Oraciones condicionales hipotéticas- si Dios fuera negro

There are things in our society we consider unfair and we look for different ways to express our disagreement . One way to raise our voice against those unfair aspects  is through music. In this post we analyze the song " Si Dios fuera negro" ( if God were black). This song written by Roberto Anglero is a classic of Salsa in Latin America and It´s a song that points out a sensitive topic : racism

Si Dios fuera negro  

The Curazao Museum. Foto: SSClasespañol

Si Dios fuera negro -mi compay*- todo cambiaría
Fuera nuestra raza -mi compay- la que mandaría

Negro el presidente y el gobernador
Negro el abogado y negro el doctor compay

Si Dios fuera negro -mi compay- todo cambiaría
Fuera nuestra raza -mi compay- la que mandaría

Negra la azucena*
Y negra la tiza*
Negra Blanca Nieve*
Negra Mona Lisa

Si Dios fuera negro -mi compay- todo cambiaría
Fuera nuestra raza -mi compay- la que mandaría

Negro fuera el día
Negro fuera el sol
Negra la mañana
Negro el algodón -compay-

Si Dios fuera negro -mi compay- todo cambiaría
Fuera nuestra raza -mi compay- la que mandaría

Negro fuera el Papa
Y negro el ministro
Los angeles negros
Negro Jesus Cristo -compay-

Si Dios fuera negro -mi compay- todo cambiaría
Fuera nuestra raza -mi compay- la que mandaría

Click here to listen the song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVFzOMzURec

Sometimes we need to express wishes or ideas that are not quite possible to happen or become true. Remember those times where you wished to have enough time to do something interesting or to have enough money to go somewhere. Probably you said back then : " if I had enough time or if I had enough money, I would travel more often" That is a second conditional , you express a wish , something you would like to be different from your current time. In Spanish we use this structure: 

Second conditional- condicionales poco probables:

Si + imperfecto del subjuntivo , condicional simple. 

The song is basically using the subjunctive imperfect of verb SER ( to be). The author of the song chose a peculiar idea to express his criticism about racism. He uses the figure of God. That white God that is shown in every portrait or picture. The author expresses how things would be different if that God were black.

Example:

"Si Dios fuera negro, todo cambiaría, sería nuestra raza la que mandaría." -

"If God were black, everything would change, it would be our race that would rule"

Do you agree with the singer? what other things would be different if God were black? (¿qué otras cosas serían diferente si Dios fuera negro?)

Would you like more examples of second conditional in Spanish?  just take a look to this song of Many chao La vida Tombola

Si yo fuera Maradona
Viviría como el
Si yo fuera Maradona
Frente a cualquier portería*
Si yo fuera Maradona
Nunca m'equivocaría
Si yo fuera Maradona
Perdido en cualquier lugar

Subjuntivo imperfecto: To form the subjunctive imperfect of verb SER,  follow this step:

 

Step 1- remember the 3rd plural person (ellos-as) in pretérito indefinido

• Ellos/as fueron

Step 2- Remove the ending _on and replace with these endings:

_a - _as - _a - _amos - _an     .... and that´s it. You can use the same rules for all the verbs it doesn´t matter if they are regular or irregular in past.

IMPERFECTO DEL SUBJUNTIVO
Yo	fuera
Tú	fueras
Usted	fuera
Él/ella	fuera
Nosotros	fuéramos
Ustedes	fueran
Ellos /ellas	Fueran

Condicional Simple: To form the simple conditional  of  any verb ,  follow this step:

Step 1- Take the verb in infinitive.

• cambiar (to change ) - vender (to sell)  - cumplir (to achive or to turn+ years old)

Step 2- Add the following endings:

• _ía - _ías - _ía- _iamos - _ían 

CONDICIONAL SIMPLE
CAMBIAR	VENDER	CUMPLIR
Yo cambiaría	Yo vendería	Yo cumpliría
Tú cambiarías	Tú venderías	Tú cumplirías
Usted cambiaría	Usted vendería	Usted cumpliría
Él/ella cambiaría	Él/ella vendería	Él/ella cumpliría
Nosotros cambiaríamos	Nosotros venderíamos	Nosotros cumpliríamos
Ustedes cambiarían	Ustedes venderían	Ustedes cumplirían
Ellos /as cambiarían	Ellos /as cambiarían	Ellos /as cumplirían

 Now that we have understood the structure, let´s try to answer this questions:

1. ¿ Cómo sería tu vida distinta si fueras del sexo opuesto?
2. ¿ Cómo sería tu vida distinta si tu hermana fuera Shakira?
3. ¿ Cómo sería tu vida si fueras una mariposa? 

Now you try to do some questions...

1. ¿ Cómo.....si fueras:... ?
2. ¿ Qué .... si tus padres fueran...?
3. ¿......... si fuera....?

Leave your comment and don´t forget to share. Hasta la próxima 

Vocabulario:

mi compay*- short way for compadre (other people say: compae) compadre litteraly means godfather but in colloquial conversations is used as buddy, dude, or mate. 

Portería: it is not a verb in conditional. It refers to the soccer goal zone.

la azucena* - Lily

la tiza*- chalk

Blanca Nieve*- Snow White

Remember to read newspapers, magazines in Spanish or to Listen music  and watch TV in Spanish . You will learn a more realistic Spanish. 

#spanishlessons #spanishlearners #studyspanish #subjuntiveimperfect #spanishincolombia #spanishblogs #blogstostudyspanish

NOTE: English is not my native language, please if you find any mistake, please let me know and I will correct it. Thanks.

SSClasespañol by Sirle Sarabia is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0

Expresiones coloquiales colombianas para comida.

Hi, Everyone

In this post I would like to show you and teach you some special vocabulary used in Colombia. As a Spanish learner, it is important to learn the different stage of a language. When you learn a new language , you will learn first the general language , in this case, you learn a general Spanish  with words , expressions and grammar rule that are used in every Hispanic country, However, when you advance in your knowledge and most important, you start traveling to hispanic countries, soon you will notice  some differences that maybe your textbook never mentioned. I am not talking  about the accent. It is normal the accent changes in different countries. What I am refering here is  every hispanic country has their own colloquial terms, slangs and even  different meanings of a same word depends on the zone. 

Today we will learn some colloquial terms refering to "comida" food. The following video is a parody of a popular hispanic song called "la Maldita Primavera" (the damn spring) , odviously the parody´s name is "la Maldita Tragadera" . Do you know what "tragadera" means? have you ever heard that word before? 

Vocabulary: Now below I will explain you the meaning of the special Colombian expressions:

• Galguería : Candies or those snacks that are  not really healthy. 

• Tragadera : this word has two meaning: A: being crazy in love and B. eating too much. In the video the singer uses it with the second meaning. 
• Arrocito: diminutive of Arroz (rice) notice that there is a change in the spelling. You change Z for C. Diminutive ( using the small version of a word) is very common in Colombian Spanish. 
•  Esa pega me la mando con huevo: I bet you are clueless about this long sentence but don´t panic, I will explain you. "Esa pega" refers to the rice left at the bottom of the pot. at the bottom of the pot rice turns crunchy. Eating "la pega" (crunchy rice) is a very tradition in Colombian Families. The second part of the sentence " me la mando con huevo" it is just saying she is going to eat the rice with egg. That is a very common food  among Colombian families, specially those ones with low- incomes.

• Tajadas: slices of green bananas.

• Salchichón de mil : a very cheap sausage. 

I hope the song parody is clearer now and you have found the joke inside the song. Would you like to listen the original song? Click here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCbNOproRo4

Remember. Read newspapers, magazines in Spanish. Listen music or watch TV in Spanish . You will learn a more realistic Spanish. 

Image sources: 

https://www.mercadoslpineda.co/es/mecato/888-mecato-natuchips-platano-maduro-x-28-g-x-12.html

https://www.knorr.com/co/ideas-knorr/tips/la-pega-del-arroz.html

https://co.pinterest.com/pin/515591857330812073/

https://www.exito.com/salchichon-cervecero-x-900-gr-252601/p

NOTE: English is not my native language, please if you find any mistake, please let me know and I will correct it. Thanks. 

SSClasespañol by Sirle Sarabia is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0

Verbo Estar- No estás solo.

Verbs Ser and Estar are very confusing for many foreigner students. In many other languages there is not a real different between ser and estar.  For instance ,  In English is just to be , in Dutch  verb zijn, in German is the verb  sein but in Spanish they are  two different  verbs. Many Spanish students struggle trying to understand the rules, specially that one which says that ser is for permanent characteristics and estar is used to talk about temporal characteristic. But have you, Spanish learner students, thought that everything is clearer if you study it in a real context? Yes, rules are importants but they are not the only way to learn a language. You need to get an approach to the language in a real setting. That is the reason in this post I would like to share with you this lyric ( at the bottom you will find a link to watch the video). This lyric belongs to a song called " No estás solo"( you are not alone). The latin singers, Carlos Vives and Ruben Blades dedicated this song to all those people who are sick with Covid-19 (be sick- estar enfermo) 

Capurganá.Foto : SSClasespañol

No estás solo - Canción de Carlos Vives y Ruben Blades

Hay vainas* que se aparecen cuando uno menos las piensa
Llegan y aunque no las quieran se quedan por unos día'
Nos dicen que estás enfermo y venidos para animarte. Un malestar no es eterno, y menos si se comparte

Y aunque interminable parezca la noche
Al final se irá con la luz del día
No pierdas la fe
Siempre ten presente

No estás solo, esa vaina se quita
No estás sola, ten paciencia y verás
No estás solo, y aunque eso mortifica
No estás solo, te vamos a cuidar
No estás solo, aquí están tus amigos
No estás sola, tu familia aquí está
No estás solo, y aunque eso mortifica
No estás solo, te vamos a cuidar

Pay attention: Ser una persona solitaria Vs Estar solo. When you want to express a person for some reason (maybe is introvert, don´t like to be surranded by people or has a problem with socializing) doesn´t like to have company or doesn´t enjoy company,  we say in Spanish: " él / ella es una persona solitaria ". Pay attention to the way to built the sentence : Ser+ artículo (una) + noun (persona) + adjetive (solitario/a) .

But when you say in Spanish: " Luis está solo" could mean two things: 1) Luis is alone in a literally way :  Luis is alone, There is noone else around him  or in his life . Or a more methaphoric meaning, Luis feels lonely.

See what I mean? it is not only about permanent o temporaly, you , as a speaker, need to have clear the situation and what you really want to express.

I hope you have enjoyed this post. I read your comments. 

Vocabulary: Vaina*: it is  a very coloquial expression using in  multiple ways. it is used to replace a thing or situation that is already known by the speaker. In this song is used to refer to the sick person´s problem. The sickness he/she  is dealing with. 

video:https://www.musica.com/letras.asp?letra=2510621

Remember : Read newspapers, magazines in Spanish. Listen music or watch TV in Spanish . You will learn  a more realistic Spanish. 

NOTE: English is not my native language, please if you find any mistake, please let me know and I will correct it. Thanks. 

SSClasespañol by Sirle Sarabia is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0