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201

 Español
  Lección Setenta (70)
  REVISION AND NOTES
  1 Aguárdeme, que vengo en seguida : Wait for me I come at once.
The que seems superfluous to you, and in fact one can say :
Aguárdeme, vengo en seguida; it's perfectly correct, but less natural, less in conformity with the popular genius of the language.

Likewise, a number of verbs, which are not reflexive verbs, are used currently with se :
quedarse, to stay, remain, caerse, to fall, reírse, to laugh. This is no real difficulty for the beginner, who may very well use them without se; but after hearing or reading it hundreds of times, one is naturally brought to say :
"me" he caído, I have fallen; "me" he reído, I have laughed; "me" he quedado : I have remained.

It must be owned that if intelligent study and rational observation are useful to learn a language, they come to nothing without practice; and practice at home consists in reading and re-reading the texts — not 2 or 3 times running, but at intervals, as we have said, — and above all in practicing assiduously repeating each sentence immediately after reading if. The process may seem empirical; but it is at once the simplest, most natural and
effective one. It enables you to succeed in speaking instinctively, without effort, i. e., fluently.
  2 Debe de ser muy fácil : It must be very easy.
The de also seems superfluous, and one may say:
Debe ser muy fácil.
But there is a slight difference : when deber, must denotes an obligation, it is used without de.
The de denotes, not obligation, but probability, or supposition.
— Un amigo debe ayudar a otro : A friend must help [at] another (obligation).

— ¿Dónde está tu hermano?
— Debe de estar en el Casino :
— Where is your brother?
— He must be at the Club (probab. or suppos.).

— Mañana debo estar a las once en Correos : To-morrow I must be at the P.O. at 11 (oblig.).
  3 Pero, sino.
— When but implies a contradiction, it is said sino.
— No est azul (assool), sino verde : It is not blue, but green.
— No está dormido, sino muerto: He's not asleep, but dead.
— No voy a Bilbao, sino a la Coruña ; I don't go to B., but to C.
— Hoy no como en casa, sino en la fonda : To-day I don't eat at home, but at the inn.
  4 Esperar, aguardar (gwar) both express waiting, but esperar is : to expect and aguardar : to wait for.
Voy a esperar a un amigo : I (go to) expect [at] a friend.
— Dése prisa, yo le aguardaré aquí : Hurry up [give haste] I shall wait for you here.
  5 Let us see again :
— 1 Tengo que poner un telegrama.
— 2 Voy a echar una tarjeta al correo (or : a Correos).
— 3 No se empeñe Vd., que no conseguirá nada.
— 4 Permítame darle las gracias.
— 5 Llevo sólo unas semanas en España.
— 6 ¿No le hace falta una máquina de escribir?
— 7 Dígale que venga.
— 8 Voy por mí bastón (or : voy a coger mi bastón).
— 9 Dése prisa, que si no perderemos el tren.
— 10 Volveremos a hablar de este asunto.
  1 I have a telegram to send.
— 2 I go to drop [throw] a card at the mail (or at the P. O.).
— 3 Don't persist, you'll get at nothing.
— 4 Allow me to thank you.
— 5 I have been [am] in Spain only a few weeks.
— 6 Don't you need a typewriter?
— 7 Tell him (or her) to come [that he (she) come].
— 8 I go for my stick (or I go to take...).
— 9 Hurry up or we shall miss the train.
— 10 We shall speak of this business again.
  6 Let us now study the verbs : after each lesson, turn over the leaves of the grammatical appendix, and cast a glance at the conjugations of the irregular verbs. Thus you will get used to them gradually with the help of the practice you'll get in the lessons to come and in the revision of past ones.