Day 19: Gold It Seems, Silver It's Not
At Sunday lunch in Guanajuato, Herminia (A) tests her teenage grandson Emilio (C) with the tongue-twisters and riddles of her girlhood, riddles whose answers hide in their own words, while her daughter Gisela (B), Emilio's mother, looks on.
How to study this lesson 3 steps
- Read the situation under the title. It says who is talking and how they know each other, which decides how politely they speak.
- Read the dialogue line by line with its translation, until every line makes sense. Point at (or tap) a Spanish word to see what it means.
- Spend at least 30 minutes listening to native Spanish, for example from the Resources page. It doesn't matter if you don't understand it yet.
Dialogue
Audio recordings are on the way. For now, each lesson is the dialogue with its English translation.
Keys: E hide English · ← → previous / next day · point at a word to see its meaning
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A
Emilio, suelta ese celular: oro parece, plata no es; el que no lo adivine, bien tonto es.
Emilio, put that phone down: gold it seems, silver it's not; whoever can't guess it is a real fool.
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B
¡El plátano! Ay, perdóneme, mamá, me lo preguntó tantas veces de niña que me sale solito.
A banana! Oh, sorry, Mom, you asked me that one so often when I was little that it just comes out.
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A
Quien dijere la respuesta sin que le toque, lavará los trastes. Tú, mijo: agua pasa por mi casa, cate de mi corazón.
Whosoever shall give the answer out of turn shall do the dishes. Your turn, honey: water passes through my house, cate of my heart.
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B
¡Aguacate! Ay, se me volvió a salir; pásame el mandil y la fibra, Emilio.
Avocado! Oh, it slipped out again; pass me the apron and the scouring pad, Emilio.
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A
Pues un trabalenguas: si pudieses decir tres veces “tres tristes tigres tragaban trigo en un trigal”, te ganarías mis enchiladas mineras.
A tongue-twister, then: if you could say “three sad tigers swallowed wheat in a wheat field” three times, you'd earn yourself my miners' enchiladas.
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C
Tres tristes trigos tragaban tigres, ay, ya me trabé. Mejor adivine usted, abuela: ¿por qué las momias nunca van a fiestas?
Three sad wheats swallowed tigers, oh, I'm all tongue-tied. You guess instead, Grandma: why do mummies never go to parties?
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A
¿Porque nadie las saca a bailar? Y tú, Gisela, ni lo intentes, que esa no te la sabes.
Because nobody asks them to dance? And you, Gisela, don't even try, you don't know this one.
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C
Porque no saben desenvolverse, abuela. Los chistes de ahora también tienen su chiste, ¿ve?
Because they can't unwind, Grandma. Today's jokes have their clever side too, see?
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A
¿Y tú? La momia de esta mesa eres tú, que llevas toda la comida envuelto en ese celular.
And what about you? You're the mummy at this table, wrapped up in that phone all through lunch.
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