Los conectores del discurso
By now you can tell a story in three tenses, argue about the weather and say how something made you feel. What is usually still missing is the wiring. A learner's Spanish at this stage comes out as a row of correct sentences laid end to end, and native speech is not a row — it is a chain, with a small word at every joint telling the listener what this sentence is doing to the last one. That is the whole job of a connector: it is a signpost. además says more of the same is coming, sin embargo says the opposite is, por lo tanto says here comes the consequence, o sea says let me put that another way. Today you get both sets. There is the written one you build an argument with — no obstante, ya que, por ende, en conclusión — and the spoken one that actually carries a conversation in Guadalajara or Medellín: así que, entonces, es que, o sea, total. Using the right pile in the right place is most of what people mean when they say somebody sounds fluent.
Adding: además, aparte, encima
además is the workhorse here — besides, what's more, on top of that. It opens a sentence: Además, sale más barato. It sits inside one right after y: Es lista y además muy trabajadora. Give it de and it takes an object: Además de trabajar, estudia en la noche. Next to it, the plain también you have had since lesson 3 adds a thing rather than an argument, and it stands beside whatever it is adding: Yo también quiero. asimismo says what además says two registers higher, and it belongs in a written report and nowhere near a conversation. incluso does something else again: it does not just add, it raises the stakes, so it is English 'even'. Estudia incluso los domingos. Vinieron todos, incluso mi tío. Then the two that spoken Spanish across this region actually runs on. aparte is además in jeans: Está lejos y aparte es caro. And encima adds the detail that makes everything worse: Llegó tarde y encima sin el dinero. That last difference is worth training your ear on — además is neutral, encima is a complaint.
Contrasting: sin embargo, en cambio, eso sí
pero joins the two halves of one sentence and is the neutral choice for everything. sin embargo is the written 'however': it normally opens the second sentence and takes a comma behind it — Estaba agotado. Sin embargo, terminó el informe. — and it can also slide into the middle, Terminó, sin embargo, muy tarde. no obstante is the same move one step more formal, at home in a contract or an editorial. en cambio does not contradict anything; it sets two things side by side: A mi hermano le gusta el fútbol; a mí, en cambio, me aburre. mientras que does that inside a single sentence: Bogotá es fría, mientras que Cartagena es un horno. por el contrario flatly reverses what came before. aunque and a pesar de que concede, and from lesson 30 you already know they can take the subjunctive when the fact is not settled: Aunque llueva, salimos. Two more belong to this region and to speech. eso sí concedes after you have already committed to an opinion: La comida está buenísima; eso sí, es carísima. And in Argentina, Uruguay and Chile, igual at the head of a clause means anyway, all the same — Está lloviendo. Igual voy. — which has nothing to do with 'equal' and derails every learner exactly once.
Cause: porque, como, ya que — and es que
porque answers the question 'why', and like English 'because' it wants its main clause in front of it: No vino porque estaba enfermo. como is its mirror image: in the cause sense it MUST come first, because that front position is exactly what tells the listener it means 'since' and not 'like'. Como no me contestó, me fui solo. ya que is the flexible one, comfortable in either position and a shade more formal than porque: Ya que estás aquí, ayúdame. Above it sit puesto que and dado que, both written, and debido a, which takes a noun instead of a clause — debido a la lluvia — turning into debido a que when a clause follows. Alongside them, gracias a gives credit and por culpa de assigns blame, a distinction Spanish makes cleanly and English mostly does not. And then the most useful item in this whole section, the one no formal list contains: es que. It opens an explanation and softens it into an excuse. —¿Por qué no viniste? —Es que se me hizo tarde. Es que no tenía cómo llegar. Take it out and the same answer lands like a slammed door.
Consequence: por eso, por lo tanto, así que, entonces
por eso is 'that's why' and points backwards at the reason you just gave: No dormí nada; por eso ando de mal humor. por lo tanto is 'therefore', the connector of arguments and reports, and it wants commas around it when it sits mid-sentence. por ende is its twin and shows up constantly in Latin American journalism and academic writing — recognize it first, then use it when you want to sound like the newspaper. en consecuencia is heavier still and belongs to officialdom. de modo que and de manera que introduce a result inside the sentence, taking the subjunctive when the result is a purpose rather than a fact: Habló despacio, de manera que todos entendieran. así que is the everyday one, colloquial and immediate: No tengo plata, así que no voy. And above all of them in sheer frequency sits entonces, which does 'so', 'then' and 'in that case' in a single word and opens half the replies in any real conversation from Tijuana to Ushuaia. —No hay boletos para hoy. —Entonces vamos mañana. One warning attached to it: entonces is also what people say while they think, so three of them in one sentence sounds like stalling.
Putting things in order
The formal ladder is en primer lugar, en segundo lugar, por último or finalmente — the skeleton of a presentation, a written argument, an exam essay. The everyday one is primero, luego, después, and then al final. Keep those three endings apart, because they are not interchangeable: finalmente closes a list, al final reports how something turned out — Al final no fuimos — and por fin is relief, the thing you waited too long for: ¡Por fin llegaste! In the middle of a sequence, mientras tanto is meanwhile, al mismo tiempo is simultaneously, a continuación is 'next' in the mouth of an announcer or a recipe, and de repente is what interrupts everything. Storytelling in this region leans on two more that are worth stealing. total opens the sentence that jumps straight to the outcome — Total, que nunca fuimos. — and al final de cuentas, also heard as a fin de cuentas, means when all is said and done: Al final de cuentas, salió más barato. Neither is careless speech. Both are what a fluent adult sounds like.
Explaining and closing: por ejemplo, es decir, o sea
por ejemplo illustrates, and it travels with commas: Hay frutas que yo no conocía; por ejemplo, la guanábana. es decir reformulates — you say the same thing again, more clearly: Llega el martes, es decir, pasado mañana. Its spoken twin is o sea, which may well be the two most frequent syllables in Latin American conversation. It reformulates the same way — Se acabó el presupuesto, o sea, no hay proyecto — and it also works as pure hesitation, the job English gives to 'like' and 'I mean'. Use it; just notice how often. en otras palabras is the written version of the same move. To close there is en resumen and en pocas palabras for summing up, para resumir to announce that you are about to, and en conclusión, the heavy formal one — write it, and say it only when you are actually ending a speech. Last, the two that adjust what came before. de hecho is 'in fact' and it reinforces rather than contradicts: Sí lo conozco; de hecho, trabajamos juntos. en realidad and the spoken la verdad do contradict — they correct an impression: La verdad, no me gustó tanto.
Register, and the particles that give you away
Everything above sorts into two piles, and mixing them inside one sentence is the fastest way to sound like a translation. The written pile: no obstante, asimismo, dado que, puesto que, por consiguiente, por ende, en consecuencia, en conclusión. The spoken pile: pero, porque, es que, así que, entonces, o sea, aparte, encima, total, igual. A comfortable middle, usable anywhere: sin embargo, por lo tanto, además, de hecho, por ejemplo. Underneath all of it runs one more layer — the small particles that hold spoken Spanish together and announce within three words where somebody grew up. pues softens and confirms across the whole region, and it wears down as it travels: pos in much of Mexico, hung on the end in Colombia and Venezuela as Sí, pues and hágale pues, shortened to pe in Peru — ya pe — and to po in Chile — sí po, ya po. None of them translate into anything. Neither do the tags you hang on the end to check that you are still being followed: ¿no? and ¿verdad? everywhere, ¿cierto? in Colombia, ¿sí o no? in Mexico, ¿ya? in Chile. Nobody will correct you for leaving them out, and nobody will take you for a local until you put them in.
Las palabras de hoy
el esfuerzo is effort in every sense — hacer un esfuerzo, con mucho esfuerzo, sin ningún esfuerzo — and the verb hiding inside it is esforzarse, with the o→ue change: Me esfuerzo mucho. la cultura covers culture as art and culture as habit at once, which is why an office has una cultura de trabajo and why la casa de la cultura sits on the main square of a thousand towns in this region, lending out chairs and teaching guitar to whoever shows up. Careful with the adjective: culto describes a well-read person, while the adjective for culture itself is cultural. productivo describes a day, a meeting or a piece of land, and its opposite is a word worth having ready — improductivo. The noun is la productividad, and the verb producir is irregular in yo: produzco, like conducir and traducir. incluso is 'even' and goes in front of whatever it is raising: incluso mi tío, incluso los domingos. Do not let it slide into inclusive, which is the word on a schedule telling you the last item counts too. And of the three nouns you will use to talk about talking, el ejemplo is what you give in the middle, el resumen is what you write at the end — plural los resúmenes, with the accent moving — and la conclusión is what you reach.
