Intermediate series 2

Beginners 5: Love phrases

Podcast número cinco (not four, as I say in the podcast…) is all about el día de San Valentin, where love is in the air and you learn all about Romantic Spanish. Learn phrases and terms for referring to your significant other, some love idioms, and more. You’ll also learn all about the South American tradition of El día de amor y amistad.
Lis Salinas

Lis Salinas

Colombiana

Rob

Rob

Inglés

Contents

Transcript

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?
Hola Rob, bien, ¿tú?
Muy bien, gracias. Y Lis, ¿qué vamos a hablar hoy? What are we going to talk about today?
Hoy, vamos a hablar de día de San Valentín.
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.
El día de amor y amistad. The day of friendship and love?
Exactly.
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.
Novia, novio
Very good. So, novia, or novio. And what does that mean?
Boyfriend and girlfriend.
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?
Esposo. Esposa.
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”
“Amante”. And is that good or bad, a lover?
It depends
So it’s means exactly the same, like you can have a secret lover, for example. “Un amante secreto”. Is that right?
It’s correct.
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.
Te quiero. Te quiero.
And what does that mean?
Maybe I want, “I love you”, but it’s less than “I love you”
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
Te amo
Te amo
Thank you!
It’s quite strong words, when you say “te amo”.
Exactly, so when you’re really committed to someone, you can say “te amo”.
Yeah, it’s very deep.
What else?
Te adoro. Te adoro.
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?
Te amo
What do you think is stronger, “te quiero”, or “te adoro”?
Te adoro
Oh, so “te quiero” is like the weakest, is it?
You use “te adoro”, it’s something similar to God. You love God
Dog!
God! Sorry! Like adoration for…
That’s really good. Ok, we’ve got another way as well, which is a bit more fun. What’s the next one?
Me encantas. I like that one. Me encantas.
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
Me encantas
And if you say it quickly
Me encantas
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”.
The last one is very nice
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
Tú eres la niña de mis ojos
Romantic
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
Tú eres la niña de mis ojos. Can you say “tú eres el niño de mis ojos”?
Not really, it’s just for girls
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?
Tú eres mi media naranja.
This is my favourite one. Can you say it again please?
Tú eres mi media naranja.
“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”?
Tú eres mi complemento
Again please?
Tú eres mi complemento.
And what does that mean?
It means that you are the other part that I need to be happy, to be…
That’s really nice. A bit like “media naranja”.
Yes, it’s similar.
Ok, and what could you say about someone if you’re just absolutely crazy about them, what could you say then?
Me vuelves loca
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?
Me vuelves loca
And if it’s a boy?
Me vuelves loco
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.
Yeah
What’s another way you could say?
Me fascinas
Really interesting.
Me fascinas.
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”
Muy bien
And then the last one, which is really simple. How do you say that?
Me gustas
Me gustas
Very common as well
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.
Me gustas tú
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.
Ok. “Mi cielo”.
So what’s that?
“My heaven”
“My heaven”, yeah. Can you say it again please?
Mi cielo. Mi cielo.
And what’s the next one?
Mi amor. Mi amor.
And what does that mean?
My love.
Very nice. “Mi amor”. And the next one?
Mi vida. Mi vida.
And what does that mean?
My life.
So if someone’s very important to you, you say
Just to your husband, or something
“Tú eres mi vida”, “you are my life”.
Yeah, exactly.
What’s the next one? This is really common actually, the next one.
Cariño.
What does that mean?
I don’t know…
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”.
Cariño. Cariño mio.
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?
Mi corazon. Corazon.
A little bit cheesy, but I like it. “Mi corazon”. What does that mean?
“My heart”.
“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
Corazon [non-lisped “z”]
Mi corazon
Mi corazon
And we’ve got a couple more. What else can you say?
Mi hermosa.
Or…
Hermoso.
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
Mi sol. My favourite of all. What does that mean?
“Tú eres mi sol”. “My sun”
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
El día de amor y amistad. The day of love and friendship. And when is that?
En Septiembre. En Septiembre.
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.
I’m sure as well.
Ok. Lis, cuéntanos acerca del amigo secreto.
Amigo secreto es un juego tradicional en Latino America. Amigo secreto es un juego tradicional en Latino America.
So “secret friend is a traditional game in South America, or Latin America”.
Se celebra en Septiembre. Se celebra en Septiembre.
It’s celebrated in September.
Entre grupo de amigos de la escuela, del trabajo, de la familia. Entre grupo de amigos de la escuela, del trabajo, o la familia
Between a group of schoolfriends, friends from work, or the family.
Cada uno escribe su nombre en un papel. Cada uno escribe su nombre en un papel.
Everyone writes their name on a piece of paper.
Se cortan los papeles y todos ponen los nombres en una bolsa. Se cortan los papeles y todos ponen los nombres en una bolsa.
They cut the papers, and everyone puts the names in a bag.
Después, cada uno saca un papel. Después, cada uno saca un papel.
After, everyone takes out a piece of paper.
Y a esa persona, se le dará un regalo quince días después. Y a esa persona, se le dará un regalo quince días después.
And to that person, a present, 15 days after
La idea es que es secreto. La idea es que es secreto.
The idea is that it´s secret.
Durante estos quince días, hay otra tarea, que es endulzar a tu amigo secreto. Durante estos quince días, hay otra tarea, que es endulzar a tu amigo secreto.
During these 15 days there’s another task, which is to sweeten your secret friend.
Significa que todos los días le llevarás un dulce, sin que él o ella se de cuenta. Significa que todos los días le llevarás un dulce, sin que él o ella se de cuenta. Significa que todos los días le llevarás un dulce, sin que él o ella se de cuenta. Significa que todos los días le llevarás un dulce, sin que él o ella se de cuenta.
Which means that every day, they’ll get, or you’ll give them a sweet without he or she realising.
No tiene que ser un dulce. Puede ser una tarjeta, una flor, y es el mejor momento para usar la imaginación. No tiene que ser un dulce. Puede ser una tarjeta, una flor, y es el mejor momento para usar la imaginación.
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!
Espero lo hagan. Sé que les gustará.
I hope you do it. I’m sure you’ll love it. And have you done it Lis?
Yeah, every year, with my family and my friends. Very nice.
And what did you give your family last time?
Last time we made a dessert for everyone, so the gift has to be a kind of dessert.
And what day is it again?
14th of September.
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.
Adiós, y hasta la próxima.

Review

Vocabulary

SpanishEnglishComments
El día de amor y amistadThe day of love and friendship 
Novia/oGirlfriend, boyfriend 
Esposo /aHusband, wife 
AmanteLoverDoes not change ending based on gender

 

Telling someone how you feel about them

 

Te quieroI love youIn Spain, this is more commonly used, and means “I love you”. It is less powerful in Latin America.
Te amoI love youThis is not used in Spain.
Te adoroI adore you. 
Me encantasI’m crazy about youLiterally “you charm me”

 

Compliments

 

Tú eres la niña de mis ojosYou’re the apple of my eyeLiterally “you’re the girl of my eye”. Can’t be used for males.
Tú eres mi media naranjaYou’re my soulmateLiterally “You’re my half orange” – used for both male/female
Tú eres mi complementoYou’re my other half/my complement 
Me vuelves loca/oYou drive me crazyDepending on context, can be positive or negative
Me fascinasYou fascinate me; you put a spell on me 
Me gustasI like you 

 

Terms of endearment

 

Mi cieloMy heaven 
Mi amorMy love 
Mi vidaMy life 
CariñoDarling 
Mi corazonMy heart 
Mi hermosa/oBeautiful 
Mi solMy sun 



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