Lesson 23 Notes

April 15th, 2007
CoffeeBreakSpanish.com
In this edition:
dealing with
problems in
hotels
Lesson 23
Notes
El aire acondicionado no funciona
Lesson 23
Programme Notes
Welcome to Coffee Break Spanish, the podcast
aimed at independent learners of Spanish. In
Coffee Break Spanish we’ll be guiding you
through the basics of the Spanish language and
helping you to learn to communicate in Spain
and Spanish-speaking countries.
Continuing the theme of hotels and
accommodation, lesson 23 looks at problems you
may encounter in a hotel.
la habitación es demasiado pequeña
the room is too small
la habitación es demasiado ruidosa
the room is too noisy
la habitación es demasiado cara
the room is too expensive
Hay un problema...
As you make progress in your learning of
Spanish, you’ll realise that many of the
constructions you’ve learned in previous lessons
can be reused and combined with new words to
create new phrases.
As an example of this, in the phrase “there is a
problem with the room” there is only one word
which we’ve not yet learned in Coffee Break
Spanish: “problem”. In Spanish the word for
“problem” is problema. Although it ends in -a it is
a masculine word. Other similar words include
telegrama (“telegram”), programa (“programme”),
drama (“drama”), etc.
hay un problema con la habitación
there is a problem with the room
There are obviously a number of possible
problems with your room, but we’re going to
concentrate on a few problems which allow us to
reuse certain constructions and items of
vocabulary.
We came across the word “too” when we learned
to say that food was too cold or too hot, etc. This
word is demasiado. We can now use it to describe
our room:
1
In each of the above cases, we use the word es
from the verb ser to describe the permanent state
of the room: it’s unlikely that the room is going
to get any smaller, and from its location next to
the street it may well be the case that the room
will always be noisy.
When we’re describing the temporary state of a
room, we use está, from estar:
la habitación está sucia
the room is dirty
Note that in all the above examples, the adjective
has to agree with the feminine noun: it’s la
habitación, so you have to say pequeña, ruidosa, cara
and sucia, as opposed to pequeño, ruidoso, caro and
sucio.
If you need to complain about the temperature
in the room, you use a slightly different form. In
this case, you have to use the same construction
you used when talking about the weather:
en la habitación hace demasiado frío
in the room it’s too cold
en la habitación hace
demasiado calor
in the room it’s too hot
Both these phrases can be changed around:
hace demasiado frío en la habitación
it’s too cold in the room
It’s not working...
In Spanish the word you use to say if things work
or not is funcionar, literally “to function”. This is a
regular -ar verb, so to say “it functions” or “it
works”, you say funciona. The negative version of
this is:
no funciona
it doesn’t work
You may therefore need to be able to say:
la ducha no funciona
the shower doesn’t work
la televisión no funciona
the television doesn’t work
el aire acondicionado no funciona
the air conditioning doesn’t work
Other situations may involve you not being able
to do something. To say “I can’t...” you use the
negative version of the verb poder:
no puedo
I can’t / I cannot ...
This phrase is always followed by an infinitive:
no puedo abrir la ventana
I can’t open the window
no puedo encender la luz
I can’t switch on the light
no puedo encender la televisión
I can’t switch on the television
no puedo acceder internet
I can’t access the internet
There may be things missing in your room, eg.
soap, towels, etc. We have already learned to say
“there is...” or “there are...”:
hay...
there is / there are ...
As with every verb in Spanish you can make this
negative by adding no in front:
no hay...
there is not / there is no ...
no hay jabón
there is no soap
no hay toallas
there are no towels
no hay papel higiénico
there is no toilet paper
no hay agua caliente
there is no hot water
Note that no hay literally means “there is not...”,
but in the cases above it has the meaning “there
is not any...” or “there isn’t any...”.
¡Algo huele mal!
The word huele, from the verb oler means “he/
she/it smells”, so you may need to say:
la habitación huele mal
the room smells (bad)
el baño huele mal
the bathroom smells (bad)
Coffee Break Spanish: Lesson 23
page 2
CoffeeBreakSpanish: Lesson 23 - Basic Vocabulary
un problema
problem
hay un problema...
there is a problem
demasiado
too
pequeño / pequeña
small
ruidoso / ruidosa
noisy
sucio / sucia
dirty
limpio / limpia
clean
caro / cara
expensive
la habitación es pequeña
the room is small
la habitación está sucia
the room is dirty
el aire acondicionado
air conditioning
la televisión
television
funcionar
to function / work
funciona
it works
no funciona
it doesn’t work
no puedo...
I can’t...
abrir
to open
la ventana
window
encender
to switch on
la luz
light
acceder
to access
acceder internet
to access the internet
no hay...
there isn’t... / there aren’t...
una toalla
towel
el jabón
soap
el papel higiénico
toilet paper / toilet tissue
el agua caliente
hot water
oler
to smell
huele (mal)
it smells (bad)
CoffeeBreakSpanish: Lesson 23 - Bonus Vocabulary
¿puedo ver la habitación?
can I see the room?
¿está incluido el desayuno?
is breakfast included?
¿a qué hora se sirve el desayuno?
when is breakfast served?
el desayuno se sirve de las siete a las breakfast is served from 7 until 10
diez
Coffee Break Spanish: Lesson 23
page 3
¿puedo cargar esto a mi habitación?
can I charge this to my room?
¿me puede pedir un taxi?
can you order me a taxi?
¿me puede dar otra manta?
can you give me another blanket?
¿tengo que dejar la llave en la
recepción?
do I have to leave the key in reception?
¿me da la llave para la habitación
número 115, por favor?
can you give me the key for room 115,
please?
¿a qué hora tengo que dejar la
habitación?
when do I have to check out?
CoffeeBreakSpanish.com
All materials ©Copyright Radio Lingua International 2007
Coffee Break Spanish: Lesson 23
page 4