Guide to Costa Rican Spanish

Rajar – to brag. Jactarse is also used.
Rajón – a bragger
Ranchar – to vomit. Botar el rancho is also used.
Ratada – a bad experience
Rayar – to fail a test in school or pass another car on the highway
Reventado/reventada – physically attractive
Roco – an old geezer
Rojo – one thousand colones
Ruliar – to sleep
Sapo – a tattle tale
Semerendo – big
Son varas – just kidding
¡Suave! - Wait a moment! ¡Eperáte! Is also used

Tiquismo – Cuando la rana echa pelos – never. El 31 de febrero is also used.

¡Qué color! - What a shame, mess
¡Qué dicha! - How good!
¡Qué madre! - What a disappointment
¿Qué me decís? - How are you?  or ¿Cómo está usted?
¡Qué jeta! - Shut up!
¿Qué tiene? - What’s matter with it?
¡Qué montón – Big deal! Used to discourage someone.
¡Qué si qué? -  No kidding
¡Qué va! - No way!
Quedar como un culo – To look like a fool
Quemado – A person or place that has lost its popularity
Colado – A party crasher or a person who goes some place without being invited

¡Ojo! (Be careful) If you are a beginning Spanish student or haven’t mastered the present tense yet, then save this series of articles for future reference.

In the previous two lessons I introduced the subjunctive verb endings and told you to memorize the  verb endings for regular AR, ER and IR verbs. In the second lesson I included the most common irregular verb endings.

Now it is time to see how the subjunctive works. I am not going to mention a lot of grammatical terms into order to simplify the process.

I want you to look at this formula which applies to 90% of the cases where you use the subjunctive. The subjunctive has to do with uncertainty. It refers to something that has not happened.

Step 1) A + B = Subjunctive.

What does this mean? In most cases If you have elements A and B in a the first half of a sentence followed by “QUE (that)”,  the verb that comes after QUE HAS TO BE IN THE SUBJUNCTIVE TENSE and refers to an event that hasn’t happened.  Remember this.

Step 2) In our formula above A represents a PERSON (subject) or THING and B represents a VERB. NOT JUST ANY VERB but CERTAIN TYPES of VERBS that affect the outcome of the second half of the sentence after QUE. Confused? I bet you are. Now let’s look at the first situation where we can apply our formula

FIRST USE OF THE SUBJUNCTIVE:

(1) With Verbs of INFLUENCE + que (that). Verbs in the first part of the sentence before  QUE that influence the outcome of what comes after QUE: wanting, desire, ordering, causing, allowing, prohibiting, persuading, requesting, insisting, needing, preventing, advising, etc.

Note: the QUE (that) which separates the two parts of the sentence is seldom translated in the examples in English below.

Example: I want you to buy a car. Yo quiero que usted compre  un carro. (A) Yo + quiero (querer which is a verb of influence (B)  followed by que , so the verb that comes after que, which refers to another person has to be in the subjunctive. In this case it is “compre” from the verb comprar.

Example:

Mi esposa desea (to desire) que yo pinte la casa. (A) My wife (a person) desires (verb of influence) (B) that I (change of subject) paint the house.

More examples:

• Te sugiero que vayas (irregular of IR to go). I (first subject) suggest (verb of influence) that you (change of subject) go.
• La cajera nos recomienda que contemos el dinero. The cashier recommends (verb of influence) (that) we count the money.
• Marta nos pide que salgamos ahora. Martha asks us to leave now.
• El profesor recomienda que estudiemos. The teacher recommends  (that) we study.
• Yo prefiero que esperes. I prefer (that) you wait.
• Insisto en que pintes la casa. I insist you paint the house.

In all of these examples these is one subject using a verb of influence followed by “QUE” to change the out some of affect the subject that comes after QUE

Tiquismo of the week: Ser muy gallo – to be brave or hard working

***Ojo! (Be careful) If you are a beginning Spanish student or haven’t mastered the present tense yet, then save this series of articles for future reference.***

Here is a quick review of last weeks article.

We form the present subjunctive of most “ar, - er, and ir ” verbs by dropping the - “o” of the present indicative tense “yo” form and by adding the subjunctive verb endings.

AR VERB ENDINGS
Add o, as, a, amos, an

ER and IR VERB ENDINGS (note they are the same)
o, es, e, emos (imos), en

Below are some of the most frequently used irregular verbs that don’t follow the rule above. The good news is that ninety-nine percent of the verbs are regular.

Poner (to put or place) - Yo (I) pongo, tú (you familiar) pones, él (he), ella (she) pone, nosotros (we) ponemos, ellos (them-masculine), ellas (them-feminine), Ustedes (plural ..you all) ponen.

Tener (to have) - yo tengo, tienes, tiene, tenemos, tienen.

Seguir (to follow) - yo sigo, sigues, siguen, seguimos, sigan.

Venir (to come) - yo vengo, vienes, viene, venimos, vienen.

Hacer (to do or make) - yo hago, haces, hace, hacemos, hacen.

Dar (to give) - yo doy, das, da, damos, dan.

Estar (to be……location or temporary conditions) - estoy, estas, está, estamos, estan.

Ir (to go) - voy, vas, vá, vamos, van.

Saber (to know a fact) - yo sé, sabes, sabe, sabemos, saben.

Conocer (to know people or places) - conozco, conoces, conoce, conocemos, conocen.

Ser (to be….permanent conditions) - soy, eres, es, somos, son.

*Haber (there is or there are) - Haya (NOTE there is only one form of this verb)

THERE ARE SOME MORE IRREGULAR ENDINGS THAT ARE LESS FREQUENLY USED. WRITE ME OFF LINE IF YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW TO USE THEM.

MEMORIZE THE VERBS ABOVE AND NEXT WEEK I WILL SIMPLIFIY THE USE OF THE SUBJUNCTIVE “MOOD” BY GIVING YOU THE FIRST RULE OF HOW TO USE IT.

Tiquismos of the week

Bochinche is a type of dispute, argument or fight. A person who engages in this behavior is called a bochinchero.
Amarraperros - is someone who doesn’t pay a debt
Caco - a criminal

Perhaps the two most difficult concepts for Spanish students to master are object pronouns and the correct use of the subjunctive tense. I will address the former in future articles.

In this series of lessons I am going to try and simplify the subjunctive. When I was a Spanish teacher in the States I had the opportunity to teach this concept to thousands of students at both the high school and university levels. With a little time and effort most of my students mastered the basics of the subjunctive.

During the 27 years I have lived in Costa Rica I have only run across about twenty five foreigners who speak Spanish fluently (fluency is the ability to be able to let the language flow effortlessly). However, only a handful of them have really master the use of the subjunctive tense.

The first step in learning the subjunctive is to memorize the verb endings. The second step is to know when and how to use them.

Memorize the following REGULAR verb endings.

We form the present subjunctive of most  AR, - ER, and  IR verbs by dropping the - “o” of the present indicative tense “yo” form and by adding the subjunctive endings.

Ojo! (Be careful) If you are a beginning Spanish student or haven’t mastered the present tense yet, then save this series of articles for future reference.

AR VERB ENDINGS
Add o, as, a, amos, an

CantAR
(to sing)
Yo canto
Tú cantas
Usted, él, ella canta
Nosotros cantamos
Ustedes, ellos, ellas cantan

(for advanced students the vos form is cantas)

ER and IR VERB ENDINGS (note they are the same)
o, es, e, emos (imos), en

ComER (to eat)
yo como
Tú comes
Usted, él, ella come
Nosotros comemos
Ustedes, ellos, ellas comen

(for advanced students the vos form is comes)

VivIR (to live)
Yo vivo
Tú vives
Usted, él, ella vive
Nosotros vivimos
Ustedes, ellos, ellas viven

(for advanced students the vos form is vivis)