Beginners 5: Love phrases

Hola a todos, y bienvenidos a Spanish Obsessed. This is our beginners podcast number four [five!], and as always I’m accompanied by Lis. Hola Lis, ¿cómo estás?

Muy bien, gracias. Y Lis, ¿qué vamos a hablar hoy? What are we going to talk about today?

Yes, today we’re going to talk about Saint Valentine’s day, which was only 3 days ago, I think. And we had a fantastic Valentines day, Lis and I, but in Colombia, or in fact in all of South America, they don’t really celebrate Saint Valentine’s day. What do you have instead?

El día de amor y amistad. The day of friendship and love?

Very nice. So we’re going to talk about that in a little while, but first we want to teach you guys a few really useful phrases and vocabulary that you can use for your loved ones, your partners, whoever. So, first of all, how are you actually going to refer to your partner? What do you call them, boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife? We’ve got lots of different ways in Spanish, so here’s a few of those. Take it away Lis.

Very good. So, novia, or novio. And what does that mean?

Boyfriend and girlfriend. So novio, the masculine ending , is boyfriend, novia, with the feminine ending, is girlfriend. What about “husband” and “wife”? How do you say that?

So it’s a similar kind of thing. Masculine ending with an “o”, feminine with an “a”. “Esposo”, “esposa”. “Husband”, “wife”. And that sounds in English, this is a good way of remembering it, that sounds like “spouse” . “Esposo”, “spouse”. So a little trick for your memory there. And finally, we’ve got another one where you can refer to your lover, how do you say “lover”?

“Amante”. And is that good or bad, a lover?

So it’s means exactly the same, like you can have a secret lover, for example. “Un amante secreto”. Is that right?

Perfect, so, what do you say when you’ve found your novio, or your novia, or your amante, what do you actually say to them? Well there’s lots of things you can say. Give us a few examples Lis.

And what does that mean?

Yeah, so “te quiero” is literally “I want you”, which is a very Spanish thing, “I want you, I must have you”, “te quiero”. So it’s kind of, as Lis was saying, there’s no real good translation in English to be honest, it’s like “I love you”, but not quite that strong, I suppose. Like, strong feelings, but not quite love. But how do you say “I love you”?

Te amo

Thank you!

Exactly, so when you’re really committed to someone, you can say “te amo”.

What else?

So that’s like in English, I adore you. It’s a very similar verb in Spanish “adorar”, which is “to adore”; “I adore you”, “te adoro”. So we’ve got “te quiero”, “te amo”, y “te adoro”. What’s the strongest of those Lis?

What do you think is stronger, “te quiero”, or “te adoro”?

Oh, so “te quiero” is like the weakest, is it?

Dog!

That’s really good. Ok, we’ve got another way as well, which is a bit more fun. What’s the next one?

So it sounds like one word – “mencantas” – but it’s actually two. And it’s the kind of verb where you’re not saying “I love you”, you’re saying something about you to me. So “me encantas”, “tú me encantas”, it’s like saying “you charm me”. But again there’s no really good translation for it. “Me encantas”. Once more Lis

And if you say it quickly

Muchas gracias. So we have four different ways there, which are all really good, take your pick depending on how you feel about who it is. “Te quiero”, “te amo”, “te adoro”, “me encantas”.

Yeah, I like the last one as well. We’ve got a few phrases as well, if you really want to pay them some compliments. This is one I used on Lis recently, what’s the next one Lis?

Tú eres la niña de mis ojos

So, literally it means: “tú eres”: “you are”; “la niña”: “the girl”; “de mis ojos”: “of my eyes”, which sounds a bit strange: “you’re the girl of my eyes”, but this is an idiom, it doesn’t have a good literal translation in English. But a good one you might want to think about is “you are the apple of my eye”. So, can you say it again Lis?

Tú eres la niña de mis ojos. Can you say “tú eres el niño de mis ojos”?

Exactly. So you can only say this for girls. YOU can’t say it for boys, so sorry girls, you’ll find something else! Ok, what else can you say?

This is my favourite one. Can you say it again please?

“Tú eres”: “You are”; “mi media naranja”: “you are my half orange”. Again, this is another idiom, it sounds really strange when you literally translate it to English, but that’s not the idea. I guess an equivalent in English would be “you are my soulmate”: “Tú eres mi media naranja”. It’s like your my half an orange, imagine two halves of an orange make a whole orange. So I guess it’s like that. What’s another way you could say, Lis, for your “novio”, or your “esposo”, or your “amante”?

Again please?

And what does that mean?

That’s really nice. A bit like “media naranja”.

Ok, and what could you say about someone if you’re just absolutely crazy about them, what could you say then?

Me vuelves loca. So again, if it’s a girl, or if it’s a boy, you have to change the ending. If it’s a girl, what do you have to say?

And if it’s a boy?

So “me vuelves”, it means like “you make me”; “loca” for a girl, or “loco” for a boy: “crazy”. “You drive me crazy”, but in a good way. It can be a bad way as well, but if you’re talking about someone… It depends on context, I suppose. “Me vuelves loca”, generally a good thing, I think.

What’s another way you could say?

Really interesting.

So, “me fascinas”. It’s kind of like, “you hold me under your spell”, because “fascinar”, which is the verb, means “to fascinate”, or “to hold spellbound”. So if I have you under my spell, “yo te fascino”; or Lis, “tú me fascinas”

And then the last one, which is really simple. How do you say that?

Me gustas

Yeah. So this is how you actually say “I like”, and depending on what you like you have to change the verb, “gustar”. So, if I like Lis, Lis is “tú”. “Tú eres Lis”. So I say “me gustas” with an “s” on the end. But if I like football, I say “me gusta el fútbol”. But with a person, you say “me gustas”. It’s like that song by Manu Chao: “Me gustas tú”. ´We’ll put a link at the bottom of this podcast.

Ok, so once you have your “amante”, or your “novia”, or your “novio”, or your “esposo”, or whoever, and you´re going out with them, what do you actually call them? You don’t just say “Lis, Lis”, or you don’t just say “Rob, Rob”. In English we might say “sweetheart”, or “darling”, etc etc, I even heard “stinky” one time. In Spanish they have the same kind of thing, so let’s talk about a few of those. Go for it Lis.

So what’s that?

“My heaven”, yeah. Can you say it again please?

And what’s the next one?

And what does that mean?

Very nice. “Mi amor”. And the next one?

And what does that mean?

So if someone’s very important to you, you say

“Tú eres mi vida”, “you are my life”.

What’s the next one? This is really common actually, the next one.

What does that mean?

I think the best translation in English is “darling”. And you don’t say “cariña”, it’s always “cariño”, isn’t it? So I call you “cariño”, you call me “cariño”.

Or my friend often says “cari”, just for short, “cari”, not “cariño”, he just says “hola cari, ¿cómo estás?”. It’s sweet. What else is there?

A little bit cheesy, but I like it. “Mi corazon”. What does that mean?

“My heart”, “mi corazon”. Or if you want to say it with a Spanish accent, “z” is pronounced like a “tttthhhh”, it’s lisped, so they say “mi corazon” [lisped “z”]. But Lis has a Colombian accent, so she says

Mi corazon

And we’ve got a couple more. What else can you say?

Or…

So depending on if it’s a boy or a girl, the same rules apply, “o” or “a”. “Tú eres mi hermosa”, “yo soy tu hermoso” . Espero! And finally…

Mi sol. My favourite of all. What does that mean?

My sun. S-U-N, not S-O-N! So as we said at the start of this podcast, we have St Valentines day, “el día de san valentino”, in America, Europe, and lots of other places I’m sure. But in South America they have something slightly different. What do they have in South America again Lis?

El día de amor y amistad. The day of love and friendship. And when is that?

In September. So Lis is going to tell us about a game they have on this day, which is called “el amigo secreto”. She’s going to tell you in Spanish really slowly , she’s going to repeat each phrase a couple of times, and then we’ll give you a couple of seconds to think about what it means before I translate it for you. And I’m sure you’ll be able to understand it.

Ok. Lis, cuéntanos acerca del amigo secreto.

So “secret friend is a traditional game in South America, or Latin America”.

It’s celebrated in September.

Between a group of schoolfriends, friends from work, or the family.

Everyone writes their name on a piece of paper.

They cut the papers, and everyone puts the names in a bag.

After, everyone takes out a piece of paper.

And to that person, a present, 15 days after

The idea is that it´s secret.

During these 15 days there’s another task, which is to sweeten your secret friend.

Which means that every day, they’ll get, or you’ll give them a sweet without he or she realising.

It doesn’t have to be a sweet. It could be a card or a flower. It’s the best time to use your imagination. Muchas gracias Lis!

I hope you do it. I’m sure you’ll love it. And have you done it Lis?

And what did you give your family last time?

And what day is it again?

So on 14th September, everyon remember it’s “el día de amor y amistad”. Anyway, that’s enough love phrases for today, everyone’s probably starting to feel a little bit sick anyway, so we’re going to leave it. Como siempre, as always, muchas gracias por escuchar, thank you for listening. Hasta luego.