Chapter 12 (Movies)
Movies
- alquilar - to rent
- amor - love
- arrestar - to arrest
- capturar - to capture
- crimen - crime
- criminal - criminal
- crítico(a) - critic
- detective - detective
- enamorarse - to fall in love
- enamorado(a) de - in love with
- estrella - star
- extraterrestre - alien
- fascinar - to fascinate
- fracaso - failure
- galán - leading man
- he visto - I have seen
- has visto - you have seen
- ladrón, ladrona - thief
- matar - to kill
- película de acción - action film
- ¿Qué tal es...? - How is...?
- recomendar - to recommend
- robar - to rob , to steal
- será - he/she/it will be
- tener éxito - to succeed, to be successful
- tratar de - to be about
- víctima - victim
- violencia - violence
Note: Criminal, detective, and extraterrestre are either masculine or feminine nouns. Recomendar has a stem-change of e to ie.
Making movies
- actuación - acting
- argumento - plot
- dirección - direction
- director, directora - director
- efectos especiales - special effects
- escena - scene
- estar basado(a) - to be based on
- papel - role
- hacer el papel de - to play the role of
- personaje principal - main character
Other words
- no...todavía - not yet
Indirect object pronouns
Verbs like aburrir, doler, encantar, fascinar, gustar, importar, and molestar are verbs that use indirect object pronouns. These verbs all use the structure: indrect object pronoun + verb + subject.
examples: Les encantan los efectos especiales en la película.
Nos aburre mucho esa película.
A + a noun or pronoun is often used with the verbs above for emphasis or clarification. The pronouns must agree with and clarify the indirect object pronoun.
- me - me
- te - you (singular)
- le - him, her, you (formal)
- nos - we
- os - you (plural)
- les - them, you (formal/plural)
examples: A mí me importan mucho los efectos especiales en una película.
A Juana le fascinan las películas de acción.
Present perfect tense
The present perfect tense is used to say what a person has done. To form the present present tense, use the present-tense forms of haber + the past participle.
- he estudiado - I have studied
- has estudiado - you have studied (singular)
- ha estudiado - he/she has studied
- hemos estudiado - we have studied
- habéis estudiado - you have studied (plural)
- han estudiado - they have studied
example: Recientemente hemos alquilado muchas películas.
Verbs that have two vowels together in the infinitive like caer, oír, leer, and traer have an accent on the í of the past participle.
When you use object or reflexive pronouns with the present perfect, the pronoun goes immediately before the form of haber.
Past participles
To form the past participle of a verb, drop the ending of the infinitive and add -ado for -ar verbs and -ido for er and ir verbs.
- hablar → hablado (have talked)
- comer → comido (have ate)
- vivir → vivido (have lived)
Irregular past participles
Some verbs have irregular past participles.
- dicer: dicho (have said)
- devolver: devuelto (have returned)
- escribir: escrito (have wrote)
- hacer: hecho (have made)
- morir: muerto (have died)
- poner: puesto (have placed)
- romper: roto (have broken)
- ver: visto (have watched)
- volver: vuelto (have returned)
Vocabulario adicional
- bandito(a) - bandit
- culpable - guilty person
- delincuente - delinquent
- documental - document
- festival de cine - film festival
- filmar - to film
- monstruo - monster
Cultural Insight (Películas en otros idiomas)
Movies from Mexico, Italy, and Japan are popular the United States, but in order to understand what the actors and actresses are saying, the movies have to be subtitled or dubbed into English for those who can't understand the original language of the movie. With these subtitles it is much easier to understand the movie's plot. When there are subtitles, it is important to concentrate a little more what's happening rather the subtitles to get a better view of what's going on. Another solution is having the movie dubbed into the language of choice to avoid the distractions of the subtitles.