Comment from Steve

I like how Marina gives more respect to waiters than to Policemen. You can’t argue with priorities like that.

Comment from pam conrad

Do you offer adult study abroad in Spain courses

Comment from La Vaquera

YAY! This ALMOST makes up for (but never could) the death of the forum . . .(hmm, sounds like the title of a Greek tragedy) . . .looking forward to it!

Comment from Mary Guillermin

I’m relieved and excited to see the return of Gold audio. I’m an inspired intermediate and I haven’t finished Gold One podcasts yet because they’re rather hard, but I’m delighted fresh new material is coming to spur me to action!

Comment from Kiah

Is it “pasarlo bien” or “pasarselo bien” ? I feel like I heard Marina use examples of both. I also have issues with understanding this.

More ejemplos y dudas:

“Lo pasaste bien en la fiesta” OR “te lo pasaste bien en la fiesta”
“Pasatelo bien” OR “Pasalo bien?”
“Me lo pase genial ayer” OR “Lo pase’ genial ayer.”

Comment from Tom

Why is the “se” necessary in the expression “se te han caido las llaves” ?

Comment from Cynthia

Regarding practicing by saying “Podemos practicar …”

I just start speaking Spanish, and don’t even ask. Here in Texas, though, you run the risk of someone like me who is second generation Mexican-American and wasn’t raised in a Spanish speaking environment. And they will just say, sorry, I don’t speak Spanish. No worries!

Comment from Courtney

Yay! You’re back! It was this time last year that I stumbled across NIS at a World Language Conference (I am a middle school Spanish teacher in PA). I have not found anything even HALF as informative and practical (ansd fun!) as NIS. Looking forward to Mondays again!

Comment from Marina

Thanks to everyone for your comments!

Steve, you are right!!! It is funny but all the policemen I’ve encounter recently are very young for me to call them “de Ud”. Also, my son gets so excited when he sees a police car, that they usually wave at him so I think I’m in friendly terms with the police force recently:-)

Pam, I’m afraid we don’t offer courses in Spain… yet.

Kiah, You hear both constructions with the same meaning. I would say that both forms are correct and all of the examples you’ve given are correct but If you tell me to choose a form I’ll take the pronominal one “pasárselo”.

I’ve done a little bit of research and apparently it might be a “localismo”, that is that the use is different depending on the region.

To complicate things further in Mexico they say “pasarla bien” instead.

Here you have a couple of links with more info:
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=1663900
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=336042

Tom, the verb caer has lots of meanings according to the RAE dicctionary, and some of this meanings are pronominal and use the “se” particle, “caerse”. To identify if its a pronominal meaning you’ll see “prnl” in blue at the end of the explanation.

http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltConsulta?TIPO_BUS=3&LEMA=caer

Your example agrees with the first meaning given on the link, which more or less can be translated as “said for a body: It moves from a higher point to a lower one by its own weight”, and as it says “prnl” means that, with this sense, it needs the “se” particle.

For example in meaning 4: “to decrease a level” is not pronominal. Then with this meaning it can be used without the “se” particle:

Nuestro equipo de fútbol ha caído a segunda división – Our football team has gone down to the second division.

Comment from Jean-Pierre

Con mucho alegre qué he recibido la noticia de Gold Season 2.
Creo que la conversaciòn en Gold esta tan natural que (como?) esta aun màs fàcil que el nivel intermedio o debutante en los que la velocitad esta màs baya, entonces no sona real.
Tengo ganas de estar el proximo lunes!
Gracias

Comment from Craig

Hi, I have only recently paid up for NIS gold 1. Will I have to pay for NIS gold 2, or are we classed as members once paid?

Muchas gracias.

Craig, Reino Unido

Ps email address is confidential.

Comment from Ben

@Craig – as Gold Two is all new material, you will have to join and pay for this seperately – it’ll be worth it we hope! And of course your details are confidential, don’t worry!

Comment from Anwar

Some equivalents of “aquí hay gato encerrado” are “there’s something rotten in Denmark” or “something smells fishy”

Comment from Ben

@Anwar, thanks – great translations!

Comment from Melanie

Hi Ben & Marina

The new gold season 2. Am I reading your announcement corectly in that there will be one audio podcast released every Monday? If so, does this mean we will be paying for it on a weekly basis for each weekly podcast or will we have to pay for the whole lot in advance but then receive it weekly?
Thank you!
Melanie

Comment from Ben

@Melanie – Hi Melanie, the new Gold 2 audio will be released weekly, on Mondays, in a private members area – you will get access to the audio and the members area in return for a small monthly subscription fee.

Comment from Wendy

Aqui hay gato encerrado… Would that be, for example, some young lads buying sapphires in foreign parts? And a followup for (Luke?) the lad trying to pull… I’m told “que mola” is what they say around Andalusia- but if you’re looking for a chatup line, surely you can use your assets… Perdona, puedes ayudarme? Donde por aqui puede encontrar un buen cafe?” and when she answers, ask her to go with you, to help translate your order…
But you have to let us know if it works!!!! Que tenga suerte.

Comment from Bill Vance

As usual very interesting i would like to introduce your news letter to friends is it free to them also

Comment from Ben

@Wendy – yes, that sounds about right!

@Bill – Of course! The newsletter is free to everyone!