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Basil and Manuel have a conversation about how to dress the breakfast trays. Since Manuel is Spanish and can't speak English properly, Basil tries to speak some Spanish with him to make him understand, but he only makes things more complicated.
Famous short from John Cleese's comedy masterpiece Fawlty Towers.
- Manuel!
- Sí?
- There - is - too - much - butter - on - those - trays.
- Qué?
- There is too much butter “on those trays”.
- No, no, no, Señor!
- What?
- Not not 'on- those- trays'. No sir - 'uno dos tres.' Uno... dos... tres...
- No, no, no. Hay mucho burro allí!
- Qué?
- Hay... mucho... burro... allí!
- Ah, mantequilla!
- What? Qué?
- Mantequilla. Burro is... is... [ee-oo]
- What?
- Burro, burro... [ee.oo]
- Manuel, Manuel, po-por favor, momento...
- Sí, sí...
- What's the matter, Basil?
- Nothing, dear, I'm just dealing with it.
- He speak good... how do you say...?
- English!
- Mantequilla... solamente... dos...
- Dos?
- Don't look at me. You're the one who's supposed to be able to speak it.
- Two pieces! Two each! Arriba, arriba!!
- Sí, señor. Gracias, señor, adios.
- I don't know why you wanted to hire him, Basil.
- Because he's cheap and keen to learn, dear. And in this day and age such...
- But why did you say you could speak the language?
- I learnt classical Spanish, not the strange dialect he seems to have picked up.
- It'd be quicker to train a monkey.
SÍ= (Spanish) Yes.
QUÉ= (Sp) What?
NO, SEÑOR= (Sp) No, sir.
UNO DOS TRES= (Sp) One, two, three.
You can also say "un dos tres", which sounds very similar to "on-those-trays", that's why the confusion.
HAY MUCHO BURRO ALLÍ= (Sp) There is a lot of "burro" there.
The word "burro" means "butter", but it is Italian, not Spanish. In Spanish "burro" means "donkey".
MANTEQUILLA= (Sp) Butter.
POR FAVOR= (Sp) Please.
(un) MOMENTO= Just a moment.
DEALING WITH IT= If you are dealing with something, you are working to solve the problem.
MANTEQUILLA…SOLAMENTE…DOS= (Sp) Butter…only…two.
WHO'S SUPPOSED= If you are the one who is supposed to know something, people (or yourself) think you know it, but the speaker is not very sure about it. If the speaker really believes you know it then they would say "you are the one who knows". So we can use "supposed to" to express that people believe it, but we don't say if we believe it or not (we're probably quite sceptical about it).
- You are supposed to be the best at that (that's what people say, I don't say anything)
- He's supposed to be French (people think he is French, but I don't really know)
- You're supposed to dance very well (you told me that you were a very good dancer, so why are you so bad at learning tango!)
TO BE ABLE TO= Can
We can use this verb as an alternative to the verb CAN. The verb "can" only has two forms: CAN for present and future and COULD for past and conditional, so for the rest of tenses (including the infinitive) you must use BE ABLE TO.
- I can do it = I am able to do it
- He could break it = he was able to break it
- I don't think I will be able to go with you tomorrow (we can't say I will can go)
- I've never been able to dance properly (we can't say I've never could dance)
- I need to be able to do it alone (we can't say I need to can do it)
ARRIBA= (Sp) up!
HIRE= To hire a flat or a car (BrE) is to pay some money to use it temporarily, but you don't get the property of it. To hire a person is to pay them money to work for you.
KEEN TO= If you are keen to do something you really want to do it (you are eager or enthusiastic about doing it).
IN THIS DAY AND AGE= On these days, at present times (as opposed to the past, when things were different, probably better).
PICKED UP= If you pick up a language or a dialect, you learn the language by listening to people and interacting with them, not by studying it.
TRAIN= If you train an animal (or a person) you teach them how to do a trick or a job.
Official → Cool
