Lo que le pasó a Hawái

Bad Bunny

En esta lección vas a aprender a usar el subjuntivo en oraciones negativas y a familiarizarte con el acento puertorriqueño.

You wanted to practice your Spanish with Bad Bunny for the Super Bowl, but let’s be honest, most of his songs include words I can’t exactly use in class! Still, there are a few that are definitely worth analyzing because of the powerful messages in their lyrics and this song is one of those!

Bad Bunny is a Puerto Rican singer, rapper, and songwriter known for his unique style that mixes reggaetón, Latin trap, pop, and rock. His real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, and he was born in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, in 1994.

A. First listen to the song and just enjoy! Try to identify vocabulary you already know and write down the words you don’t.

B. Vocabulary. Match the words.

Algunos lugares geográficos mencionados en la canción.

C. Une las oraciones con el mismo significado.

D. Grammar focus

The subjunctive in the song

There’s one clear use of the subjunctive mood, and it’s a classic case of expressing desire or emotion:

“No quiero que hagan contigo lo que le pasó a Hawái.”

Let’s break it down:

• Main clause (indicative):
  👉 No quiero → “I don’t want”
  → expresses desire or emotion, which triggers the subjunctive.
• Subordinate clause (subjunctive):
  👉 que hagan contigo lo que le pasó a Hawái
  → “that they do to you what happened to Hawaii.”

Meaning of the subjunctive

In Spanish, when we use verbs of wanting, wishing, fearing, or emotion (like querer, esperar, temer, gustar) followed by a change of subject, we use the subjunctive in the second clause.

Form of the subjunctive

Main verb (emotion/desire) + que + different subject + verb in subjunctive

• Los verbos que terminan en –ar usan la vocal e.
• Los verbos que terminan en –er /–ir usan la vocal a.

El acento está también en la misma posición que en presente de indicativo.

So here:

• “yo” (the speaker) no quiero
• “ellos” (the corrupt, outsiders, government, etc.) hagan something
  → two different subjects → subjunctive required

✅ Correct form: no quiero que hagan contigo…
❌ Not no quiero que hacen contigo…

Lee las conjugaciones en subjuntivo de los verbos en la canción.

Pronombre	Hacer	Ir	Soltar	Quitar	Olvidar
yo	haga	vaya	suelte	quite	olvide
tú	hagas	vayas	sueltes	quites	olvides
él / ella / usted	haga	vaya	suelte	quite	olvide
nosotros / nosotras	hagamos	vayamos	soltemos	quitemos	olvidemos
ustedes	hagan	vayan	suelten	quiten	olviden
ellos / ellas	hagan	vayan	suelten	quiten	olviden

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Why the subjunctive is used

The subjunctive expresses:

• Uncertainty or non-reality (it hasn’t happened yet)
• Emotion (fear, hope, desire)
• Subjectivity

Here, the speaker expresses a fear or wish — hoping something won’t happen:

“I don’t want them to do to you what they did to Hawaii.”

So the subjunctive “hagan” reflects that the action is not real (yet) — it’s something he wants to prevent.

C. Put the words in the correct order.

E. Bad Bunny doesn’t like the letter “s”!!

Is it singular or plural?

It could be very confusing when you already got a hang of the grammar rules for singular and plural nouns and then you hear Bad Bunny saying “herida” meaning “heridas” or “orilla” meaning “orillas”. I hear you!

Here’s a clear list of the words that should be plural but lose the -s in the Caribbean dialect, along with what they would be in standard Spanish:

In the song	Standard plural form	Meaning / Note
ojo’	ojos	eyes
orilla’	orillas	shores
herida’	heridas	wounds
su’ orilla’	sus orillas	their shores
su’ herida’	sus heridas	their wounds
hijo’	hijos	children / sons
su’ hijo’	sus hijos	their children
nube’	nubes	clouds, implied by “Las nubes están más cerca”

🇵🇷 Why Bad Bunny drops the “-s”

Bad Bunny keeps this feature to show pride in Puerto Rican Spanish, it’s part of his cultural voice.

It’s not a mistake — it’s dialectal and it’s OK!
In Caribbean Spanish, the final /s/ sound (especially at the end of a syllable or word) is often weakened, aspirated, or omitted.

Phonetic process:

• Standard Spanish: “los ojos” → [los ˈoxos]
• Caribbean Spanish: “lo’ ojo’” → [loh ˈohoh] or [lo ˈoho]

The s becomes a soft h sound (aspiration), and sometimes it disappears completely.

Where it happens:

• At the end of words: heridas → herida’
• Before another consonant: los niños → loh niños
• In verb endings: no sueltes → no suelte’

Why this happens (linguistic background):

It’s a natural sound simplification that evolved in warm coastal regions where Spanish mixed with African and Indigenous languages.

The same happens in Andalusian Spanish (southern Spain), which influenced Caribbean Spanish during colonization.

Sociolinguistic aspect:

Dropping the s can signal regional identity and authenticity.

F. Listen to the song again and complete the lyrics.

So, now you know in this song Bad Bunny drops the “s” a lot in this song. However, the nouns are actually in the plural form (for example, heridas — wounds — instead of herida — wound) and the verbs in the second person (as in no sueltes (tú) instead of no suelte).

To be fair, in the activity below, both answers will be accepted, since the correct form includes the “s,” but the singer doesn’t pronounce it, so you can’t hear it in the song.

G. Read the questions and write the answers in Spanish, then click on the arrow to real the answers.