Hi, how have you all been?

Today let’s take a look at a short dialogue in colloquial Spanish and learn, among other things, how to say “All right by me!”, en español. So here’s the context: two buddies are talking about dropping by a friend’s house.

A – ¿Por qué no pasamos hoy por lo de Sergio? Hace mucho que no lo vemos.
Why don’t we drop by Sergio’s today? We haven’t seen him in a long time.

B – Buena idea. Me pregunto en qué andará.
Good idea. I wonder what he’s been doing.

A – ¿A las 7 te viene bien?
Is 7 a good time?

B – ¿No puede ser un poco más tarde, digamos a las 8?
Could it be a little later, say at 8?

A – Perfectamente. ¿Quieres que pase a buscarte?
Perfect. Do you want me to pick you up?

B – Fantástico. Y podríamos cenar todos juntos en Pipo. ¿Qué opinas?
Fantastic! And we could all have dinner together at Pipo’s. What do you think?

A – No tengo ningún inconveniente y seguro que a Sergio también le va a parecer bien. Es un fanático de la pizza. Nos vemos a las 8.
All right by me and I’m sure that Sergio’s going to like it too. He loves pizza. See you at 8.

OK, so let’s start studying some of the expressions and structures in this dialogue.

1. pasar por – This verb means to walk or drive by a place. In Spanish it’s not important how we get to this place, we just go by it, pasamos por ese lugar.

2. lo de Sergio – The form lo is used when going somewhere like someone’s place, a dentist or doctor’s office. For example: Voy a lo del dentista porque me duela una muela. (I’m going to the dentist because I have a toothache.) – Fui a lo tuyo ayer pero no te encontré. (I went to your house yesterday but you weren’t home.)

3. In English we use the Present Perfect to say that we haven’t seen someone for a long time. In Spanish we may also use the Present tense: no lo vemos (literally, we don’t see him).

4. hace mucho – it’s been a long time. We use the verb hacer to express how long it has been since something has happened. For example: Hacía cuatro años que no la veía. (I hadn’t seen her in four years.)

5. Me pregunto – literally, “I ask myself”. In English we use the verb “to wonder” to express this idea.

6. en que andará – what he’s been doing, what he’s up to. In Spanish we use the verb in the future form to express that we don’t know what someone’s been doing. Another example: Me pregunto qué habrá pasado. (I wonder what’s happened.)

7. venir bien – to suit, to be of help. Example: Que ella viniera más tarde me vino bien porque tuve tiempo de arreglar mis cosas. (Her coming later was convenient because I had time to tidy up my things.)

8. digamos – let’s say

9. pasar a buscar a alguien – to go and pick somebody up. In this context pasar shows that he’s going by his friend’s house to pick him up. Literally, buscar means to look for.

10. No tengo ningún inconveniente. – All right by me. Fine by me. An inconveniente is an objection, something that prevents something from happening. So literally it would be I don’t have any objections.

Por hoy es todo, nos vemos prontito.