Two of the possible candidates for president of the United States can apply -or have- Mexican citizenship. One of them already quit, Mr. Bill Richardson, and the second one, Mr. Mitt Romney, is still running. He is a Mormon but not from the Mormons of Utah, but from the Mormons of Chihuahua, in northern Mexico. His father, George Romney, was Mexican, and he was also a candidate for president of the United States.
Mr. Romney, who was governor of Massachusetts, for some reason avoids speaking in Spanish. Since Romney's family was originally polygamous, he still has dozens of dozens of relatives living throughout Mexico, being the Pratt family just some of them.
Re-, rete-, requete-,
archi-, recontra-, super-, hiper-, ultra-
In conversational Spanish, it
is common to hear the prefixes re-, rete-, and requete-, which intensify the corresponding adjective or adverb to
different degrees:
feliz, happy
refeliz, very happy
retefeliz, very very happy
requetefeliz, extremely happy
rápido, fast
rerrápido, very fast
reterrápido, very very fast
requeterrápido, extremely fast
If it is an adjective, it has to agree with the noun:
Esas motocicletas son requeterrápidas, those motorcycles are extremely fast.
Another alternative:
Esas motocicletas son rapidísimas.
Archi-, recontra-, super-, ultra-, and different combinations of all previous ones, achieve a similar
effect:
caro, expensive supercaro, superexpensive ultracaro, ultraexpensive
archirrecontracaro, very, extremely expensive
and you even might hear: archirrecontrainteresante, very very ...... extremely interesting
superarchirrecontrainteresante, very very ...... extremely
superinteresting
These are examples from the DRAE (Dictionary of the Royal Academy)::
Con adjetivos o adverbios, puede
reforzarse el valor de intensificación añadiendo a re- las
sílabas -te o -quete.Retebueno. Requetebién. 2.elem. compos. Antepuesto a algunos adjetivos, expresa idea de exceso.Ultraligero, ultrasensible. Superfino. Superproducción.
Most recent revision: 20111212. 20061014 (spanishNY.com) top
Scabies Sensitive Anti-Itch skin Lotion.
Would you buy an Anti-Itch Lotion called Scabies® or Mange ® ?
That is exactly what Sarna® means in Spanish and Portuguese. Scabies and mange are a
couple of contagious human and animal skin diseases. I doubt Spanish speaking people would buy this product.
Nouns modifying nouns are common in English, but in Spanish we
normally use adjectives to modify them. As a general rule, nouns
modify other nouns in Spanish only by means of the preposition de. Examples: hoja
de papel, sheet of paper, mesa
de madera, wooden table, collar de perlas, pearl necklace. Still, we can find
many examples of nouns modifying nouns in Spanish that don't need this
preposition. Some of these examples come from English. We can observe
this pattern largely in animal and material names. The article agrees
with the first noun; the second noun acts as if it were an adjective:
el tiburón ballena, whale shark (not: la tiburón ballena) el tiburón gata, nurse shark
el rata canguro, kangaroo rat
el pez martillo, tiburón martillo,
hammer shark
el pez espada, sword fish
el pez gato, (aka bagre) catfish
el pez globo, balloon fish
el pez piedra, stone fish
el hombre lobo, werewolf el hombre mono, (lit: ape man) aka
Tarzán
el hombre rana, (aka buzo) (lit: frog man) scuba diver
el papel aluminio, aluminum foil
el hule espuma, foam rubber
el papel terciopelo, velvet paper la palabra clave, keyword
el papel tapiz, wallpaper
el plástico cristal, crystal plastic
el chicle bomba, bubblegum
la fruta bomba, Cuban Spanish for papaya
el coche bomba, car bomb
la ciudad estado, city-state
el camión cisterna, tanker (truck)
las cartas credenciales, credential letters
el barco escuela, buque escuela, training ship el barco hospital, hospital ship
el reloj pulsera, wrist watch la ciencia ficción, science
fiction el niño genio, boy genius, wonder
kid el niño prodigio, child prodigy la hora pico, peak time, rush hour la mujer maravilla, wonder woman
(the T.V. character) la fiesta sorpresa, surprise party El Hombre Araña, Spiderman
Posted originally on 20060928 (Most recent update: 2010116 (spanishNY.com) top
10 expressions that are not so easy to figure out (27)
Again! more and more groups of 10 common random idioms you may have trouble with if you hear them for the first time:
Expression
Approximate literal translation (what you might think you actually heard)
Explanation
más de la cuenta
more than the account? more than the count? more than the bill?
too much, excessively. Comí más de la cuenta. I ate too much.
marcarle a alguien
what? to mark someone?
to dial someone's phone number. marcar el teléfono = to dial.
a todo dar (Mx)
to all give?
supercool, great, excelent. Es una persona a todo dar. He/She is an excelent person, supercool.
a más no poder
to more not being able? to more not can? what?
the max. More than that, it's not possible. Remember Poder (to be able) is related to possibility, possible. As they come. To the highest possible degree.
campante, quedarse tan campante
what?
él se quedó tan campante. He didn't bat an eyelid. (he acted as if nothing had happened).
no se hizo esperar
what? It didn't make iself wait ? It didn't allow himself to be expected?
it didn't take long to come. This expression is used in news, sports, etc.
meterse al agua, meterse al mar, meterse a la piscina (alberca, MX).
what? to enter the water? to put oneself in the ocean?
to get in the water, to get in the ocean, to get in the swimming pool
hace mucho
what? It makes much? It makes a lot?
Long time ago.
mandar a volar a alguien
what? to send someone flying?
to send someone packing
de plano
what? of plane?
outright. De plano dijo que no. He said no outright.
Any of these words can be used, primarily in conversational Spanish, as names to
call Mr. So-and-so. The first 3 names together correspond more
or less to Tom, Dick, and Harry. If you use them to
replace actual names, you can capitalize them. You can say, for
example, fulano or fulana to refer to some man or some woman. Fulano de tal, or fulano de tal por cual is just some guy whose name you don't
even want to mention. Very often, their diminutives, fulanito, menganito,
and zutanino, are used as well. While un fulano means some guy, Don Fulano is a Tequila!
Tequila Mr. So-and-so
Fulano de Tal is the Hispanic John Doe.
Zutano comes from Latin, but fulano and mengano are words of Arabic origin. It is said that perengano stems from both, Pérez,
a very common Spanish last name, and mengano. Fulano is also used in Portuguese with
the same meaning, but in that language the rest of the gang are sicrano and beltrano.
(20061016. Lastest update 20111017 )(spanishNY.com) top
The accent mark can make a big difference
In English, you have words like invalid that can be pronounced in two different ways taking two different meanings. To solve that possible problem in Spanish, we use accent marks. Here are some examples of words with, and without accent marks. Just like invalid in English, their pronunciations and meanings change accordingly.
buque
ship, vessel
buqué
from bouquet. Wine aroma.
callo
callus
calló
from callar, to shup up, to become silent. He shut up.
hable
speak! Command or present subjunctive
hablé
I spoke
ingles
groins
inglés
English
lastima
from lastimar, to hurt.
lástima
pity
libro
book
libró
from librar, he freed
mama
breast
mamá
mom
media
media, stocking, sock
medía
from medir, It used to measure.
olvido
oblivion, oversight
olvidó
he forgot
perdida
lost
pérdida
a loss
revolver
to mix
revólver
revolver
sabana
savanna
sábana
bed sheet
seria
serious
sería
from ser, it would be
suplica
from suplicar, he implores
súplica
plea, petition
tenia
tapeworm
tenía
from tener, I used to have
tomate
tomato
tómate
from tomar. have it! (a drink, medicine)
vienes
from venir, you come
vienés
from Vienna
This is one of the reasons text messages should accept vowels with accents. Not all cell phone companies accept accented text messages. Sometimes you send one, but it will be lost, and no one will receive it. This is also another reason why people always remind you about typing accent marks in your documents.
Hay is a special conjugated form of the verb haber, which is used to indicate existence. It´s English equivalents are: there is, there are, is there...?, are there...? This verb is always in its singular form. Some people, mistakenly, use it in the plural form, like habíamos, habían, habemos, etc. For the Royal Academy, this usage doesn't officialy exist. Here are many examples in the affirmative form:
hay
there is, there are, is there?, are there?
hubo
there was, there were (used for events meaning it took place)
había
there was, there were (used for things, people, animals, etc.)
habrá
there will be
va a haber
there is going to be
ha habido
there has been
había habido
there had been
habrá habido
there will have been
debe haber
there must be (used also for conjecture)
debe haber habido
there must have been (used also for conjecture)
debería haber
there should be
debió haber habido
there must have been
debiera haber habido
there should have been
debería haber habido
there should have been
puede haber
there can be, there may be
puede haber habido
there could have been , there may have been
podría haber
there could be, there might be
podría haber habido
there might have been
podrá haber
there can be, there may be (future)
pudiera haber
there may be (remote possibility)
pudiera haber habido
there may have been (remote possibility)
tiene que haber
there has to be
tiene que haber habido
there has to have been
tuvo que haber
there had to be
tuvo que haber habido
there had to have been
tenía que haber
there had to be, there was supposed to be, there were supposed to be
tendría que haber
there would have to be
tendría que haber habido
there would have to have been
ojalá haya
hopefully there will be
ojalá haya habido
hopefully there has been
ojalá hubiera
hopefully there would be, hopefully there were (remote possibility)
ojalá hubiera habido
hopefully there had been (remote possibility)
habría podido haber
there could have been, there may have been
hubiera podido haber
there could have been, there may have been
ha de haber
there must be, there may be (conjecture)
20090523 latest update: 20110929 (spanishNY.com) top
A Visitor
I received a surprise visit yesterday. If you are familiar with Twitter, you might be familiar with Tweetdeck. The first message starts at the bottom. Donde andas compa? (where are you buddy?). The message puzzled me, Arturo knows I am in New York, so why would he ask me that? I thought that Arturo was in trouble or something, or that he wanted me to go to one of his townhouses to take photos (because he lives in Mexico City). I received his voicemails but he has a Mexican phone number and I didn't quite know how to call back. I asked another common friend of ours, Jorge, what happened. So we thought he needed help or something. About 20 minutes later, Arturo finally answered via Twitter direct message: Voy caminando x la 5ta y 42. Era solo para saludarte x (por) si estabas cerca. (walking near Fifth Avenue and 42nd. just wanted to say hello in case you are around).
The thing is that Arturo is the son in-law of Carlos Slim, the richest person in the world -yes, the man with the Casio watch-. Arturo is also Mr. Slim's spokesperson, director of his foundation, etc. They were strolling on Fifth Avenue, Bryant Park, etc. They just wanted to say hi to me. I have no words. Awesome gentlemen. A real honor for me.
Oh, the two guys in the conversation above, Arthur and George. (making fun of me on an August 2011 photo).
To become in Spanish is not easy. We have 5, 6, or more expressions that mean to become, and some of them are not interchangeable. Here are some examples.
convertirse en. To indicate a complete change or turning into something or someone
else.
Clark Kent se conviente en Superman. Las orugas se convierten en mariposas. (caterpillars turn into butterflies).
Hacerse. Used to indicate reaching a goal as the result of conscious or
prolonged effort, or entering a profession, trade, or organized group.
Carlos se hizo millonario. Mi hermana se hizo una buena cocinera. (My sister became a good cook). Liz Taylor se hizo famosa por sus películas. (became famous for her movies).
Llegar a ser. Indicates progress or achievement that takes place gradually
over a period of time. Peak.
Arnold llegó a ser gobernador de California.
Ponerse is used with adjectives that take estar, to indicate a physical or
emotional change, or an involuntary reaction or condition.
Se puso triste. (he/she/you (Usted)) became sad. Se puso rojo. (blushed). El tráfico se puso pesado. (The traffic became heavy).
Quedarse is also used with an adjective, usually to express an unchangeable
condition that reflects loss.
El Rey is a song that everybody who visits Mexico should know. If you attend a party, if you listen to the radio, more lilkely than not you will hear this song. Everybody knows it by heart, everybody will sing it along, and you will have to do it too.
