Archive for the ‘LoMas Lessons’ Category

Calle 13 - Atrévete-te-te

Calle 13 loves to mix English into their lyrics, which no doubt is pretty natural for them with all the exchange between their homeland of Puerto Rico and the predominately English speaking mainland United States. But Spanish natives often pronounce English words a bit differently than native speakers. Oddly enough, some of these differences can clue us into an interesting facet of the Spanish language. Listen to the way Hato Rey (aka "Residente") raps the English word "starter" in this line:

Préndete, sácale chispas al "starter".
Turn yourself on, get sparks from the starter.
Caption 6, Calle 13, Atrévete.

Do you notice he says something like "estarter"?

He also does similar when he sings:

Que tú eres callejera, "street fighter".
You're a woman of the streets, street fighter.
Caption 9, Calle 13, Atrévete.

He pronounces the English word "street" as "estreet."

Spanish speakers seem to have trouble saying some English words that start with "s," adding an "e" sound to the beginning? But why would it be? Especially when Hato seems to be able to say "sippy" without turning it into "esippy":

Mira, nena, ¿quieres un "sippy"?
Look, babe, would you like a sippy [a little sip]?
Caption 40, Calle 13, Atrévete.

If Hato has no trouble with "sippy," why does he say "estreet" and "estarter" instead of "street" and "starter?" Furthermore, there are plenty of Spanish words that start with an unadulterated "s" sound that we hear him pronounce clearly throughout the song: "sácale," "sudor," "salte," "sacúdete," "seria," and so on. He seems to have no problem with those.

You may have already started to notice a pattern! While many Spanish words start with the letter "s" and an accompanying "s" sound, they almost always follow this leading "s" with a vowel. It's when the first "s" in an English word is followed by consonant (s + consonant) that Spanish speakers feel compelled to precede an English word with an "e" sound. Why? Because almost no Spanish words that start with an "s" are followed by a consonant. 

Spanish words that have an "s+consonant" near the beginning pretty much all start with an "e" as the first letter. Certainly you noticed that the language is "español" and not "spañol"? Or that the country from whence it all came is España (not Spaña)? Looking again to Calle 13 for clues, we hear:

Destápate, quítate el esmalte.
Show yourself, remove your nail polish.
Caption 3, Calle 13, Atrévete.

In the word "esmalte" (nail polish), there is an "s+consonant" near the beginning of the word, but, in line with norms of Spanish, it is preceded by an "e."

Modern life causes "stress" in English speakers but Spanish speakers experience "estrés." Why? It's because when this English word made its way into Spanish, it conformed to a typical Spanish pattern.  Likewise, when a shop that sells long bread rolls filled with meats and toppings opens up on Old San Juan, Residente and his buddies will no doubt be happy to grab "sandwiches" (or "saandweeches") at "Subway" (or "SOOBway"). The beginning "s" sounds in "subway" and in "sandwich" are no problem, because they are followed by vowels: "u" and "a", respectively --  a pattern Spanish speakers are well accustomed to. ¿Sí o no? -¡Supongo que sí!

Keep an ear open for Spanish words that begin with an "s" and with an "es." Does the theory fit? We hope so, or it will be an escándalo!

Side note: On the other side of the coin, the "es + consonant" phenomenon runs so deep in Spanish-language phonetics, and so many English "s" words have a corresponding similar Spanish "es" word, that Spanish speakers learning English sometimes mistakenly that think that "es + consonant" is only a Spanish-language thing. This will lead them to say specially for especially, state for estate, and streme for extreme, thinking that the "e"s are a hangover from their Spanish pronunciation. You just have to remember Ricky Ricardo from I Love Lucy, the Cuban immigrant musician and band leader who was always ready to admonish Lucille Ball's character with "Lucy! You've got some splainin' to do!

Muñeca Brava - La Apuesta Part 11 of 12
David Bisbal - Haciendo Premonición Live Part 5 of 8
Muñeca Brava - 41 La Fiesta Part 3 of 8
The Krayolas - Little Fox

Let's stop by the kitchen of the Di Carlo mansion, setting of preparations for the big gala in Muñeca Brava. The maids are very excited. They want to get a detailed description of how Mili looked as she made her Cinderella-like debut. Notice that Socorrito uses the imperfect tense of both ver (to look) and bajar (to go down, to lower, to descend) when she asks:

 

 

 

Contame, contame, ¿cómo se la veía cuando bajaba de la escalera?
Tell me, tell me, how did she look as she was walking down the staircase?
Caption 1, Muñeca Brava - Episodio 41 (La Fiesta) - Part 2

If you've ever heard anything at all about the imperfect tense, it's that it applies to past actions that are not completed or that are ongoing. We see that quite clearly above in the case of bajaba; Mili "was walking down," an action that was ongoing at the time. However, another rule of the imperfect, one less bandied about, also comes into play here: the imperfect is employed when describing two or more simultaneous past actions. Socorrito wants to know how Mili "looked" (using the imperfect veía) as (at the same point in time) she was going down the stairs. 

With her usual enthusiasm, Mariposa definitely puts them in the moment when she answers:

Socorrito, ¡no sabe lo que era! Parecía una princesa.
Socorrito, you can't imagine! She looked like a princess.
Caption 2, Muñeca Brava - Episodio 41 (La Fiesta) - Part 2

 There is yet another well-documented use of the imperfect that we can cite here: its use to "set the scene" or provide background information, especially at the beginning of a larger story. She uses the imperfect era (from ser, to be) when she says ¡no sabe lo que era! which literally translates to "you don't know how it was!" And she employs parecía (she looked like), which is an imperfect conjugation of parecer (to appear as/to look like/to seem like). Mariposa is setting the stage for the fairy tale taking place in the ballroom, and doing so in much the same way one would recite an actual fairy tale (which is no surprise if you remember that Muñeca Brava is a retelling of the Cinderella story).

The start of your average ghost tale or mystery story makes a good illustration of using the imperfect to paint a background picture:

Era una noche oscura y tormentosa, llovía y unos pájaros cantaban a lo lejos.
It was a dark and stormy night. It was raining and a few birds were singing from a distance.

[Note that in Spanish one can also use the past continuous tense, for example estaba lloviendo (it was raining) or estaban cantando (they were singing)—but it would not likely be used by native speakers when setting a scene or providing a backdrop. We'll look at the past continuous, aka past progressive, in a different lesson.]

More well-known to the average student of Spanish is the use of the imperfect to refer to a habitual or repeated action in the past. We saw an example of this in an earlier episode of Muñeca Brava when Milena says to Louise:

 

Sí, antes nos veíamos siempre.
Yes, we always used to see each other.
Caption 58, Muñeca Brava - La Apuesta - Part 11  

 And David Bisbal tells us about what used to (regularly) happen to him and his band while touring.  

Y muchas veces la gente se confundía.
And several times people would get confused.
Caption 32, David Bisbal - Making of Premonición Live - Part 5

The other simple past tense in Spanish (called "simple" because its conjugations are only one word long) is known as preterite and is used for past actions that are completed and non-habitual. We find an example in a recent music video from The Krayolas:

Cuando yo la vi por primera vez me enamoré en un dos por tres.
When I saw her for the first time I fell in love with her instantly.
Captions 1-2, The Krayolas - Little Fox

 

The singer uses the preterite vi (saw) instead of the imperfect veía (was seeing/used to see) because he is talking about a specific, completed instance of laying eyes on someone.

Read more interesting things about the imperfect on the 123TeachMe site and be sure to visit Spaleon to master the imperfect conjugation of all verbs.

Muñeca Brava - La Apuesta Part 12 of 12

¿Hombres? Pero mirá que sos cínica, Martita, ¿eh?
"Men? But you're quite shameless Martita, aren't you?"
[caption 12, La muñeca brava - la apuesta - part 12]

Pero no lo hace de mala, eh. De bruta que es, lo hace.
"But she doesn't do it because she's mean. She does it because she's just stupid."
[caption 16, La muñeca brava - la apuesta - part 12]

Mili is having it out with her fellow domestica, Marta, in La Muñeca brava, La apuesta, part 12. Mili calls Marta cínica and bruta. But Marta doesn’t look like a "brute" and we really don’t know her philosophical affiliations. So, what gives?

The words bruto and cínico share Latin roots with their English cousins “brute” and “cynical,” but they don’t mean exactly the same thing. As a matter of fact, they usually mean something else when used in Spanish. If you look at how we translated these words, you will find “stupid” for bruta, and “shameless” for cínica.

Both are adjectives that, when applied to human beings, can also be nouns. No seas bruta or bruto translates into English as “Don’t be stupid” or “[…] dense,” the idea being “as stupid or dense as an animal, a ‘brute.’ ” In Spanish, on the other hand, if you want to call someone a “brute,” you’d say he's an animal (“animal”) or bestia (“beast”): Ese animal quiso propasarse con mi prima. (“That brute tried to go too far with my cousin.”)

In English, “cynical” usually refers to a person who believes in nothing or is generally distrustful of people. “That critic is a real cynic. He never likes anything!” But for this critic to be cínico in Spanish, he would have another quality entirely: Ese critico es un verdadero cínico. Escribió una buena reseña de la obra sólo porque la actriz principal es su amante. “That critic has no shame. He wrote a good review of the play only because the leading lady is his lover.”

There is a Yiddish word, frequently used in English, that nails cínico right on the head: chutzpah. In Spanish it only has the negative sense, though, which according to Leo Rosten is “gall, brazen nerve, effrontery”. That’s the Spanish cínico in a nutshell. “Talk about chutzpah, the nerve of that guy!” ¡Qué cínico!

Notes:
Bruto and "brute" both have a shared root in the Latin "brutus" ("heavy, dull, stupid," later came to mean "associated with lower animals/beasts"). The English "brute" tends to associate more with the physicality aspect (strong yet not graceful) while the Spanish bruto tends to associate more with the mentality aspect (simple minded, ignorant, stupid), but there does exist some crossover in both languages.

Similarly, the Spanish cínico does at times take on a meaning very similar to the meaning we usually ascribe to "cynical" in English, and the reverse is also true. Their shared ancestry goes even deeper than the Latin "cynic," all the way back to the Greek "Kunikas."

For further reading on cínico:
An excellent and very interesting deeper look at cínico and cynical:
http://life-in-translation.blogspot.com/2004/12/cynical-about-dictionaries.html

An expat in Chile discovers the cínico / cynical difference the hard way:
http://cachandochile.wordpress.com/2009/04/25/cynical-or-cinico/

Aleks Syntek - Intocable

Aleks Syntek has a real problem. He sings:

Yo no sé qué sucedió
I don’t know what happened
[Aleks Syntek - Intocable - Caption 1]

There are various words and phrases one can use in Spanish to say that something “happens.” The most common verb is pasar. Aleks could have sung Yo no sé qué pasó, and nobody would have blinked. If you saw a friend’s dog lying motionless with his tongue hanging out, you would probably ask:

¿Qué le pasó a tu perro?
“What happened to your dog?”

If you said:

¿Qué le sucedió a tu perro?, it would mean the same thing but it would sound a tad literary. They are both great words, but it’s always a good idea to use the most common word first (pasar) and save the less-used word as a synonym (suceder).

Be careful, though. Suceder does not only mean “to happen.” The same goes for pasar. Take this sentence, for example:

Benedicto sucedió a Juan Pablo en el trono papal.
“Benedicto succeeded John Paul on the papal throne.”

Here sucedió means “succeeded” in the sense of “to come next after” or “to replace”. But it does not mean “to be successful”. To say this in Spanish, you would use the phrase tener éxito:

¡Yo nunca tengo éxito!
I never succeed.

Remember that éxito has nothing to do with an "exit." “Exit” is salida.

Pasar can mean several things as well. In the imperative, it means “Go ahead!”

¡Pase por aquí, por favor!
“Come [or Go] this way, please!”

And when you can’t tolerate or put up with something or someone, when you can’t “suffer” him or her, the verb pasar is also a good choice:

A ese tonto no lo paso.
I don't stand that fool.

The verb pasar has dozens of meanings but let’s wrap this up: it can also mean “to swallow.” In this sense one usually uses it reflexively. If a child procrastinates at the table, with food in his mouth, his mother might raise her voice, saying:

¡Ya pásatelo!
“Swallow it already!”

Without the reflexive particle te, it would mean “Pass it over!” or “Pass it on!”, which is not the same thing.

So, now you know what happened, lo que pasó or lo que sucedió. But Aleks Syntek is still out of the loop… Poor  guy!

Biografía - Natalia Oreiro Part 8 of 12
Belanova - Niño
Aleks Syntek - Intocable

When it’s over, it’s over. It’s like in Aleks Syntek’s song Intocable (“Untouchable”), where the poor guy was dumped and ends up consoling himself by singing

Debo salir adelante
I must move on
[Aleks Syntek - Intocable - Caption 6]

In Spanish, when we want to express an obligation or a responsibility, we use the verb deber, properly conjugated of course, followed by the infinitive of the verb denoting the action that we must carry out.

Debo hacer mi tarea.
I must do my homework.

Debiste haberme avisado.
"You should have warned me." Or “You should have told me in advance.”

"Deber + infinitive" tends to imply a sense of *internal* obligation, whereas "tener que + infinitive," which is extremely common and very close in meaning, tends to convey a sense of *external* obligation.

Emilio debe levantar su ropa sucia. Emilio should pick up his dirty clothes. (For his own good and that of the household.)   Emilio tiene que levantar su ropa sucia. Emilio must/has to pick up his dirty clothes. (Or his mother will ground him.)

So any time you want to express a sense of responsibility or obligation, especially one that stems of an internal sense of duty, just conjugate the verb deber and then add the infinitive of the action verb.

Sé que no será fácil pero debo confesarle la verdad.

I know it won't be easy but I must confess the truth.

But hold on there for a minute! A little later in the song, Syntek changes the syntax around considerably by singing:

Debes confundida estar.
You confused must be.
[Aleks Syntek - Intocable - Caption 13]

Actually two things are happening simultaneously, so you should be patient and bear with us! (¡Debes ser paciente y aguantarnos!)

First of all, the syntax. Normally, one would say, sing or write:

Debes estar confundida.
You must be confused.

He turned the sentence on its head so this line Debes confundida estar would rhyme with

Terminar por terminar
To break up for the sake of breaking up

The second thing here is a finer point of Spanish grammar. When one wants to give the listener or reader the idea of probability, one also uses the verb deber, but before the infinitive, one should also include the preposition de. Technically, this is what Aleks Syntek should have sung:

Confundida debes de estar.
You must be [probably are] confused.

Denisse Guerrero makes the opposite error (adding "de" where she should have left it out) when she sings "Lo siento, niño, debo de partir" (I'm sorry, boy, I must leave) in line 27 of the Belanova video "Niño."

Lo siento, niño, debo de partir
I'm sorry, boy, I must leave
[Belanova - Niño - Caption 27]

Strictly speaking, she should have simply sung "debo partir" (I must leave).

But we are not out to pick on pop stars*! Many native speakers, both in Spain and Latin America, are not consciously aware of this difference and tend to sweep it under the rug, which is unfortunate because there is a huge difference between responsibility or obligation, and probability.

Check out these two sentences, which mean two different things:

Aleks Syntek debió de entender la diferencia.
Aleks Syntek probably understood the difference. (That is the most likely scenario.)

Aleks Syntek debió entender la diferencia.
Aleks Syntek should have understood the difference. (Because it was his obligation or responsibility.)

See what we mean? Let’s chalk it up to the poor girl’s unfortunate decision to leave him, when debió quedarse con él (“she should have stayed with him”). But there’s no accounting for taste.

*At least one pop diva wasn't daydreaming during her grammar lessons. Natalia Oreiro, as eloquent as she is lovely, correctly uses "deber de + infinitive" when she says:

Más que sentirme mal yo, imaginate como se deben de sentir ellos.
More than feeling badly myself, imagine how they must (probably) feel.
[Natalia Oreiro - Biografía 8/12 - Caption 27]

Amigos D.F. - Te presento...
Julieta Venegas - El Presente

The dictionary tells us that the verb "merecer" means "to deserve."    No merezco algo así. "I don't deserve something like this."   But songstress Julieta Venegas does not believe that living "deserves the pain" but rather that living "is worth it."   Es contigo, mi vida, con quien puedo sentir que merece la pena vivir.
It's with you, dear, with whom I can feel that life is worth living.
Captions 7-8, Julieta Venegas: El Presente

 A few more examples:   Merece la pena estudiar.
Studying is worth it.
 
¿Merece la pena leer este libro?
Is it worth reading this book?

Merece la pena is synonymous, though perhaps a bit more formal and poetic, with its extremely common cousin, vale la pena. Our amigos in Mexico City demonstrate nicely:

Al igual que pues que tiene sus pros y sus contras y... pues aun así vale la pena. ¿OK?
At the same time it has it pros and cons and... well, even so it's still worth it. OK?
Caption 31, Amigos D.F.: Te Presento
   The verb valer commonly means "to be worth."    Una imagen vale más que mil palabras. A picture is worth more than a thousand words.    Also of note:

If you've ever been to Spain, you know that ¿Vale? (OK?) or Vale. (OK.) is slang that is thrown around a lot amongst Spaniards. ¿Vale?

Sevilla, España - Porteñas paseando

Let's drop in on our two lovely tourists, Juliana and Paola, enjoying their summer holiday in Spain:  
Eh... y bueno, ahora estamos con Karla con quien iremos a caminar  y a pasear un rato...
Eh... and well, now we're with Karla, with whom we're going to stroll and walk around for a while....
caption 16: Sevilla, España > Porteñas
Quien (who/whom) does not take an accent (a tilde) over the e when it is acting in its role of relative pronoun, as is the case here. Relative pronouns "relate" to a nearby noun or pronoun. In this case, quien relates to "Karla," "with whom" the girls are going to go for a stroll.
  Fui ayer a la feria con tu prima, quien me dijo que está en embarazo.
Yesterday I went to the fair with your cousin, who told me that she's pregnant.
Once again, quien is clearly acting as a relative pronoun, referring to "your cousin,"
and so is written with no accent over the e.

So what about cases where the sentence contains no noun or pronoun to which quien refers?

Quite often, this is a sign that an accent is needed. The most common case is when quién takes on the role of "interrogative pronoun," which, as the name implies, involves a question, as when the powerful and beautiful Julieta Venegas ponders:
  ¿Quién nos dice que la vida nos dará el tiempo necesario?
Who says (that) life will give us the necessary time?
caption 3: Julieta Venegas > El Presente
And quién  is utilized in indirect questions as well, as Juliana, back in Sevilla, demonstrates for us:

No sé quién irá a ver este video...
I don't know who will watch this video...
caption 11: Sevilla, España > Porteñas

 How would we treat quién if Julia were to have made her statement positive?

  Yo sé quién irá a ver este video...
I know who will watch this video...

As it turns out, an accent is still required, even though most English speakers would not consider this an indirect question. You might look at this as a case where an indirect question is present, but it is being answered. The highly respected María Moliner dictionary calls this type of usage aclaratoria (explanatory). Note that there is still no noun or pronoun present to which quién is referring, so it is not behaving as a relative pronoun.

Like other interrogative pronouns, quién also retains the tilde when used in exclamatory way. (You will notice that these "quién" exclamations don't translate to English literally.)

¡Quién pudiera tener tus ojos!
If I only had your eyes!

¡Quién te escuchara todas las bobadas que estás diciendo!
If only the rest of the world could hear all the stupid things you are saying!

So, are there cases where quien doesn't relate to a nearby noun or pronoun, but still doesn't take an accent? Yes, when the "who" refers to some non-specific person, and so is taking on the role of "indefinite pronoun."

Quien mucho habla, no tiene nada que decir.
The person/a person who speaks a lot has nothing to say.

 

In this same vein, the phrase como quien means "like a person who" or "like someone who," sometimes best translated into English with "as if he/she [were someone he/she is not]":

Él contestó el interrogatorio como quien nunca hubiera conocido a la víctima.
He answered the interrogation like someone who [as if he (was someone who)] never had met the victim.

And, in another "indefinite" role, quien can also be used in place of nadie que (nobody that / nobody who) in phrases like this one:

No hay quien me detenga.
There is not anybody who can stop me. / There is nobody who can stop me.
[In English we can't have the double negative]

Muñeca Brava - La Apuesta Part 6 of 12

Poor Mili! She's caught between scheming Ivo and his grandmother, who have cooked up a plan to turn her from un desastre into a more refined woman. When Mili protests to the grandmother, she takes Ivo's side:

Mi nieto tiene razón. Vos sos una muchacha en estado... digamos... casi salvaje.
My grandson is right. You're a girl in a state that is... let's say... almost savage.
[captions 62-63: Muneca Brava, La Apuesta part 6]

While tiene razón literally means "has reason," it is best translated as "is right."

Here's another example of tener + razón

Juan tenía razón, necesitábamos mejores atacantes.
Juan was right, we needed better forwards [soccer].

Sometimes you will see tener + la razón. The meaning is the same: "to be right."

En lo que respecta a mi casa, mi esposa cree que siempre tiene la razón.
As far as my house goes, my wife believes that she is always right.

But what if you literally want to say "he has reason," as in this example?

He has reason to believe Annie will get an A.
(perhaps she is smart, she got an A last semester, the teacher likes her, etc.)

In this case we want to employ either the phrase "tener razones para" or "tener motivos para":

Él tiene razones para creer que Annie va a sacar un A.
He has reason to believe that Annie is going to get an A.

Él tiene motivos para creer Annie va a sacar un A.
He has reason to believe that Annie is going to get an A.

Also, as we touched upon in a previous lesson, "tener por qué" also means "to have reason," but you will find it used mostly in the negative sense:

Él no tiene por qué creer que Annie va a sacar un A.
He has no reason to believe that Annie is going to get an A.

 

No tengo por qué quejarme.

I have no reason to complain.    

No tengo por qué contarte mis secretos.

I have no reason to tell you my secrets.   No tienes por qué preocuparte. You have no reason to worry.

On rare occasions, you will come across "tener por qué" used in the positive sense:

Ellos tienen por qué luchar.
They have reason to struggle.

A. B. Quintanilla - Speedy Gonzalez

To tell the tale of Speedy, A.B. Quintanilla starts, "Érase una vez" -- which means "Once upon a time." Hearing these words, listeners instantly know we are entering fairy-tale territory. "Érase una vez" or  "érase que se era" or "había una vez" are all ways to set up a fictional tale in Spanish, just like "once upon a time" in English. It's a fairy-tale convention.

Another convention we're all familiar with is the ending "And they lived happily ever after." In Spanish, you may hear: "Vivieron felices y comieron perdices" -- which a more literal translation would render "they lived happily and ate partridges." You see, partridges (perdices) are considered delicacies, so eating them signifies the good life. Plus, it rhymes.

Let's end on another rhyming note:

Y colorín colorado
este cuento se ha acabado
And that´s the end of that
[or]
Snip, snap snout,
this tale's told out.
 
So to sign off this lesson, let's just say:

Y colorín colorado
esta lección se ha acabado.

Amigos D.F. - El secuestrar
A. B. Quintanilla - Speedy Gonzalez

¡Órale, arriba, epa, epa, arriba, ándale!"

Sound familiar? Yes, it's the fastest mouse in all Mexico -- Speedy Gonzales! -- and he stars in A.B. Quintanilla's music video. But instead of racing around rescuing people, Speedy is tending to a broken heart in this fun video. Listen in:
 
Él nunca le teme a nada,
pero esta vez sí lloró.
He is never afraid of anything,
but this time he did cry.
Captions 12-3, A.B. Quintanilla > Speedy Gonzales

Poor Speedy! It takes a lot to make this brave mouse cry. In fact, Speedy's fans might not believe their fearless hero would actually shed tears, so the song adds an emphatic "sí" to get the point across. With "sí" placed in front of the verb "lloró", the sentence means "...he DID cry" (with the stress on the verb) or "... he did indeed cry." Believe it or not: He did.

As you know, "sí" with an accent over the "i" means "yes," as in the affirmative answer to a question. But "sí" is also widely used in Spanish to add emphasis to an assertion. In English, we make affirmations with "indeed," the auxiliary verb "do" and/or by stressing the verb.

Let's look at some examples to clarify.
 
Yo sí estoy trabajando en el proyecto final.
I AM working on the final project.
 
Carlos sí puede tocar la armónica.
Carlos can indeed play the harmonica.
 
A Nancy sí le gusta Miguel.
Nancy DOES like Miguel.

Note that the emphatic "sí" appears just before the verb in these affirmative statements in Spanish. In the English equivalents, we might stress the verb -- as indicated in all caps above.

For more examples of the emphatic sí at work, we turn to our friends in Mexico City. Yes, Amigos D.F. are back, talking about kidnappings. Listen in:

.. pues sí ha habido mucha inseguridad...
... well, there HAS been a lot of insecurity...

...O sea, como que sí hay interés de parte de las autoridades
... I mean, it's like there IS interest from the authorities

Yo sí tengo la esperanza que se reduzc'... se reduzcan este tipo de eventos
I DO have the hope that these types of events will be red'... will be reduced...
Captions 6, 32, 37, Amigos D.F. > El secuestrar

When you listen to native Spanish speakers make affirmations -- like the ones above -- note that there's no stress placed on the verbs themselves. It's a rookie mistake for Spanish students to say something like "Yo sí TENGO la esperanza..." when native speakers would simply let the "sí" make the emphasis for them.