What it's about

The singer sees something in a shop that catches their eye, goes in excitedly, looks at the tag and asks the price. They hesitate between paying con tarjeta or en efectivo, pay, ask for the receipt and leave happy. In the bridge, they reflect: they like the purchase, but don't want to spend too much, because they also want to ahorrar for the future.

Useful words and expressions

  • ¿Cuánto cuesta? / ¿Cuánto es?: two ways to ask the price. ¿Cuánto es? is widely used when paying the total.
  • el precio, la etiqueta, el recibo, el cambio, la bolsa: basic shop vocabulary.
  • la tarjeta, el efectivo, las monedas, los billetes, la cartera: ways to pay and where we carry money.
  • pagar en efectivo / con tarjeta: pay attention to the prepositions.
  • caro / barato / demasiado: for talking about the price.
  • gastar (to spend money) and ahorrar (to save money).
  • llamar la atención: Me llama la atención = something interests me when I see it.
  • con ilusión: with joy and enthusiasm.
  • Quédate el cambio: you don't need to give me back the leftover money.
  • costar un ojo de la cara: to be very expensive (a very common colloquial expression).
  • el día de mañana: in the future.
  • el código: here, the card's secret number (PIN); in real life, marcar el PIN is more common.

Grammar

  • Tú imperative: dime, dame, quédate. With pronouns, these are attached to the verb: di + me = dime.
  • Querer + infinitive: Lo quiero comprar = Quiero comprarlo (the pronoun can go before or after).
  • Tener que + infinitive (obligation): Tengo que tener cuidado.
  • Ir a + infinitive (near future): lo que voy a gastar.
  • Hacer + sentir: me hace sentir vivo / bien.
  • Subjunctive after no quiero que: No quiero que me cueste… When the subject changes, querer que is followed by the subjunctive.

Watch out: poetic license for the rhyme

  • «Ese es mi motivo» is there to rhyme with efectivo; it doesn't have a clear meaning in the sentence. Don't use it like this.
  • «Le tengo aprecio» is normally said about people; with an object it sounds strange. Here it rhymes with precio. For things, it's better to use me encanta or me gusta mucho.
  • «¿Es muy caro ahora o es demasiado?» is an unnatural question; normally you would say ¿Es muy caro? or ¿Es demasiado caro?
  • «Para el día de mañana poder ahorrar» changes the word order for the rhythm; the normal order is para poder ahorrar el día de mañana. The final también in the previous line is also redundant.
  • In a shop, you usually address the shop assistant as usted or in the plural: ¿Acepta tarjeta? / ¿Aceptan tarjeta? (normally without an article). The song uses tú.