Contar una historia
Spoken narrative runs on a different set of connectors from written Spanish. Resulta que, total que, y va y — none of these appear in an essay, and all of them appear every time somebody tells you what happened at the weekend.
Empezar
Resulta que…
as it turns out
Resulta que el jefe ya lo sabía. · So it turns out the boss already knew.
Te cuento
here's what happened
Announces that a story is coming.
El otro día
The other day
Vague on purpose. Could be last week or last year.
Estaba yo…
There I was…
Estaba yo tranquilamente cenando cuando llamaron. · There I was, quietly having dinner, when they rang.
Subject after the verb sets a scene. Very common at the start of an anecdote.
No te lo vas a creer
You won't believe this
Avanzar
Total que…
so anyway, long story short
Total que no fuimos. · So anyway, we didn't go.
Enormously common in speech and almost never taught.
Y va y…
And then he goes and…
Y va y me dice que no puede. · And then he goes and tells me he can't.
Marks the surprising turn. The verb after it is always in the present, whatever the tense of the story.
De repente
out of nowhere
En eso
just at that moment
Latin America. En eso llegó su hermano.
Al final
in the end
Not al fin, which means at last.
Después de todo
when all's said and done
El presente histórico
y entonces me dice
and then he says to me
Spanish tells past stories in the present to make them vivid, exactly as English does. Learning to switch is what makes an anecdote sound told rather than reported.
y yo le digo
and I say to him
y se queda mirándome
and he just stands there looking at me
Quedarse plus gerund: to be left doing something.
nos quedamos sin palabras
we were speechless
Rematar
Y hasta ahí llegó la cosa
and that was the end of that
Y ya
and that was it
Latin America. Peninsular Spanish says y ya está.
Fíjate tú
Would you believe it
Invites the listener to react.
Así que nada
so there you go
Closes an anecdote that did not really end.
Y colorín colorado
And that's the end of the story
The Spanish equivalent of and they lived happily ever after. Used ironically among adults.
Ya te contaré
I'll tell you the rest another time