending to agree with the number and gender of the person or people being welcomed. For example, if you’re welcoming a feminine friend:
Welcome!
¡Bienvenida!
Here’s an example where we’re welcoming a group of people:
Welcome to my house!
¡Bienvenidos a mi casa!
An important note about this word: You won’t use bienvenido to tell someone “you’re welcome” when they thank you for something. The most common phrase to use in those situations is de nada, and bienvenido is never used in that context; it’s only used to welcome someone to a place.
Let’s practice terrible, estúpido, and bienvenido.
This is a terrible place.
Este es un lugar terrible.
He is welcome, but they(f) aren’t welcome.
Él es bienvenido, pero ellas no son bienvenidas.
He hasn’t gotten what he wants because he’s stupid.
No ha conseguido lo que quiere porque es estúpido.
The owner(f) is a terrible person.
La dueña es una persona terrible.
You’d have earned more money if your job weren’t stupid.
Habrías ganado más dinero si tu trabajo no fuera estúpido.
To wrap up this episode, let’s talk about contractions. Remember that Spanish often uses contractions where an infinitive or an imperative will get a pronoun at the end. For example:
They do it before saying it.
Lo hacen antes de decirlo.
Now compare that to the next sentence:
They do it before telling me.
Lo hacen antes de decirme.
So in Spanish, the only difference between these sentences is decirlo versus decirme. In the first case, we’re emphasizing what they’re saying, and in the second case we emphasize who they’re saying it to.
But what if we want to mention both? How would you translate this sentence?
They do it before telling me it.
To do this, we need a contraction that uses both the recipient AND the thing they’re saying. In other words, we need a contraction that uses both the direct and the indirect object. Here’s the Spanish:
Lo hacen antes de decírmelo.
So that’s quite a word there, decírmelo. We’ve taken the infinitive, decir, and added both the indirect object me and the direct object lo at the end. Here’s another example:
I did it without telling you it.
Lo hice sin decírtelo.
So there are some specific rules about doing this. First of all, when you create contractions with two objects, you have to put the indirect object before the direct object. It’s just like the rule we learned for using direct and indirect objects together, which we learned back in Episode 63. So let’s use another example. Consider this sentence.
They told us it yesterday.
Nos lo dijeron ayer.
So in this one, we have nos lo before dijeron. Now let’s do something very similar, but with a contraction.
They forgot it after telling us it.
Lo olvidaron después de decírnoslo.
And then one more rule: When you use an indirect object and a direct object that both start with L, the indirect object needs to turn into se. So instead of les lo or le la, we would use se lo and se la. This is once again in line with what we learned back in Episode 63. Here are a couple of examples:
I have to give it to them.
Tengo que dárselo.
Yes, after telling it to my mom.
Sí, después de decírselo a mi mamá.
Here are some examples that use the imperative di, which means “say”.
What is it? Tell me it!
¿Qué es? ¡Dímelo!
Tell him it or I’ll do it.
Díselo o yo lo haré.
And here are some examples that use the imperative da, meaning “give”.
Give me it please.
Dámelo por favor.
It’s her book; give it to her.
Es su libro; dáselo.
Let’s get some quizzing practice with this.
Give it to me! I have to go to the airport now.
¡Dámelo! Tengo que ir al aeropuerto ahora.
Go ahead! Tell him it!
¡Dale! ¡Díselo!
You can tell it to him on the bus.
Puedes decírselo en el autobús.
Give me it(f) or I’ll get a lawyer.
Dámela o conseguiré un abogado.
My coworker is going to tell it to you later.
Mi compañero va a decírtelo luego.
You can tell me it, so tell me it!
Puedes decírmelo, así que ¡dímelo!
For more practice with any of this, feel free to dig deeper at LCSPodcast.com/228. Or if you’re ready, let’s go on to today’s final quiz.
He gets what he wants using this.
Consigue lo que quiere usando esto.
I always pay a detective because I’m not stupid(f).
Siempre le pago a un detective porque no soy estúpida.
The sergeant is really fun and interesting and that’s weird for a sergeant.
El sargento es muy divertido e interesante y eso es raro para un sargento.
Get a taxi and pay for it!
¡Consigue un taxi y págalo!
Give it(f) to me! It’s wonderful.
¡Dámela! Es maravillosa.
The plane doesn’t work, so there isn’t a flight today.
El avión no funciona, así que no hay un vuelo hoy.
The captain wants to win the race.
El capitán quiere ganar la carrera.
This one(m) is the one I use and my cousin wants it; give it to him!
Este es el que uso y mi primo lo quiere, ¡dáselo!
I got the impossible and I had to tell it to you.
Conseguí lo imposible y tenía que decírtelo.
The car doesn’t work, tell it to him.
El carro no funciona, díselo.
Use this one(f) instead of that one(f), that one(f) is terrible.
Usa esta en vez de esa, esa es terrible.
There wasn’t any traffic and it was wonderful.
No había tráfico y fue maravilloso.
They use you and that’s terrible.
Te usan y eso es terrible.
Welcome! This vacation is going to be fun.
¡Bienvenido! Estas vacaciones van a ser divertidas.
I thought it was impossible, this is excellent!
Creí que era imposible, ¡esto es excelente!
(Formal) If you know what happened, tell me it, please.
Si sabe qué pasó, dígamelo, por favor.
My role is to know it all, so you have to tell it to me.
Mi papel es saberlo todo, así que tienes que decírmelo.
If she wins, tell me it.
Si ella gana, dímelo.
He won something weird.
Ganó algo raro.
Give it to me! It seems interesting.
¡Dámelo! Parece interesante.
Your plan isn’t going to work, you have to tell us it.
Tu plan no va a funcionar, tienes que decírnoslo.
The soldier isn’t stupid, so you have to give it to him.
El soldado no es estúpido, así que tienes que dárselo.
I always get what I want without telling it to her.
Siempre consigo lo que quiero sin decírselo.
She never uses that thing.
Nunca usa esa cosa.
Welcome(f)! Where did you get that?
¡Bienvenida! ¿Dónde conseguiste eso?
I haven’t used this in a while, I have to use it.
No he usado esto en un tiempo, tengo que usarlo.
This food is excellent.
Esta comida es excelente.
For more practice with all of this, go to LCSPodcast.com/228.
In tomorrow’s episode, we’ll learn a bunch of fun nouns we can use for places that people build, including the words for “bridge”, “sidewalk”, and “address”.
This show is brought to you by LearnCraftSpanish.com. The Spanish voice in this episode was our coach Ximena Lama-Rondón. Our music was performed by the Seattle Marimba Quartet, and I’m Timothy, encouraging you to do the hard work of learning Spanish. Acquiring a second language is one of the most fulfilling things you can do, so start your fluency journey today at LCSPodcast.com.
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