If you want to know how to learn Spanish prepositional pronouns, I have a story to tell you that will not only help you learn this topic of Spanish grammar but will also show you the importance of knowing this topic. I can remember one of my most embarrassing moments in learning Spanish as if it had happened yesterday even though it happened more than 10 years ago. Actually, now that I look back it was rather humorous.
There was a young woman that worked as a waitress in a Colombian restaurant in a section of Queens, New York called Jackson Heights. I would have lunch there about once a week. The woman spoke very little English.
I always ordered the same thing: Pollo, arroz, frijoles, ensalada de aguacate, y jugo natural. That's chicken, rice, beans, avocado salad and natural fruit juice.
Since I found her attractive, I finally decided that I was going to ask her in Spanish if she'd like go out on a date with me.
So I asked her "¿Quieres salir con yo?" That's when she looked at me as if I was a 3-headed monster. So I tried asking her another way. "¿Quieres comer con yo?" Now she was looking at me as if I had just grown a fourth head.
So I tried asking another way "¿Quieres tomar con yo?"
At that point she abruptly walked away and rushed over to the "gerente" or manager of the restaurant. I couldn't hear everything that she was saying but it sounded like she was saying "ese hombre está loco" which means "that man is crazy."
Next, I saw the manager walking towards me with a very angry face. That's when I thought to myself "Oh no, what I did I say wrong now." The manager who apparently spoke English fluently then asked me "what seems to be your problem?"
I didn't know if I had said something offensive in Spanish or if the waitress was his wife. So I said to him "I am sorry if she's your wife. If I had known I would not have asked her to go out with me, and I would not have asked her if she wants to eat with me and drink with me."
Practically yelling, he said to me "the problem isn't that you asked her to go out with you. The problem is your vulgar mouth."
I replied "all I said to her is ¿Quieres salir con yo? ¿Quieres comer con yo?" and "¿Quieres beber con yo?"
Fortunately, he knew what I was trying to ask and he corrected my Spanish and told me that I should have asked "¿Quieres salir conmigo?" (do you want to go out with me?)"¿Quieres comer conmigo?" (do you want to eat with me?) and "¿Quieres beber conmigo?" (do you want to drink with me?)
That's when I suddenly realized that instead of asking "Do you want to go out with me" I had asked "do you want to go out with I." And instead of asking "do you want to eat with me or do you want to drink with me" I had asked do you want to eat with I or do you want to drink with I?"
That's when I began to think. At best, I sounded a little like Shakespeare trying to speak Spanish. At worst, I used bad Spanish grammar.
"But wait a minute" I told the manager. At this point I was the one getting an angry face. "I may be a Gringo but I'm not stupid enough to think that I said anything vulgar to that woman. I just used bad Spanish grammar!"
He then said "the phrase 'con yo' doesn't exist in Spanish anymore than the phrase 'with I' exists in English."
He then added "but there is a word in Spanish that sounds just like the phrase 'con yo' and that word is 'coño' and it means 'DAMN!"
So from today's lesson, I hope that you learned the importance of knowing the prepositional pronouns in Spanish.
Pat Jackson is the Founder of Learning Spanish Like Crazy - the only learning Spanish method that teaches real authentic everyday conversational Latin American Spanish. Pat presently lives in Medellín, Colombia - the City of Eternal Spring. If you would like to get FREE Instant access to the first 2 MP3 auido lessons of Learning Spanish Like Crazy and get FREE instant access to 10 learning Spanish videos from one of our BEAUTIFUL native-Spanish speaking Latina instructors, then go here now: Learn Spanish online That's http://www.LearningSpanishLikeCrazy.com/
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