This post is part of the series Warming up for El Día E: Posts to Improve Your Spanish. El Día E is a world-wide celebration of the Spanish Language that will take place on June 23th, 2012.
Posts in this series to celebrate El Día E:
1. Join the Celebration of El Día E
2. To Ask for Something or To Ask a Question: PEDIR and PREGUNTAR
3. The Spanish Words for TO KNOW: SABER versus CONOCER
4. The Many Ways to Move in Spanish: MOVERSE, MUDARSE, TRASLADAR [this post]
5. How to Translate the Conjunction BUT to Spanish: PERO and SINO/SINO QUE
6. The Distinction Between PARECER and PARECERSE
7. Using the Verb HACER to Express Periods of Time
8. 4 Ways to Use the Preposition CON in Spanish
9. 13 Cool and Interesting Facts About the Spanish Language
The Many Ways to Move in Spanish: MOVERSE, MUDARSE, TRASLADAR
The verbs moverse, mudarse and transladar all translate to “to move” but they each have their specific uses. Here’s a closer look at each one.
Moverse
When you want to convey physical movement of a body, moverse is the verb to use.
Los niños se mueven constantamente. – Children move constantly.
Juan está bien escondido y no mueve ni un dedo. – Juan is well hidden and he isn’t moving even a finger.
Moverse is also used in many idiomatic phrases, such as muévete, which means “get a move on!”
Mudarse
This verb is used for moving locations, such as moving to another city.
Marta se mudó a Nueva York. – Marta moved to New York.
Julio va a mudarse a Chicago la semana que viene. – Julio is going to move to Chicago next week.
Nos mudamos a una casa más grande. – We moved to a bigger house.
The verb mudar also has another meaning which is to change (as in clothing) or to shed (as in animal skin).
Traje una muda de ropa para cambiarme después de ir a la playa – I brought a change of clothes to use after the beach.
En la clase de biología de hoy nos explicaron como las culebras mudan la piel – In today’s Biology class, they explained how snakes shed their skin.
Trasladar
Trasladar is translated as ”to move” as well as “to transfer.” It can be used with people or things.
Mi jefe me traslada a la oficina en Miami. – My boss is transferring me to the office in Miami.
Ya que sus heridas eran graves, trasladó el paciente al hospital. – Since his injuries were serious, he transferred the patient to the hospital.
Take care not not to confuse trasladar with trasladarse. Trasladarse can be used in the same way mudarse is used, while trasladar cannot.
Check out these other articles about Spanish English.
Featured photo credit: moving boxes at the Shanghai American School by kafka4prez via flickr
