This is the next installment in the whole “let’s learn Spanish from music videos” thing I’m doing that everyone seems to like (which I totally agree with, using popular media like this that you enjoy is a fantastic way to learn the language, plus it uses contemporary Spanish).  Up until now it’s been all Shakira, all the time, so I thought it was time to switch it up a bit and several people have suggested Juanes–I listened to a few of his songs and this one was easily the one I liked the most, it’s quite a bit more upbeat than most of the others it seems (everything else he does seems to be kind of depressing and sad, honestly) plus it’s one of his most popular songs ever and it’s really recent (2010) so everyone ought to be familiar with it, so I really felt it was easily the best choice.

What’s a ‘Juanes’?

It’s a contraction of his first and middle names: “Juan” + “Esteban” = “Juanes”, kind of like “Brangelina” or “Bennifer”

Juanes is one of the biggest names in the Spanish-language music world, probably second only to Shakira.  He’s now a solo artist, though he started out in a band called Ekhymosis that he started in 1988 and later disbanded 10 years later in 1998.  He’s sold more than 12 million albums and won 17 Latin Grammys, more than any other artist.

An interesting fact about Juanes is his refusal to (almost) never sing in English or really any language other than Spanish, his explanation being that “Singing in Spanish is very important because it’s the language in which I think and feel. I respect people that sing in English, but for now I’ll keep my Spanish.”

Yerbatero

Yerbatero is a guitar-driven rock song that significantly deviates from Juanes’ previous romantic latin-pop songs which had previously dominated his discography, and it seems to have been quite a success with it being his most popular music video on YouTube, beating even La Camisa Negra and debuting on the Latin Pop Charts at number four.

The word itself is an Andean slang term that means “herbalist” or, more accurately in this context, “healer” and comes from the word “yerba mate” which is a type of tea popular in Latin America and especially Argentina, and a “yerbatero” was originally a seller of yerba mate tea.  This will make a great deal of sense once you start reading the lyrics below and see how Juanes is referring to himself as a sort of healer of broken hearts.

The Video

The usual instructions follow for this:

The way I want you to do this is to play it once all the way through, then let’s look at it one verse at a time, and translate it.  Now, go back and play the verse we just analyzed several times and see if you can hear and understand everything being said, then go on to the next one.  Here it is:

First verse:

Le traigo el remedio
Para ese mal de amor que le estremece
No se merece sufrir
si su pareja le dejó

Translation:

I’ll bring you the remedy
For that love sickness that makes you shudder
You don’t deserve to suffer
If your partner left you

Where it says “le estremece”, the verb in question there is “estremecer” which does in fact mean “to shudder or tremble”, but the line immediately after that is where we see something kind of interesting in the phrase “No se merece sufrir”: “merecer” means “to deserve or be worthy of” and can be used in several different ways, not just as above where it means that a person deserves something, but also in the sense of “___ is worth doing”, e.g. “Esa película merece una mirada” = “That movie is worth a look”.

Also, the word “pareja” in the last line usually means “pair” but can also be used to refer to one member of a pair as it is in this case, and one of the literal translations of the word is actually “partner”.

Next:

Tengo toda clase de brebajes, plantas medicinales
Las he traído desde muy lejanos bosques hasta aquí

Translation:

I have every kind of potion, medicinal plants
I have brought them here from distant forests

Oh what a funny word “brebaje” is, because although “potion” is probably the best contextual translation of it here, the actual meaning of the word is something more like “concoction” or “foul drink” and it’s also a slang term for something sailors call “grog“, haha.

Notice the use of “desde” and “hasta” here, even though the contextual translation (correctly) doesn’t show it as it’s literally written, which would be something like “I have brought them from forrests very far away to here”, you’ll almost always see these two words paired up in Spanish to express “from ___ to ____” as “desde ____ hasta _____”.  The expression can not only be used with physical locations but also with time, as in “I’ll be here from this morning until this afternoon” = “Estoy aquí desde esta mañana hasta esta tarde.” “Desde” literally translates as “from” and “hasta” means “until”.

Next verse:

Soy yerbatero, vengo a curar su mal de amores
Soy el que quita los dolores y habla con los animales
Dígame de que sufre usted
Que yo le tengo un brebaje
Que le devuelve el tono y lo pone bien

Which means:

I’m a healer, I’m coming to cure your love sicknesses
I’m the one who takes away the pain and speaks with the animals
Tell me what you suffer from
‘cause I have a potion for you
‘cause I return you to your complexion and it makes you well

Let’s look at the first line where it says “vengo a curar su mal de amores”, now “vengo” is the present first person form of “venir” which means “to come” and “curar” means “to cure or heal”, but what’s interesting is the phrase “su mal de amores”, because “mal” literally translates as “bad” but can be used in so many other ways that all make sense when you understand that the primary definition of the word is “bad”: it can mean evil, harm, damage, or even “bad times” in the context of “in bad times and good” as we saw Shakira use it in her song Suerte where she says “Contigo celebro y sufro todo mis alegrías y mis males” which means “With you I celebrate and suffer everything, the good times and the bad”, or it can mean “illness” as it does in this case.  This is just one of those words that has a billion different meanings depending on the context and that gets used left, right, and center that you should be aware of.

In the sentence “Dígame de que sufre usted” the word order is a little screwy, so let’s have a look at that.  What it literally translates to is “Tell me of that suffer you”, or a little more logically, “Tell me of that which you suffer”, because “de” means “of”, “que” means “that”, and “sufre” is the present 3rd person form of “sufrir“, which means “to suffer”.  Also, “Dígame” is a contraction of “díga” (imperative form of “decir” which means “to tell”) and “me”, which you always do when making a command like that which is reflexive (meaning that the verb acts on a reflexive pronoun like me, te, se, etc.).

In the next sentence where it says “Que yo le tengo un brebaje” you may be confused by the way he’s using “que“, and…it’s honestly very hard to explain, because that word doesn’t really literally translate as “because”, but it’s the best contextual translation of it in these particular circumstances.  Essentially, it means “that” or “so that” here because it’s sort of a continuation of the previous sentence, it relies on the previous sentence to work. Ok, the previous sentence was: “Tell me what you suffer from”, and then this next one says “que yo lo tengo un brebaje” which sort of translates to “Tell me what you suffer from so that/such that I have a potion for you” which sort of makes sense, but if we take what we can tell his meaning is from that sentence and express it as we normally would in English, it would come out as “Tell me what you suffer from ’cause I have a potion for you”, get it?

“Que” is really confusing for beginners because, far more so than “mal”, it has many, many different possible meanings all of which are entirely dependent on the context, and to make things even more confusing there’s an entirely different word that people tend to get confused with it because it’s almost spelled the same way: “qué” (notice the accent! that makes it a whole ‘nother word altogether, “que” does NOT equal “qué”), which is the Spanish word for “what”, which of course means you’ll see it all the time as well, frequently in conjunction with “que” in the same sentence or even side-by-side.

Remember:

“que” = “that”/”so that”/”than”/”such that”/

“qué” = “what”

Deep breath (we’re not done with this verse yet!)

The last line where it says “Que le devuelve el tono y lo pone bien” you see an interesting verb, “devolver” which means “to return” and “le” working as a pronoun meaning “you”, so the verb here, “devolver” is reflecting back on “le”, it’s action is being done to it, so the returning is being done to “le” which is “you” in this case, “le devuelve” means “return you”.

Ok, so we have “que” being used in the same way as the previous line, so “que le devuelve” means “because I return you…”, now “el tono” means “the tone” where tone means “complexion” (check the definition, it’s 2nd) in this case, and taken in the current context of illness and him being the yerbatero, the healer, he’s of course saying that he’ll return you to your previous healthy complexion, he’ll make you better, basically, you see?

That last bit, “lo pone bien” is just saying essentially the same thing again, “pone” is the present 3rd person form of “poner” which means “to put”, and what’s doing the putting? “lo” is, which means “it” and of course refers to the potion, and since “bien” means “good” or “well”, it’s literally saying something like “it puts you well”, which really means “it makes you well”.

Finally, that one’s done.  Next one:

Si a usted, señor, lo deja su mujer
úntese en el alma pomadita de clavel
Y para la señora que el marido ha sido infiel
No se preocupe, busquese uno usted también

Translation:

If your woman leaves you, sir
Rub some carnation oinment on your soul
And for the lady whose husband has been unfaithful
Don’t worry, get yourself some too

Let’s go to the second sentence where it says “úntese en el alma pomadita de clavel”, the verb in question at the beginning there is “untar” which means “to smear” and it’s reflexive here, with “se” filling in for “you”.  “Alma” is the word for “soul”, “pomada” is “ointment” so “pomadita” is “little bit of ointment” really, and “clavel” means “carnation”, so the literal translation of “úntese en el alma pomadita de clavel” is “rub yourself on the soul a little ointment of carnation” which contextually means “rub some carnation oil on your soul”, got it?

Now, in the last line we see “No se preocupe, busquese uno usted también”, “preocupar” means “to worry” and in this case it’s reflexive, which it almost always is, as the way that they say that someone is/was/will worry in Spanish is to say that they “worry themselves” as opposed to just “worry” as we would in English, it essentially means the same thing.

Now, “buscar” (which is what that word you see there, “búsquese”, is based on) is a verb that normally means “to look for or to search”, but a secondary definition for it is “to pick up” as in, “Voy a buscar el correo” = “I’m going to pick up the mail”, which is how it’s used here where it’s translated as “get yourself”.  It’s in the command form and reflexive, with the command form of “buscar” being “busque” and “se” being a pronoun meaning “you” here, so “busquese” means “get yourself” as in “get yourself some of this awesome ointment I’ve got”.

Next verse:

Sufre de depresión, mal de amor
Lleva varias noches sin dormir
Y sus días no van bien en el trabajo

Translation:

Do you suffer from depression, love sickness?
Have you spent many nights without sleeping?
And your days don’t go well at work?

We’ve already discussed “suffrir” and the way that you see “mal” used here with “mal de amor” to mean “love sickness”, so I don’t need to cover that.  “lleva” is the 3rd person present form of “llevar” which literally means “to take, carry, wear, handle, have, keep, deal with, or cope with” but has so many little variations on those meanings depending on the context that to decipher which one it is you have to look at the context, and in this case he’s saying “llevas varias noches sin dormir”, so I would literally translate it as “take” with the meaning as in “take a nap”, “take a class”, etc. so you get “do you take many nights without sleep?”, got it?

The last line where it says “en el trabajo” has “trabajo” functioning as a noun that means “work”, in this case “el trabajo” is referring to your place of work, your job, so you could also translate this last line as “at your job”.

Last bit:

Anda moribundo, preocupado, cabizbajo, desenamorado
Le tengo la solución si le duele el corazón

No soy doctor, soy yerbatero…

Translation:

Continue dying, worried, downcast, unloved?
I have for you the solution if your heart hurts

I’m not a doctor, I’m a healer…

Right, now “moribundo” is simply an adjective that means “dying”, but “anda” is the verb “andar” which usually means “to walk”, right? Well…let’s get confused again, “andar” is also very frequently used to mean “to go” in the sense of indicating action as in “to go do something” usually in the form of “to go [verb]” so it’ll be “andar + verb”.  It sort of makes sense if you think of “andar” as meaning generally “to go” and frequently used to indicate that the person is walking which is, of course, one way you can go about going, right? So it generally means “to go” and is frequently used in the specific context of walking but not always.

Now, “cabizbajo” is just an adjective that means “downcast, crestfallen, or melancholy”, and “desenamorado” is really obvious if you take a second to look at it and you already know that “enamorar” means “to love” and you also know that the way you make a verb’s past participle (the “-ed” version of it, as in “loved” is the past participle of “love”) is to simply add “-ado” to the end of it where the “-ar” at the end was.  So you know that “enamorado” means “loved”, and now I’ll tell you that one way they make a word “un”ed in Spanish (as in, covered –> uncovered, known –> unknown, loved –> unloved) is to add the preposition “des” to the beginning of it, that’s kind of like the Spanish “un”, so:

“des” + “enamorar” + “ado” = “des” + “enamorado” = “desenamorado” = “unloved”

In the next to last line we’ve got “Le tengo la solución si le duele el corazón”.  The first part is pretty simple and you’ve probably got no problem understanding it: “le tengo la solución” – “le” is just a pronoun meaning “you” that’s reflected back on by “tengo” which is the present first person form of “tener” which means “to have” and when you do that it translates as “I have for you the solution…”, and “si” just means “if”.

Then, we see “le” this time filling in for “your heart” and being reflected back on by “duele” which is the third person present form of “doler” which means “to hurt or cause pain” and in this case the “corazón” at the end is simply added for clarification because “le duele” says “it’s hurting” so of course you wonder “what’s hurting?” and “el corazón” is added at the end to clarify, so a more accurate translation that’ll help you understand how that sentence is working would be like this:

“Le tengo la solución si le duele el corazón” = “I have for you the solution if it hurts, your heart that is”

And it’ll make even more sense to us English speakers if we make one more minor little tweak and stick some strategic commas in there:

“Le tengo la solución si le duele, el corazón” = “I have the solution for you if it, your heart, hurts.”

If you’re having trouble understanding, go back and look at those sentences and really pay attention to what I did with the commas, I hope that explains it for you.

Next verse:

Soy yerbatero, vengo a curar su mal de amores
Soy el que quita los dolores y habla con los animales
Dígame de que sufre usted
Que yo le tengo un brebaje
Que le devuelve el tono y lo pone bien

That’s a repeat, we’ve covered it.

Next:

Si a usted, señor, lo deja su mujer
úntese en el alma pomadita de clavel
Y para la señora que el marido ha sido infiel
No se preocupe, búsquese uno usted también

Another repeat. Next:

Si a usted, señor, lo deja su mujer
úntese en el alma pomadita de clavel
Y para la señora que el marido ha sido infiel
No se preocupe, búsquese uno usted también

Another repeat. Next:

Soy yerbatero…Soy yerbatero…Soy yerbatero…

Translation (do I really need to?):

I’m the healer…I’m the healer…I’m the healer…

That’s it! We’re done.  I hope you enjoyed this iteration of the series, which I plan to keep on doing forever because it’s a fantastic learning method, everyone seems to like it, and there is an endless supply of music videos and other various medias (I’m thinking about trying some short clips from TV shows or movies at some point) out there for us to learn from.  Let me know what you think in the comments, and also give me any suggestions for songs or music videos you’d like to see me do in the future!

The secrets of how to use free online resources to teach yourself Spanish, from home, in just a few months - Also: Here are the internet's Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources

I run a newsletter entirely about how to learn Spanish online for free where I send out every cool new tip and technique that I learn to my subscribers and not only do they get it before anyone else but frequently they get things that no one else ever does. Additionally, I've spent a great deal of time putting together a 3-part series of articles for you on the internet's best free resources for the Spanish-learner that you'll get when you sign up for my newsletter--in addition to all of what you get below, I'll be sure to send you any updates about cool new sites, resources, and learning tips and techniques that I come up with:

Part 1: An article called “Spanish Learning Systems: Should you bother?” about whether or not you should even bother with a pre-packaged Spanish-learning system (e.g. Rosetta Stone or Pimsleur) and, if you do decide you want to, where you can go online to find programs that are literally 1/10th the price of older, more common systems like Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur but actually work even better. Also, at the same time, you’ll get a separate e-mail with a very long list of my favorite Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources (tools, references, sites with free lessons, articles, blogs, forums, etc.) that's far to long to include here, especially with all the other stuff I've got below that's just on this site alone, and I'd like to offer it to you (completely free, you don't have to do anything other than sign up) right now.

Part 2: I explain what language exchanges are (essentially they allow you free access to an unlimited number of native speakers to practice your Spanish with), why they're absolutely essential if you're teaching yourself (I'm serious when I say this: it's impossible to get fluent without them if you're learning a foreign language on your own), how to use them, and which ones are the best.

Part 3: I cover chat rooms which are specifically devoted to connecting you with native Spanish speakers who want to learn English so you can chat with them in Spanish (and they'll help and correct you) and then you do the same for them with their English (these are completely free to use, but rather hard to find, but I'll tell you where the best ones are!). Sign up below!



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Related Posts:

• Learning Spanish from Music Videos: Shakira’s ‘Te Aviso, Te Anuncio’ aka ‘Objection (Tango)’
• Learning Spanish From Music Videos: Shakira’s ‘Suerte’
• Learning Spanish from Music Videos: Shakira’s ‘La Tortura’ Dissected

This is the 4th in a series of posts I’m doing where I help you learn Spanish from music videos and show you how I do it myself (that way you don’t have to wait for me to dissect a Spanish music video, you can go out and start doing it yourself with whatever songs you want and using it to teach yourself Spanish).  I’ve done three other posts prior to this: the third one on Shakira’s “Ojos Así”, the second one on Shakira’s “Suerte” and the first one on Shakira’s “La Tortura”.  I will eventually move onto another artist for future posts, and if you’ve got any suggestions as far as artists or songs go please put them in the comments, I’d love to hear them.

About This Song

Te Aviso, Te Anuncio is the first song by Shakira that was actually written in English first, titled as Objection (Tango), on her first English-language album ever, the massively successful Laundry Service, which was released in 2001.  So this song was first written (by Shakira) in English, and then she did a Spanish version of it (mind you, she didn’t translate the English version into Spanish, that sort of thing almost never works, she wrote a Spanish version of it that, although similar, definitely isn’t a direct translation).

The song itself starts out as a classical tango between Shakira and her ex-lover with allusions to one of the most famous tango songs of all time, Gerardo Matos Rodríguez’s La Cumparsita, which means “The little parade”, and was originally written in 1917.  It shortly after proceeds into latin rock territory once Shakira’s ex-lover leaves and she starts whaling on an electric guitar.

What follows is…entertaining, to say the least, and frankly downright weird (in an awesome and hilarious way), where Shakira expresses her dissatisfaction with her ex’s behavior via kidnapping him and his new girlfriend, who she also fights with (in cartoon form–note the helpful graphic I’ve provided) while two ‘superheros’ who look like they got their costumes at the Salvation Army proceed to beat up on her ex.  It’s just all kinds of fun, definitely watch it once or twice through just for amusement, it’s worth it

The Video

The usual instructions follow for this:

The way I want you to do this is to play it once all the way through, then let’s look at it one verse at a time, and translate it.  Now, go back and play the verse we just analyzed several times and see if you can hear and understand everything being said, then go on to the next one.  Here it is:

First verse:

Nunca pensé que doliera el amor así
Cuándo se entierra en el medio de un no y un sí
Es un dia ella y otro dia yo
Me estás dejando sin corazón
Y cero de razón

Which translates to:

I never thought love would hurt like this
when you’re buried in the middle of a no and a yes
It’s her one day, me the next
You’re leaving me without a heart
and zero reason [for it]

“Doliera” is the imperfect subjunctive of “doler” which means “to hurt”, the subjunctive in this case is being used because the statement expresses doubt and uncertainty (if you need more help with the subjunctive check out my post on it here: The Spanish Subjunctive Explained). “Se entierra” means “one is interred (buried)” and is the 3rd person singular conjugation of the verb “enterrar” which means “to bury”.  “Medio” means “half” literally and this is how they frequently express “in the middle” or “between”.  “Dejar” means “to leave or to let” and in this case the gerund (“dejando”) is combined with the present “tú” form of “estar” (to be) to express that he is currently (as in right now) leaving her without a heart–note that whenever this is done (you see estar + gerund) instead of just the present form (in this case that would be “dejas”) it means that the action in question is actually happening right now, at that very moment, not potentially 5 minutes (or hours) in the future as can be the case with the present form depending on the context.

Next:

Ay, te aviso y te anuncio que hoy renuncio
A tus negocios sucios
Ya sabes que estoy de ti vacunada
A prueba de patadas
Por ti me quedé como Mona Lisa
Sin llanto y sin sonrisa
Que el cielo y tu madre cuiden de ti
Me voy, será mejor así

Which means:

Oh, I’m warning you and I’m announcing to you that today I’m renouncing
your dirty business
You know that I’ve been vaccinated against you
to protect me from your kicks [referring to tango kicks]
Because of you I’m left like Mona Lisa
Without tears and without a smile
Let Heaven and your mother take care of you
I’m leaving, it will be better that way

Ah, here we go, now “avisar“, as you may have guessed, is indeed related to “advise” in that it means “to warn”, and “anunciar” means “to announce”, which I’ve no doubt was chosen so that it would rhyme when she says “hoy renuncio” which means “today I renounce”, so she’s making it clear that she’s loudly and publicly announcing her renunciation of him!

“Negocio” means “business”, pluralized in this case to express the fact that he has got several various dirty dealings that qualify as “dirty business”, and “sucio”, of course, means “dirty”.

A really interesting phrase we see next that I needed some help sorting out is “Ya sabes que estoy de ti vacunada”, which literally translates to “Already you know that I am from you vaccinated” where “vacunado” is the past participle of the verb “vacunar” which means “to vaccinate”; the word order is really screwy here and the lack of punctuation to help out makes it worse.  What she’s saying isn’t “I am of your vaccinated” which is what it looks like, she’s using de to mean “from”, so she’s actually saying “I’m vaccinated against you”, as in “I’m immune to your charms” as we would say in English, but the word order is such that you have to insert a couple of commas to read it properly: “You already know that I am, from you, vaccinated”–that makes sense!

And next up is something even more confusing unless you’re a Spanish-speaking tango dancer: “A prueba de patadas” which means “to be kick-proof” with regards to what she’s vaccinated against (kicks, his kicks).  This refers to the kicks you see in the tango dance, so she’s saying that she’s immune to his sexy dance moves, haha! In this case the word “prueba” is used, which normally means “test”, however when it’s used with “de” like this it can sometimes mean “X-proof”, e.g. “prueba de balas” means “bullet proof”.  And, of course, “patada” means “kick” so when you combine the two in the phrase “prueba de patadas” you get “kicks-proof”

The next thing I’d like to address is the use of “Que” in this statement: “Que el cielo y tu madre cuiden de ti”.  When you see this in Spanish–it’s hard to spot, you have to go off the context more than anything, though it almost always occurs at the beginning of a sentence or clause–it means literally “that” but it means it in the sense of “That the following may occur” or, a better translation, being “Let the following occur” as in “I want the following to happen”, so when she says “Que el cielo y tu madre cuiden de ti”, she’s saying “I want that heaven and your mother take care of you”…sort of…make sense?

Next verse:

Sé que olvidarte no es asunto sencillo
Te me clavaste en el cuerpo como un cuchillo
Pero todo lo que entra ha de salir
Y los que estan tendrán que partir
Empezando por mi

Which translates to:

I know that forgetting you isn’t a simple matter
You drove a knife through my heart
But all that comes in must go out
And those that are [still in] will have to go
Starting with me

“Olvidarte” is the infinitive of the verb “olvidar“, which means “to forget”, with “te” added on to the end which directs the action of “olvidar” to “te” (you) in this case.  In that same sentence we see a very interesting, and commonly used, word with multiple meantings: “asunto“.  Which, in this case, means “matter”, but can also mean similar things such as “issue” (in the sense of a problem) or “affair” (in the sense of a situation, not a romantic affair), and is also used when Spanish-speakers say the equivalent of our English expressions, “It’s none of your business” by saying “No es asunto tuyo” (literally, “it’s not your affair”), and “The thing is that…” by saying “El asunto es que…” (literally, “the issue is that”).  Also, “sencillo” means “simple”, so her expression “asunto sencillo” obviously means “simple matter” as in “it’s not a simple matter”.

The next line includes the verb “clavar” to express that her lover has proverbially driven a knife or stake through her heart, as we would say, and “clavar” literally translates to “to nail, drive, or thrust” in reference to stabbing or driving a sharp object such as a knife or nail into something.  Notice the exact wording of the expression that’s actually used in this case and you’ll see it’s clear that it’s a metaphor: “Te me clavaste en el cuerpo como un cuchillo” which literally means “You stabbed me in the body like a knife” so she’s saying that he has caused her great and sudden pain like when someone stabs you with a knife, except her pain is emotional, it’s just like when we refer to “our heart” in English in reference to emotions and romance: we’re talking about the symbolic heart, that which represents our feelings, not the real one, and you see it when we say that a lover/ex “stabbed us in the heart” or, the more recently popular and funny expression, “He/she crapped on my heart!”

After that there’s the expression “Y los que estan tendrán que partir” and I’d like to point out that the word “tendrán” is actually the third person plural future of the verb “tener” (click to see the full conjugation) so what’s literally being said is “And those that are will have to leave” because, as you probably already know, “estar” is always used to indicate the presence of something in a certain location (you would say “Estoy en Bogotá”, not “Soy en Bogotá”), and so she’s saying “those which are still there” by saying “los que estan”, and the way that “have to” is most commonly said in Spanish is by using “tener + que + [action]“, e.g. “I have to go” = “Tengo que ir”, and since she wants to say that these things (plural) will have to go (if they’re there) she does this by using the future conjugation in the “ustedes” form, which is “tendrán”. Got it?

And, of course, the last line, “Empezando por mi” means “beginning with me” (in reference to that which will have to go) as “empezando” is the gerund (“-ing” version) of the verb “empezar” which means “to begin”.

Next verse:

Ay, te aviso y te anuncio que hoy renuncio
A tus negocios sucios
Ya sabes que estoy de ti vacunada
A prueba de patadas
Por ti me quedé como Mona Lisa
Sin llanto y sin sonrisa
Que el cielo y tu madre cuiden de ti
Me voy

Which is just a repeat of a verse we covered before. Next:

Tal vez tú no eras ese para mi
No sé como se puede ya vivir queriendo así

Which means:

Maybe you weren’t that for me
I don’t know how anyone can even live
Wanting like this

Now, the first line, “Tal vez tú no eras ese para mi”, is in reference to the previous verse where she said “Me voy, será mejor así” in the last line which means “I’m leaving, it will be best that way”, so she’s saying that maybe he wasn’t the best for her (“ese” in the first line of the current verse refers to “mejor” in the last line of the previous verse).  Oh, and “tal vez” is a very common expression that means “perhaps” or “maybe”.

Next verse:

Es tan patético, neurótico, satírico y sicótico
Tú no lo ves, el tango no es de a trés
Ahí voy planeando escapar y me sale al revés
Pero voy a intentarlo una y otra vez, voy

Which means:

It’s so pathetic and neurotic and satirical and psychotic
Don’t you see? Tango is not for three
There I go planning to escape and I get the opposite
But I’m going to try it one more time, I’m leaving!

Ok, this is cute and kinda funny at this point.  The first line is the funniest, but it’s also pretty obvious and I don’t think there’s anything there I need to explain, do I? I guess I’ll mention that “tan” is a very common word that means “so” in the sense of “a lot”, and a very similar word that you’ll frequently confuse it with is “tal” which means “such”.

Where she says “me sale al revés” that literally translates to “It takes me out backwards” but this is an idiomatic expression meaning “I get the opposite” because “al revés” means “the wrong way round”, “sale” is in the 3rd person present so it means “it takes out” (that is, “it” is the one doing the taking out, not her) and it’s reflexive so it’s happening to her: “me sale al revés” = “it takes me out the wrong way round”.

In the last line you see the verb “intentar” which means “to try” and with “lo” tacked onto the end, of course, it means “to try it”.

Next verse:

Ay, te aviso te anuncio que hoy renuncio
A tus negocios sucios
Por ti me quedé como Mona Lisa
Sin llanto y sin sonrisa
Te aviso que estoy de ti vacunada
Y no me importa nada
Que el cielo y tu madre cuiden de ti
Me voy, será mejor así

Which is the third repeat of that same verse we previously dealt with. Next:

Ya me voy, ya me fui
Es mejor así
Ay, que el cielo y tu madre cuiden de ti
Me voy
Ay, que el cielo y tu madre cuiden de ti
Me voy
¡Será mejor así!

Which is a repeat except for the first line which means “I’m going already, I’ve already left” due to “ya” (“already” or “now”) at the beginning of the sentence, and then “fui” is the preterite “yo” form of “ir” (“to go”) that means “I left” when used reflexively (“se/me/te/etc.”) in this case with “me”.

That’s it! We’re done.  I love doing this with music videos, TV shows, movies, etc. (for more information on that check out my post on learning Spanish with “The Telenovela Method”), you learn an enormous amount of the language just from a few minutes of one of those.  Any suggestions for how to go forth with this? Modifications? Improvements?  Let me know what you think in the comments.  Also, of course, there will be more where this came from, whether it’s Shakira or other artists or other media like clips from movies or what-have-you, it seems people really like this, so we’re definitely going to keep doing this indefinitely.

The secrets of how to use free online resources to teach yourself Spanish, from home, in just a few months - Also: Here are the internet's Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources

I run a newsletter entirely about how to learn Spanish online for free where I send out every cool new tip and technique that I learn to my subscribers and not only do they get it before anyone else but frequently they get things that no one else ever does. Additionally, I've spent a great deal of time putting together a 3-part series of articles for you on the internet's best free resources for the Spanish-learner that you'll get when you sign up for my newsletter--in addition to all of what you get below, I'll be sure to send you any updates about cool new sites, resources, and learning tips and techniques that I come up with:

Part 1: An article called “Spanish Learning Systems: Should you bother?” about whether or not you should even bother with a pre-packaged Spanish-learning system (e.g. Rosetta Stone or Pimsleur) and, if you do decide you want to, where you can go online to find programs that are literally 1/10th the price of older, more common systems like Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur but actually work even better. Also, at the same time, you’ll get a separate e-mail with a very long list of my favorite Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources (tools, references, sites with free lessons, articles, blogs, forums, etc.) that's far to long to include here, especially with all the other stuff I've got below that's just on this site alone, and I'd like to offer it to you (completely free, you don't have to do anything other than sign up) right now.

Part 2: I explain what language exchanges are (essentially they allow you free access to an unlimited number of native speakers to practice your Spanish with), why they're absolutely essential if you're teaching yourself (I'm serious when I say this: it's impossible to get fluent without them if you're learning a foreign language on your own), how to use them, and which ones are the best.

Part 3: I cover chat rooms which are specifically devoted to connecting you with native Spanish speakers who want to learn English so you can chat with them in Spanish (and they'll help and correct you) and then you do the same for them with their English (these are completely free to use, but rather hard to find, but I'll tell you where the best ones are!). Sign up below!



Also, if you like what you see here PLEASE SUBSCRIBE to my Twitter feed and/or RSS feed so you can be updated any time there’s a new post.

Cheers,

Andrew

Related Posts:

• Learning Spanish from Music Videos: Shakira’s “Ojos Así”
• Learning Spanish from Music Videos: Juanes’ ‘Yerbatero’ Dissected
• Learning Spanish From Music Videos: Shakira’s ‘Suerte’

And now we get to the second installment of our “learning Spanish from music videos” thing I’m doing based roughly on The Telenovela Method where we use popular entertainment media like music, TV shows, and movies to learn Spanish.  The first installment was based on Shakira’s ‘La Tortura’, which you should check out there if you haven’t already.

This time it’s Shakira’s ‘Suerte’ (next time I might pick a different artist, though I’ve already started listening to ‘Ojos Asi’, so you may have to put up with Shakira one more time before we move onto someone else) and it shouldn’t be as long as the ‘La Tortura’ post, but no promises.  “Suerte“, by the way, means “luck/lucky”.  The theme of the song, again, is some guy she likes, except this time instead of giving him the boot (“a otro perro con ese hueso!”, haha) for banging some other chick, she’s professing her love, acknowledging her shortcomings (small breasts that cannot be confused with mountains ), and begging him to stay with her if he feels the same way.  Let’s dive right in.

The video

The way I want you to do this is to play it once all the way through, then let’s look at it one stanza at a time, and translate it.  Now, go back and play the stanza we just analyzed several times and see if you can hear and understand everything being said, then go on to the next one.

(Please note: if you’re in a country where this video is blocked for you try here, here, or here)

And here’s the first stanza and then the translation:

Suerte que en el Sur hayas nacido
Y que burlemos las distancias

Which translates to:

It’s lucky that you were born in the south [meaning South America]
and that we can overcome the distance

Ok, the first thing you’ll notice is the use of the subjunctive–which I’ll be making a separate, and very comprehensive, post on quite shortly it’s now up: The Spanish Subjunctive Explained–with the verb “hayas”, which means “you have” and is in the subjunctive because she’s saying that it’s lucky that this happened, which is a personal expression of opinion and therefore requires the subjunctive.  “Nacido” is the past participle of the verb “nacer“, which means to be born.

The next word we come to is a bit tricky, and I honestly have to admit I’m not sure I’ve nailed the translation (if not, I’m sure I’ll hear about it in the comments ): burlar.  Its primary definition is “to evade”, however it could also mean “to make fun of or mock”, and in this case it could be either one, however I personally think that “evade” or “get around”, i.e. “overcome”, makes more sense–maybe they’re making fun of the distance between them, but it makes more sense to me that she’s saying that they’re lucky they got around it.  Also, “burlemos” is the present subjunctive form of “burlar” (the subjunctive gets a lot of play in this song).

Next stanza:

Suerte que es haberte conocido
Y por ti amar tierras extrañas

Which means:

It’s lucky that I have known you
and because of you I love foreign lands

“Conocido” is the past participle of “conocer” which means “to know [a person]” (“saber” is used when referring to facts). “Por” in this case means “for” as in “because of”, “amar” means “to love”, though I should point out that when Spanish-speakers want to say that they love somebody (lover, wife, parent, child, etc.), they say “te quiero”, not “te amo”; “amar” has a bit more of a deep, poetic connotation to it and can come off as kind of cheesy or weird if not used properly and, also, it’s only used to express romantic love.

Next:

Yo puedo escalar los Andes solo
Por ir a contar tus lunares

Which translates to:

I can climb the Andes alone
to go and count your moles

“Escalar” means to climb, “los Andes” obviously refers to the Andes mountains (remember, Shakira is Colombian and the Andes cut right through Colombia), a “lunar” in this case is a mole or beauty mark.

Next:

Contigo celebro y sufro todo
mis alegrías
Y mis males
Lo ro lo le lo le
Lo ro lo le lo le

Sabes que
Estoy a tus pies

Which means:

With you I celebrate and suffer everything
The good times and the bad

le ro lo le etc. etc.

You know that I’m at your feet.

“Contigo” is a contraction of “con” and “tú” (you would never say “con tú”, you’d always say “contigo”), “celebrar” means to celebrate, “suffrir” means to suffer, so far so good.

Now we come to “alegrías” and “males”, which is where it gets tricky because there isn’t really a good direct English translation of either of these words, “joy” is pretty close for “alegría” but it more literally means “happy things” or “happy times” depending on the context, and the same thing with “males” which is the plural of “mal” which is normally an adjective that simply means “bad”, though it can also be a noun, as it is in this case, that means “bad things” or “bad times”.

Lastly, you see the previously mentioned “saber” being used here to state a fact: that she’s at his feet (“sabes que estoy a tus pies”).

Next:

Contigo, mi vida
Quiero vivir la vida
Lo que me queda de vida
Quiero vivir contigo

Which means:

With you, my dear [lit. "life"]
I want to live life
What I have left of life
I want to live with you

You see “contigo” again, “vida” literally means “life” and in this first use (“contigo, mi vida”) it’s used to refer to her lover, she’s say that he’s “her life”, then it’s immediately used in its literal sense, I’m sure on purpose, sort of like someone saying “I love you, my love” where “love” is first used as a verb and then as a pronoun.

She then says “Lo que me queda de vida”: we’ve discussed what it means when you see “lo” used like this in the previous ‘La Tortura’ post, but we’ll quickly revisit it: “lo” is a direct object pronoun used in a way in Spanish that’s kind of hard to explain, but it’s sort of like how we use “that” in a very specific context: “that which is”, so in this case “lo que _____” means “that which ______”, so “lo que me queda de vida” literaly means “that which I have left of life”, got it?

Oh, and in case you didn’t figure it out, “quedar” means “to be left or remain”, so in this case with it being reflexive towards “me”, it means “what’s left to me / what remains for me”.

Next verse:

Suerte que es tener labios sinceros
Para besarte con mas ganas
Suerte que mis pechos sean pequeños
Y no los confundas con montañas

And that translates to:

It’s lucky that I have sincere lips
So I can kiss you passionately
Lucky that my breasts are small
And that you don’t confuse them with mountains

“Labio” means “lip”, “sincero”, as you’ve likely guessed, means “sincere” or “honest”.  “Besar” means “to kiss”, and tacking the “te” on the end means “to kiss you”.

Now, the “con mas ganas” part is the one that’s going to require a bit of explanation: much to my consternation, I can’t find a Spanish dictionary anywhere that recognizes “ganas” as a noun, but it is a noun and it’s used as a noun here in this particular instance.  Normally it would be the present “tu” form of “ganar“, which means “to win”, but not in this case.  I personally, from experience and context, would translate it as “enthusiasm”, “appetite”, or “passion”, and now I just tried plugging it into a couple translation engines and they recognize it as a noun and all three of them (Google, Yahoo, and Babel) define it as “desire” which is one I didn’t think of and would probably work just as well as my translation of “passion” in that I could’ve translated that sentence as: “So I can kiss you with more desire”.

After that we get to…boobies!  Indeed.  No clue why she says this, but she does: “pechos” means “breasts” (in the sense of a woman’s breasts), but do remember that “pecho”, singular, just means “chest” in the normal sense (I know you want to know so I’ll tell you: “tetas” is how you say “tits” or “boobs”).  “Los” is the plural of the previously explained direct object pronoun “lo” and refers to her breasts, “confundir” means “to confuse”, and “montaña” means “mountain”.  Next!

The following stanza is:

Suerte que herede las piernas firmes
Para correr si me hace falta,
Y estos dos ojos que me dicen
Que han de llorar cuando te vayas

Which means:

It’s lucky that I inherited strong legs
so that I can run if I need to
and these two eyes tell me
that they have to cry when you leave

Now we run into a verb you likely haven’t heard before, “heredar“, which means “to inherit” and isn’t especially notable except for the fact that you don’t hear it often – it can mean to inherit either money or a certain physical or personality trait from your parents.  “Pierna” is “leg”, “firma” means “strong” or “firm” depending on the context (in this case I think “strong” makes more sense, though they do look quite firm as well ).

Then we come to “Para correr si me hace falta”: “correr” means “to run”, but where it gets complicated is at “me hace falta”…now, this particular phrase, “hacer falta”, can have multiple meanings: usually, it’s used to indicate that something’s needed, necessary, lacking, or missing (see the 2nd definition of “falta” under “also: hacer falta”), e.g. “me hace falta suerte” which means “I need some luck” or “Me hace falta sucra” which means “I’m lacking sugar” or “I need some sugar”. The reason for this is that the secondary definiton of “falta”, after the primary definition of “mistake”, is “lack or absence”, and since “hacer” means “to make or do” when you say “hacer falta” you’re “making lack” or “making need/necessity”. Now, when you put “me” before a verb it becomes reflexive back on you so that whatever that verb is doing, it’s doing to you, and so consequently when you say “me hace falta” you’re literally saying “it makes a lack for me” or “it creates an absence for/to me”, you see? It sorta makes sense, haha.

Next, she goes on to talk about his eyes (how typical) and says “Y es que tus dos ojos me dicen que han de llorar cuando te vayas”: “ojo” means “eye”, that’s simple, but what’s this “han de llorar”?  Well, “llorar” means “to cry”, that’s easy enough, but the use of “haber” here is rather odd: in this case it means “to have to”, as in “to have to cry”–normally that’s expressed with “tener que”, but if you’ll scroll down to the 3rd definition for haber (here) you’ll see:

haber de hacer algo -> to have to do something

So it can be used to express obligation, to say “to have to”, but it’s unusual and I’ll tell you that 98% of the time I’ve heard someone say that someone has to do something in Spanish, they’ve used “tener que”, not “haber de”, but it can (and is, obviously) done, so it should be noted.

Lastly, we get to “te vayas” which is the present tú subjunctive of “irse” which is a very common Spanish way of saying “to go” in reference to a person leaving to go somewhere and makes sense if you think about it: it’s reflexive, so again the verb is doing whatever it is it does to the person that the reflexive pronoun represents, in this case that verb is “ir” and so “se va”, for example, literally means “you make yourself go” or “me voy” means “I make myself go” (FYI “me voy” is a very common way of saying “I’m leaving”).

Now…you’ll notice that in this particular case it’s in the subjunctive (“te vayas” instead of “te vas”)–why?  Well, she says “cuando te vayas” meaning “when you leave”, but his leaving isn’t certain, it’s very much an if/when-you-leave sort of thing, it’s unknown, it’s not a concrete thing, he isn’t scheduled to depart at precisely 9 AM the next morning so therefore we have uncertainty and therefore we have…the subjunctive! Yaaaaay!

Next:

Le ro lo le lo le
Le ro lo le lo le

Sabes que
Estoy a tus pies

This is just a repeat chorus, we’ve covered this.  Next.

Le ro lo le lo le
La felicidad tiene tu nombre
y tu piel

The word for “happiness” in Spanish is “la felicidad”, and the word for “skin” is “piel”, so what she’s saying here when she literally says “happiness has your name and your skin” is that happiness is, to her, the sound of his name and the feel of his skin against hers…daaaawwwwww, so cute (it’s late, I’m getting weird).

The next, and final verse (though it’s repeated a couple times) is:

Ya sabes, mi vida
Estoy hasta el cuello por ti
Si sientes algo así
Quiero que te quedes junto a mi

Which means:

You already know, my love [lit. "my life"]
I’m up to my neck because of you
If you feel the same way
I want you to stay together with me

As you should already know, “ya” means “still” or “already”, and as we mentioned previously “mi vida” can be used to mean “my love” because in this case she’s saying “my life” in that he is her life, so that’s why we translated it that way.

Now, “estoy hasta el cuello”: “hasta” means “until”, “up to”, or “as far as” and “cuello” means “neck”, so she’s saying she’s up to her neck because of him (up to her neck with what, I don’t know–I’m honestly not quite sure what she’s trying to say here).  Then she says “si siente algo así” (“sentir” means “to feel”) which literally means “if you feel something like this”, because “algo” means “something” and “así” means “this way or like this”.

Next she says “Quiero que te quedes junto a mi” which is something like “I want that you keep yourself together with me” because, as we’ve discussed, “quedar” means “to remain or keep” and “junto” means “together”.  Now, when “quedar” is made to be reflexive, as in this case, it means “to stay” (if you’ll look at the definition for “quedar” and scroll waaay down to the heading “Pronomial Verb”, you’ll see it) in the personal sense because the verb (“to keep”) is being done to the person it’s reflexive upon, so when you say “te quedes” you’re saying “you keep yourself” meaning “you stay” and…did you notice something else? “te quedes” is in the subjunctive Why?  Because when she says “Quiero que te quedes” she’s making a wish (first letter in W.E.I.R.D.O., right?), she’s expressing a desire, and that always requires the subjunctive.

That’s it folks, we’re done.  Again, I congratulate you if you’ve made it this far because if you have you’ve learned a lot of Spanish in the process.  I’ve got a bunch of posts in the queue and I’ll begin work on doing another one of these posts for Shakira’s Ojos Así (there’s the video if you want to get started ahead of time–doesn’t she look better as a brunette, her natural color? I think so…like the dreadlocks on her, too) so look for that in a week or two (do I even need to tell you? Subscribe if you haven’t, then you’ll know!).  Thanks again for taking the time to read this.

The secrets of how to use free online resources to teach yourself Spanish, from home, in just a few months - Also: Here are the internet's Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources

I run a newsletter entirely about how to learn Spanish online for free where I send out every cool new tip and technique that I learn to my subscribers and not only do they get it before anyone else but frequently they get things that no one else ever does. Additionally, I've spent a great deal of time putting together a 3-part series of articles for you on the internet's best free resources for the Spanish-learner that you'll get when you sign up for my newsletter--in addition to all of what you get below, I'll be sure to send you any updates about cool new sites, resources, and learning tips and techniques that I come up with:

Part 1: An article called “Spanish Learning Systems: Should you bother?” about whether or not you should even bother with a pre-packaged Spanish-learning system (e.g. Rosetta Stone or Pimsleur) and, if you do decide you want to, where you can go online to find programs that are literally 1/10th the price of older, more common systems like Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur but actually work even better. Also, at the same time, you’ll get a separate e-mail with a very long list of my favorite Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources (tools, references, sites with free lessons, articles, blogs, forums, etc.) that's far to long to include here, especially with all the other stuff I've got below that's just on this site alone, and I'd like to offer it to you (completely free, you don't have to do anything other than sign up) right now.

Part 2: I explain what language exchanges are (essentially they allow you free access to an unlimited number of native speakers to practice your Spanish with), why they're absolutely essential if you're teaching yourself (I'm serious when I say this: it's impossible to get fluent without them if you're learning a foreign language on your own), how to use them, and which ones are the best.

Part 3: I cover chat rooms which are specifically devoted to connecting you with native Spanish speakers who want to learn English so you can chat with them in Spanish (and they'll help and correct you) and then you do the same for them with their English (these are completely free to use, but rather hard to find, but I'll tell you where the best ones are!). Sign up below!



Also, if you like what you see here PLEASE SUBSCRIBE to my Twitter feed and/or RSS feed so you can be updated any time there’s a new post.

Cheers,

Andrew

Related Posts:

• Learning Spanish from Music Videos: Juanes’ ‘Yerbatero’ Dissected
• Learning Spanish from Music Videos: Shakira’s ‘Te Aviso, Te Anuncio’ aka ‘Objection (Tango)’
• Learning Spanish from Music Videos: Shakira’s “Ojos Así”