Episode 005

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Welcome to this latest edition of the Café Cortado, the podcast where we answer your questions about the Spanish language. In this edition Burks has a question about hotel reservations.

As Burks correctly suggests, the verb "to smoke" in Spanish is indeed fumar. The English word "fume" comes from the same root. And if you wanted to say "I am smoking", you would use the form that Burks suggests, fumando: you'd say estoy fumando. We've seen this form lots of times, and in this week's Coffee Break Spanish, Kara says to the shop assistant sólo estamos mirando - "we're just looking".

It's important to note that this form of the verb in Spanish which ends in -ando for -ar verbs, or -iendo for -er or -ir verbs does translate our "-ing" ending in English, but only in certain circumstances. The most likely situation in which you'll find the -ando or -iendo form is when it's combined with the verb estar: in this situation it would mean "to be doing something". For example, we've heard estamos mirando, "we are looking"; estoy fumando, "I am smoking", and we can add to this list: Carlos está cantando - "Carlos is singing"; los niños están jugando - "the children are playing", and so on.

However, it's very common in Spanish - and indeed in other languages - to translate the "-ing" form by the infinitive. Think of the phrase "I like singing". The best way to translate this into Spanish is by saying me gusta cantar, ie. using the infinitive. We don't say me gusta cantando* - this makes no sense in Spanish.

So, when you ask for a non-smoking room in a hotel, you'd talk about una habitación de no fumar, or in some parts of Latin America, un cuarto de no fumar. Note the use of the infinitive, fumar, in this phrase.

Burks, I hope this answers your question, and I'd like to say muchas gracias for sending your question in in Spanish - ¡enhorabuena! - congratulations: ¡hablas muy bien!

That's all for this edition of the Café Cortado. Don't forget to visit the website at www.thecafecortado.com, and if you've not yet subscribed to our main Spanish language podcast, visit www.coffeebreakspanish.com. We'll be in touch with this week's contributor to deliver the three free guides for the Coffee Break Spanish series. If you'd like to earn your own free guides, or if you have a question about Spanish then listen to the numbers coming at the end of the show. Tune in again next time - ¡hasta pronto!

Comments

[Stefano]

Hola,
I've recently been to Spain (Ibiza and Valencia) and I can say that "non-smoking room" can be also translated with "Habitacione para no fumadores".
(which is very similar to Italian, my mother language).
Bye, Stefano.

[Roger Brown]

I plan to visit Spain for the first time in October, so I don't have much time to develop a working knowledge of the Spanish language. This will be my 60th birthday celebration, so I want to make sure I'm comfortable as I celebrate. I recently discovered Coffee Break Spanish on iTunes, and it is helping me tremendously. In 8 weeks, I've reached lesson 22. But from time to time, I listen to Spanish-language radio or TV here in Chicago, and I barely understand anything that is said. I'm concerned that I'll have the same experience when I go to Spain. Is there anything I can do to improve my comprehension of conversational Spanish?