Always Spanish – Unconventional Spanish tips and tricks for the lazy learner

6 Alien-Sounding Spanish Verbs In An Instant

2013-05-18T23:47:00.001+05:30

Etymology is an incredibly wonderful tool when it comes to acquiring new words. Dig deep enough into the history of any language and words that seemed utterly alien and unrelated until now suddenly start to appear familiar. This works best when the language in question shares genetics with your native tongue. Fortunately, Spanish and English share a stronger ancestral bond than many acknowledge, which makes learning new words easier than it seems. Let’s see how etymological mapping can help us learn some of the most commonly used Spanish verbs that, on face value, seem to have little semblance with their English meanings.

Drinking in Spanish

Tomar is preferred over beber in most of Latin America
Photo credit: grahamc99 licensed CC BY 2.0

The English verb, “drink,” translates into Spanish as beber. Now, the two words hardly seem to have any similarity whatsoever, do they? Turns out they do! Just scratch through the surface and it won’t take you too long to realize that beber actually comes from a source that gave English a good part of its vocabulary. Well, they don’t have a direct connection but traces of their common history still exist in both languages and that’s enough for our purposes.

So, what’s the connection? Actually, beber of Spanish is a direct descendant of bibere in Latin. Now, while bibere doesn’t have anything to do with “drink,” it did give English a word rather unfamiliar to most of us, “bever.” This is an archaic word from Old English that meant “to drink.” Still doesn’t ring a bell? Now, think about this – Where do you think the word, “beverage” comes from? So, a “beverage” is something to “bever” (i.e., drink) in roughly the same way as a wreckage is something that’s been wrecked. What do you think of beber now? It should be easy to remember now. Just think “beverage” when you hear beber and etymology should take care of the rest.

By the way, in most Latin American cultures, the preferred word for drinking is tomar (to take). Though tomar doesn’t directly mean “to drink” but it’s used in the same fashion as we English-speakers often use “have” or “take” when we actually mean “to drink” or “to eat.”

Eating in Spanish

Both comer and its English translation share a common latin origin!
Photo credit: Kumar McMillan licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

This one is a tad more complicated that beber. But etymological connection still does exist despite having been twisted beyond recognition over time. The Spanish translation is comer, which looks and sounds anything but similar to the English verb. So where’s the connection?

History again. Comer comes from, you guessed it right, Latin. The Latin verb is comedō which is actually two words rolled into one – com and edō. The first word, com, is an intensifier that means “with,” and the second word, edō means, “I eat.” So, all in all, the whole shebang actually just stands for an intensified eating action, more akin to eating up, or devouring. Now, for some reasons, while the edō bit morphed into English as “eat” without the intensifier, the word as a whole morphed into the comer of Spanish. Twisted, yes, but the correlation is strong enough nonetheless.

The Spanish for believe

The verb in Spanish is creer which, again, bears hardly any semblance to the English, “believe.” But a little bit of lateral thinking and historical research would tell you that creer actually comes from the Latin word, crēdere, which meant the same thing. By now, you should have easily guessed that this crēdere somehow went on to morph into several English words having something to do with believing, such as “credible” (believable). See how the pieces suddenly add up and creer becomes familiar? In fact, even the English word, “credit,” has the same history. When someone lends you any money on credit, they actually believe in your intention to return the loan when you are able to, hence the term. And there’s a whole bunch of words in both English and Spanish, all of them sharing the same origin.

Speaking of credit, it’s a good idea to learn the Spanish for lending, isn’t it? The word is prestar and is one of the top 100 most useful verbs in this language. Now, prestar is a direct descendant of the Latin verb, praestāre, which carried a range of meanings, one of which is, “to present,” or “to provide.” Now you know where the English verb, “to present,” comes from. Even though the meanings have slightly diverged when the Latin root went down the two separate paths of Spanish and English, they are not too different after all. Lending is, in a vague way, presenting!

Some simple business in Spanish

Both comprar and vender have Latin roots relating them with their English meanings
Photo credit: Nadia & Massimo licensed CC BY 2.0

What is business if not buying and selling? Let’s start with buying. Long, long ago, there used to be a Latin word, comparāre, which was a portmanteau of com (with) and parāre (prepare). Essentially, this Latin root meant, “to make equal with,” or “to bring something together for choosing.” With time, this evolved into “compare” of English keeping the original meaning more-or-less intact. However, there was also another evolution at work at the same time, where it turned into the comprar of Spanish. In this case, the original meaning was kind of lost but the connotation retained to a degree. Comprar is the Spanish for buying. Think about it, what do you essentially do while buying? You basically “equate” the item with money; you take the thing you intend to buy and, in turn, pay the vendor an “equivalent” amount of money to complete the transaction. In a vague sense, this is what the original Latin verb stood for!

As for selling, it’s quite simple. Who’s a seller? A vendor. And who’s a vendor? Someone who sells, or vends, his wares. So, you’re familiar with this verb, “to vend”? If yes, you already know its Spanish – vender. Again, thank their common Latin ancestry for things being so easy and straightforward.

Well, these are just 6 of the 100 most important verbs in the Spanish language. And if you think you can comfortably remember and recall these six after reading this article, you can be reasonably sure you’ll find the remaining just as easy. There’s hardly any Spanish word you can’t nail this way. A little bit of research into the word’s history is all you need to see a recognizable pattern. This trick is certainly way more effective and less taxing than mindlessly cramming them up off a dictionary. Try it, your brain will thank you for it!

Why not take it a notch further and do some similar research of your own? Pick up any Spanish word you have found exceptionally difficult to remember and see if applying this method makes it a breeze. If it does, share it with the rest of us by dropping in a comment here and let them learn out of your creativity!

Easy Trick To Learn The Spanish For Your Clothes

2013-05-16T10:17:00.000+05:30

You could be out on vacation shopping for some items of clothing in a Spanish-speaking country or perhaps you just want to flaunt your Spanish to a bunch of native speakers. No matter what your motivation, learning to name what you wear everyday in Spanish is a cool skill to have. And, if you know the right way to learn, it should take you no more than a few minutes to conquer them all and reproduce them “on the fly” without having to fiddle with mental translations. If cramming up words after words is your forte, we’d recommend saving that skill for something harder as this one calls for hardly any efforts on your part!

Learning the Spanish for your wardrobe is easy and important
Photo credit: Dan licensed CC BY-ND 2.0

Spanish above the waist

Blouse (blusa) – This one shouldn’t take much explaining or efforts as the words sound almost identical.

Shirt (camisa) – Just think of La Camisa Negra (The Black Shirt), the ridiculously popular hit by Juanes and you should have no problem recalling this one. Your shirt could be with short sleeves (con mangas cortas) or with long (con mangas largas).

Dress (vestido) – Use a simple visualization trick to remember this word. Imagine a girl on her wedding day. Imagine her wearing that prohibitively expensive dress in which she had invested months of her salary before saying, “I do!” Easy? The Venezuelans use the word, flux colloquially while in Peru, the word is terno.

T-shirt (playera) – Well, the easiest way to remember this one is to imagine those players wearing colorful t-shirts. The ones with long sleeves are called jerseys (don’t forget to say it using the Spanish pronunciation). Some speakers also use the word, camiseta, noting the similarity between a shirt and a t-shirt.

Little Mexican girls in colorful faldas
Photo credit: Frank_am_Main licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

Spanish below the waist

Jeans (vaqueros) – The standard Peninsular usage is vaqueros. Cows are vacas in Spanish and the ones herding them are, thus, vaqueros. And it’s them vaqueros who started wearing jeans first, the name stuck. In the north-eastern parts of Spain, they are also called tejanos. Puerto Ricans call them mahones while the Cubans, pitusas. Then again, there’s pantalones de mezclilla (denim pants) in Mexico. Nevertheless, the most commonly used word in all these countries remains what you already know and use, “jeans.”

Pants/trousers (pantalones) – Pants came from pantaloons in English and it’s easy to see how they seem to be closely related to their Spanish counterpart.

Shorts (pantalones cortos) – In simplest terms, these are your short pants and the Spanish for short is corto.

Skirt (falda) – Imagine this item as one that the girl folds or wraps around her waist and you will remember falda. Another visual cue could be imagining it as a piece of clothing that hangs or falls from the waist covering the lower parts of the girl’s body.

Sombreros and vaqueros
Photo credit: Corin Royal Drummond licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

Some accessories in Spanish

Belt (cinturón) – The Spanish for waist is cintura and hence the item that goes on there derives as cinturón.

Bow-tie (pajarita) – Pajaro is the Spanish for bird; so, its diminutive is naturally a pajarita, a little bird. Someone, someplace must have felt exceptionally romantic to have seen a bow-tie as a little birdie perched on some man’s collar. In Chile, they call it humita.

Cap (gorra) – A gorra is a cap con visera (with a visor), such as a baseball cap. However, if your cap doesn’t have the peak, as in a skullcap, it’s a gorro. Think of gorro as something that would go around (as in over) your head. As for the gorro-gorra distinction, just remember that “gorro means no peak,” and you should do well.

Gloves (guantes) – Imagine feeling terribly cold, so cold that your fingers are going numb! What do you want desperately? Los guantes! Just remember this imagery and the contextual rhyme between “want” and guante.

Hat (sombrero) – Almost all of us have grown up watching those spaghetti westerns with cowboys wearing cool sombreros doing cool things with their guns. Clint Eastwood, anyone?

Purse (bolso) – Medieval Latin had a word for leather, bursa. Since this item was used to make “money-bags” those days (it is even today), the word also came to be used for those bags. Eventually, English switched the “p” with “b” and inherited the word as “purse.” Someplace else, someone switched the “r” with “l” and morphed it into bolsa when Spanish was born. So, bolsa is essentially a bag (more akin to a paper bag or the likes) while its masculine form, bolso is a purse or a handbag. So, how do you remember it’s bolso and not bolsa when referring to a lady’s purse? Simple, just remember that it’s the male that pairs with the female, i.e., the male bolso goes with the lady as her purse! Nowadays, however, at least in Mexico they have started using bolsa to mean both.

Tie (corbata) – There’s a slightly bizarre visual cue that could help you remember this word. Think of a someone wearing a menacing black cobra around his neck for a tie. Think of the Hindu pantheon’s pothead, Shiva, who wears a venomous cobra around his neck all the time.

Wallet (cartera) – The word, “card,” rhymes with carta, so you can visualize a wallet full of all sorts of cards (credit, debit, loyalty, etc.) to remember what a cartera is. Another word for wallet is billetera; think of it as something that holds your crisp, green bills. Billetera is the preferred word in Colombia, Argentina, and Chile when talking about a man’s wallet while cartera is used for a woman’s bolso. Spaniards use cartera for a wallet, bolso for a handbag, and monedero for a purse. Think of monedero as a container for your moneda (money). Incidentally, a carterista is a pickpocket in the Spanish-speaking world.

Spanish for your footwear

Boots (botas) – The two words are too identical to be any trouble remembering.

Shoe (zapato) – Imagine zapping a toe of the girl standing next to you in that crowded bus with your new shoes.

Slipper (zapatilla) – This one’s obviously derived from zapato; so, if you remember the latter, you should easily remember zapatilla as well.

Sock (calcetín) – If you know that calzón is the Spanish for underwear, you can picture calcetín as being an “underwear” for your feet!

Stocking (media) – Think of a stocking as the tight-fitting sheer that covers about half of a woman’s leg; this idea of covering “half” of her legs should help you remember its Spanish translation since the word comes from the Latin medius which means “half” or “middle.”

Spanish underneath your clothes

Boxers (calzón) – Picture yourself taking in the California Sun at the Santa Monica beach wearing a pair of boxer shorts and a lot of sunscreen. Just be careful while using it because in some countries, calzón also stands for the female underwear!

Bra (sujetador) – The Latin verb, subjectare, morphed into the English verb “to subject,” and the Spanish, sujetar. In a sense, subjecting something also carries the meaning of subjugating or holding it. So, a sujetador is just something that holds those breasts. There are many other words for this item depending on where you are. While most Spaniards use sujetador, many also use bajera. Ecuadorians and Venezuelans go for sostén, while Paraguayans use corpí or corpiño. And then you have the El Salvadorans who pretty much use just the English word instead.

Briefs/underpants (calzoncillos) – The diminutive “-illo” suffix should easily tell you that this is a much smaller version of calzones (boxer shorts), ergo, briefs.

Nightdress (camisón) – Remember the word, “camisole”? They mean the same thing and perhaps share a common ancestry too.

Panties (bragas) – This word derives from the Latin, braca, which means buttocks in an allusion to the “break” or “split” in one’s derriere. So, the bragas of Spanish are the piece of clothing meant to cover that “crack” in the woman’s butt. Sounds crude but that’s etymology for you!

Undershirt (camiseta) – While it can also mean a t-shirt, camiseta is generally used for what the Americans call a “vest.”

There you are...27 items from your closet that you can name in Spanish with hardly any efforts from now on! There are many other items of clothing that are not included in the list above but are equally important to know. If you have anything interesting on them, feel free to share it with the rest.

What Makes Audiria The Best Podcast For Spanish Learners?

2013-05-13T18:21:00.000+05:30

There’s no contesting the immensely important role immersion plays in any rapid Spanish acquisition program. The more Spanish input we get inundated with, the better our chances of eventually being able to produce it. This idea has been carefully explored and evaluated time and again both here and elsewhere. But there are just too many sources of input out there to quickly overwhelm the layman and that’s where we step in, helping you cherry-pick the best for you. Audiria is one such free Spanish learning resource we’d strongly recommend to you, but not without the unbiased scrutiny it’s being subjected to in this review.

So what is Audiria?

Audiria was the brainchild of two Málaga-born brothers
Photo credit: Nicole Abalde licensed CC BY-ND 2.0

Audiria is a content-driven website aimed at Spanish learners across all levels from basic through advanced. The entire learning model here is built around the idea of improving your listening comprehension and to this end, they offer excellent podcasts along with exhaustive grammar and comprehension drills for their listeners.

Conceived as a not-for-profit project by two Málaga-based brothers, the site aims at promoting the Spanish language and culture throughout the world through its free language-learning podcasts. The brothers are also supported by two other members of their family, one from Burgos and the other from Madrid. All four of them are currently based out of Madrid. Outside of the family, the team of four is often helped by a volunteering contributor from Connecticut in the US.

Amongst a plethora of Spanish learning podcasts that came out of the woodwork as we got down to hunting them down for reviews, Audiria stands out on many counts. One important feature is their offer of a new podcast everyday. Yes, that’s right, a new stuff for listeners every single day without exception! This alone makes it a rich source of materials for even the most prolific of learners who love to devour a lot very quickly. And it’s not just the numbers that they excel at. Audiria podcasts are based on a wide-range of topics and areas of interest and are crafted to suit all levels of proficiency in Spanish. So, in short, there’s something for everyone.

How it works

As already said, Audiria publishes one audio file, or podcast, everyday which is available to learners for free with no strings attached. These podcasts, called chapters by the website, are mostly plain audios, but can also at times include videos.

Each podcast is tagged, and thus classified, on the basis of linguistic complexity – Level 1 podcasts are for the beginners, Level 2 for the intermediate, and Level 3 for advanced students.

Other than levels of difficulty, podcasts are also classified into various “channels” on the basis of their central themes – Press, Songs, Kitchen, Art, Don Quixote, History, Daily Scenes, Culture, Slow, Short Scenes, TV, etc. – so that the readers can choose to listen to chapters discussing topics of their specific interest.

Each chapter is posted along with a well-documented transcript to aid comprehension and these transcripts are sent right to the learner’s email if they are subscribed to receive them. These transcripts go a long way in helping the listeners get their heads around certain podcasts recorded with a high, native-level rate of speech.

To further reinforce their comprehension, learners can take tests answering a bunch of random questions pertaining to the chapter in question and, if registered, can review their progress using a bunch of statistical analyses. Furthermore, the site also offers a “Utilities” section where one can look up the meaning of any new Spanish word they come across while listening to the podcasts. The same section also allows one to review the conjugations of any Spanish verb, quite handy at times.

An extremely rich aspect is the “Resources” section where one can find neatly categorized links to a wide variety of online resources, all bunched up under the “Multimedia” sub-section. These resources include online tutorials, dictionaries, radio and television sites, Spanish learning games, and online language learning communities among others.

Why we love it

The biggest strength of Audiria’s content is its freshness. There’s a new podcast every day to ensure you never get bored or repetitive. All four contributors being native speakers of Spanish, the content is expectedly authentic, more so in the “TV” and “Pictures” channels. And if you already have leastwise an intermediate-level acquaintance with the language, the readings from Don Quixote and Alexander Dumas are worth listening to. Furthermore, the selection of external links in the “Resources” section seems mighty thoughtful and methodical. Those links can satisfy pretty much all your Spanish learning needs; none of them is there “just for the heck of it.”

Audiria podcasts are modeled on real-life scenarios and contextual Spanish
Photo credit: Mystery People licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

Another big plus is that the chapters are modeled on real-life scenarios and contextual usage. Nothing sounds artificially staged. This serves to offer you an interesting window to the rich Hispanic culture and lifestyle. And there are just tons of reading, listening, and writing activities for practice. It is this neat packaging of interesting content with reinforcing practice that makes Audiria such an engaging experience.

On the technical side, the audio quality is excellent to begin with and so is the quality of transcripts (one of the benefits of having a native Spanish-speaking electrical engineer on board). As far as the site itself is concerned, the clean layout leaves little room for confusion and the page itself loads fairly quickly. No overdose of ads either; there are some on the right but they are small, few, and quietly tucked away in their corners never interfering with your learning. This is quite unlike the annoying “in-your-face” flash ads, popups, or banners many other peers toss at you.

If awards and recognitions drive your trust in a service or product, Audiria claims to have been elected as the official project of the UNESCO International Year of Languages in 2008. We sure do hope that UNESCO’s verdict counts!

And what they could do better

There is yin and there is yang. There is good and there is bad. Of course, Audiria is a marvel to work with and an irresistible tool worth every Spanish learner’s arsenal. However, like anything else in the world it, too, has its fair share of flaws. Actually, calling them flaws might be too harsh on them and even an exaggeration. How about areas of improvement, instead?

To begin with, they still lack a simple list of general language topics one can expect to have covered with them, a syllabus. It’s no big deal but a definite good-to-have especially from the standpoint of absolutely fresh learners who are as clueless about what they need to learn as they are about what to learn.

Being a madrileño service, Audiria’s Spanish follows the accent of Spain throughout
Photo credit: Osvaldo Gago licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

The explanations are left a tad wanting when it comes to key grammar concepts. A glaring example is chapter 339 which does explain the imperfect tense that the narrative uses but fails to explain how this tense is different from the preterit. Anybody with any experience in teaching or learning Spanish would vouch for the confusion such pairs cause in the beginning.

Another downside (not sure if it’s even fair to call it a “downside”) is that being an essentially madrileño service, Audiria podcasts are almost exclusively European in nature. What this means is they are excellent if the accent and pronunciation you intend to pick is that of Spain. But if you prefer or just need a Latin American dialect, Audiria might not help much at least with the pronunciation bit. The basics are still the same though and it will still teach you Spanish if you are not fussy about accents.

Final takeaway

But these little clinks, in no way, take away from the otherwise extremely effective Spanish delivery mechanism that Audiria is and should not deter you from experiencing it. Overall, it’s a wonderful resource to get exposure to spoken Spanish, picking up some interesting trivia on culture and literature along the way. One promise that Audiria delivers quite efficiently is that of being an engaging teacher. Just use it for what it does best, i.e., the podcasts and activities, and you are good. For grammar tips you’re better off referencing some other site that specializes in it.

And don’t forget to let our fellow learners know about your experience with Audiria! Actually, feel free to do it better – let us know if you stumble upon something else that trumps Audiria or is at least as good and we all can explore it together, maybe?

Colombian Spanish – Street Speech From Shakira’s Homeland

2013-04-26T20:56:00.000+05:30

While the jury is still out on which Spanish is The Absolute, an overwhelming number of both native and non-native speakers hold the Colombian flavor in high regard. This ambiguous claim might, and often does, spawn a heated debate amongst Spanish speakers for every nationality has reasons to take their Spanish as “standard” Spanish. Nevertheless, if you have set your heart on the Colombian variant, it won’t hurt to learn about some of its most defining features and nuances. The Spanish spoken in Colombia differs from the others in more ways than a few and this article discusses some of the most salient ones of all.

Colombian Spanish is often seen as the most prestigious of all
Photo credit: Juan Carlos Jara Guzmán licensed CC BY 2.0

Well, before we start with the salient features of Colombian Spanish, it is important to note that this is not a single, homogenous dialect spoken uniformly throughout the country. Colombian Spanish is, instead, more of a blanket term applied to a diverse collection of disparate dialects spoken in various regions of this nation. At times, and naturally so, it is also a function of demographics in addition to geography.

On a broad level, the Spanish spoken in coastal Colombia carries an interesting resemblance to the Caribbean dialects owing to the close proximity between the regions. On the other hand, the highland speech tends to be more conservative. It is the educated, and generally conservative, speech of the capital city, Bogotá, that essentially enjoys the widespread respect accorded to Colombian Spanish throughout the New World. This is the Spanish you’re most likely to hear on the television and read in the newspapers.

Too formal?

Colombians use usted even with family and friends!
Photo credit: Edgar Zuniga Jr. licensed CC BY-ND 2.0

Usted is no alien to the Spanish speaking world but in Colombia, particularly Bogotá, it enjoys more currency than anyplace else. While the rest of the world would limit the usage of this word to only formal settings, Colombians use it all the time. Here, usted is used wherever non Colombians would typically use tú or vos, such as with friends and family. Voseo, which is the hallmark of Latin American Spanish, is practically alien to most parts of Colombia.

Of course, there are exceptions to the rules since Colombian Spanish is not a single dialect but a rather inconsistent continuum of almost unrelated dialects. One such exception is the prevalence of voseo in areas like Valle del Cauca and the Paisa region.

It’s not that Colombians never use tú. It’s just that the usage is very minimal and carries a radically different connotation in Colombian societies. When a man uses tú with a woman, it’s seen as flirtatious. And between two men, it’s taboo! Between two men it’s instantly taken as a sign of homosexuality or, leastwise, effeminate behavior. Just stick to usted all along and you’ll do just fine in all situations in this country. Might seem pretty awkward at first but it’s easy to get accustomed to.

Colombian pronunciation

They say the Bogotá accent is the clearest of all and consequently the easiest to understand from a non-native speaker’s standpoint. This meme, along with the fact that this is the Spanish our gorgeous Shakira speaks, should sufficiently incentivize your decision of choosing Colombian Spanish as your target accent!

Though not too many, there still exist some pronunciation features that are more definitive of Colombian speech than any other. One of them is the way they pronounce their j’s as in the word, jardín. While elsewhere it would be rendered with a guttural similar to the one heard at the end of loch in Irish, Colombians prefer the rather simpler sounding “h” of English. So, jardín sounds like “har-deen” in this country and not like “xar-deen” as it does elsewhere. Colombian Spanish shares this feature with some other dialects such as those of Canary Islands, Southern Spain, the Caribbean, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.

There’s also a distinct way they pronounce the letters, b, d, and g, in Colombian Spanish. While these letters carry a much softer sound in most cases in other dialects, they are uttered exactly as they are in English by the Colombians. For the linguistic nerds out there, this can be summed up as the “plosive” pronunciation where parts of your mouth enact a sort of explosion. Imagine your lips mildly exploding when you pronounce “b” in English, or your tongue causing a similar explosion with your alveolar ridge when pronouncing “d”. All you need to remember is that he softer sounds for these letters, prominent in Spanish, is more or less absent in Colombian Spanish. The only exception could be the Nariño region where the softer variants do exist.

Gatito or gatico?

Gatito o gatico?
Photo credit: Fluckr You licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

Diminutives are one of the most defining features of Latin American Spanish and words like ahorita and poquito are commonplace in that part of the world. That these little suffixes (such as the -ito in poquito) mildly or radically alter the meaning of the word in question is well-known. Although the degree and direction of this change in meaning largely depends on the dialect, culture, and context, they abound. And Colombian Spanish is no exception.

What’s salient about Colombian Spanish, though, is the suffix itself. Here, -ito is more commonly replaced by a more ubiquitous -ico in words where the last syllable has a “t” in it. In all other cases, -ito prevails. So, the Mexican gatito becomes gatico in Colombia. Colombians share this practice with the Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Costa Ricans, and the Venezuelans.

Another salient feature of this dialect is that it allows for usage of diminutives not only with nouns and adjectives like elsewhere, but also with verbs! Just as with nouns and adjectives, verbs can also take on these suffixes to intensify the action, particularly in the continuous form represented by the -iendo ending (equivalent of the -ing form in English). Thus, while corriendo is “running,” one can turn it into corriendito to imply “scurrying.”

Even prepositions can take on these suffixes in Colombian speech with a similar intensifying effect. So, while junto a is “next to,” juntico a turns it into “right next to.” Double diminutives are also common as in Mexico giving innovations, like, ahoritica (right at this moment) and buenecitico (perfect or top-shelf). As obvious, two diminutives make it sound more intensive than just one and are, hence, typical of more loaded conversations.

Who’s the daddy?

The lower class Colombians speak a very strange Spanish
Photo credit: I. D. R. J. licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

A curious trait of Colombian Spanish is the way family members address each other. No, this is not about usted or tú. This is something even more awkward for a newcomer. What do you think that Latina wife of yours would address you as? Mi amor? Mi esposo? Mi marido? Well, if she is from Colombia, she is most likely to call you – hold your breath – mijo (a colloquial portmanteau for mi hijo or “my son” elsewhere)! Yes, Colombian couples address each other as mijo and mija. Don’t ask why; this is what it is. Just get used to it.

And it doesn’t end here. While your Colombian wife addresses you like a son, think of how she addresses your kids. Well, parents in this country usually call their sons papito (daddy) and daughters, mamita (mommy)! So, who’s the daddy after all? But don’t worry, this kind of awkward usage is not educated Colombian Spanish. You’re more likely to hear them in lower and lower-middle class families.

Another peculiarity of Colombian street-speech is the usage of que in irrelevant contexts. Practically any sentence can be made to start with this word without affecting the meaning. Just another Colombian habit. You are quite likely to hear sentences like these in this country:

Que sale mañana (They’re leaving tomorrow)

Que gracias (Thanks)

This usage is, again, associated with uneducated, lower socio-economic strata of the Colombian society.

There are far more peculiarities in any dialect of any language, let alone Colombian Spanish, to be justifiably covered in a single article. Books have been written discussing these idiosyncrasies and anyone crazy enough about this dialect ought to conduct further research. But no amount of reading and researching can ever rival the value-add of having a native speaker from Colombia as friend. Interacting with them in real is the best way to understand all aspects of their language.

If you have any experience with the Colombians, feel free to share it with the rest of us in your comments. We’d love to learn more about this fascinating dialect through your experiences!

The 4 Keywords Of Argentinean Spanish Other Than Che

2013-04-24T20:16:00.000+05:30

The Argentineans could practically go on for hours at a stretch with anyone who’d care to listen! And, naturally, this overdose of spoken Spanish is bound to spawn an entire jargon of local slang and idiosyncrasies that could catch even a master of Spanish off-guard. Even someone who can’t say, “My name is Bill,” in Spanish would know that che is what the Argentineans live and breathe. What many don’t know, however, is that Argentinean life doesn’t start and end with just che. A dialect of Spanish as rich as Argentinean ought to do much better than that; here, we explore 4 words from Argentina that you just can’t do without.

Boludo

Unless you mean to insult, use boludo only with someone this close, if you must
Photo credit: Alberto licensed CC BY 2.0

Long, long ago in the days of yore when they used to fight with horses and cannons, it often made sense to have a “cannon-fodder.” This wretched mortal would be typically the one pushed into front line of the battle so as to take the hit from incoming shots and die first, thereby, saving the more precious manpower behind him. It was a brilliant, though cruel, strategy to waste the enemy’s cannonballs on insignificant soldiers and then score later in terms of ammunition.

Obviously, this wretch was popularly thought of as someone having a lot of guts to step into what’s practically a suicide mission. Lot of guts translated into big balls or, in Spanish, boludo. So, basically, the term would stand for someone brave and courageous and thus has “big balls.” But then, another school of thought noted them as utter fools as there was no bravery involved in certain death. Hence, with time, this word came to carry this connotation.

Although, in the streets of Argentina, a boludo would generally be an immature jackass or a moron, it might not always be as offending as it seems. Most teenagers are often heard using this word amongst themselves as casual appelative. It often combines with che in one of the most common street expressions, “¡Che boludo!” This could mean, “Hey moron!” or “Hey buddy!” depending on the context.

At any cost, stay away from using this word unless you are in extremely casual and friendly settings as you never know how it might come across. Especially if you’re older than, say 30, an overuse of boludo might be taken as an attempt to play up a certain image or even cultural or lexical poverty. And if you’re feeling even more adventurous, there’s pelotudo; same meaning but a much bigger punch.

By the way, this word refers to a wealthy person in El Salvador! So, be careful if you’re traveling to both the countries.

Quilombo

Slums of La Boca: ¡Qué quilombo!
Photo credit: Richie Diesterheft licensed CC BY 2.0

This one actually comes from Portuguese, blame it on the shared border with Brazil. Historically, quilombos used to be remote, inland ghettos settled by runaway slaves from the Brazilian sugar plantations. Needless to say, the living conditions in these slums, mostly concentrated along the southern frontiers of Brazil, were poor enough to be compared with Hell on Earth.

Due to the miserable state of affairs in these settlements, the word came to be colloquially used for the whorehouses of Buenos Aires – and sometimes also Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, and rest of Argentina – which were equally wretched if not more. With time, though, it has further evolved and generalized to cover any similar situation. So, basically, a quilombo today is a mess or any messed-up situation regardless of the context.

How intense is the connotation? Let’s just say it’s a tad stronger than “mess” but a touch gentler than something like a “shit storm.” Anyway, cutting through all its interpretations, at heart, quilombo remains something raucous, miserable, and downright bad.

Needless to say, you’d be better off limiting this word’s usage to only the most casual of contexts as it’s not a terribly sophisticated expression. Typical usage would be:

¡Qué quilombo! (What a bloody mess!)

Se armo un quilombo (It was a freakin’ mess)

¡Tu casa es un quilombo! (Your house is such a mess!)

Onda

Everything nice is buena onda!
Photo credit: Claudia_midori licensed CC BY 2.0

Onda is also quite prevalent in Mexico as a colloquial term for “vibes.” Literally speaking, this word means “wave” which is similar in connotation to “vibe.” This is the reason why microwave ovens are translated to hornos microondas in Spanish. Pretty straightforward, isn’t it?

Using la onda in isolation simply means cool or good – a tad stronger than bueno. Although there are many phrases using this word, it’s not uncommon to hear it being used on its own in an expression. One example is, ¿Qué onda?

Well, this is quite a handy word due to its versatility and ubiquity, at least in Mexican and Rioplatense dialects of Spanish. The most common expression using this word is ¿Qué onda? which means, “What’s up?” Here, the question essentially meant to be asked is more like, “What’s making waves?” or “What’s going on?”

Other than the extremely common expression mentioned above, the word finds usage in quite a few other contexts as well. Some of the most common expressions use onda along with buena or mala, in the phrases, buena onda (good intention/faith/mood) or mala onda (bad faith/intention/mood). Whether onda indicates nature, mood or intention, depends on the preposition attached to it:

en buena/mala onda (with or in a good/bad intention)

de buena/mala onda (in a good/bad mood)

buena/mala onda (cool/mean or a good/bad thing or situation)

Let’s review some examples:

Mi jefe es muy buena onda (My boss is pretty cool)

La música de esa banda es la onda (This band’s music is the best)

Lupe es mala onda (Lupe is quite mean)

Ahora, estoy de mala onda (I’m in a bad mood right now)

Las mujeres hablan en mala onda de Juan (The women talk harshly about Juan)

Pedo

These Argentineans are definitely en pedo
Photo credit: Leonardo Daniel licensed CC BY 2.0

Going by the dictionary, this word means just a “fart,” but in the streets of Argentina, they are used in contexts that have little to do with this unpleasant Biology. One most common expression you can hear everywhere you go in Buenos Aires is en pedo which means drunk. So, if you ask me if I’d ever try eating reptiles and I answer, “¡Ni en pedo!” I essentially mean that I won’t eat them even if I were drunk.

Another interesting phrase involving pedo is vivir en nube de pedos. If you abide by the literal translation, this would conjure up a rather disgusting image of someone living in a cloud made of farts. But in colloquial speech, this simply refers to someone living in a dream-world, totally detached from reality. Interesting?

The play with words doesn’t stop here. Ever seen a scuba diver slowly ascending back to the surface after a long session? It’s no mean feat to push through the immense pressure of all the water on top of your head, especially when you have gone too deep. Now imagine that diver letting out a fart so strong that it propels him to the surface in one loud jet! There’s an expression for this vision in Spanish – Subir como pedo de buzo – which literally means, “to climb like a scuba diver’s fart.” Well, the image might not be pleasant but the expression is quite handy in a lot of contexts. Essentially it relates to someone “rapidly climbing up the social ladder.”

Of course, these are not the only words that define Argentinean Spanish and you’ll discover many more as you start conversing with the locals. But, these are by far the most prevalent expressions you are likely to encounter on a stroll down the alleys and streets of this country. Just try avoiding their usage in formal settings and you should be just fine. And if, by any chance, you’ve been there and done that, please feel free to share your experiences. Any words or expressions you feel should make the list of Argentinean slang keywords? Share them!

32 Spanish Verbs In Your Kitchen In Under 10 Minutes

2013-04-21T03:10:00.001+05:30

However eccentric one’s tastes, the allure of good food can hardly be denied. How about adding a little gastronomical twist to our mundane Spanish learning regimen then? Even if you don’t particularly enjoy cooking, the ability to talk about the goings on in your kitchen in fluent Spanish will go a long way winning you the heart of that Latina who is famous for her yummy mole! This article is going to help you learn and remember for ever, some of the most frequently used Spanish verbs related to cooking with a special focus on clearing the air on two very similar sounding verbs (and thus quite confusing), cocer and cocinar.

The cocer-cocinar dilemma

Broadly speaking, both words mean “to cook” in English but scratch the surface and you will discover that there is quite a subtle yet well-defined difference between them. To understand this difference, we need to first understand what cooking generally involves. Now regardless of whether you can cook, you know what goes on in your kitchen.

Cocinar or cocer?
Photo credit: Neeta Lind licensed CC BY 2.0

The food you see on the table, is prepared in many stages, each a process in itself. Chopping, peeling, mixing, marinating, boiling, baking, frying, steaming, and so on. In English, the whole shebang is collectively referred to as “cooking.” In this sense, the word in Spanish is cocinar. This is an excellent example of how nouns and verbs give rise to each other in many languages. This happens all the time. And it happens in English too. That’s how you have the verb, “tutor” deriving from the noun, “tutor” (my English tutor tutors my cousins). It’s just a natural phenomenon. In Spanish, we have the noun, cocina (kitchen) giving us the verb, cocinar which essentially stands for all actions that are performed inside a kitchen. Thus, it covers everything from chopping to frying (of course, having sex in the kitchen doesn’t count).

However, cooking in English also stands for something more specific. The act of processing a food over heat, e.g., boiling, frying, roasting, etc. This set of activities have a slightly different representation in Spanish – cocer. You can see cocer as a subset of cocinar. Look at it this way: Cocinar is the whole gamut. All activities involved in it can be categorized under preparar (preparing the food, e.g., chopping, marinating, peeling, etc.) and cocer (cooking over fire, e.g., boiling, steaming, frying, baking, etc.).

Interestingly, etymology ensures you never forget these words ever again. Turns out, these words are related to the English “cook” sharing a common Latin ancestor, coquō. Never mind how the /k/ sound morphed into /s/; some evolutionary forces at work here.

By the way, here’s a fun fact: In Dominican Republic, cocina is a slang for the back seats in a guagua (a local name for “bus” in DR).

Some more kitchen verbs

Homemade guacamole from a Mexican kitchen
Photo credit: Naotake Murayama licensed CC BY 2.0

Now that we are even with the 2 most basic culinary verbs, it’s time to explore some more. In this section, we’ll learn not only the Spanish for some of the most common kitchen-related action words, but also invoke etymology and visualization to ensure we never lose them from memory. Ready to get started? It shouldn’t take you more than 10 minutes to learn them all and permanently commit them to memory without any repetitive cramming (a previous article had attempted to help you acquire 13 kitchen words in Spanish in a similar fashion). Here we go:

agregar (to add) – Does this not sound eerily similar to “aggregate”? Well, that’s because it is. They obviously share a common Latin ancestry. This word is used whenever you are adding an ingredient to your mess while preparing it for cooking.

ahumar (to smoke) – No, this is not about cigarettes. This is what you do to, say, salmons. Cooking with smoke. But you guessed it right, ahumar does come from the same source as fumar (to smoke, e.g., a cigarette) and the common ancestor here is fumō, again Latin. This word also gave us the English word, “fume.”

batir (to beat) – This one’s a no-brainer; the two words sound close enough to stay in your head without much trouble.

capear (to cover) – You can easily relate to this word when you realize that “to cap” also means “to cover” in English. But capear is not used in every context. This word specifically refers to covering something in, say, butter for the purpose of frying.

cubrir (to cover) – Now, this is the word you use when speaking of physically covering your food with an actual lid or cover. Also note how this word rings similar to its English counterpart, “cover,” and it should be a cakewalk to recall.

napar (to cover) – Again! How many words do they have for covering in Spanish! Don’t worry, it’s all about the context. In this case, we are completely bathing a dish in a sauce or something similar so that the latter completely covers not just the dish but also the plate! Drooling already? Think of a black forest pastry completely drowned in hot chocolate and that’s what napar implies. So, while capear is while cooking, napar is while serving. Not sure where this word comes from but you can visualize the hot chocolate cover as having no parallel to help yourself remember and recall it effortlessly.

cortar (to cut up) – Again, the reason cortar sounds so similar to “cut” is their common Latin ancestry. Think of it as an action that renders something shorter or smaller.

trocear (to cut up) – This one doesn’t seem to be any different from cortar except that it obviously has a different etymology.

desvenar (to remove the veins as in from chillies) – Another no-brainer. The prefix, des-, lends the meaning of removing something while venar comes from véna which, in turn, comes from the Latin vēna that gave us the English “vein.” Think of desvenar as “de-vein.”

enharinar (to coat/sprinkle with a thin layer of flour) – In English, when you coat something with a balm-like thingy, it’s embalming. Similarly, in Spanish, when you coat something with harina (flour), it’s enharinar.

Flamear or quemar?
Photo credit: Jenene Chesbrough licensed CC BY 2.0

quemar (to burn) – This one has an interesting history. Quemar is a direct descendant of the Latin word for burn, cremō. And, it is this Latin word that gave us “cremate” in English. For those of you who don’t know, cremation is the traditional burning up of a dead body at funeral in some cultures.

flamear (to burn) – This word doesn’t exactly burn your food unless you are reckless enough. Here, you use flame as a show-off by smothering the hot dish in a liquor, such as brandy, and then igniting it to create what’s typically known as, flambé. The flame in this process is used more for its visual effects than to actually burn the food.

llenar (to fill) – Imagine you are being served mezcal at a Mexican restaurant and the absent-minded server continues to pour to the point where it’s about to spill. What would you do? You’d obviously say, “no,” once you see your cup’s full. Use this imagination to remember that lleno is the Spanish for “full.” It is this word that gives us the verb, llenar.

Papa rellena
Photo credit: Robert Luna licensed CC BY 2.0

rellenar (to stuff) – The prefix, re-, is often added to many Spanish verbs to accentuate the action, giving it a sense of being kind of overdone. It has the same etymology as the similarly-spelled prefix in English but with a slight difference, e.g., frijoles refritos is “well-fried beans” and not “refried beans” as most assume. Similarly, adding the prefix to llenar gives it a sense of “over-filling” or, simply put, “stuffing.” Drool over papas rellenas (stuffed potatoes) if that helps.

freir (to fry) – Well this one sounds like its English counterpart given their shared origins.

derretir (to melt, thaw, or liquify) – Imagine yourself as an action-packed, hot-headed bag of testosterone while you’re still young and active. But then you’re going to lose much of this youthful vigor and thaw down as you grow older and retire. This visual mnemonic should be enough to affix this word to your head for a lifetime.

guisar (to stew) – Though this word has Proto-Germanic roots, just as English does, it would probably be easier to rely on visualization in this case as its etymology is kind of complicated. Think of yourself guised as your favorite superhero, say Spiderman, busy stewing something in the kitchen.

hervir (to boil) – This one comes from the Latin fervere which gave English the word, “fever.” Heat is the lowest common denominator here.

sancochar (to parboil) – Though this word means almost the same as hervir, there’s a slight difference. You use hervir when you are actually boiling some liquid, such as water. However, it’s sancochar when you boil some food stuff in that liquid.

hornear (to bake in an oven) – From the Latin furnus comes the English “furnace” and the Spanish horno. So, naturally whatever you do in an horno (i.e., bake) is hornear.

Machacar en un molcajete
Photo credit: ccharmon licensed CC BY-ND 2.0

machacar (to crush, pulverize, pound, or grind) – Think of a burly macho dude crushing a fistful of walnuts in one effortless twist. Can you relate?

pelar (to peel) – Both have a common root and hence the similar ring.

remover (to stir) – If mover is “to move,” adding the prefix, re-, would add a certain overkill to this action; thus, remover means, “to move thoroughly” or, “to stir.”

mezclar (to mix) – Again, the words sound too similar to warrant any special memory cue.

salar (to add salt) – Sal is Spanish for “salt,” so, salar naturally becomes the Spanish for adding salt to your food.

sazonar (to season or garnish) – Again, they sound fairly similar.

helar (to freeze) – Hielo is the Spanish for “ice” hence the derived verb.

congelar (to deep-freeze) – This one comes from gelu, the Latin for “ice.” Incidentally, gelu gave us the English word, “congeal,” which means, “to solidify or coagulate by cooling.”

nevar (to froth egg-white) – Generally, this word means, “to snow,” but in the kitchen it refers to frothing of egg-white given the visual similarity between the latter and the physical snow.

untar (to spread) – What happens if you untie a polyethylene bag of yoghurt? It spreads all over. rings a bell?

That should be enough for now. These were some of the most commonly verbs used in the kitchen and should have you covered for most culinary situations.

Should You Really Learn The Spanish Future Tense?

2013-04-19T20:52:00.000+05:30

The future tense is vanishing from the Spanish language; perhaps more rapidly than in the case of English, French, or German. Native Spanish speakers are often heard using the present tense while talking about future actions. This brings us to the question almost every learner starting out with Spanish faces at one point or the other: Should one really learn the Spanish future tense? The answer is almost a “no” if your aim is to just be conversant with the natives. Really? Does it mean we can just do away with the future tense conjugations and happily use the present tense instead in all situations? Well, let’s find out.

Future tense vanishing from English?

Well, yes, English does have a well defined future tense that continues to be prescribed by the grammar nazis throughout the world with no relaxation whatsoever. However, if you notice its usage in regular conversations, perhaps you’d understand that this tense is slowly and steadily vanishing from the scene. Really? Well, actually, English doesn’t even have a true future tense, per se!

The very first hint in this direction is the fact that there exists no verb form for the future tense in English. We rely, instead, on the word, “will,” which is just a modal prop used in combination with the present tense forms to describe future actions. There are, in fact, eight ways to express a future event in English:

Prediction – She will sleep
Prediction – She will have slept
Prediction – She will be sleeping
Prediction – She will have been sleeping
Factual assertion – She sleeps tomorrow
Plan – She is going to sleep tomorrow
Plan – She is sleeping soon
Resolution – She shall sleep

If you study the above eight sentences closely, you’d easily notice that none of them uses any future tense verb form despite being future tense sentences themselves. They only at most use the modal props, “will” and “shall.” Some even go to the extent of completely doing away with these props and using the present tense alone to describe future actions.

The future of Spanish

The same evolutionary disappearance of the future verb forms that we observed in English above is also at work in Spanish, albeit, at a much larger scale. In Spanish this tense has all but vanished from day-to-day conversations – almost. So, at least for rookie learners, it won’t be much of a problem if they just shelve covering this tense until a later stage in their Spanish language program. But, can one completely do away with this tense? Not really. So, how does one know where it can be dispensed with and where it can’t?

Well, here’s the deal. You use the present tense in Spanish whenever discussing future plans or facts. Whenever you describe an event seen as obvious or factual, you would do well with the present tense. Often, when you are discussing a plan for future, you’d roll up your verb in a small ball with the equivalent of “going to” stuck to the present tense. We often do this in English too but the only difference is that it’s way more prevalent, and the norm, in Spanish. Here is an illustration:

Mañana se va (tomorrow, she leaves)

We often do this in English but we also use the “will” (tomorrow she will leave) form quite frequently. But in Spanish, this is the only form used if you are reasonably sure of the fact that she’ll leave tomorrow. If, however, you do use the future tense in Spanish, it won’t hurt but will alter the meaning in a very subtle way:

Mañana irá (she will leave tomorrow)

To your English ears, this sentence might ring no different from the one before. But to a native Spanish speaker, the last sentence sounds more like an assumption or a supposition that she might leave. Here, you are stating a fact that will hopefully turn out true if your assumptions are right. Though this difference in meaning is too subtle to be easily appreciated, it’s not really alien to English either. Imagine how you’d answer if I asked you what your friend was doing. Here too, there are two ways you could answer even in English. If you’re fairly sure, you could say something like, “He is sleeping.” You’re stating a fact here. But if you are not really sure but assuming that he must be asleep, you can say, “He will be sleeping.” Note that both these sentences are indicating an action in the present tense but in the second one, “will” slightly alters the certainty of the stated fact. This is what happens with Spanish. You use the present tense whenever you are stating a fact with conviction but the future tense wherever a supposition is being made.

Universal facts, like the sunrise, are best expressed using the present tense
Photo credit: BY-YOUR-⌘ licensed CC BY 2.0

As further illustration, check out these sentences:

Mañana el sol sale por el este (tomorrow, the Sun rises in the East)

Mañana el sol saldrá por el este (tomorrow, the Sun will rise in the East)

While in English, either of the above constructs is colloquially sound. But, when it comes to Spanish, you’re more likely to hear the first. Why? Because it’s a fact and there’s no guesswork at play here! Whenever you talk about the Sun’s rising in the East, you talk with conviction. It’s a universal fact. The second sentence using the future tense conjugation makes it sound like your assumption. You don’t assume that the Sun will rise in the East; you just know it!

It’s all about certainty

So, facts take the present tense and assumptions, the future. What about plans? They are neither facts nor vague assumptions! Well, these are, again, best expressed using the present tense but with a twist. You stick a “going to” with the verb and you’re good:

Mañana voy a comer con ella (Tomorrow, I am going to eat with her)

You are fairly determined to eat with her and that’s why, a future tense shouldn’t be invoked to ruin your certainty. However, since your plan is still just in the pipeline, you’d be better off wrapping it with a “going to.” This step is not compulsory, though, and even the following sentence will do just fine:

Mañana como con ella (Tomorrow, I eat with her)

The last example, of course, does lend a greater degree of certainty to your plans and implies that you are quite determined to execute them. Which of the last two constructs you choose should ideally just be a function of your prerogative and circumstances.

so, what’s the moral of this story? It’s simple. Just use the present tense when discussing future events for all practical purposes unless you are even a wee bit doubtful of the event in question. And whether you use “going to” or just do with a simple present tense (also called, present indicative) construct, is absolutely up to you. Let’s summarize this for a quick reference:

Present indicative with “going to” – Quite certain (I am going to meet her tomorrow)

Present indicative without “going to” – Even more certain (I meet her tomorrow)

Future – Supposition or assumption; not quite certain (I will meet her tomorrow)

That’s the trick – No more cramming up on the future tense conjugations at least for the time being! Enjoy!

The Spanish Object Pronouns – Leísmo, Laísmo, And Loísmo

2013-04-09T10:31:00.001+05:30

The Spanish language has object pronouns just like its other Romance cousins. However, to us English speakers, they often seem alien because English doesn’t stress on them as much as Spanish does. Many rookie learners doing Spanish get thoroughly confused with the multitude of rules surrounding these pronouns and this article intends to clear the air once and for all. Actually, the only confusing bit happens to be the third person forms that seem deceptively simple – La, lo, and le. In keeping with the essence of simplicity that our articles feature, we will try to steer clear of grammatical nomenclature as far as possible.

The confusion around these pronouns is severely compounded by the fact that different parts of the Spanish speaking world have different ways of using them which are not necessarily consistent with what is acceptable as “correct” by prescription grammar.

The standard way

Before we continue into what the regional variations and colloquial “incorrect” usage are, it’s imperative that we first understand what the “correct” usage is. Well, even before that, let’s first brush up on what exactly these “objects” are.

In most languages, a typical sentence has 3 most basic components. Let’s understand this with an example sentence:

Escribe una carta (He writes a letter)

Referring to this example sentence, the three basic components would be:

The action – This is typically what we know as the “verb.” In our example sentence, the action word is escribe (writes).

The doer – The idea is that if something is being done, someone’s got to be doing it. This person, thing, or entity that performs the action in question is the “subject,” which in our example is él (he/she). Note that it’s often omitted in Spanish but implied inherently.

The recipient – This word or phrase signifies the entity at the receiving end of the said action, grammatically known as the “object.” Objects typically answer the “what,” “whom,” or “to whom” in the sentence. Drawing on this, the object in our sentence is the word that answers the question, “What is being written?” Yes, it’s una carta (a letter).

Now, this recipient of action can be stated as either a direct or an indirect object. The letter in our previous example is essentially a direct object. Direct objects usually answer the question, “what.”

However, if we extend our example to answer the question, “to whom,” we get what’s called an indirect object. Let’s try it out:

Le escribe una carta (He writes a letter to her)

So, what’s being done here? Writing. That’s your verb. Who is doing the writing? He; that’s your subject. What’s he writing? A letter, the direct object. And, to whom is he writing the letter? To her, the indirect object. Easy-peasy? Hope so. 

Now, let’s have a look at the words used as the direct and indirect recipients of actions in Spanish – The direct and indirect pronouns:

The pronouns for the first and the second persons are fairly simple and easy to digest:

me – First person singular for both direct and indirect pronouns; directly corresponds to the “me” in English. For example, me dio el libro (she gave the book to me; indirect), me vio (she saw me; direct).
te – Second person singular for both direct and indirect pronouns; directly corresponds to “you” or “to you” in English. For example, te dio el libro, te vio.

It’s the third person where the heat is. Here, depending on the gender, you have several words that one must choose from. First the direct objects:

lo – This one answers a “what” question when the recipient is a singular entity in the third person; e.g., lo vi (I saw him), lo tocó (you touched him).
la – This one is lo’s girlfriend; e.g., la vi (I saw her), la tocó (you touched her).

This shouldn’t cause any grief as the endings should easily give away their meanings. Every Spanish learner worth their grain knows that “o” endings are guys and “a” endings are girls. Well, mostly if not always. So, lo is for the guys and la is for the girls and there’s no “in-between” in Spanish.

What did Lola eat today?
Photo credit: Raellyn & Melissa licensed CC BY-ND 2.0

Direct objects are even simpler. They don’t differentiate between the guys and the girls and just use a standard le for everyone; e.g., le dio el libro (she gave the book to him/her), le escribo una carta (I write him/her a letter). Do note that, as in the first example here, the indirect object doesn’t always have to take a “to” in English. So, “she gave him a book,” can also be expressed as, “she gave a book to him.” In Spanish, they are all the same.

To remember this easily, consider this sentence as a simple visualization or mnemonic device; these always make life a whole lot easier for lazy Spanish learners:

What did Lola eat today? (Imagine Lola to be a fat chick giving off loud farts after probably gorging on more than her fair share of bean burritos!)

This sentence should hint to the idea that anything that answers a “what,” takes a direct object pronoun, i.e., lo or la. The word, “today” rhymes well with “to-le,” hinting that anything that answers a “to what,” takes a le. What did you write? The letter (direct). To whom did you write? To her (indirect).

Forget Lola, try Leísmo

Leísmo is typical of Spanish from central Spain
Photo credit: Nick Richards licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

What the heck is this leísmo? The Spanish you hear in the streets often deviates from what the grammar authorities would prescribe in the classrooms and this one is a classic example.

Largely confined to certain areas of Spain, this colloquialism involves using le instead of lo. This colloquialism has caught on so well over the years that even RAE-prescribed grammar now considers it as an acceptable practice as long as it’s only referring to male persons and not inanimate entities. Some examples are in order here; let’s consider sentences describing someone seeing different things:

Vio a un hombre / Lo vio (She saw a man / she saw him) – This is your standard Spanish, where lo replaces un hombre as the direct object. The same sentence when spoken casually in parts of Spain, becomes le vio, where le takes on the role of a direct object instead of lo when the entity in question is a male person, in our example, a man. This usage is now allowed by Spanish grammar.
Vio un anillo / Lo vio (She saw a ring / she saw it) – Again, the masculine ring is referenced in the direct object form by the word, lo. However, despite being masculine, a ring is not a person and hence, cannot take a le as the man in our previous example did.

So, essentially, leísmo is just a colloquial practice allowing for le to be used as a direct object for male persons which would otherwise take a lo. It’s really that simple and if you are learning Latin American Spanish, don’t even bother with it.

Loísmo and Laísmo

This is, again, a colloquial phenomena confined to parts of central Spain and is nothing but the stark opposite of leísmo. In such dialects, the pronouns, lo and la which are prescribed as direct object by standard Spanish grammar, get used as indirect objects instead of the more appropriate le. So, when it’s lo replacing the le, it is loísmo and when it’s la, it’s called laísmo. This practice, unlike leísmo is not endorsed by the Spanish grammar and is rarely used outside of casual street talks. Also note that laísmo is more prevalent than loísmo in such dialects.

Again, don’t bother yourself with these issues if the Spanish you’re gunning for is the Latin American flavor, because in those areas, there’s no leísmo, loísmo, or laísmo.

So, if you want to say that you gave your girlfriend a kiss, you’d translate it as:

Standard Spanish: Le di un beso (I gave a kiss to her)
Laísmo: La di un beso

See how la replaces le in the indirect object mode in a laísmo dialect?

Anyway, be careful while learning such colloquialism even if you are learning the laísmo/loísmo dialect of central Spain. You should know them only so you can understand when it’s being used. Why? Because it’s quite possible that your Spanish would come off as uneducated when you practice loísmo or laísmo.

That’s all there is when it comes to the third person direct and indirect objects in the Spanish language. As for the plurals, just add an “s” to the lo, la, or le and you’ll do pretty good.

Mexican Spanish – Órale, Híjole, And Others

2013-04-05T04:57:00.000+05:30

It’s almost impossible to spend some time in Mexico and yet never get to hear some of those exceptionally Mexican words that typically end in “-le” and sound alien even to a native Spanish speaker from outside of Mexico. Words such as órale, híjole, ándale, etc. are as authentically Mexican as mezcal, taco, or piñata and are yet absent from most Spanish language dictionaries. If you don’t understand these words, making sense of most street conversations in Mexico would be nothing short of a challenge as they are generously peppered all over the fabric of Mexican Spanish. This article tries to make sense of this jargon for you.

Órale

Well, órale actually means a whack of different things and in order to truly understand them in various contexts, you need to step out and take a walk down the streets of Chilangolandia.

Órale is as Mexican as taco, mezcal, or piñata
Photo credit: Phillip Pessar licensed CC BY 2.0

Before we actually get down to what it means, it’s important to understand where it comes from. The Mexican Language Academy pegs the word as a derivative of ahora (now) with its first letter somehow lost in transit. The suffix, “-le,” is just that – a meaningless suffix. How it came to be is neither widely known nor terribly important for your Spanish unless you are working on some linguistic research, but it’s there nonetheless.

So, what the heck does it mean anyway? Órale seems to have little to do with its origins in ahora at first glance. And that shouldn’t bother you either because certain things exist in every language for reasons best left unexplored. Moving on, this word has come to acquire several connotations in Mexican Spanish completely dependent on the context and even the speaker.

One of the ways it’s commonly used is to exhort some action – “let’s go,” “hurry up,” or “come on.”

It’s also often used as an interjection of surprise, excitement, or shock – “wow,” “oh my god.”

Yet another usage is as a term of affirmation or agreement – “yes,” “fine,” “ok,” etc. If you’ve seen the Mexican flick, Amores Perros, you’d have perhaps noticed how Jarocho often uses órale in this sense.

Lastly, it can also function as a standalone greeting, not different from “what’s up” in English. This one is pretty commonly used by the Mexican Americans in the phrase, Órale vato (What’s up, man). The vato in this phrase comes from the gitano lingo as a northern Mexican slang for man.

The fat and famous American stand-up comedian, Gabriel Iglesias loves highlighting his Mexican roots by frequently using órale during his performances. And for the voyeurs in you, there’s Óoorale!, the raunchy gossip magazine sold all over Mexico for ten pesos.

Must you memorize all these forms? Absolutely not! The closest coverall for this term in English would be “whoa.” Typically, wherever you use “whoa” in English, you can use órale in Spanish. Apart from that, it’s best to let the context guide you.

Let some examples illustrate its usage in various contexts:

¡Órale güey! (What’s up, dude?)
Órale, nos vemos a las nueve. (Fine, let’s meet up at nine)
¡Órale que no tenemos todo el día! (Hurry up, we don’t have all day!)
¡Órale! Es un cuerpo! (Wow! She’s hot!)
¡Órale, órale! Dejala en paz, panzón! (Whoa, whoa! Leave her alone, you fatso!)
Órale pues. (Yeah right / alright then)

As a cue to memory, if you are a wrestling fan, remember Conan, the Mexican wrestler from the days of nWo (New World Order)? Remember how he would pump up the crowd with his órale chants? He used to utter the word at least half a dozen times growing progressively louder, eliciting a public reaction like, “Get up!” or “C’mon!”

Speaking of órale pues, the phrase could also have a subtle sarcastic undertone (something like, “yeah right, whatever”) depending on the context and mood.

Ándale

Speedy Gonzales: The “fastest mouse in Mexico”
Photo credit: Bride of Frankenstein licensed CC BY 2.0

It won’t be wrong to assume most of us English speakers grew up on the never-ending antics of Tom ‘n’ Jerry, the evergreen MGM buddies. Well, our Mexican friends, too, happen to have their own cat-mouse entertainer in the form of Speedy Gonzales (the fastest mouse in Mexico) and Sylvester (the tuxedo cat) in Warner Brothers’ Looney Tunes. The word, ándale, features as one of the most prominent cheer throughout the show and the mice are often heard crying , “¡Ándale! ¡Ándale! ¡Arriba! ¡Arriba¡…” The prominence is so strong that Speedy has invariably come to be associated with the word now.

Now, just as órale, ándale is a very versatile word. It can pull off a range of different meanings. Almost similar in usage to órale, this word can be used for encouragement, surprise, disappointment, affirmation, etc. depending on the speaker’s mood and tone of voice. We have already seen how it can be used as a shout of encouragement in Speedy’s case. So, basically, you can use ándale almost everywhere you use órale.

Also note that the sense of “hurry up” is conveyed by ándale more so than órale. On the other hand, surprised exclamations take órale better than ándale.

Used with pues, it takes the meaning of, “well, then,” or something similar, not any different from órale pues. Ándale pues or órale pues can be used, for instance, at the closure of an informal conversation as a sign of mutual agreement or understanding. Other than a conversation ender, ándale pues is also an phrase of strong approval, more like, “I totally agree,” or “that’s right.”

Let’s see if these examples illustrate all that ándale means:

Ándale, vamos al cine. (Alright, let’s go to the movies.)
¡Ándale, necesitamos irnos! (Hurry up! We have to leave!)
¡Ándale, no eres gorda! (C’mon, you’re not fat!)

As far as ándale pues is concerned, it can also be used in the sense of, “I told you so!” For example, your mom is tired of asking you to study but you never listen and stay up watching TV all night; next day, you have a test which you obviously flunk and return home disappointed. That’s when your mom would say something like, “¿Ves? ¡Te lo dije!” And if she’s Mexican, she’d most likely yell, “¡Ándale! ¡Te lo dije!”

Híjole and others

Puerto Vallarte: Words like école, úchale, and újule are typical to central Mexico
Photo credit: Ann Larie Valentine licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

Them mexicans are an innovative lot, at least when it comes to their Spanish. There are dozens of other such off-the-grid interjections that end in “le” and rarely found in any standard dictionary. Most of these words are non-standard but play an extremely important role in the streets of Mexico. These words help express a lot of such emotions and expressions which would otherwise be almost impossible for someone using the language prescribed by the purists. Some of them are:

híjole – This one is similar to “geez,” “oh shit,” “damn,” or “wow” in English; often used to express extreme surprise, shock, exasperation, or desperation. Most often, it corresponds to the English words, “yikes” and “damn.”
éjele – This is the word you use when you catch someone with their pants down, literally! So, let’s say, you were watching some skin flick and I caught you in the groove; that’s when I might say, “¡Éjele, ya te vi! (Whoa, I just say you!)”
épale – This one also loosely corresponds to the English usage of “damn” or “wow.” As an imperative, it can also be used to forbid someone from doing something, more or less like the English interjection, “Stop!”
école – This is a common expression of strong agreement; very similar to how you say, “exactly,” in English when you vehemently agree with what the speaker just mentioned. It sometimes also translates to, “of course!”
quihúbole – This one comes from the phrase, ¿Qué hubo?, and loosely means, “what’s up?” Also rendered as quihubo, it’s generally used only with someone very familiar.
újule – This word is used as an expression of disappointment or dismay; it usually introduces something like a bad news.
úchale – Almost the same as újule, this word is usually an expression of displeasure or disgust.

It’s worth noting that most of these words with a few exceptions like órale, ándale, and híjole, are used in the deep interiors of central Mexico and might sound a tad funny elsewhere, and definitely alien outside of mexico!

Watch Your Spanish – Ver Or Mirar?

2013-03-31T07:08:00.000+05:30

The Spanish vocabulary has two words for it, the English has at least three. We are talking about the act of perceiving something with the eyes. Quite often, multiple words can mean the same thing and yet can rarely be swappable; on the other hand, the same word can have different meanings and nothing but context can help one discern the right one! The English verbs, “to watch,” “to look,” or “to see,” have subtle differences and we know that. Coming to Spanish, all those verbs mean must morph into either mirar or ver. So, how does one decide which of the two to use in which context? Actually, it’s easier than you thought!

To see or not to see

Te vi en la pulga
Photo credit: John Hume licensed CC BY 2.0

Ver is what we are talking about here but before we proceed, let’s reinforce something: No two languages can ever be translated word-for-word. Instead of learning the equivalent of “to watch” or “to see” in Spanish, a better approach is to learn and understand the Spanish equivalent of the actions those verbs define. Every language has a nuance and rhythm unique to it and that can never be condensed in any literal translation.

So, the question here is not how one translates, say, “to see” into Spanish. Question is, what Spanish word corresponds to the very action that “to see” represents. Anyways, without much further ado, let’s get back to our ver. This is the Spanish verb that corresponds to the act of seeing something or someone with no deliberation. In English these acts could either be covered by “to see” or by “to watch.” Let’s review some examples:

Vamos a ver el película. (Let’s go watch a movie.)
Te vi en la pulga. (I saw you at the flea-market.)
Vamos a ver qué pasa. (We’re going to see what happens.)
¿Quieres ver el partido? (Do you want to watch the game?)
Voy a ver a mi abuela mañana. (I am going to see my granny tomorrow.)
Veo lo que quieres decir. (I see what you want to say.)

As these examples illustrate, you obviously use ver whenever you are seeing or watching someone or something. Moreover, ver is also the verb of choice when the seeing is more about meeting someone instead of just seeing. Also, abstract situations where actual “seeing” is not involved also take ver as evident in the last example.

Look at you!

Whenever there’s any bit of deliberation involved, the act of seeing becomes looking and, in Spanish, calls for mirar. This might seem similar to watching or even seeing, but looking is a more intent and focused endeavor. Look at the following examples:

¡Mírame! (Look at me!)
Yo la miraba cada vez que entró. (I looked at her every time she came in.)

As you see, with mirar, it’s more about gazing or staring than about just seeing or glancing. One might argue that watching a movie should also take a mirar as it involves focus and deliberation but that’s just another rule of the Spanish grammar must be dealt with without expectations of any reasoning.

Este hotel mira/da al mar
Photo credit: Ralph Peter Reimann licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

Another situation where mirar is invoked is when talking about a building’s orientation. The following example should illustrate this without much fuss:

La casa de mi amiga mira a la huerta. (My friend’s house faces the orchard.)
La entrada de este hotel mira al mar. (This hotel’s entrance faces the sea.)

Another common verb used in Spanish for these situations is dar (literally, “to give”). Perhaps the idea is that the building “gives into” whatever lies ahead. The usage is exactly the same as mirar:

Las ventanas de su dormitorio da a las colinas. (Her bedroom windows face the hills.)
Mi sala da al comedor. (My front room faces the dining room.)

So it’s obvious that in this sense, both dar and mirar can be used interchangeably with no problem whatsoever. However, since this article is primarily about mirar and ver, let’s stay on course.

Time for the trick

Now we know now that ver is for general seeing but it also covers watching which is actually a rather focused and deliberate act in English. And at the same time, mirar is for intensive gazing or staring but still doesn’t cover the act of watching despite a similarity in their definition.

So where does this leave us? Rather confused and worried about remembering them exceptions and rules, right? Well, what’s the fun in cramming up those rules and getting all mixed up when a recall is desperately needed? There’s got to be some workaround. some shortcut. Some magic spell that could help you remember these rules and their exceptions without any effort of memorization and boost your confidence. Come on, you don’t want to be recalling those grammar rules and translating while having a natural conversation – that’s a huge bottleneck to fluent speech.

Well, the trick is simple. Just remember to use mirar in all cases where the act of watching, seeing, or looking can be replaced by “to look at” in English. Everywhere else, ver is what goes. Forget about all the garbage about focussed viewing and general viewing. Just the following mantra:

Can use “look at” – mirar
Can’t use “look at” – ver

Miramar is the Spanish for “sea-facing”
Photo credit: Son of Groucho licensed CC BY 2.0

It’s that simple! Now coming back to watching movies, since you don’t “look at” a movie, it takes ver:

Vimos una película aburrida anoche. (Last night, we watched a boring movie.)

If you just happened to see an old friend while shopping at the mall, you would use a ver because you just “saw” her, not “looked at” her:

La vi en el mall el fin de semana pasado. (I saw her at the mall last weekend.)

It’s all about whether “look at” sounds more appropriate than anything else. If it does, you know you have a case for mirar. Otherwise, just stick to ver.

The only bit this trick doesn’t cover is, “to face,” when talking about buildings and structures. That one takes mirar (or dar if you will) and you just got to remember that. But it shouldn’t be a hassle if you read enough Spanish anyways. It might help to guess why so many sea-side resorts and hotels are named Miramar all over the world, more so where Spanish is spoken or understood widely. Of course, this has got to do with the fact that the resort or hotel thus named is a sea-facing property and the name is just a means to emphasize that USP!

Chatroom Spanish Decoded

2013-03-30T06:47:00.000+05:30

Learning Spanish is impossible without proper immersion but can online courses and blogs like this one give you that? Never. Undoubtedly, the best way to immerse in Spanish is to live in Spain or Latin America. But it’s rarely practical for most of us. So what’s the next best thing? Make Spanish-speaking friends online and chat with them in nothing but Spanish! But are you ready for the chat with someone who speaks nothing but Spanish yet? Granted you can read Spanish newspapers and understand some telenovelas for most parts but, again, are you ready for a chat with a native Spanish speaker yet? You’re in for a rude shock!

A whole new Spanish out there

Time to shelve all that you learned so painstakingly thus far and step off the standard path for a minute. This is the big, bad world of virtual friends and uninhibited chats where time and distance hold no meaning. This is where the best nightlife is at and this is where some of the most authentic street lingo is practiced.

For best results, it’s imperative that your chat buddy speaks nothing but Spanish, not one word. So it’s got to be either Spanish or mute. Imagine your frustration when you are struggling to understand them and even more to express yourself every now and then. Imagine your frustration at having to open up Google Translate® after every message!

Well, that might not bother you if you have already achieved a reasonable proficiency after months of studying. Besides, for every little bit of a rough patch here and there, there’s always Google Translate®, so how bad can it really get anyways! You really think that? Think again, for the Spanish you’d read in those chatrooms would look nothing like Spanish! It might as well be a different language altogether – maybe Martian, who knows! Now imagine your frustration when you realize the words used in those chatrooms are beyond what even that well-trusted Google Translate® could get its head around.

Text-message Spanish is very different from textbook Spanish
Photo credit: Dean Jarvey licensed CC BY 2.0

Come to think of it, do you text the way you were taught in your schools? You know the English you read in the books and magazines is one thing and the English you type while chatting and texting your buddies is quite another. Look at this example:

wanna cum? idk

What do you think an unsuspecting foreigner (who knows no chatroom-English) would make of it? Does it even look English? Only you know what it means:

Do you want to come? I don’t know.

And there’s no reason why this cannot happen with Spanish. The Spanish you learned in the classroom would never help you get your head around this seemingly ugly churn of letters:

vns? sip

Yes, that’s Spanish. And it’s composed of pretty familiar words, only inspired by the chatter’s laziness. You might be more comfortable with it in a more formal avatar:

¿Vienes? ¡Si! (Coming? Yep!)

See, how it’s a whole new Spanish when you’re chatting or texting with the natives? Yeah, chatrooms have always been a world away from the classrooms.

Chatroom Spanish

Chatroom Spanish is nothing like classroom Spanish
Photo credit: Justin Dolske licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

The lists that follow in the sections below give the standard Spanish equivalent of some of the most common chat shorthands and also the English meaning wherever necessary. No sweat, they are just as easy and logical as their English counterparts. Nothing cryptic about them once you see how they were derived.

Speaking of logical derivation, remember that Spanish doesn’t have a exact equivalent of the English “h” sound? The closest you have is the kind of guttural sound of “j” as in jardín (garden). Knowing this, it shouldn’t be surprising that the quintessential English laugh in the chatrooms, “hahaha” or “hehehe”, morph into jajaja and jejeje in Spanish.

Wasn’t that a no-brainer? It all is; after all, it’s only real people who are chatting out there and shorthand is only a very real human tendency. In that aspect, people speaking Spanish are just as lazy as those speaking English and that’s why these shorthands have evolved into a jargon of their own.

The x-factor

Remember the “x” notation from those multiplication tables in English? Yes, that one from those boring math classes. That letter has, for some reasons, evolved into the well-familiar sign of multiplication throughout the English-speaking world and that’s why you read “4 x 5” as “four times five”. This word, “times”, in this sense, translates into Spanish as por which is why we’d read “4 x 5” as cuatro por cinco in Spanish.

Based on this analogy, native speakers have derived a whole jargon of chat shorthand replacing any occurrence of por, per, or par with the letter, “x”. See these words:

xq/pq – porque /¿Por qué?
xa – para
xfa – por favor (in rapid street speech, this phrase often shortens to porfa; you’ll rarely hear a native speaker use the phrasebook-proper por favor)
xo – pero
xdon – perdón (note the loss of accent mark in chat lingo)

For some reasons, “x” also often replaces the letters, “ch”, in chatroom Spanish. Not sure if this has got anything to do with the relationship between the words, “Christmas” and “X-Mas” but does that really matter much? Here are some examples:

exo – hecho
mxo – mucho

Plain vanilla abbreviations

As with English, not all shorthand expressions in Spanish are creative and thoughtful. Quite a few are just simple abbreviations using the initials of all words in the expression being used. Examples in English would be “tc” for “take care” or “gn” for “good night”. Check out some of them in Spanish:

tq – te quiero
tqm – te quiero mucho
t – te
m – me
p. ej. – por ejemplo
d – de
b – bien
tqi/tki – tengo que irme (I have to leave/go)
q – qué/que
hl – hasta luego
m1ml – mándame un mensaje luego (send me a message later / text me later)
nph – no puedo hablar (I can’t talk)
npn – no pasa nada (nothing’s happening)
asdc – al salir de clase (after the class)

Some more abbreviations

There are also cases where words and expressions are simply condensed without necessarily using just the initials. In English, we have plenty of them, such as “cum” for “come” and “wanna” for “want to”. So, how could Spanish not have them!

toi/toy – estoy
tas – estás
cnt – contesta
bs/bss/bso – beso/besos
mñn – mañana
amr – amor
bb – bebé (baby)
sbs? – ¿Sabes?
pa – para
finde – fin de semana
pdt – piérdete (get lost)
qand – ¿Cuándo?/cuando
c – sé (I know; this is how the letter “c” of the Spanish alphabet is pronounced, hence the choice as this shorthand)
dfcl – difícil
dim – dime (tell me)
dnd – donde/¿Dónde?
asias – gracias
bbr – beber
dcr – decir
hla – hola
msj – mensaje
fsta – fiesta
vns? – ¿Vienes? (Are you coming?)
spro – espero
tb – también
tas OK? – ¿Estás bien?

Since when did Spanish get a “k”?

Never. But its sound still echoes in Spanish guised as either “ca” or “qu”. Hence, it’s only logical that “k” be invoked whenever words containing this sound are to be abbreviated in chat and text.

ksa – casa
ksi – casi
aki – aquí
km – como/¿Cómo?
kntm – cuéntame (tell me)
kls – clase
kyat – cállate (shut up)

The number game

Quite a few shorthands in Spanish use numbers for the similarity of their pronunciation to that of the syllable they replace in the expression in question. See them in action here:

salu2 – saludos
a2/a10 – adiós
b7s – besitos
100pre – siempre

Some more chat fun

Some words are just modeled after popular colloquial English expressions simply because they lack direct equivalents in Spanish:

sip – si (yep)
nop – no (nope)

Some just follow a simple logic of replacing a syllable with an English letter that represents its pronunciation. For example, even though Spanish doesn’t have the letter, “w”, you still get these abbreviations in chat lingo:

wpa/wpo – guapa/guapo
iwal – igual

Also, the letter, “ll”, is often replaced by “y” for ease of typing:

ymm/ymam – llámame (call me)
eys – ellos/ellas

As obvious, the letter, “h”, being silent, has no place in chat lingo and is usually omitted:

q acs? – ¿Qué haces? (What are you doing?)
ems – hemos (we have)
aora – ahora

Armed with this list, you can now confidently venture into any discussion with those lovely Latinos, well-assured that their Spanish will no longer be Greek to you!

Easy Spanish – 1,000 Words Is All It Takes!

2013-03-26T21:50:00.000+05:30

Learning Spanish doesn’t have to be an ordeal if the right resources are employed at the right time in the right manner. While we have discussed the various tricks of acquiring new vocabulary in the past, it’s high time we discussed the size of vocabulary required for a desirable outcome. How many Spanish words must one master in order to get reasonably comfortable with the language? How many words before one can start discussing their hobbies with a native speaker? How many words before one can open that Spanish novel for easy reading? How many words before one can pick up an El Universal® and actually absorb some news?

Let’s attempt to answer all these questions and more here. In essence, it all boils down to the number of Spanish words one must be thoroughly acquainted with in order to achieve a certain level of proficiency in the language. But before we venture into the complex world of “word-frequency”, we need to understand a few definitions.

What is a word?

Just a string of letters? Well, yes and no. Of course any meaningful string of letters is a word by definition but for the purpose of our discussion we need to establish which words count and which don’t. Some linguists use the term, “lexemes” to define this situation. We, in keeping with our undying principle of jargon-free simplicity, stick to “words”.

A small Spanish vocabulary is enough for most purposes
Photo credit: Jennifer Morton licensed CC BY-ND 2.0

Let’s say, someone told you that “walk” is an essential word to learn in English. It’s a simple word at a glance and extremely easy to almost overlook the fact that this simple word is as much a verb as it is a noun? So, which “walk” is important? The act of moving at a slow but steady pace with never having both feet off the ground simultaneously (“I’m walking toward the bus”)? Or, the very foot-excursion itself (“It’s a short walk from here”)?

Here, even though there might be one word for both scenarios, there’s a well-defined difference in their usage and they may or may not have the same equivalent in another language. They carry different senses. For the purpose of this discussion, they are two different words despite their exactly similar spellings – walk, the verb and walk, the noun. The word, “walk” in two different scenarios is technically said to be two different “lexemes”.

Similarly, let’s take “walk”, the verb. Does that just imply the form, “walk”? Or, does it also include “walked”, “walks”, etc.? Strictly speaking, they are all different words and yet the same lexeme, “walk”. So, for the sake of simplicity here, when we call a verb like “walk” essential to basic vocabulary, we would inherently include all its forms across tenses, moods, genders, and persons as a single unit – a single word.

Now that we have established what the idea of a word is in this context, we should be comfortable enough to start exploring exactly how many of them is essential to a reasonable proficiency in the Spanish language.

The bare-essential Spanish vocabulary

Spoken Spanish needs far fewer words than you think!
Photo credit: rain city licensed CC BY-ND 2.0

Many linguists, over the past several decades, have tried to perform extremely intensive studies around the subject of “word-frequency” with several languages. While the final results of these studies have mostly been varied and subjective, they have all confirmed one idea that should matter the most to language learners – that 20% of the vocabulary roughly accounts for 80% of all communication in that language, give or take. That’s good news!

One of the most credible and heavily referenced studies was conducted by Mark Davies, a linguistics professor at Brigham Young University in 2005. Davies holds a bachelors with double major in Spanish language and linguistics, a masters in Spanish linguistics, and a doctorate in Iberoromance philology and linguistics! No wonder he is quite an authority when it comes to languages, Spanish in particular.

The study in question was concluded in a paper titled, “Selected Proceedings of the 7th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium.” Here’s a gist of what it concludes on the size of one’s Spanish vocabulary (as a count of highest-frequency words in the language) and its benefits:

1,000 – A vocabulary of this size should let you make sense of around 77% of all written and close to 90% of all verbal communications.

2,000 – This vocabulary should let you catch roughly 85% of all written and 93% of spoken Spanish.

3,000 – This should easily get you close to 90% of all written and 94% of spoken Spanish.

Cool, isn’t it? Just 3,000 words and you’re almost there! Of course, these are just theoretical numbers and real-life proficiency would pose many more issues, rate of speech and accent being a couple of them, than just a knowledge of a few thousand Spanish words. But they are inspiring nonetheless. You may need to ask the speaker to slow down or even pause and explain certain constructs to you – you can still hold a decent conversation which only gets better with time and practice!

Like discussed earlier, words in this context are not just words in the traditional sense. They are ideas as represented by lexeme. So, if ir (to go) is listed as an essential Spanish word, conjugated forms (voy, va, etc.) are also automatically implied. Well, this still sounds like a bargain, doesn’t it? Imagine being able to understand almost 90% of all street speech armed with just 1,000 Spanish words!

The conclusions above can be further simplified for the layman as below:

250 words – The core of Spanish; the bare-essential in order for you to construct basic sentences

750 words – The inventory of regular street speech amongst native speakers

2,500 words – Enough for you to express almost anything in fits and starts

5,000 words – The active inventory of the average native speaker with no higher education

10,000 words – The active inventory of the average native speaker with reasonable academic qualifications

20,000 words – Ample to get you through bodies of literary works by recognized Spanish language authors

This should give you a fair picture of what your individual goal needs to be in terms of Spanish vocabulary acquisition. Life’s always a whole lot easier when goals are condensed into palatable numbers.

Spanish vocabulary: A balanced diet

Spanish vocabulary, like that of any other language, is a collection of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs (also conjunctions, etc.). Hence, while it’s easy to say you need to acquire 1,000 words, it’s far more important to ensure those 1,000 words include a fair mix of each of these groups. Just like a healthy diet should have an optimal balance of proteins, carbs, and fats, a healthy vocabulary must have a fair balance of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs too.

Let’s say you’re gunning for a 90% cover with an inventory of around 3,000 words. The study by Davies suggests that you break it down as roughly:

2,040 nouns (68%),

780 adjectives (25%),

180 verbs (6%), and

40 adverbs (1%)

Do remember, though, that for each of the 180 verbs you are also expected to know every possible conjugation in order to be proficient in the language. Similarly, for each of the 2,040 nouns, it’s a given that you also include the feminine, the masculine, the plural, and the singular forms without counting them as separate “words”.

If you scour through Google®, it’s easy to find several resources giving ready-made lists of top 1,000 or top 2,000 high-frequency words in Spanish which you can add to your flashcard decks for review and recall. One such list is available for free download along with a free email subscription to Always Spanish (check the blue subscription box in the sidebar section to the left). Do remember, however, to not just memorize these lists word-by-word. It’s strongly advisable to learn new words “in context”.

Fresas And Nacos: The Preppies And The White-Trash Of Mexico

2013-03-03T06:43:00.001+05:30

No linguistic study of any human culture can ever be complete without a fair understanding of that culture’s social stereotypes. Yankees, redheads, hicks, yuppies, preppies, Valley Girls...you can’t fully understand the Americans unless you understand their clichéd stereotypes. In a similar fashion, if you are learning Mexican Spanish, it won’t hurt to get acquainted with the stereotypes that define their lifestyle and culture. While stereotypes are rightly frowned upon for their prejudices, using them without being judgmental can immensely help understand some of the most colorful and interesting aspects of a culture.

When it comes to Mexican Spanish, stereotypes run deep and are often at the very heart of most prejudices and social humor. While these can come off as potentially offensive if one is not sensitive enough while bringing them up, they are too ubiquitous to be ignored. Mexico has a whole spectrum of such stereotypes and at the two extreme ends of this spectrum are the clichés that have divided the Mexican society for generations. These are the nacos and the fresas, the souls of too many social jokes and parodies in the country.

The fresas

Generalization is the salient feature of any social stereotype and those of Mexican Spanish are no exceptions. While fresa is Spanish for strawberry if the dictionaries had their way, it’s also a Mexican Spanish slang term for what the Americans would call a preppy. Mostly used by the teenagers, this is a stereotype of the superficial, high-class Mexican – snobbish, arrogant, shallow, selfish, fussy, and tasteful.

A typical fresa haunt
Photo credit: Michael Rael licensed CC BY 2.0

Fresas are usually either wealthy or act like they were. They tend to imitate the American culture in an attempt to sound and appear cool and elite. The hallmark of their vernacular is a generous sprinkling of English phrases on their Spanish; “¡Qué cool!,” “O sea (Like, used as a filler),” “super,” “vales mil (you are very important),” “fresh,” and so on. Other than such adulteration, the fresa accent is also typically faked to sound different from the otherwise slow-pitched Mexican accent. There’s a difference in their tone and they typically consist of a more “proper” vocabulary.

Fashion is the first tell-tale sign of a fresa as they are mostly clad in top brands like Armani, Lacoste, Banana Republic, American Eagle, Abercrombie & Fitch, Zara, Polo Ralph Lauren, Hollister Co., Furor, and Wayfarer. In a nutshell, they would be found imitating the style and dressing of the characters in Rebelde Way, a popular TV show in Mexico. Often, wannabe fresas would be seen in cheaper knock-offs of these brands in an attempt to appear rich and classy. Fresas would mostly be found shopping in expensive malls and using cards more than cash for payments.

Stereotyping continues with other non-linguistic fresa traits as well, music being one of them. A fresa would typically follow bands like Nikki Clan, Rebelde, Luis Miguel, Mecano, Pandora, Maná, RBD, Timbiriche, Kudai, Sasha, and Flans.

Though this word is now well understood across Latin America thanks to the growing dominance of Mexican television, other Latin American countries have their own terms for stereotypical parallels. One such example would be the Venezuelan sifrina which refers to a rich, spoilt girl. The regular Spanish for popcorn, cotufa, is also a Venezuelan slang term for a “dumb blonde” stereotype with no direct association whatsoever with the subject’s hair color. Coming back to Mexico, fresa kids are also, more traditionally, referred to as niños bien (fine kids) or gente bien (fine people).

The nacos

At the other far end of the socio-economic spectrum, you have the nacos. Generally, they are less educated, pretentious, classless, and uncouth – the “white-trash” of Mexico. Their language is more vulgar, laden with swear-words and double-entendres. This is in sharp contrast with the fresas, who consider it a statement of class to speak refined Spanish and use English words and phrases in their speech.

The word itself goes back to the colonial times of Mexico when the Church used to be the single most important institution in the Catholic Mexican society. A regular church attendance was one of the ways to continue being respected and considered elite in the society. So, to make life easier for themselves, the wealthier families would have their naco (servant) run to the church and reserve their seats well before the mass began.

Mercado Jamaica (Mexico City): A typical naco haunt
Photo credit: Luigi Guarino licensed CC BY 2.0

Nacos typically follow mariachi, banda, or norteño music, such as Los Tigres del Norte, and down cheap tequila. Their favorite food is street tacos and they enjoy lucha libre (free wrestling) and soccer. They are not very brand-conscious when it comes to their clothing and style. Many dye the front of their hair blond and wear a mullet at the back. Brands like Chivas are their pick and they rarely buy anything American.

While the fresas are too particular about toting around the latest gadgets, especially American-made, nacos rarely go for anything non-Mexican or expensive. They watch only Spanish movies, especially old ranchera flicks, as Hollywood doesn’t appeal to them. They are often completely ignorant about even the most widely-known Hollywood celebrities like Nicole Kidman!

In Guadalajara terms, while a Plaza Galerias would be the typical fresa haunt, nacos would rather be found shopping at Mercado Libertad in San Juan de Dios or the working-class neighborhood of Oblatos. Cheap supermarkets are where the nacos are at. Flashy malls are only for those who are or want to “appear” rich.

Pedro Teaches Conjugation – The Simple Present Tense Of Spanish

2013-02-22T21:29:00.000+05:30

For most Spanish leaners, the present indicative tense, or simple present, is invariably the first step into the utterly confusing and demotivating world of Spanish verb conjugations. While conjugations eventually come naturally once you have acquired even a basic level of proficiency with the language, you are often left with no choice but to memorize them painfully until that stage comes. And memorization using traditional rote method, as we all know, is far from efficient, inspiring, or even interesting. So, is there any trick to commit these conjugations to memory without any repetition whatsoever? Of course there is!

Why start with present indicative?

Grammatical labels aside, present is the time around which which most of our day-to-day conversations revolve. In any language. Not only is it the most heavily used tense, it’s also an extremely versatile one to boot. Apart from the present, you could use this tense to express events well in the future or even the past. Let’s see some examples:

I want to buy a new cell phone (the plain vanilla present form)
We are visiting Cancún this summer (future tense expressed using the present tense)
The train leaves in another five minutes (again, a future event expressed using the present tense)
By the time the movie ends, the hero is revealed to be the bad guy (a past event expressed using the present tense)
He struggles for a few minutes and then he is dead (a past event being recounted using the present tense)

Thus, we see how versatile this tense can be. Another benefit of mastering the conjugations for this tense, specific to Spanish, is that many other tenses conjugate in patterns similar to that of the present tense to varying extent. One notable example is the Spanish imperfect tense which closely follows the pattern of present tense conjugations. All these reasons make the present indicative tense the best candidate to start with when you are starting out with Spanish tenses.

The conjugation

The present indicative conjugation is perhaps the simplest of all and my experience shows that people find it quite easy to memorize this tense in comparison to the others such as the preterit or the imperfect. Technically, each of the three verb classes (-ar, -er, and -ir) conjugate differently but the difference is extremely small. Learning just the -ar conjugations, in most cases, automatically takes care of the other two without any real effort.

Here’s how -ar verbs conjugate using cantar (to sing) for illustration:

-o (canto I sing)

-as (cantas you sing)

-a (cantas he/she/it sings)

-amos (cantamos we sing)

-an (cantan they sing)

Using beber (to drink) as example, here’s how the -er verbs conjugate:

-o (bebo I drink)

-es (bebes you drink)

-e (bebe he/she/it drinks)

-emos (bebemos we drink)

-en (beben they drink)

The -ir verbs conjugate in exactly the same way as above with the only exception being the “we” form where -emos becomes -imos, e.g., vivir (to live) becomes vivimos (we live). What a relief!

Now for the trick

Pedro Almodóvar
Photo credit: Roberto Gordo Saez licensed CC BY 3.0

This is the best part. If you are not too beat up with all the grammar jazz above already, that is. So what’s the deal with remembering the present tense conjugations? Well, it’s a simple sentence acting as a memory hook to remind you of the -ar conjugation pattern with ease – a mnemonic device if you will.

Before we get to the magic sentence, do consider the -ar conjugation once again; note the pattern. It all boils down to a sequence of endings which you need to remember in exactly the right order: -o, -as, -a, -amos, and -an. This is what the mnemonic is going to facilitate:

Pedro is a famous man

Now, it doesn’t matter if you even know any famous Pedros out there; though there are more than a few indeed. You have one Pedro on the FC Barcelona team for the soccer fans in you and then you have a Pedro Almodóvar for the Spanish movie buffs. And there are many, many more.

Anyways, regardless of whether you know any famous Pedro, it’s not too hard to imagine someone who goes by the name Pedro and happens to be famous. So, what’s this Pedro got to do with my present tense -ar conjugation? Read the sentence once again and notice the portions in bold. List them out in exactly the order they appear in. You’ll easily see how easily they rhyme with the five verb endings of our conjugations!

Pedro – -o

is – -as

a – -a

famous – -amos

man – -an

Is life any bit easier now? As for the -er verbs, all you need to do is replace the a’s from the conjugated -ar endings with “e”. Thus, -as becomes -es, -a becomes -e, -amos becomes -emos, and -an becomes -en. No mnemonic needed for this one. And we have already seen how -ir conjugations follow the same pattern with just one exception.

The Spanish Preterit: Once And For All

2013-02-22T15:01:00.000+05:30

Past actions in the Spanish language can be expressed in two ways depending on whether they were completed once for all or otherwise. Spanish grammar categorizes them as the preterit and the imperfect. While the imperfect handles all habitual, continuous, or repetitive actions and verbs denoting a state of being, preterit covers pretty much whatever is left – actions that were performed and also concluded well within the past. This article delves into the latter and tries to make life easier for those of you who are still struggling to remember and recall the preterit conjugations. Rest assured, they only appear scary.

So what is preterite again?

In simpler terms, preterit is the tense used in Spanish, as well as other Romance tongues, for past actions that are seen as completed. Completion here implies that the event had a definite beginning and an equally definite end. This is in sharp contrast to the imperfect tense where there is no such well-defined completion, hence the name.

Some examples illustrating this tense:

I ate a taco last night (preterit because I started and finished eating well within last night)
I ate tacos when I was in Mexico (imperfect because I am implying eating as a habitual action in the past; I used to eat tacos when I was in Mexico)
She was beautiful (imperfect because being beautiful is a state of being, a characteristic, a trait and the trait hasn’t been implied to have changed in the past; this can also be rendered as “she used to be beautiful,” a tell-tale sign of the imperfect tense)
Juan spoke for 5 hours (preterit because the act of speaking did end after 5 hours)
It began to rain in the evening (preterite because even though the rain could have lasted indefinitely, the event in question – the beginning of rain – had a specific time of occurrence, evening)
Ana ran through the woods (preterit because Ana ran only once and this wasn’t a repetitive or habitual action)

So, we see how preterit is in sharp contrast to the imperfect tense in Spanish when it comes to past actions. And it is important that we recall these differences while communicating in Spanish in order to sound correct and appropriate. Let’s see how the preterit conjugations work in Spanish.

Basically, regular verbs – verbs that follow the standard conjugation pattern, such as hablar, vivir, beber, etc. – follow either of the two conjugation rules depending on whether they end in -ar or otherwise. All regular verbs with the -ar ending conjugate as below (illustrated using hablar as example):

-é (hablé I spoke)

-aste (hablaste you spoke)

-ó (habló he/she/it spoke)

-amos (hablamos we spoke)

-aron (hablaron they spoke)

The regular -ir and -er verbs follow a slightly similar pattern with some minor differences. Here’s the conjugation using beber as example:

-í (bebí I drank)

-iste (bebiste you drank)

-ió (bebió he/she/it drank)

-imos (bebimos we drank)

-ieron (bebieron they drank)

Alright, enough of that dead-beat grammar dope; now where’s the trick? Don’t tell me you got to memorize the whole shebang like the rest of my class does...hell, no! Relax, this article wouldn’t be here if that’s what you were expected to do. So, yes, there is a mnemonic just for you; actually, more than one.

Trick to remember the -ar conjugation

First of all, I’d recommend that you stop giving a dead rat’s ass about what this tense is called. Knowing that definitely completed actions in the past are known in Spanish grammar as preterite is not going to serve you one bit during your conversations with them natives. What you must remember, however, is the conjugated endings and the fact that these endings are to be used when discussing past actions that were completed for sure. Doest’t matter if they call it preterit or whatever.

I ate tasty donuts...
Photo credit: Bev Sykes licensed CC BY 2.0

So, what’s the trick to remember the endings? Let’s start with singular subjects. We have seen the conjugation pattern for singular subjects has 3 endings for each person, i.e., -é (I), -aste (you), and -ó (he/she/it). Here’s a mnemonic to remember this sequence of three verb endings:

Yesterday, I ate a tasty donut

Isn’t this a delicious sentence to remember? Just the very thought makes me drool! So, what’s the trick here? Well, for starters, did you notice the general tense of this statement? It’s very clear that my action (of eating that donut) was performed once and completed at a specific point in time in the past, i.e., yesterday. What does this tell you about the tense? Yes, the preterit!

...while they had bottles of rum!
Photo credit: Simon Law licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

Now imagine the bold portions in their exact sequence. Rings a bell? No? Well, don’t they rhyme with the singular conjugated endings for the -ar verbs we saw above? Look again:

ate – -é

tasty – -aste

donut – -ó

I hope the memory hook has driven home now. As for the plurals, the first person (we) conjugation is a no-brainer as it’s exactly the same as the one in the simple present tense. So, hablamos could mean both “we speak” and “we spoke”. Context is your friend. The third person ending, -aron, rhymes with ron, the Spanish for “rum”. Now, extend the donut visual to include your friends who had rum with their donuts. this should easily fit in with the overall image and help you recall the entire preterit table for -ar verbs comfortably.

Tricks for -ir and -er verbs

The conjugations for these verbs are dominated by the letter, “i” with “a” taking a backseat. For the memory hook this time, try having pistachios instead of donuts. Confused?

Yesterday, I ate pistachios

Notice how the bold portions rhyme with the singular subject -er/-ir endings in the conjugation table:

I – -í

pistachios – -iste

pistachios – -ió

As for the plurals, the trick almost remains the same as that for them -ar verbs. The “we” form remains the same as the “we” form present indicative conjugation for -ir verbs, e.g., vivimos could stand for either “we live” or “we lived”. The “they” form for -ir verbs is also same as that in -ar conjugation with a slight difference in the “a” being replaced by “ie”.

Tú Or Vos? The Culture Dilemma

2013-02-22T01:37:00.000+05:30

English, as we know it today, is a very simple language when it comes to addressing people. You have just one word (you) that can be used for strangers and acquaintances alike regardless of your level of intimacy with them. With Spanish, life gets a bit complicated because depending on where you are and who you are with, you must carefully choose from three different pronouns to sound appropriate. While knowledge of tú and usted is commonplace, it’s vos that’s relatively unknown to most Spanish learners. Here, we will try to explore voseo – the usage of vos – in different cultural contexts throughout the Hispanic world.

Why is it important?

Voseo on a billboard in Buenos Aires: Note “vení” instead of “ven”
Photo credit: Qqqqqq licensed CC BY-SA 3.0

Voseo stands for the usage of vos for the second person singular pronoun. A similar word for the usage of tú is tutear. Although not a part of standard Spanish anymore, vos does have significant currency in certain parts of Latin America where its knowledge is an absolute necessity.

It’s only ironic, however, that it’s now completely extinct in the country of its origin, i.e., Spain. Most courses skip this pronoun simply because the two largest dialects of Spanish, Castillian and Mexican, don’t have it in their inventories. But if the dialect you’re aiming to acquire is, say Argentenean or Uruguayan, you just can’t do without vos.

As mentioned before, voseo is not a global phenomenon. It’s rather dialectical and, more often than not, an aspect of non-standard, regional speech. So, what cultures actually embrace this practice and to what extent? You can take it for granted that regardless of its currency in other countries, voseo is non-existent in Spain and most of Mexico. As for the rest of the Spanish-speaking world, let’s see this one culture at a time.

Cultures with predominant voseo

Voseo at a Nicaraguan airport
Photo credit: Mbhskid520 licensed CC BY 2.0

Argentina and Paraguay – Tú is practically non-existent in the Rioplatense and Paraguayan dialects, the ones spoken in these countries. In these cultures, usted is sometimes used in some formal settings but vos is the way to go otherwise.
Uruguay – Uruguay, too, follows the Rioplatense dialect and runs predominantly on vos. In several areas, however, tú is also used albeit with the vos conjugations. Usage of tú with verbs conjugated in the tú form is alien to Uruguay.
Costa Rica and Nicaragua – Here, just as in Uruguay, vos can be used with verbs conjugated in both vos as well as tú forms. Usage of tú as a pronoun is non-existent in Costa Rica and rare in Nicaragua. Usted is generally used for new acquaintances or strangers but can, in certain parts, be extended to all situations. Unlike Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay, however, tú is still preferred in Costa Rica and Nicaragua when it comes to formal communications, such as media, formal correspondence, or while addressing foreigners.

Cultures with extensive voseo

Guatemala – Here, vos coexists with tú and usted; however, its usage is generally frowned upon by the older generations and those who come from the upper economic class who see voseo as vulgar or uneducated. Usted is the way to go with the elders; vos is the most intimate form and is used with younger family members or close friends; tú, on the other hand, is a little less intimate. One peculiarity here is that vos is preferred amongst men regardless of their intimacy; two men using tú with each other is seen as a sign of homosexuality. Many couples, despite their intimacy, choose to use the less casual tú with each other as a sign of romance and respect.
Chile – Here, usage of vos conjugations with tú is spreading rapidly while vos as a pronoun is generally reserved only for very intimate encounters. Usted is the preferred pronoun with strangers and the elders; also, some couples use usted despite their intimacy to show respect for each other out of mutual love.
Bolivia – Voseo is universally used in the Lowlands of Eastern Bolivia where the population is predominantly mestizo, Criollo, or of German ancestry (e.g., Tarija, Beni, Pando, Santa cruz, and the Lowlands of La Paz). In the Highlands of Western Bolivia, however, where the population is predominantly indigenous (e.g., Potosí, Oruro, Cochabamba, Chuquisaca, and the Highlands of La Paz) tú is predominantly the pronoun of choice albeit with verbs conjugated in the vos form.
Honduras and El Salvador – Here, vos is the most intimate of the three pronouns showing maximum familiarity and, often, least respect. Usted is preferred with strangers and the elders while tú is the way to go with new acquaintances or not-so-close friends.

Cultures with voseo in some areas

Ecuador – Voseo is predominant only in certain regions, i.e., the Esmeraldas, the center, and the Sierras.
Venezuela – Voseo is prevalent in the northwest of the country, especially in Zulia State.
Peru – Apart from some areas in the north and the south of the country, voseo is also widespread in Arequipa.
Mexico – Overall, voseo is not a Mexican thing; vos is almost alien to Mexican ears. However, it is widespread amongst the poor indegenous peoples of rural Chiapas. Usage of vos in once-voseo states, like Quintana Roo, Tabasco, and Yucatán, is on the decline.
Colombia – The Spanish of Colombia is a whole new world. Here, tú must be used with caution, though voseo is not a common feature in this country. Not only is its usage considered gay between two men, it’s also taken as a sign of being flirtatious or romantic if a man uses it with the opposite sex! Generally tú is reserved for family members and strangers (except for the situations just mentioned); for younger people, usted is preferred. Usted is preferred between two men, where tú would sound uncomfortably effeminate. Vos is preferred amongst people from western (Chocó, Nariño, Cauca, and Valle del Cauca), central (Primarily the Paisas of Caldas, Antioquia, Quindío, and Risaralda), and north-eastern (Cesar, La Guajira, and Norte del Santander - Ocaña Region) Colombia.

Conjugations

Before you fret over the thought of having to learn yet another conjugation for a new pronoun, let me assure you that vos conjugations are much simpler than their tú counterparts.

Let’s start with the present indicative tense, for example. All you do here is drop the -r from the verb, replace it with an -s ending, and accent the last syllable. That’s it. And no stem-changing nonsense. Sweet, ain’t it? So, your hablar becomes hablás, vivir becomes vivís, and comer becomes comés.

Now the commands, or in other words, the imperative. Again, simplicity is the name of the game here. Just drop the -r ending and accent the last syllable and you are done. So, vivir becomes viví, andar becomes andá, and comer becomes comé. The only tricky verb in the vos world is ir which cannot be conjugated in this method. Solution? Use the synonym, andar instead! So, the command to go would be andá. Hasn’t this simplicity won you over already?

Tricks To Instantly Recall The Spanish Imperfect Conjugations

2013-02-21T14:22:00.002+05:30

The Spanish language, like its other Romance cousins, is notorious for its myriad spirit-throttling conjugations. The first conjugation set any novice learner memorizes is the one for the simple present tense. While that one was relatively easier, it turns out there are many more such sets to be mugged up – for at least a dozen other tenses – and that’s where it starts to get intimidating. In this article, we’ll see how simple mnemonic cues and tricks can be exploited in committing one such set to memory – the Spanish imperfect tense. This is the tense for habitual or incomplete actions in the past and is quite important.

So what is this imperfect tense anyway?

Imperfect is the tense we invoke in Spanish whenever we are dealing with past actions that were either incomplete or repetitive; basically, anything that could otherwise be expressed into English with a “used to”. Here are some illustrations:

I went to Yale (what I essentially mean here is that I used to go to Yale for my studies; a repetitive action)
I was eating street food every day (I used to eat street food everyday; habitual action)
Juan was sick (he was sick for an undefined period of time; hence, this can be considered an imperfect action like any other statement on feelings or state)
We were returning when we saw Enrique (the act of returning is imperfect in nature because it’s incomplete)
My father often drove me to school (my father used to drive me to school; a repetitive action regardless of its frequency)
Every year, the entire family would come together on the Day of the Dead (This line, again, can be rendered using a “used to” and hence becomes a repetitive action)

Let’s now see how regular Spanish verbs conjugate in this tense. There are two sets of conjugations; one for the -ar verbs and the other for the -ir and -er verbs. The conjugations for the -ar verbs go first (using hablar for illustration):

-aba (hablaba I spoke/used to speak/was speaking)

-abas (hablabas you spoke/used to speak/were speaking)

-aba (hablaba he/she/it spoke/used to speak/was speaking)

-abamos (hablamos we spoke/used to speak/were speaking)

-aban (hablaban they spoke/used to speak/were speaking)

Here are the conjugations for the -er and -ir verbs (using comer for illustration):

-ía (comía I ate/used to eat/was eating)

-ías (comías you ate/used to eat/were eating)

-ía (comía he/she/it ate/used to eat/was eating)

-íamos (comíamos we ate/used to eat/were eating)

-ían (comían they ate/used to eat/were eating)

Now, while we are sure you have quite understood when this tense is exactly to be used, it’s remembering this usage and the associated conjugations that hurts the butt.

The prerequisites for the trick

There is no need to memorize the names of the many tenses you are going to use in Spanish just as there’s no need to remember which tense you are in when you say, “I wish I had eaten that hot dog.” Memorizing grammar terms and labels is the most unrewarding of all language learning activities and serve you absolutely no purpose unless you want to teach a grammar class or write a grammar test. What you should aim at, instead, is to learn to recall what word and conjugation to use depending on the scenario you are in regardless of what the conjugated form is labelled as.

Is it possible to trick your brain into recalling not only the conjugation tables listed above but also the fact that they are to be used only with habitual, repetitive, and continuous actions without cramming up anything? The answer is, yes, provided you already know your simple present tense like the back of your hand. Let’s review the simple present tense conjugations for a while before we get to the mnemonic. Here’s the table for -ar verbs using hablar:

-o (hablo I speak)

-as (hablas you speak)

-a (habla he/she/it speaks)

-amos (hablamos we speak)

-an (hablan they speak)

The trick!

If you remember and can recall the simple present tense table in a blink, you can use the following mnemonic to cement the imperfect to your brain with absolute ease:

When my dad was young, he lived in India and used to listen to ABBA all day

Not that hard to visualize, is it? If you are familiar with ABBA, chances are you know how big they were back in the 80’s. Now, the first thing to note in this sentence is its tense; without any clue about what it’s called officially, you can instantly recognize that we are talking about habitual and repetitive actions in the past. My dad “used to” live in India and he “used to” listen to ABBA all day. So you know whenever we are dealing with such actions, this is the mnemonic to be invoked. No need to memorize that it’s called “imperfect tense” in grammar.

Who knew ABBA could help you with Spanish grammar!
Photo credit: Spensatron 5000 licensed CC BY 2.0

Next thing to notice is the name of the band itself, ABBA. This should give you a cue to the -aba ending for the singular first person conjugation of -ar verbs in this tense, e.g., hablaba. If you can recall hablaba (I spoke/used to speak/was speaking) for hablar (to speak), the rest of the table easily falls in place as everything else follows the pattern of the simple present tense conjugation based on the -aba ending. Take a minute, try it out. Play with a handful of -ar examples, such as cantar, cocinar, viajar, tomar, etc.

If you are now comfortable with the -ar verbs, take a look at the -ia ending in “India” which is in bold. This is a cue to the -ía ending in the singular first person conjugation of the -er and -ir verbs, e.g., vivía (I lived/used to live/was living) for vivir (to live) or ponía (I put/used to put/was putting) for poner (to put. Again, the rest of the table just follows the simple present tense conjugation pattern based on the -ía ending. Try playing with some verbs, like comer, beber, correr, conducir, crecer, subir, etc. If you still need some further reinforcement to this mnemonic, there is a popular Spanish song by the Latin pop group, Camila, just for that!

Tips On Using The World's Largest Language Learning Community

2013-02-20T23:17:00.000+05:30

In the process of acquiring Spanish, we have used and abused an insane amount of free resources both offline and online. It is only with hit-and-trial that you eventually appreciate what works best for you, be it learning Spanish or acquiring any other skill. One of the resources many learners have used quite extensively is Livemocha and this article is going to focus on our experiences – and those of many other Spanish learners all over the world – with it. Having ransacked all that Livemocha has to offer in terms of Spanish, we have managed to put together our own list of strategies around squeezing it for maximum juice.

The social network

This is how Livemocha is modeled
Photo credit: Linda Hartley licensed CC BY 2.0

Livemocha’s model is quite simple and intuitive. It merges social networking with language learning. So, basically you learn new languages using free online lessons, complete drills to assimilate your learning, and make friends with native speakers along the way to reinforce practical language skills. Now, Livemocha isn’t the only such site – you have others like iTalki as well – but being the largest community of learners has its own advantages.

Livemocha offers a free basic membership, much like most other social networking sites. When you join as a free user, you have at your disposal an array of free courses graded in levels along with several exercises and an entire community of fellow language learners to interact and socialize with. These courses have lessons covering every aspects of a wholesome language learning program, i.e., writing, reading, listening, and speaking.

The site has a rating system where you earn points and badges for performing various activities. You earn points not only for successfully completing your lessons but also for contributing to the community at large. For example, you earn points by chatting with other learners, reviewing their exercises, offering them feedback, etc. This is a symbiosis where your exercises are reviewed by those proficient in your target language while you review those of someone who is learning a language you’re fluent in. So, effectively, you are a teacher as well as a student, both at once. A brilliant concept that helped me acquire most of my Spanish skills without a formal teacher! Livemocha also offers a range of paid courses if you are willing to shell out some dough but this article is only going to discuss what comes for free.

Getting started

Just like any other social networking site, you start by creating an account and a profile with some personal details. Well, you don’t absolutely have to load up tons of personal information on this site as you would normally do on your Facebook profile. Almost every field is optional and you are free to decide how much you are comfortable sharing.

However, a profile devoid of any informtion looks pretty much spammy or insincere. Don’t forget that this is a community and the more you are invested in your social endeavors here, the more juice you get to draw. Since your profile is the first impression, it should be reasonably friendly and inviting. A decent mug as your profile picture counts as a necessary PR step.

Do put up a friendly note about yourself and your language learning interests in your “About Me” section as that’s the section that essentially introduces you. The next absolute necessity is telling what languages you speak and what you wish to learn. This will not only help other community members know what you are pursuing and what you know, but will also help Livemocha suggest the most relevant profiles whenever you perform a community search. So, if your profile says that your native tongue is English and you are learning Spanish, Livemocha would suggest to you native Spanish speakers who are learning English.

How to get the most out of it

Once your profile is up, you can immediately start engaging with the vast network of learners and learning resources. In the beginning, however, the whole array of options and tools might get you overwhelmed. So, let my experiences with Livemocha cut right through the clutter and bring to you the 4 most useful tips in order to maximize your benefits:

Focus solely on the reading and speaking lessons. A major portion of every course is composed of modules where you click on pictures and listen to an audio telling you what the picture stands for. In my opinion, this module is an utter waste of time and energy as it won’t get you anywhere in terms of either speaking or reading Spanish. Instead, it is best to just skip to the reading exercise where you record yourself reading a given passage in Spanish and submit the recording to the community of native speakers for review. This will help you with pronunciation and diction in the most effective manner.

Immediately start helping others with their work. So, if you are a native English speaker learning Spanish, you should immediately start reviewing the drills completed by native Spanish speakers trying to learn English. Don’t procrastinate on this one as helping others will get you more help which you so desperately need. A profile poor in “teacher points” is easily seen as someone selfish and unwilling to help – not the best impression you want the community to have of you. Helping others is the best way of making friends with native speakers and accelerating your learning.

Always acknowledge their helpfulness. As you start submitting your exercises, you will start receiving valuable feedback from other community members who review your work. You must get into the practice of rating every feedback in terms on helpfulness and, if possible, offer a comment of acknowledgement. This will not only earn you points but also show your gratitude for their help. Besides, a good rating from you would also add points to the members whose feedback was rated and this would act as an added incentive for them to review your work more often and more sincerely. On the other hand, not-so-helpful reviews are also weeded out organically in this process.

Interact with other members. We admit we are no fans of the Java-based chat interface of Livemocha but the activity nonetheless remains integral to your language acquisition program. Real-time interaction can teach you several finer nuances of colloquial Spanish which are otherwise not available on any course. If the interface peeves you, feel free to move over to something else like Skype once you have become reasonably comfortable with the chat-buddy.

Positive Emotions In Spanish

2013-02-20T19:01:00.000+05:30

Expressing one’s emotions is perhaps the single most important aspect of human communication in any language. Almost every real-life communication involves expression of the speakers’ feelings and sentiments, positive or negative, in varying degrees. Hence, it becomes obviously imperative for anyone learning Spanish to learn to be able to express themselves and their emotions efficiently in that language before they set out on any confident conversation with a native speaker. Regardless of circumstances, these expressions often form the pivot of any conversation that goes beyond asking for directions or ordering a cerveza.

Ability to express your feelings is a real empowerment when it comes to learning Spanish. It gives you the confidence to move beyond the boring gracias, bien, and por favor while speaking real Spanish. Now, learning words of expression in any language is a pretty simple idea; there are dozens of word-lists out there on the Internet waiting for you to devour. But again, why would you be here if you could just snatch them off some website and cram them up? There’s got to be a lazier way to get our heads around those alien-sounding words! Is there? Yes, there is. Can we invoke mnemonics to just absorb them in a single scan without repeating them to death? Now we are talking.

Feeling good? Positive feelings

Basta por hoy...estoy contento
Photo credit: GabaGaba licensed CC BY 2.0

If you are like some of us, you probably prefer to start on a high. When there’s good news and bad news, we often tend to start with the good news first. It puts our spirit in the right place, prepared with the confidence required to face the bad news. In this article, we deal with words for some of the happier feelings – the positive emotions. Bits of etymology teamed with some mnemonics and visual cues are your key to instant assimilation.

agradable (pleasant) – Does this word sound similar to agreeable? Well, when something is pleasant, isn’t it quite agreeable to our senses too?
alegre (happy) – This word shares a common Latin root with the Italian word, allegro, which stands for a piece performed in a brisk, lively manner. And brisk and lively is quite how you feel when you are happy, isn’t it?
contento (happy) – When you are happy to have finally done or received what you have been wanting to, you are obviously satisfied and content...and happy.
enamorado de (in love with) – This one is a straight derivative from the Spanish word, amor, which stands for “love” in English. En carries the sense of “in” thus lending the phrase the meaning of being enamored with, ergo, being in love with.
feliz (happy) – Remember Feliz Navidad or Feliz cumpleaños? This word comes from the Latin word, fēlīx, which means “happy” in English. Do note that fēlīx was also the source for “felicity” in English which, in a sense, also means “happy”.
listo (ready) – Easiest way to remember this one is to ask the question: Is the list ready? By the way, this word also means “clever” just so you know.
lleno (full) – Imagine being in your favorite restaurant and having this conversation with the server: More chicken? I am full; so, no more. The etymology of this word is too complex to be used as a memory cue.
ordenado (organized) – Anything that’s organized is also ordered as against random and chaotic. Another way to remember this is by seeing anything organized as being pre-ordained.
seguro (sure) – This one comes from the Latin, secūrus, which gave the English “secure” and “sure”. The Latin word carries a sense of certainty and self-confidence as an extension of security; and it is this sense of certainty or surety that came into Spanish as seguro.

Happiness in Spanish

So, what’s going on with “happy”? Three words in Spanish for one word in English? Not fair. How are we supposed to know which one to use in which situation? Well, cases like these are not uncommon in the life of a language learner. While more than one word can act as pure synonyms, carrying the same meaning in every sense, most often they happen to have some subtle differences. It is these subtle differences that sets the natives apart from the foreign speakers.

Well, the easiest one to sieve out is contento, which means “happy” in a sense of being content or satisfied. You could be contento when you are just done with your favorite dish of mashed potatoes or when you finally meet your family after a long trip abroad.

Este gato es muy alegre!
Photo credit: Paul Lewis licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

Alegre and feliz, on the other hand, have an extremely faint difference. Alegre is “happy” in a cheerful way, well manifested in one’s behavior or appearance, showing external signs such as a smiling face or a jovial attitude. Even objects or events could be described as alegre when their appearance or outlook evoke cheerful emotions, such as a party, a shirt, a house, or a painting. Also, alegre often indicates happiness in a more temporary sense.

Feliz, on the other hand is more permanent in nature, more innate and personal. One can be happy or at peace with themselves without appearing cheerful on the outside. This sense of being internally happy is captured by feliz. It’s a state of being, more about the emotion than about behavior or appearance. An example illustrating this subtle difference between the two word would be: Parece alegre, pero en realidad no es feliz (He appears cheerful but is not actually happy).

Irregular Spanish Imperative Made Easy With Vin Diesel

2013-02-20T13:40:00.001+05:30

Few real-life Spanish language interactions can last meaningfully long without the use of the imperative. This is the quintessential tense you speak in whenever you make a direct request or a command. Hence, it’s imperative that you master this tense quite early on while learning Spanish. While the English imperative is pretty straightforward with a single word for both requests and for commands, both negative and positive, Spanish has different words for each one of them! This article attempts to make it easier to master some of the most heavily used words of command (used with tú) that are also irregular in conjugation.

We all love mnemonics, don’t we? Mnemonics are like that magic memory potion that makes committing seemingly impossible things to memory with little to no effort on our part. Often, a good mnemonic is the lazy learner’s unfair advantage. And learning Spanish is no exception when it comes to their application. In fact, the number of ways in which mnemonics can enhance your Spanish acquisition capabilities are only limited by your creativity and ingenuity.

The 8 most common verbs in Spanish

Coming back to today’s subject, it’s the Spanish imperatives, particularly the irregular familiar forms, that we are interested in. Spanish has quite a collection of verbs that go inexplicably irregular in their imperative forms, abandoning whatever pattern they would otherwise follow in other tenses. Let’s see some of the most irregular yet ubiquitous ones:

venir (to come)

decir (to say)

salir (to leave)

hacer (to do, to make)

tener (to have)

ir (to go)

poner (to put)

ser (to be)

Now, these are not the only irregular ones but it won’t take a genius to guess how important these verbs are for regular, real-life conversations regardless of the language. And when it comes to direct commands, instructions, or orders – in a familiar sense – these are the most heavily used words of action. So, mastering the familiar imperative forms for these verbs should take care of most of your real-life scenarios in Spanish. And, by the way, we are only discussing the affirmative imperatives (come, go, sit, etc.) here. Negatives (don’t come, don’t sit, etc.) will come at a later time.

The imperative anarchy

Before we even begin with the trick, let’s first review the words that we are dealing with; the familiar, affirmative, imperative conjugations of the verbs listed above. Here you go:

venir – ven (¡Ven aquí! Come here!)

decir – di (Dime. Tell me.)

salir – sal (¡Sal ahorita! Leave right now!)

hacer – haz (¡Hazlo! Do it!)

tener – ten (!Tenlo! Have it!)

ir – ve (Ve a donde quieras. Go wherever you want.)

poner – pon (Ponlo sobre la mesa. Put it on the table)

ser – sé (¡Sé un hombre! Be a man!)

What a persistent pain in the butt, ain’t they? No pattern, no rule, a complete anarchy! Mugging them up appears to be the only option and is perhaps just right if you have to write a grammar test tomorrow morning. But heaven knows what a disaster rote learning is when it comes to learning Spanish for more practical purposes, like speaking with native speakers. So, what would the lazy learner do? Call upon Vin Diesel! Yes, the handsome baldie has just the right weapon to help you assimilate these anarchists with no chances of ever forgetting them again.

Vin Diesel saves your day!

Vin Diesel has ten weapons
Photo credit: _mixer_ licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

The star savior of the day is this mnemonic:

Vin Diesel has ten weapons

Easy-peasy? Well, how hard can it possibly be to imagine the Fast Five star with an arsenal of ten formidable weapons while he is on a mission to save your day? Let’s see how this line actually works:

Vin – ven (ignore, for a moment, the fact that the two words don’t sound precisely the same)
Die- – di (this one should be a no-brainer as long as you don’t pronounce the “die” as “hi”)
-sel – sal (again, ignore the slight difference in the way the vowels sound in the two words)
has – haz (do remember that the Spanish z sounds like the English s)
ten – ten (another no-brainer)
wea- – ve (they do sound almost similar if you try pronouncing the “wea-” with a German accent)
-pon- – pon (exactly the same!)
-s – sé (this one will need your efforts – the vowel I mean)

What we have done here is, break up the entire mnemonic sentence into its syllables, every syllable corresponding to one target word in Spanish. The only anomaly is the last syllable, -pons, which is further broken down to give two words, one for pon and the other for sé

See a pattern there? This is the magic of mnemonics. They bring order in what otherwise seems to be a chaos beyond repair. We can bet our last penny that you will now have a very hard time trying to forget these irregular words. Learning Spanish couldn’t get any easier, could it? If only you open up your own cans of imaginations, there are mnemonics for almost anything and everything. There’s a pattern in every irregularity. You just need an open and curious mind to see them!

Deconstructing A Very Mexican Saying

2012-12-09T23:41:00.002+05:30

Mexico is where two worlds have fused together to produce a version of Spanish that is far richer in culture than that of its European birthplace. This richness of the Mexican culture should, to a great extent, explain our bias toward their flavor of the Spanish language. A language this rich in cultural heritage often grows into an interesting stewpot of local refranes (sayings) and proverbs unique to its people. It is said, Mexicans are loaded with a saying for virtually any situation in life, which is what makes them such excellent communicators! The sentence being deconstructed in this article demonstrates just that.

These pearls of wisdom are not only meant to liven up your speech or make life more philosophical for you, they also add a new dimension to learning Spanish by offering you some priceless insight into the cultures and lifestyles of the native speakers! These sayings are laden with some of the most local aspects of the Mexican vocabulary and often hint at some really deeply-rooted facets of Mexico’s pre-Columbian cultures. These features make them excellent subjects for our deconstruction activities and accelerated learning. Here’s our subject for today:

Ponte los huaraches antes de meterte en la huizachera. (Put on the sandals before you enter the thorn-field.)

What the little saying above intends to advise is that you should always take all necessary precautions before you embark on any tricky journey or start a difficult task.

The nuts and bolts

As always, we will attempt to assimilate the Spanish in this sentence by breaking it down into small edibel morsels and then putting those pieces back together in order; more like reverse engineering. Let’s start:

Ponte – The Spanish verb, poner means “to put” in English. The same verb, when used as a reflexive (ponerse) takes on the sense of “putting oneself” or “putting on”. This reflexive verb, when conjugated for the familiar subject (tú), becomes ponte. Note the suffix signifying it’s association with tú. A more formal conjugation would be póngale which, obviously, takes usted as its subject. The little accent mark on póngale is just to ensure you pronounce it exactly the way it’s meant to be: With a stress on “o”. Note again, the -le ending that signifies it’s association with usted as against tú. Coming back to our ponte, the word in this context stands for “putting on” as in “wearing something”.

A breeze-friendly huarache
Photo credit: Wicker Paradise licensed CC BY 2.0

los huaraches – This word comes from the P’urhépecha word, kwarachi, which directly translates into English as “sandal”. This pre-Columbian footwear is made from traditionally hand-woven leather and is a well-known icon of Mexico’s cultural heritage.

Huaraches began to gain popularity in the United States in the 1950s and became known all over North and South America by the turn of this century. If you have ever had the chance to watch Ask The Dust, a Hollywood film set in the Los Angeles of the 1930s starring Salma Hayek and Colin Farrell, you would instantly recognize the rustic sandals worn by Hayek. Hayek is shown to be visibly annoyed when Farrell, perhaps mockingly, mispronounces the word. Most Mexicans would readily concur if you said that few things are more Mexican than a pair of leather huaraches. Want to buy yourself a pair? Head straight for one of those huaracheríos scattered throughout the Mexican countryside.

antes de – This one is easy; simply put, antes de translates into English as “before”. Why de, you ask? We don’t know. These are idiomatic phrases and it’s best to learn them as is without much logic. The antes can, however, be explained; it comes from the Latin word for “before”. The same Latin word has come to form the root of many English words today lending a sense of “before” or “pre”, such as “antebellum” (before the war).

meterte – Meter is a Spanish verb that means “to put in” or “to insert” in English. Used as a reflexive, it means “to put oneself into” or “to enter”. Despite the subtle differences, the context is usually enough to tell which meaning holds. Here, meterte means “you enter”; note the te ending.

A thorn-filled huizachera
Photo credit: Adapting to Scarcity licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

en – This one is a simple preposition which most often translates into English as “in”. In this context it gives a sense of “in” though while translating this sentence, this “in” is just implied and omitted in English.

la huizachera – Huizache is a very thorny legume found all over Mexico, El Salvador, Colombia, and Venezuela. It is regarded as a highly invasive weedy species threatening pastures whose pods are sold in local Mexican markets. The name derives from the Nahuatl word, huitztli (thorn). A huizachera is a field full of this plant.

String’em together

Now let’s bring these small pieces together and see how they lend to the final meaning of the entire sentence. The phrase, Ponte los huaraches means “Put on the huaraches” in the following word-order: Verb (here, familiar imperative of “to put on”) - object (here, “the huaraches”).

The rest of the sentence, antes de meterte en la huizachera translates as “before you enter the huizachera with the following word-order: Preposition1 (here, “before”) - subject (here, omitted but implied to be “you” in the familiar form) - verb (here, “to enter” in the infinitive form) - preposition2 (here, “in” or “into”; not translated into English) - object (here, “the thorn-fields” or “the huizachera”)

Do note here that the reflexive object is often omitted in English; not so in Spanish. Also, such objects are usually suffixed to the verb if it’s in its infinitive form as is the case here (meterte).

How To Remember The Conjugations For Ir Using Mnemonics

2012-12-09T02:09:00.000+05:30

It’s one thing to acquire Spanish vocabulary effortlessly using mnemonic devices and flashcards and quite another to memorize the conjugations for the myriad Spanish verbs vital to everyday conversation. Most newbies have had a mighty difficult time with the Spanish verb, ir (to go) and its conjugations that seem extremely unrelated from one conjugation to another! Come to think of it, who would expect voy (I go) and fui (I went) to be forms of the same verb in different tenses? Here, we will attempt to nail this conjugation using extremely easy and handy mnemonics. Like we always stress, Spanish is easier than it appears!

I go, you go

Maybe it is plain traditional or maybe it’s the way our learning process has been institutionalized over the years, but the very first tense we hit while learning Spanish conjugations often happens to be present indicative. This is the tense that most closely corresponds to the simple present tense of English and roughly describes habitual or repetitive actions and events, e.g., “I go”, “they eat”, etc.

Here’s how the verb, ir conjugates in this tense:

voy (I go)

vas (you go; familiar)

va (he/she/it goes; also, you go in the non-familiar sense)

vamos (we go)

van (they go, you all go)

Vamos a la escuela
Photo credit: Ratha Grimes licensed CC BY 2.0

Question is, however, how the heck did ir morph into voy? They appear anything but related in any form! Well, honestly we don’t know. What we do know, however, is that mnemonics can be employed to remember that voy means “I go” regardless of its origins.

Since you use this form with the first person singular, which is yo (I), you have a yo in voy although it’s in reverse (“oy”). The only thing this trick won’t help you with is remembering that all forms of ir in this tense start with the letter, “v”. Another visual aid is to imagine yourself as a small boy who goes to school everyday. Note that the words, voy and “boy” sound almost exactly the same.

Now that you are capable of recalling voy, it’s not difficult to recall the rest of the table if you realize that the endings in this tense are pretty much standard and follow the regular pattern, albeit, with the “v” root.

I went, you went

Here’s another tense where the entire conjugated set seems utterly unrelated to the root verb. For instance, the first person singular in this tense is fui (I went) which bears hardly any resemblance with the original verb, ir! Could a little bit of history help us here? Let’s see.

Latin has a word, fugere (to flee) which doesn’t exactly mean the same as the ir of Spanish. But given that both “flee” and “go” have the same innate sense of movement away from one’s original place, the correlation isn’t completely uncanny. It is this Latin verb that gave Spanish its fui. Before we start exploring the mnemonics, let’s first see how the verb conjugates in this tense which, by the way, is officially known as the preterite form:

fui (I went)

fuiste (you went; familiar)

fue (he/she/it went; also, you went in the non-familiar sense)

fuimos (we went)

fueron (they went, you all went)

Now, the question is, how to retain all of this. Let’s start with fui. We have already seen how etymology hints a correlation with the English verb, “to flee” via Latin which should be good enough to explain the “f” root in the entire table. Another trick is to remember that because this form is used with the first person singular pronoun, the “I” form, fui ends in an “i”. Easy? Extend this word to form the plural conjugation as fuimos. We are, in all likelyhood, already familiar with -mos being a standard ending associated with the “we” form.

Likewise, because both “he” and “she” (the third person singular pronouns) end in “e”, the word to be used with them also ends in an “e”, i.e., fue. And it is this word that extends to form the plural in the third person, fueron. We are already familiar with -on as a standard ending in the “they” form, aren’t we?

Finally, the -te ending in fuiste should give you enough hint of its usage in the familiar second person form, the tu form.

We used to go

Grammar calls this the imperfect tense. To us, this is the way we should conjugate a Spanish verb when we are talking about repetitive, habitual, or continuous event in the past. We have also reviewed a Mexican song to help you easily grasp the past tense; it discusses the imperfect a little more at length.

Here’s how we conjugate ir in the imperfect tense:

iba (I used to go)

ibas (you used to go; familiar form)

iba (he/she/it used to go; also you used to go in the non-familiar sense)

íbamos (we used to go)

iban (they used to go)

If you look closely enough, you’d soon realize that these conjugations follow more or less a familiar pattern. the endings in ibas, íbamos, and iban are all well known to us if we have seen regular verbs conjugating in the present tense. The only two things you need to memorize here are the ib- root and the fact that the forms for the first person singular and the third person singular are exactly the same, iba.

The mnemonic I used while learning the root is a stupid visualization that I used to be a good boy who used to go to school everyday without fail. As for the third person singular form being the same as the first person singular one, it’s just one fewer thing to remember and shouldn’t call for any mnemonic innovation in order to stay in your memory.

Tame The Stubborn Subjunctives With This Song Of Separation

2012-12-08T05:50:00.000+05:30

Not sure if it’s crazy or just plain ignorance but most of us have found nothing as unfamiliar and alien as the subjunctives while learning Spanish. We’ve discussed the grammar behind this “mood” at length in two previous articles; while one story discusses a subjunctive-laden song by Juanes, the other focuses on Ojalá, a terribly important keyword of Latin American Spanish relevant to the subjunctive mood. This article introduces you to yet another wonderful song that helps further reinforce all the subjunctive you might have acquired thus far. Hopefully you should end this read feeling more at ease with the subjunctives.

Conjugating the subjunctive mood

Learning Spanish subjunctive in the bathroom!
Photo credit: Academia IF licensed CC BY 2.0

For most verbs, there is a very easily identifiable pattern of endings when it comes to conjugating them in the subjunctive form. You essentially start with the singular first person form off the present indicative conjugation (e.g., tengo for tener and vivo for vivir) and then drop the -o ending (so, teng from tengo and viv from vivo). This is the root for the next step.

The last step in subjunctive conjugation is adding the appropriate ending to the root depending on whether the original verb ends in -ar. If it’s an -ar verb, the endings are added as:

First person singular (-e)

Second person singular (-es)

Third person singular (-e)

First person plural (-emos)

Second person plural (-éis)

Third person plural (-en)

If it’s not an -ar verb, we append these endings to the root in order to conjugate in the subjunctive mood:

First person singular (-a)

Second person singular (-as)

Third person singular (-a)

First person plural (-amos)

Second person plural (-áis)

Third person plural (-an)

Well, knowing how to conjugate is no big deal. It’s all about endings and roots. The big deal is remembering these conjugated forms during active speech. You cannot conjugate in the background while speaking and expect to become fluent. When natives speak, they son’t conjugate. They just have the appropriate forms on the tip of their tongue and that’s the reason why they are able to speak Spanish with such superhuman fluency.

One easy way to be able to retain these endings and recall them real-time is by listening to music. Lyrics that are heavy with conjugated verbs in this mood. This way, every time you hum the catchy tunes, you drive these conjugations deeper into you and eventually they become ingrained in your most active memory.

Fanny Lú and Lágrimas Cálidas

Fanny Lucía Martínez Buenaventura is a Colombian singer and songwriter from Santiago de Cali specializing in Latin pop and tropipop, a genre born in Colombia in the early 2000s as a fusion of traditional musical forms of the Caribbean Colombia (mainly Vallenato) with genres like Salsa, Merengue, and pop. At this stage, it is important to note, as a cultural trivia, that tropipop and Reggaeton are the most popular music genres in today’s Colombia.

As a child, Fanny attended Colegio Bolivar and later moved to France to finish her elementary education. Having received a degree in industrial engineering from the University of the Andes and having worked as an actress in the Colombian telenovela, Perro Amor, Fanny has an interestingly non-musical background.

Her musical career began in 2006 when she signed up with Universal Music Latino and launched Lágrimas Cálidas (Warm Tears) under the stage name, Fanny Lú. Lágrimas Cálidas, with two singles that topped Latin charts, made Fanny a household name in Colombia and brought her recognition in all of Latin America. Upon release, this album spent a good 5 weeks on top of the charts in Colombia, a rare feat for a debut album. Two years later she released another chartbuster, Dos (Two) which consolidated her musical career and established her as a recognized name on the Colombian music scene.

No Te Pido Flores

No Te Pido Flores (I Don’t Ask For Flowers) is Fanny’s debut song and the lead single from her first studio album, Lágrimas Cálidas. Having spent 7 weeks on top of the Hot 100 Billboard Charts in Latin America, this is by far one of Fanny’s most successful singles. In the US, this single made #16 on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs and topped the Billboard Tropical Songs chart. Vouching for its quality, this song also received a Latin Grammy nomination for the “Best Tropical Song” and a Billboard Music Latin nomination for “Tropical Airplay of the Year”.

What makes this song so special for those learning Spanish is the overwhelming concentration of the Spanish subjunctives in its loaded lyrics. The best part is that even the chorus is rich in subjunctives and by virtue of their repetitive placement, help you absorb this mood much more efficiently as compared to mindless cram-sessions. As always, here’s a portion of the complete lyrics with a rough English translation for your review. Be sure to listen to the song plenty of times and get comfortable with it before you actually start with translated lyrics.

Si se fue yo no se bien (Whether he’s gone, I’m still not sure)
Aún me resigno a no entender (I’m resigned to not understanding)
Que pasan noches ya sin él (How nights go by without him)
Como antes de que fuera mío. (Just like before he was mine.)

Definitivo yo no sé (I definitely don’t know)
Una semana y será un mes (One week and it will be a month)
Que pasa un día sin que muera (That days go by, without me dying)
Suspirando en el vacío. (Sighing in the emptiness.)
Y ya no quiero ser (I don’t want to stay like this)
Tan debil como el viento (Weak like the wind)
Cuando la tormenta se ha ido (When the storm is gone)
Que ya no sopla y esta frío (It’s died down and now it’s cold)
Sin tu calor. (Without your warmth.)

Coro: (Chorus:)
No te pido que traigas flores (I don’t ask that you bring flowers)
Tampoco que me des bombones (Or that you give me chocolates)
Yo sólo quiero una caricia (I only want your touch)
Que me digas que tú me quieres (To hear you say you love me)
No te pido que te confieses (I don’t ask for declarations)
Ni que prometas ni que reces (Or for promises or pleas)
Yo sólo quiero que me digas (I only want that you tell me)
Que no hay mujer que más admiras (That I’m the woman you admire the most.)

A Mexican Song For The Spanish Past Tense

2012-12-08T00:38:00.001+05:30

If you have been diligently following the 22 things a smart-ass would do learning Spanish that we discussed a little while ago, you are probably keen on getting even with the Spanish past tense before any other. Once again, don’t ask why or how this order matters but if you are lazy enough, you don’t care anyways. So, can anything make it easier for us to grasp and recall the infamous past tense conjugations in Spanish? Well, there’s always a song for anything you want to learn and digest in Spanish, really! This time, we call upon this sensational and prodigious Latin pop group from Mexico, officially known as Camila.

A little more about the past

There are several ways of discussing the past in Spanish and of those, two are of particular significance not only for their ubiquity but also for the difficulty rookies face understanding them! If you really care for names, they are called, the imperfect and the preterite forms.

The imperfect form essentially discusses actions as either habitual, repetitive, or incomplete. Most often, such actions are rendered in English using the phrase, “used to.” This form also covers descriptions of state or being in the past. Note the following scenarios that are covered by this form in Spanish:

I used to write to him (repetitive)

Life was good (state)

You were very naughty when you were a kid (state)

You would often come home with a broken nose or torn clothes (habitual)

It was midnight (state)

I was 29 years old (state)

When the action being discussed took place once in the past and concluded with a well-defined end, you use the preterite. Note these scenarios that illustrate the usage:

I wrote you a letter

She read that book twice (repetitive yet with a well-defined end)

He got cold

He turned 20 last year

The storm was over by evening

Pages after pages can be written about how these two tenses should be used but we guess the above illustrations have done enough to help you understand the differences between them. However, if you are like most of us, you would still face a real big challenge remembering and recalling the associated conjugations while speaking Spanish. Let’s see if something can help!

Camila

Camila: Samuel “Samo” Parra, Pablo Hurtado, and and Mario Domm
Photo credit: kindofadraag licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

Camila is a Latin pop and soft rock group from Mexico City which took not only Mexico but all of Latin America by storm right since inception. The group was founded by Mario Domm, who is the group’s composer and producer and one of the two vocalists, in 2005. The other two members are guitarist Pablo Hurtado and vocalist Samuel Parra, better known as “Samo.”

Domm studied singing, music theory, piano, harmony, and counterpoint at the Escuela Nacional de Música where he entered at the age of 17. He was born in Torreón, Coahuilca and started his singing career in 2001 when he signed up with Sony Music to release his first and only solo album, Mexi-Funky-Music. Samo was born in Veracruz and started his career in 1995 when he participated in the successful Festival Valores Juveniles. The third member, Hurtado is from San Luis Potosí and he studied Audio Engineering and Music Production at the Academy of Music Fermatta. He began his career at the age of 5!

The word, Camila, apparently means “close to God” and was initially suggested as the group’s name by a friend when the trio was pondering over what to call themselves. As you can easily guess, the name stuck.

Todo Cambió

Todo Cambió (Everything Changed) is the lead single from the first album (of the same name) that was released by Camila and was released in 2006. This album, which includes a blend of Latin pop and rock, was certified three-times platinum in Mexico after it hit 300,000 units in sales.

This single swept away several awards and nominations between 2007 and 2008 including one at the 2007 Latin Billboard Music Awards. Todo Cambió is a touching ballad of love that essays the state of mind of a starry-eyed lover right after falling falling in love. If you have ever fallen in love, you will find this song extremely easy to identify with and that’s what makes it ideal for anyone hoping to use it as a learning tool. The verses are rich in verbs in their past tense conjugation, both preterite and imperfect. For those who are still at odds with the infamous subjunctive, this song offers a hint of that mood too! Here’s a portion of its lyrics for your review but be sure to listen to the actual song several times before you even touch the lyrics.

Todo cambió cuando te vi (Everything changed when I saw you)
De blanco y negro a color me convertí (I turned from black and white to color)
Y fue tan fácil (And it was so easy)
Quererte tanto (To love you so much)

Algo que no imaginaba (Something I didn’t imagine)
Fue entregarte mi amor (Was to give you my love)
Con una mirada (With only one look)

Todo temblo (Everything shook)
Dentro de mi (Inside of me)
El universo escribío que fueras para mi (The universe wrote that you be for me)

Y fue tan fácil (And it was so easy)
Quererte tanto (To love you so much)
Algo que no imaginaba (Something I didn’t imagine)
Fue perderme en tu amor (It was to lose myself in your love)
Simplemente paso (It simply happened)
Y todo tuyo ya soy (Now I’m all yours)

Antes que pase más tiempo contigo, amor (Before I spend more time with you, my love)
Tengo que decir que eres el amor de mi vida (I need to tell you you are the love of my life)
Antes que te ame más (Before I love you more)
Escucha por favor (Please listen)
Déjame decir que todo te di (Let me just say I gave you everything)
Y no hay como explicar (And there's no way to explain)
Pero menos dudar (But much less to doubt)
Simplemente así lo senti (That’s simply how I felt)
Cuando te vi (When I saw you)

We will leave it to you to do some guesswork and tell me what the rest of the song means. If you listen to it enough number of times, interpreting this song is not as hard as it seems.

Spanish Subjunctive With An Arabic Twist

2012-12-05T16:46:00.000+05:30

You say, “May God make me an instant billionnaire,” when your wish calls for some divine intervention. Arabs say, “Oh Allah,” for the same effect and the world being a small place, this Semitic phrase ended up in Spanish as, “¡Ojalá!” It’s not hard to draw parallels between the two expressions given their almost identical pronunciations. Thank them Moors for this useful element of Spanish which is strangely more common in Latin America than in Spain these days. Though it doesn’t have an exact literal equivalent in English, ojalá can be roughly translated as, “May God ensure that...” or even, “I really, really hope that...”

A little more about the subjunctive

Needless to say, ojalá takes a subjunctive clause because it’s just a wish; we have already discussed the subjunctive form of Spanish verbs extensively in the past. Though a tad uncommon in modern English, this mood is much too ubiquitous in Spanish to ignore. In a nutshell, you use the subjunctives every time you imagine, wish, expect, desire, or want something to happen. As an illustration, check out the following English sentence:

I expect you to help me.

In the above sentence, there are two actions being performed by two persons: “I am expecting” and “you are helping me.” There is nothing extraordinary about the two activities except that I am expecting in real while you are helping me only in my wishes, i.e., the second action is not real. Now, as the example sentence illustrates, we expressed an unreal action without invoking the subjunctive because this mood is less prevalent in modern English.

However, the same sentence can be written using the subjunctive as well:

I expect that you help me.

Here, the verb for the second action, “help” is being used in its subjunctive form (though it doesn’t look or feel much different spelling-wise). This is the usage you are more likely to find but in legal and liturgical documents and serious literary works in medieval English. When it comes to Spanish, this is the only appropriate usage for the situation in question:

Espero que me ayudes. (I expect that you help me.)

May God will that I learn Spanish quickly!
Photo credit: Alpha licensed CCC BY-SA 2.0

In the above sentence, note the subjunctive usage, ayudes instead of the otherwise regular (read indicative) form, ayudas. Coming back to our new friend, ojalá, we have already seen how the word has Arabic origins. What must be noted at this stage, however, is that this word is no longer used in modern Spanish with any intention to invoke God’s attention. Today, ojalá has acquired the meaning of expressing simple longing or desire and has little to do with God. Note the syntax here:

Ojalá + <present subjunctive> = “I wish...”

Ojalá + <past subjunctive> = “If only...”

The slight complication assiciated with ojalá notwithstanding, someone in Mexico has worked real hard to help reinforce your learning when it comes to this word. It’s a Norteño band from Monterrey called Grupo Pesado (Heavy Group) whose 2008 album, Sólo Contigo (Only With You) has this single that seems to have been produced solely for the purpose of teaching us the subjunctive!

Grupo Pesado and Ojalá

Grupo Pesado was born in 1993 in Monterrey, Nuevo León when Beto Zapata and Pepe Elizondo decided to promote their love for the traditional music of their homeland, the Norteño. As a result, the traditional sounds of the accordion have always characterized their work. In each of their albums, the quintet includes some innovative elements of Monterrey such as fusion of Norteño with Latin rhythms, accordion, bajo sexto, and drums. These sounds have perfectly combined with their magical voice achieving a result that is modern, fresh, and very Norteño.

With several musical productions and countless gold and platinum records to its credit since 1993, the group has often been placed in the top charts in Mexico, more so in the northern areas, with hits like No Tengas Miedo De Llorar, Quiero, Llegó El Amor, Ayúdame, Te Lo Pido Por Favor, ¿Cómo Le Hago?, and Pídeme. The last two belong to their album, “Mil Historias” and helped establish them as one of the most representative groups of the Norteño genre in pretty much all of America.

Ojalá

This song came out with the group’s 2008 release, Sólo Contigo and is a classic for anyone trying to absorb some Spanish subjunctive effortlessly. The essence of this number is a revengeful wish, more like, “You wronged me so now may God punish you for it!”

It’s a beautiful song that most of us can easily identify with. It’s the anguish of a man dumped by his beloved who tells him that she never really had any feelings for him and that all her love and affection for him was just a prank. Now, the jilted lover is wishing for her to get the punishment appropriate for her evil ways. Here, we am giving out an excerpt from the second half of the song which is where the singer is actually wishing all his curses and hence using the subjunctive liberally.

Ojalá, que la vida te cobre con creces el daño que me haces, (I hope that life pays you back with interest the pain that you have given me,)
Que no encuentres amor, (That don’t find love,)
Y si un día lo encuentras, fracases. (And that if one day you do, you fail.)

Que a quien llames amor, se convierta en tu peor enemigo, (That the one you call your love, turns into your worst enemy,)
Y se burle de ti, (And makes fun of you,)
Como lo haces conmigo. (Like you are doing with me.)

Que las noches se vuelvan eternas llorando en tu cama, (That the nights turn eternal as you cry in your bed,)
Que te abrace una pena, Y que sientas un frio en el alma. (That a pain embraces you, and that you feel a chill in your soul.)

Ojalá que algun día tu camino se llene de espinas, (I hope that some day your path fills with thorns,)
Y sientas lo mucho que duele una herida. (And you feel how much it hurts to be wounded.)

Y al perder de ese amor mi recuerdo se clave en tu mente, (And that in losing that love my memories stick to your mind,)
Y que sientas el mismo rencor que yo siento al perderte. (And that you feel the same bitterness that I feel in losing you.)

Ojalá que alguien te haga sufrir y de tanto dolor, (I hope that someone makes you suffer and with so much pain,)
Ya no quieras vivir, (That you don’t wish to live anymore,)

Que desees la muerte. (That you wish you were dead.)
 
Listen to this song in endless loop and rest assured you will never forget this little Arabic twist to your Spanish.