Spanish by Choice/SpanishPod newbie lesson A0004/Print version

A0004: She's not Mexican

Introduction

Talking about others can be a lot of fun. To get started, JP and Liliana show us how to talk about the nationality of someone. Keywords are ¿Cómo se llama? – What's his/her name?, mexicana – Mexican (woman/girl), and guatemalteca – Guatemalan (woman/girl).

• related SpanishPod lessons: A0008: How do you say ...?, A0082: My name is..., A0102: Where is the restroom?
• discussion: visit the readers' forum for this lesson to discuss it or to ask questions about it
• source: SpanishPod, the original MP3 lesson content of this lesson is licensed by PraxisLanguage Ltd. under a Creative Commons 3.0 Unported license.

Dialogue

hombre:	¿Cómo se llama tu amiga mexicana?
mujer:	Se llama Tatiana. Pero no es mexicana. Es guatemalteca.
hombre:	¿De verdad? ¿De qué parte de Guatemala?
mujer:	De Antigua.

Dialogue with Translation

hombre:	¿Cómo	se	llama	tu	amiga	mexicana?
	how	herself	(she) calls	your	friend	Mexican
man:	How does your Mexican friend call herself?

mujer:	Se	llama	Tatiana.	Pero	no	es	mexicana.	Es	guatemalteca.
	herself	(she) calls	Tatiana	but	not	(she) is	Mexican	(she) is	Guatemalan
woman:	She calls herself Tatiana. But she is not Mexcian. She is Guatemalan.

hombre:	¿De verdad?	¿De	qué	parte	de	Guatemala?
	really	from	what	part	of	Guatemala
man:	Really? From what part of Guatemala?

mujer:	De	Antigua.
	from	Antigua
woman:	From Antigua.

Antigua, Guatemala

Vocabulary for Dialogue

el hombre	noun (masculine)	the man
la mujer	noun (feminine)	the woman
¿cómo?	adverb	how?
se	reflexive pronoun	himself/herself/itself
llamarse	verb (infinitive)	to call oneself, to be called
(élla) se llama	verb (present tense)	she calls herself, she is called, her name is
tu	possessive adjective	your (informal, singular)
la amiga	noun (feminine)	the friend
el amigo	noun (masculine)	the friend
mexicano/mexicana	adjective (m./f.)	Mexican
Tatiana	noun (feminine)	Tatiana
pero	conjunction	but
no	adverb	not
ser	verb (infinitive)	to be
(él/ella) es	verb (present tense)	he/she(/it) is
guatemalteco/guatemalteca	adjective (m./f.)	Guatemalan
de verdad	phrase	really
de	preposition	from, of
¿qué?	interrogative pronoun	what?, which?
la parte	noun (feminine)	the part
Guatemala	noun (feminine)	Guatemala
Antigua	noun (feminine)	Antigua

Vocabulary for Audio Lesson

(tú) te llamas	verb (present tense)	you call yourself, your name is (informal, singular)
¿Cómo te llamas?	phrase	How do you call yourself? What is your name?
Volcán de Agua	noun (masculine)	Volcán de Agua (Volcano of Water)
panameño/panameña	adjective (m./f.)	Panamanian
colombiano/colombiana	adjective (m./f.)	Colombian
brasileño/brasileña	adjective (m./f.)	Brazilian
americano/americana	adjective (m./f.)	American
estadounidense	adjective (m./f.)	(US) American

 

More Vocabulary

This section includes grammatically related words. Some of them are required by the exercise Dialogue Recast.

me	reflexive pronoun	myself
te		yourself (informal, singular)
se		himself/herself(/itself)
se		yourself (formal, singular)
nos		ourselves, each other
os		yourselves, each other (informal, plural)
se		themselves, each other
se		yourselves, each other (formal, plural)
llamarse	verb (infinitive)	to call oneself, to be called
(yo) me llamo	verb (present tense)	I call myself
(tú) te llamas		you call yourself (informal, singular)
(él/ella) se llama		he/she(/it) calls himself/herself(/itself)
(usted) se llama		you call yourself (formal, singular)
(nosotros/-as) nos llamamos		we call ourselves (m./f.)
(vosotros/-as) os llamáis		you call yourselves (informal, plural, m./f.)
(ellos/ellas) se llaman		they call themselves (m./f.)
(ustedes) se llaman		you call yourselves (formal, plural)
mi	possessive adjective	my
mis	poss. adjective (plural)	my
tu	possessive adjective	your (informal, singular)
tus	poss. adjective (plural)	your (informal, singular)
su	possessive adjective	his/her(/its)/their
sus	poss. adjective (plural)	his/her(/its)/their
su	possessive adjective	your (formal)
sus	poss. adjective (plural)	your (formal)
nuestro/nuestra	poss. adjective (m./f.)	our
nuestros/nuestras	poss. adj. (plural, m./f.)	our
vuestro/vuestra	poss. adjective (m./f.)	your (informal, plural)
vuestros/vuestras	poss. adj. (plural, m./f.)	your (informal, plural)
ser	infinitive	to be
(yo) soy	present tense	I am
(tú) eres		you are (informal, singular)
(él/ella) es		he/she(/it) is
(usted) es		you are (formal, singular)
(nosotros/-as) somos		we are (m./f.)
(vosotros/-as) sois		you are (informal, plural, m./f.)
(ellos/ellas) son		they are (m./f.)
(ustedes) son		you are (formal, plural)

Exercises

Dialogue Translation

Cover the right column, translate from Spanish to English and uncover the right column line by line to check your answers. If possible, read the Spanish sentences aloud.

¿Cómo se llama tu amiga mexicana?	How does your Mexican friend call herself?
Se llama Tatiana. Pero no es mexicana. Es guatemalteca.	She calls herself Tatiana. But she is not Mexcian. She is Guatemalan.
¿De verdad? ¿De qué parte de Guatemala?	Really? From what part of Guatemala?
De Antigua.	From Antigua.

Dialogue Recall

Now translate from English to Spanish. Remember to say the Spanish sentences aloud.

What's the name of your Mexican friend?	¿Cómo se llama tu amiga mexicana?
Her name is Tatiana. But she isn't Mexican. She is Guatemalan.	Se llama Tatiana. Pero no es mexicana. Es guatemalteca.
Really? From which part of Guatemala?	¿De verdad? ¿De qué parte de Guatemala?
From Antigua.	De Antigua.

Dialogue Remix

Translate this variant of the dialogue from English to Spanish.

What's the name of your friend (masculine)?	¿Cómo se llama tu amigo?
My friend?	¿Mi amigo?
Your friend from Guatemala.	Tu amigo de Guatemala.
He's not Guatemalan.	No es guatemalteco.
Really? Is he Panamanian?	¿De verdad? ¿Es panameño?
No, he's not Panamanian.	No, no es panameño.
He is Colombian, isn't he?	Es colombiano, ¿no?
No, he's not Colombian.	No, no es colombiano.
Is he from Mexico?	¿Es de México?
No, he's not Mexican.	No, no es mexicano.
But from which part of America is he?	¿Pero de qué parte de América es?
He is US American.	Es estadounidense.
Really? What's his name?	¿De verdad? ¿Cómo se llama?
His name is John.	Se llama John.

Dialogue Recast

This translation exercise requires some of the words from the More Vocabulary section.

What's the name of your Mexican friends? (formal)	¿Cómo se llaman sus amigos mexicanos/amigas mexicanas?
Their names are Tatiana, ... But they aren't Mexican. They are Guatemalan.	Se llaman Tatiana, ... Pero no son mexicanos/mexicanas. Son guatemaltecas/guatemaltecos.
Really? From which part of Guatemala?	¿De verdad? ¿De qué parte de Guatemala?
From Antigua.	De Antigua.

Image Credits

• “Image:Antigua Santa Catalina 2008 06.JPG” by Raymond Ostertag (Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License)