Hostage Negotiations: Hostage: The TV Remote
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Key Phrases
Mando a distancia
Remote control
Tenemos que ver
Have to watch
Trato hecho
Deal
Skills You'll Learn
Expressing necessity
Expresar necesidad
Making agreements
Hacer acuerdos
Describing time duration
Describir duración de tiempo
Lesson Roleplay
Imagine you're in a living room with friends debating over what to watch on TV. One friend is particularly excited about a documentary on moss and convinced everyone to watch it before switching to the usual soap opera. The group agrees to watch a few minutes of the documentary before taking control of the remote again.
Pon el mando a distancia en la mesa y todos fingiremos que los spoilers de la telenovela no ocurrieron.
Put the remote on the table and we'll all pretend the soap opera spoilers didn't happen.
No, primero tenemos que ver mi documental sobre el musgo. ¡Es fascinante!
No, first we have to watch my documentary about moss. It's fascinating!
¿Un documental sobre musgo ahora? ¿Es realmente necesario?
A documentary about moss now? Is it really necessary?
Es esencial. Aprenderás algo nuevo, te lo aseguro.
It's essential. You'll learn something new, I assure you.
Está bien, veremos diez minutos. Pero después, el mando es nuestro.
Alright, we'll watch ten minutes. But after that, the remote is ours.
Lesson Vocabulary & Phrases
Pon
poh-n
Put
💬 [Pon] is the [tú] command from [poner], and it shortens a lot instead of looking like the usual pattern. A few very common commands do this too: [haz], [ven], [sal].
See breakdown →Mando
mahn-doh
Remote
A
ah
To
Distancia
dees-tan-see-ah
Distant
Mando a distancia
Man-doh ah dee-stan-syah
Remote
💬 Spanish usually says [mando a distancia] for a TV remote, literally "control at a distance," not a word built from "remote." In Spain, you'll also very often hear just [mando] once the context is clear.
See breakdown →Mesa
meh-sah
Table
Fingiremos
feen-hee-reh-mohs
Pretend
💬 [Fingiremos] means "we will pretend"; the [-emos] ending here is "we." You can reuse that pattern with future forms like [hablaremos] "we will speak."
See breakdown →Spoilers
spoi-leh-rs
Spoilers
Telenovela
teh-leh-no-veh-lah
Soap opera
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