If you are learning Spanish think about infusing your daily life with it. Here are some quick and easy ideas to immerse into Spanish while doing your regular daily routines. 1. CHANGE YOUR SMART PHONE AND TABLET TO SPANISH. All the app icons that you look at every day will now have a new meaning for […]
Comay, Yerna, Chozno & Other Spanish Words for Family Members and Relatives: Infographic
As you learn a language, one of the major tasks is vocabulary acquisition. The more words you know, the better you communicate. Occasionally, you run across words that are not translatable, but for the most part words in one language have an equivalent in another. In the process of acquiring more vocabulary you will notice […]
AL REVÉS: How to Translate This Spanish Phrase to English
So I’m getting dressed the other day. I slip on the undies and my wife says: Tienes los calzoncillos al revés. I immediately assumed they were backwards. Namely, that the label side was in the front and the normal front part of the underwear, in the back. And here’s where we ran into a language […]
Barron’s Spanish Verbs Book Through Time
Recently in Portland, Oregon on my honeymoon I stopped in at one of the world’s most entertaining places: Powell’s bookstore. For anyone that has never been it is a must-see before you kick the bucket. Me being me, I ran directly to the Red Room, second floor. That’s the language section. As any vain author […]
10 Funny Product Names from the Supermarket: My Fun Spanish Lesson in Central America
Here is a collection of product names in Spanish I found on a recent trip to the Western Caribbean. Throughout a 10-year career in Marketing, I experienced the importance of establishing a strong brand name. These products names are catchy and funny and now that I am more aware of the differences of Spanish languages […]
Learning Spanish Lessons: The Distinction Between PARECER and PARECERSE
Parecer and parecerse a both mean “to resemble” or “to look like” but they cannot be used interchangeably. Parecer is used to describe the appearance of something, such as “He looks like a teacher” while parecerse is used to compare between items, such as “He looks like my teacher Mr. Sanchez.” or to give an […]
Learn Spanish: Translating BUT to Spanish with PERO and SINO / SINO QUE
The words pero and sino both translate to “but.” However, they cannot be used interchangeably. Pero is used when you are looking to convey “nevertheless” or “yet.” Examples: Estaba muy cansada, pero no me dormí. (I didn’t fall asleep, but I was very tired.) No tenemos gaseosa, pero tenemos limonada. (We don’t have soda, but […]
My Wedding Day
Today’s theme is Wedding Day so I have a couple quick Speaking Latino basic Spanish words for wedding. The first is voto. I recently learned that this word has two meanings. Many of you probably know that it means vote as in “vote early” and “vote often,” or “I have to go vote today for […]
English to Spanish Translations: 3 Ways TO MOVE in Spanish
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. […]
Learn Spanish Words for TO KNOW: SABER versus CONOCER
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. […]
Learning Spanish Lessons: The Difference Between PEDIR and PREGUNTAR
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. […]
Why Use Tongue Twisters in Spanish
Tongue twisters or trabalenguas are phrases that use repetitive syllable sounds that make them difficult to pronounce but when practiced can improve your Spanish pronunciation. Because of the rhymes, they are often used with children as a fun exercise to practice Spanish pronunciation and diction when learning the language at an early age. The objective […]
26 Epic Spanish Tongue Twisters (to Improve Pronunciation)
Tongue twisters or trabalenguas are phrases that use repetitive sounds to help you learn Spanish. Those repetitive sounds make them tricky to pronounce at first but when practiced can improve your Spanish pronunciation significantly. Plus it’s one of the most fun ways to practice Spanish!Whether you are looking for simple Spanish tongue twisters for kids […]
Which is the Hardest Spanish Language Word for You to Pronounce?
For years now one Spanish word beat up on me regularly; I could never pronounce it properly. I learned to hate it, even avoided using the word. This lasted for years until last week when my girlfriend (a Puerto Rican native Spanish speaker) walked me through the Spanish pronunciation a couple times. It now rolls […]
Join the Celebration of El Día E: The Day of Spanish Language
The Spanish language has its own day for celebration. And it’s so big that countries such as Japan, Turkey, Australia, Russia, and China have joined. I am talking about El Día E: La fiesta de todos los que hablamos español, a project that the Instituto Cervantes will celebrate for the fourth time on June 23th, […]
Spanish Language Words for HOLE
A few days ago, I sat down at my favorite Italian place in South Beach. It’s a locals place where the prices are reasonable and the food amazing. Many of the staff are Italian and speak Spanish. And being Miami, lots of other people speak Spanish too. Almost more than English in some areas. The […]
The Matrix: English to Spanish Words Compared by Country
The text for this post originally appeared at Mezzofanti Guild. Thanks, Donovan, for the opportunity! Examples of Latin American Spanish dialect differences Here’s the thing about learning Spanish: Most teachers lie to you from the first day. Hola bursts through their lips. It may be implicit lying, but they have hidden the truth. And not the […]
AHORITA vs HORITA: An Embarrassing Spanish Speaking Lesson
Ahora is a universal word in Spanish that means now. It is simple, easy to remember, extremely useful and one of the first words a Spanish learner picks up. It would be so helpful if there also existed a universal word for right now. Alas, twas not to be. The words ahorita, ahora mismo and […]
15 Additional Popular English Songs in Spanish
After the success of the first post Singing Latino: 12 Popular English Songs in Spanish, a sequel became mandatory. Here I feature 15 additional English songs with their Spanish versions, plus a Spanglish “bonus track”. To listen to a demo of each version, click on each MP3 link and conclude if it’s a good Spanish […]
Learn Spanish: 4 Meanings of RIGHT in Spanish
There are several words/phrases that translate to RIGHT in Spanish: derecho, derecha, correcto, and tener razón. Of course, not all of them can be used interchangeably – that would just be too easy. Here are the Spanish word for RIGHT most common options right. 1. Right in Spanish: DERECHO El derecho, used as a noun, […]
How to Order Ice Cream in Spanish
Anyone who knows me is aware of my extreme obsession with ice cream. When I travel, the ability to find and order ice cream is fundamental. There are a lot more words associated with ice cream than I originally thought, so I wanted to share the knowledge I have gained with all of you. Ice […]
The Worst English to Spanish Translation for HOT
In English, the word “hot” can refer to temperature, spiciness or to attractiveness. The word for “hot” in Spanish, in reference to temperature is caliente, which also has more than one meaning. Just not the same meanings as in English. So, check out this story that teaches you which is the most embarrassing English to […]
Learn Spanish: Using Augmentatives in Spanish
Just like diminutives, augmentatives have different uses and there are several augmentative endings. These often convert everyday words into local slang. The most common Spanish Suffixes are: ón/ona, ozo/oza, and ote/ota. In Spanish, augmentatives are used to express large size or great intensity Examples: Grande – big Grandote – huge Perro – dog Perrote – […]
Spelling Spanish Words: Language Mistakes That Even Natives Make
Overall, spelling in Spanish is pretty straightforward and easy. It’s one of the many reasons I love Spanish. If you can pronounce a word in Spanish, you can generally spell it correctly. However, there are a few common mistakes. Interestingly enough, these are more often made by native speakers than those who study Spanish as […]
Dating Latinos It’s Different: DANCING
This is the fourth and last post in my series about dating Latinos and how it differs from dating North Americans. Dating Latinos, It’s Different: DANCING Growing up in the Midwest, my dancing adventures were fairly limited. You know, a slumber party here, a house party when I got older, a couple school dances, and […]
Learn Spanish: Using Diminutives in Spanish
The most common ending for dimunutives is ito/ita. However, in certain countries, you will also see ico/ica when the last letter of the affected word is a ‘t.’ Other endings include: illo/illa, ín/ina, ete/eta. The use of diminutives in Spanish often indicates that something is small. For example, gato is cat, so gatito is a […]
Dating Latinos It’s Different: SHOPPING
This is the third post in my series about dating Latinos and how it differs from dating North Americans. To catch up, you can also read the complete articles here: Dating Latinos… It’s Different: Machismo Dating Latinos… It’s Different: Public Displays of Affection Dating Latinos… It’s Different: Shopping [this post] Dating Latinos… It’s Different: Dancing […]
Present Perfect Subjunctive Spanish Class Activities
1. Lesson Plan – Present Perfect Subjunctive, Demonstrative Adjectives and Pronouns – Volunteer Activities [MEMBERS] – In this lesson, students learn volunteering vocabulary and use an email to discover the Present Perfect Subjunctive conjugation. Then, they learn about this form with an educational video. They will also learn about demonstrative adjectives and pronouns. The lesson ends with […]
Language Learning: Spanish for DRINKING STRAW
On a recent stroll through Puerto Limón, Costa Rica this street vendor’s marketing efforts caught my attention. For two reasons. The first reason is given away by this post title. For the second, take a stab to see if you know why. I’ll give you the answer at the end of this post. For any […]
Learn Spanish: When to Use the Spanish Preterite and Imperfect Tenses
One of the many confusing hurdles about the Spanish language is that it has certain rules that are often not clear when described to native English speakers since no equivalent exists. A good example of this would be the two different forms of the past tense, the preterite and the imperfect. While it is unfortunate […]