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Let’s learn some new nouns in Spanish, including the words for “news”, “decision”, “answer”, and “appointment”. We’ll get lots of spoken practice with these new words.
Tengo un consejo para ti.
Intro: Join us on a rigorous, step-by-step journey to fluency. I’m Timothy and this is LearnCraft Spanish.
Let’s learn several new nouns, including the words for “decision”, “sign”, “answer”, and “appointment”.
To begin with, here are some nouns you’ll use to refer to information you might receive. The word for “news” is noticia, a feminine noun. For example:
I heard the news yesterday.
Escuché la noticia ayer.
Now, you’ll use the singular, la noticia or una noticia, specifically if you’re talking about one piece of information. But if you’re talking about multiple pieces of information, or the news in general, you’ll use the plural, las noticias. For example:
He's watching the news.
Está viendo las noticias.
So this is a bit different from the English word “news”, because in English we don’t really distinguish between the singular and the plural. We always refer to news as “news”, kind of as a mass noun, like “water” or “food”, not as either one piece of news or multiple pieces of news.
A word that works in a very similar way is the Spanish word for “advice”, which is consejo, spelled c-o-n-s-e-j-o. Consejo. The English word “advice” is typically just used as a mass noun, for example “some advice”. But the Spanish word consejo is going to be singular if you’re giving one piece of advice or plural if you’re talking about a larger amount of advice. For example:
I have a piece of advice for you.
Tengo un consejo para ti.
So when we say “I have some advice” in English, in Spanish that could be either tengo un consejo or tengo unos consejos. In our quizzing, we’ll generally translate un consejo as “a piece of advice”, and we’ll translate unos consejos as “some advice”.
Let’s practice noticia and consejo.
I heard the news, can I help you?
Escuché la noticia, ¿puedo ayudarte?
I’ll give you a piece of advice while we play.
Te daré un consejo mientras jugamos.
Did you see they gave some advice in the news?
¿Viste que dieron unos consejos en las noticias?
Our next word is llamada, which means “call”, as a noun. This is clearly related to the verb Llamar, and it’s spelled l-l-a-m-a-d-a. For example:
I can't talk, I'm on a call.
No puedo hablar, estoy en una llamada.
And then the noun respuesta means “response” or “answer”. You can use una respuesta to respond to either a call (una llamada) or a question (una pregunta). For example:
I didn’t hear the answer to my question.
No escuché la respuesta a mi pregunta.
There wasn’t a response to my call.
No hubo respuesta a mi llamada.
Next we have the word señal, spelled s-e-ñ-a-l. Señal. This is a feminine noun, and it roughly means “sign” or “signal”. Here’s an example:
I think this is a sign that we should leave.
Creo que esto es una señal de que deberíamos irnos.
So this phrase, señal de que, is pretty common when there is a sign “that” something is the case (literally “a sign of that” something is the case).
Here’s another example, where señal means “signal”:
I’m not online, I don’t have a signal.
No estoy en línea, no tengo señal.
This word is used in a broad variety of ways, and let’s just go ahead and dive in to get some practice with it, as well as with llamada and respuesta.
I’ll give you a signal when I’m ready(f).
Te daré una señal cuando esté lista.
I couldn’t make the call because I didn’t have a signal.
No pude hacer la llamada porque no tenía señal.
If you apologize, she’ll give you the answer.
Si te disculpas, te dará la respuesta.
There is a sign at street number fourteen.
Hay una señal en la calle número catorce.
This is my call number fifty-six and I still don’t have a response.
Esta es mi llamada número cincuenta y seis y aún no tengo respuesta.
Our next word is a simple one: The Spanish word for “decision” is decisión, spelled just like the English word, but with an accent mark on the O. Decisión. And like most nouns that end with i-o-n, this word is feminine. For example:
It was a very difficult decision.
Fue una decisión muy difícil.
Note that in Spanish, instead of “making” a decision, you typically “take” a decision, using Tomar. For example:
Can you make a decision? We must leave soon.
¿Puedes tomar una decisión? Debemos irnos pronto.
Here’s another example that incorporates consejo:
We made the decision against our parents’ advice.
Tomamos la decisión en contra del consejo de nuestros padres.
Our next word is kind of an odd one. The noun porqué is spelled exactly like the conjunction porque, which means “because”, except that this noun has an accent on the E at the end, so it’s pronounced differently. Porqué. This is a masculine noun that means something like “why” as a noun. Check out this sentence example:
She did it, but I didn’t understand the “why”.
Ella lo hizo, pero yo no entendí el porqué.
Now, in English, in situations like this, we’ll typically use the word “reason”. “She did it but I didn’t understand the reason.” So why aren’t we using the Spanish noun la razón instead of this weird noun el porqué? Well, remember that the word “reason”, or razón, can mean a wide variety of things, especially in Spanish; it’s used to refer to careful thought, and even to being right about something. When you choose to use el porqué, you’re implying that there’s some sort of “why” question that hasn’t been answered. Here’s another example, where “the reason for” is el porqué de:
I still don’t understand the reason for that wait.
Todavía no entiendo el porqué de esa espera.
Another interesting noun is prueba, spelled p-r-u-e-b-a. This means something like “test”. For example:
I’m not sure(f). Let’s do a test.
No estoy segura. Hagamos una prueba.
So a couple of things about this word. First of all, it’s pretty hard to pronounce. Prueba. Personally I’ve always found it hard to fit the U in there between the R and E. When it’s pronounced quickly, the U almost seems to disappear, although it will always be slightly there. Prueba.
Next, note that this word has a lot of different meanings that all have to do with testing or trialing something. It can even mean “proof”. For example:
She said all those strange things without proof.
Dijo todas esas cosas extrañas sin pruebas.
So when prueba means “proof”, it’s often plural.
Let’s get some practice with decisión, porqué, and prueba. In this first example, prueba is translated as “demo”, as in a trial version of something.
Excuse me, help me with this demo.
Disculpa, ayúdame con esta prueba.
I want to know the reason for that decision.
Quiero saber el porqué de esa decisión.
I’ll do a test and tell you my decision afterwards.
Haré una prueba y te diré mi decisión después.
And that’s the reason I only got forty-five on the test.
Y ese es el porqué solo tuve cuarenta y cinco en la prueba.
All right, to wrap up this episode, let’s learn a few new time nouns. We’ll begin with one you basically already know: The noun el futuro means “the future”. This is simply the opposite of el pasado, and it’s clearly related to the adjective we’ve been using, futuro or futura. For example:
She’ll do it at some point in the future.
Lo hará en algún momento en el futuro.
Next, the word for “appointment” is cita. This is feminine. For example:
I have an appointment at that time.
Tengo una cita a esa hora.
This same word is used for a “date”, as in a romantic outing. For example:
We went out on three dates last week.
Salimos en tres citas la semana pasada.
However, note that this word, cita, does not mean “date” as in calendar date; there’s a different word for that. Cita only means “date” as a synonym for “appointment”.
And finally, let’s learn the words for “birthday” and “Christmas”. The word for “Christmas” is Navidad, and it’s a feminine noun. For example:
I’ll be in my hometown this Christmas.
Estaré en mi pueblo esta Navidad.
And the word for “birthday” is cumpleaños. This is a long word, but it ends with años, because the literal meaning is something like “completion of years”. Note that this is normally a singular noun even though it ends with an S. So for example:
Today is his dad’s birthday.
Hoy es el cumpleaños de su papá.
And then the plural form is spelled and pronounced exactly the same way, but of course you’ll change the article before it. For example:
I missed out on both of their birthdays.
Me perdí los cumpleaños de los dos.
Let’s practice el futuro, la cita, la Navidad, and el cumpleaños.
My birthday is after Christmas.
Mi cumpleaños es después de Navidad.
I’ll spend Christmas with my family in the future, but not now.
Pasaré Navidad con mi familia en el futuro, pero no ahora.
He wants me to forgive him because he doesn’t play that on dates.
Quiere que yo lo disculpe porque no juega a eso en citas.
You have to help him now, not in the future.
Tienes que ayudarlo ahora, no en el futuro.
It’s my birthday number forty-seven and I have a date.
Es mi cumpleaños número cuarenta y siete y tengo una cita.
For more practice with any of this, feel free to dig deeper at LCSPodcast.com/184. Or if you’re ready, let’s go on to today’s final quiz.
Forgive me, I need fifty one dollars for Christmas.
Discúlpame, necesito cincuenta y un dólares para Navidad.
The end of the number to make the call is fifty-nine.
El final del número para hacer la llamada es cincuenta y nueve.
I have an appointment before Christmas to do a test.
Tengo una cita antes de Navidad para hacer una prueba.
Play with her to see if she forgives you.
Juega con ella para ver si te disculpa.
He didn’t have forty-three, rather he had forty-eight.
No tenía cuarenta y tres, más bien tenía cuarenta y ocho.
This is a sign that I should have fifty-five.
Esto es una señal de que yo debería tener cincuenta y cinco.
She wants me to help her after hearing the news.
Ella quiere que yo la ayude después de escuchar las noticias.
On my birthday I’ll be forty-four.
En mi cumpleaños tendré cuarenta y cuatro años.
I want your advice in order to make a decision.
Quiero tu consejo para tomar una decisión.
You have to help me because I don’t think they’ll forgive me.
Tienes que ayudarme porque no creo que ellos me disculpen.
That means that she might forgive you with a call.
Eso significa que quizás te disculpe con una llamada.
We’ve been playing a demo for fifty-four hours.
Hemos estado jugando una prueba por cincuenta y cuatro horas.
She might help you if she knows the why.
Puede que te ayude si sabe el porqué.
The answer is forty-one and not forty-two.
La respuesta es cuarenta y uno y no cuarenta y dos.
She didn’t give me an answer about our date.
No me dio una respuesta sobre nuestra cita.
I want to do a test before playing.
Quiero hacer una prueba antes de jugar.
We had bad signal and didn’t hear the news.
Teníamos mala señal y no escuchamos las noticias.
Help her! She is carrying fifty-one things.
¡Ayúdala! Está llevando cincuenta y una cosas.
The people of today don’t help much.
La gente de hoy en día no ayuda mucho.
I have fifteen now, but I’ll have fifty-one things in the future.
Tengo quince ahora, pero tendré cincuenta y una cosas en el futuro.
(Formal) Excuse me, could you give me a piece of advice?
Disculpe, ¿podría darme un consejo?
The reason is a sign that we should help.
El porqué es una señal de que deberíamos ayudar.
(Formal) Forgive me, I always play like this, but I’ll play better in the future.
Discúlpeme, siempre juego así, pero jugaré mejor en el futuro.
I have to make a decision before my birthday.
Tengo que tomar una decisión antes de mi cumpleaños.
For more practice with all of this, go to LCSPodcast.com/184, or tune in tomorrow for a big quiz to practice everything we’ve learned this week.
This show is brought to you by LearnCraftSpanish.com. The Spanish voice in this episode was our coach Ximena Lama-Rondón. Our music was performed by the Seattle Marimba Quartet, and I’m Timothy, encouraging you to do the hard work of learning Spanish. Acquiring a second language is one of the most fulfilling things you can do, so start your fluency journey today at LCSPodcast.com.