LA MUELA DEL JUICIO
[1.]—3. Franciscoo; notice the emphatic lengthening of the final vowel.
5. Voy á ponerte á la puerta de la calle (i.e., discharge).
[2.]—9. Unos por torpes... no se os puede sufrir, literally, "some of you on account of (being) stupid, and others, on account of (being) indolent, cannot be endured"; trans. freely, the stupidity of some of you servants, and the insolence of others, make you simply unbearable; no se os puede sufrir, one cannot endure you, or you cannot be endured; the reflexive construction is widely used as a substitute for the passive voice. It is frequently rendered in English by the indefinite pronoun "one"; cf. French "on" and German "man."
10. ¡Vaya con los criados! see voc. under ir.—pagarles bien y tratarles bien; the objective forms of the personal pronouns of the third person admit of double or alternate forms, which, though hardly sanctioned by the best usage, are found in reputable authors. Les for los, as direct object plural (see above, pagarles, etc.), and le for lo as direct object singular when reference is made to things, are somewhat infrequent. Commoner are the forms lo for le as direct object masculine with reference to persons, and la for le (pl. las for les) as indirect object feminine with reference to both persons and things. The student would do well to avoid these alternate forms.
13. ¡Se necesita más paciencia! what a lot of patience one needs! For se, see note 2, 9.
[3.]—4. ¡Pero...! Goodness...!; pero may be used as an emphatic interjection introducing exclamatory or interrogative phrases.
6. Vamos, hombre, que no es para mi genio, well, it's simply this: my disposition won't stand for it; que may be used elliptically at the beginning of a sentence or clause, frequently with an emphatic force that does not admit of translation. Its syntactical status may be explained by supplying a verbal expression, such as no cabe duda, upon which the clause introduced by que may depend. For hombre, as an interjection, see line 17 of this page.
8. ¿Se puede? see voc. under poder. For se, see note 2, 9.