Last updated on
Monday, August 30, 2010 10:38 AM EDT
Para para para para para
Para ti, para mí, para ella, para él, para todos, para nadie...¡para vos! I hope this commercial in Spanish from Argentina made for Coca Cola Femsa, helps you understand one of the uses of the preposition para.
Similar commercial with subtitles. (also Argentine accent).
Cola in Spanish means ass, tail, butt, queue. So when they say para los últimos (for the last ones) they show the word Cola, line, queue. They mean the ones at the end of the line.
They have this Commercial in Spanish TV here in the U.S., with standard accent, and in some other countries in many languages, but not in English TV in the U.S..
Coca Cola from the United States and Coca Cola from Mexico are different. Coca Cola from the U.S. is mostly made from high fructose corn syrop. In Mexico and other countries, it's prohibited, so they use sugar cane. This means that it tastes different (like Coke used to be here many years ago). Mexican Coca Cola ( Pepsi Cola) is kosher, so many stores in the NYC area are selling Mexican Coca Cola and Mexican Pepsi Cola and other brands. You can find it in Jackson Heights, Queens, for sure.
I like the Romanian language, and I'm used to listening to Romanian news (not that I understand everything). Romanians always tell me their language sounds like Italian. No way. Argentine Spanish does sound like Italian, Romanian does not, at least not the intonation. Romanian is kind of flat compared to River Plate Spanish, but it's great, because when they learn Spanish, they sound almost like natives (they don't have an evident foreign intonation). In the 2nd video, at 0:51 they say para los que se superan, for the ones who excel. In Romanian, this would meanfor the ones who get upset (el se supăra, he gets upset). False cognates happen between English and Spanish, but also between Spanish and other languages.
Hey, and I have to show off my picture in Buenos Aires some years ago!
Like former Venezuelan Miss Universe Alicia Machado, she will probably work in Mexican telenovelas in a few years. They must be rewriting the scripts already to fit her in.
If you want to try practicing Spanish by watching a telenovela, this is the essential vocabulary you need to know.
¿Qué hace Chuchito José Rodriguez de Anda y López en el cuarto de la sirvienta?
What is Chuchito José Rodríguez de Anda y López doing in the maid's room?. Yes, telenovela characters have many last names. Thanks to Chuchito, the maid is usually the secret mother of at least one family member. (but s/he doesn't know it!).
¡No puede ser!
This can't be! (this can't be true, this cannot be possible!).
¡nunca jamás!, ¡jamás de los jamases!
never ever!, never everrrrrr!.
¡Qué desgracia! No sé como sucedió. Se rodó por las escaleras. No, nadie la empujó. ¡Parece un accidente!.
What a tragedy. I don't know how it happened. She rolled down the staircase. No, nobody pushed her. It looks like an accident! Desgracia doesn't mean disgrace. In telenovelas, always somebody rolls down the stairs, and it always looks like an accident Spoiler: but it's not!.
¿Por qué nunca te maquillas?
Why do you never wear makeup? Maquillarse = to put on makeup. Telenovela actors seldom wear makeup. Or they do, but it's always very subtle. In the past, when characters laughed, the makeup would crack, and when they woke up in the morning, they were already wearing makeup.
¿qué haces aquí?
What are you doing here?
¿Qué significa esto? Te sorprendí.
What's the meaning of this? I caught you red handed.
¿Quién soy yo? No sé. creo que tengo amnesia.
Who am I? I don't know. I think I'm suffering from amnesia. Condition always present in telenovelas.
ADN
DNA
agua oxigenada
No, this is not oxigenated water, it's peroxide. Very important substance in telenovelas.
Alguien trató de desconectarle los tubos del oxígeno.
Somebody tried to disconnect the oxygen tubes. In telenovelas, always someone manages to get in the intensive care unit (terapia intensiva) of a hospital, and tries to pull the plug and oxygen tubes from the protagonist. Sometimes, they also press a pillow against their faces.
asesino, asesina
murderer. Asesino in Spanish is not exactly assassin in English. But an assassin is un asesino in Spanish.
bastardo, bastarda
<no translation needed> Also, hijo ilegítimo, sounds better. In telenovelas, It's always the maid's child.
cachetada
a slap on the face. Cachete is cheek.
Calorina, eres la deshonra de la familia
Calorina, you are the disgrace of this family. Hint: calor=heat.
Doña Ana, Doña Juana, Don Pedro, Don Anastacio
Usually and older and respected character called Ana or Juana, or Pedro or Anastacio
el bueno/malo de la historia
the good/bad character in the story
el futuro de nuestros niños está de por medio
the future of our kids is at stake. Haber algo de por medio means that something exists in the middle of a situation.
Ella no es tu verdadera madre. Tu madre desapareció cuando tú naciste
She is not your real mother. Your mother vanished when you were born. Nacer is not a passive verb like to be born in English.
envenenar
to poison. Used when the telenovela is out of budget, and they need to fire some actors. (Either this or the staircase method). Poison is cheaper than crashing a car!
eres una víbora
you are a viper
es el mismísimo demonio
he is the devil himself. Demonio = diablo.
está en coma.
she is in a coma. Coma also means comma.
estoy embarazada
I'm pregnant
hacer el papel
to play the role
haz que parezca un accidente
make it look like an accident. Parecer = to seem. Haz is the (irregular) tú imperative of hacer (to do, to make).
hazme caso
listen to me. Hacer caso = to heed, pay attention.
inocente
innocent. Inocente also means candid, gullible, naive.
la boda, el casorio
the wedding
lo nuestro
our love affair (usually)
los pobres
the poor
los ricos
the rich
madre soltera
single mother
mayordomo
butler. It's always the butler.
me faltaste al respeto
you disrespected me
me late que Paquito tiene una aventura con la sirvienta
I suspect that Paquito is having an affair with the maid. (Me late, I have the hunch, only in MX I believe).
me traicionaste
you betrayed me
mentiroso
liar
no es mi culpa
it's not my fault. It's always the butler's fault.
no les digas nuestro secreto
don't tell them our secret. There are always secretos in telenovelas. Many of them.
no sé de quién es el hijo que espero
Esperar in Spanish means to wait for, to await, to hope, and to expect. I don't know who is the father of the child I am expecting.
papel antagónico
the character conflicting with the protagonist, villain (watch out! papel antagónico, papel protagónico, and papel higiénico are not the same,,,,,). Papel means both, role and paper. Papel higiénico? No, in telenovelas characters only eat and drink.
Primer Actor / Primera Actriz
First actor. First actress. Usually an experienced actor or actress who doesn't have a leading role, but deserves a big, special credit.
protagonista
protagonist, main character, leading character (male or female). Nouns ending in -ista could be either masculine or feminine.
se fugó con el jardinero
she eloped with the gardner. Fugarse also means to leak, to escape.
se quedó en la calle.
He lost everything and ended up on the streets, became homeless. One of the meanings of quedarse is to become, after a loss. Se quedó sordo. He lost his hearing and became deaf.
sirvienta
the maid. There is always one or more in every telenovela. They know all the family secrets, just like the doormen in New York. The more secrets they know, the bigger the tip they get. Propina = tip.
te odio con todas mis fuerzas.
I hate you with all my might.
te prohibo que andes con él
I prohibit you to date him. Prohibir requires the subjunctive.
te quiero pero no te amo
I kind of love you but I don't love you. Querer and amar are a little different.
tu hijo salió a ti
your son came out just like you
tu marido te engaña
your husband is cheating on you
tú me mentiste
you lied to me
Ustedes no se pueden casar porque son hermanos. (dramatic music follows).
You cannot marry each other because you are brother and sister. (Believe it or not, common telenovela twist.) Hermanos in Spanish means both, bothers and siblings (brothers and sisters)..
vamos a meterla al manicomio para cobrar su parte de la herencia
let's put her in the looney house so we can get her part of the inheritance
veneno
poisson. Like venom.
ya no me amas
ya and ya no are different. you do not love me anymore
yo pensé que sentías algo por mí
I thought you felt something for me. To feel something for someone requires the preposition por.
Why telenovelas are a good idea to learn and practice Spanish compared to movies? Because you get used to the same voices, same accents, the same actors, the same plot for 6 months (at least). It's like an immersion. If you don't understand the plot the first week, be patient, you'll understand what's going on the following week. The super-dramatic acting will help. A movie only lasts 90 minutes and that's it. Telenovelas usually have captions available. The disadvantage is that the plot may not be good, or it may be good, but stretched out, and you will have to put up with it every evening. Late night telenovelas are much better than early afternoon ones.
Another "accident" down the stairs. This telenovela has some Slavic language subtitles, but the audio is in Spanish. The evil granddaughter leads her sweet grandmother to the staircase, and pushes her down: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fInOpqqqFk
One more. No, she didn't roll down the stairs. She flew down the stairs like Superman! This one has a twist. The guy didn't push her, but they will blame him for that. If you can make it to the very end of the video, you'll see what happened to her leg, and her dramatic reaction. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdvGRL9wABs
Talking about rodents, a very unusual Spanish verb
Talking about rats and mice, do you know why they are called rodents? Because they roen. In Spanish, roer means to gnaw. They are roedores because they roen.
This is the only Spanish verb I can recall that has 3 different choices for the present yo form. In the present tense, this verb is regular and irregular at the same time. Because the present subjunctive is formed from the yo form of the present indicative, the present subjunctive has 3 forms for each person! The imperative has also 3 choices. Use the one you like best. If you use yo roo, then the verb is regular, otherwise is irregular.
A very similar Spanish verb, raer (to scrape off), has two different options for the yo form of the present indicative tense as well. Yo raigo o yo rayo. Yo rayo collides with the verb rayar (to scratch). http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltConsulta?TIPO_BUS=3&LEMA=raer
Yacer, to be lying, to lie, also has 3 different choices for the present indicative yo form: yazco o yazgo o yago. This verb is used mostly for dead people, so we hardly ever say yo yazgo or yo yasco or yo yago.
BTW. If you ever get a hamster, they hibernate so deeply that they look dead. They get rigid, cold, and totally unresponsive, and many people who are not familiar with these little rodents get rid of them (and most probably they won't wake up again). http://www.hamsterific.com/HamsterUniversity/HamsterHibernation.html
10 expressions that are not so easy to figure out (8)
Here are 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
ni loco, ni loca
neither crazy
no way. (Not even if I were crazy)
¿no que no?
no that not?, not that not? not not?
Did you change your mind?, I thought you said no. Didn't you say no? (this expression could be a little sarcastic). It's the perfect combination for ¿No que no?, sí se puede.
dichosos los ojos (probably MX only, they use it in very old Mexican movies)
happy the eyes
it's nice seeing you, the full expression is dichosos los ojos que te ven. Happy the eyes that are seeing you. Dicha is happiness, but I think it's a more permanent condition than just being feliz for something.
de día, de noche
of day, of night
daytime, nighttime
marcar el número
to mark the number
to dial the phone number
agua con gas, gaseosa
water with gas
carbonated water, soda, pop
día de fiesta
party day
holiday (I thought this one was obvious, until I noticed that when I say día de fiesta, my students ask me where is the party!!!).
traerse algo entre manos
to bring something between your hands
to be up to something, to be plotting something
no me trago ese cuento
I don't swallow that story
I don't buy that story, I don't believe that story
ya me cayó el veinte (MX)
the twenty fell on me already
I just realized it, I just got it, I just understood something. (it comes from a pay phone. In Mexico they used 20 cent coins, when the call was established, the coin fell down making a noise. A similar expression exists in Hebrew also, and it might be used in other countries.) It's like the quarter fell in me, the quarter dropped in me. My student from Israel tells me this expression is very popular in that country, but it might have arrived to Israel via Telenovelas. So that explains it.
This is the famous "veinte," the coin responsible for the expression me cayó el veinte. With pyramids and cactus and all that.
I have some examples of differences about how people in different laguages see animals, and treat animals.
Unlike English, In Spanish a dove and a pidgeon are the same animal, una paloma. In Spanish, we do not discriminate palomas by their color. In Spanish a dove is a paloma blanca, and a pidgeon is a regular gray, green, blue, purple, multicolor paloma. In Spanish, both birds are nice, and we don't really think that a paloma is more beautiful just because it's white. It's the same in Portuguese. I was a little disappointed when I heard a Newyorker telling me that a pidgeon is a rat with wings (una rata con alas). In Spanish, palomas, white or any other color, are nice. To me, what he said is some kind of "racism" towards palomas! It's not politically correct, doves are nice because they are white, pidgeons are ugly because they are not white. But that's the way some people think here and probably in other countries. But not everyone; that would explain why some people feed the pidgeons, maybe those people are Hispanic or European.
To verify this, just do a web search for the Spanish word palomas, you'll see images of doves and pidgeons in the results. All are equal to us.
We see this image, and we think how nice, but some Newyorkers may think how yucky.
Now rats and mice. A white rat is a suitable pet. A gray street rat never. Right? Same in Spanish. For many centuries, rats were a matter of life or death (more death than life in fact!, just do some research about the Black Death). Now languages, In Spanish, in English, in German, in French, in Romanian, and some other languages, a rat (rata) and a mouse (ratón) are two different animals. In the case of rats and mice, they don't have a different name just because they are white. Correct? Same in Spanish, and the same happens with palomas in Spanish. However, however.... in Portuguese and Japanese at least, a rat and a mouse are the same animal! They use the same noun for these two species. One just happens to be bigger than the other.
In Spanish, we have only one word for squirrels and chipmunks, ardilla. One just happens to have a line along it's body. Las ardillitas are The Chipmunks, you know, the ones that sing on TV. Ahh, but a rabbit (conejo) and a hare (liebre) are different in both Spanish and English, but in Spanish turtles and tortoises are all tortugas.
How do we answer the telephone in several Spanish speaking countries
We use several different expressions to answer the phone, so when you travel or watch a foreign movie don't be surprised. It's not always as simple as hello. I think no other language has a particular way to answer the phone depending on the region.
Country
Expression
Argentina
hola
Colombia
aló (Bogotá)
Cuba
oigo (I hear)
Ecuador
aló
España
diga (say!), sí (yes)
Guatemala
aló
México
bueno (good?), diga (say!)
Paraguay
hola
Perú
aló
Uruguay
hola
Venezuela
aló
In other Romance languages
alo (Portuguese, Romanian), allo (French), Pronto (Italian)
We have a YES that English doesn't use. This sí is used to contrast two opposite ideas, to confirm something, or to eradicate doubts about something.
Spanish
English (literal translations, ungrammatical English)
A mí no me gusta cantar, pero sí me gusta escuchar música
Singing is not pleasing to me, but YES listening to music is pleasing to me.
A nadie le gusta esa película, pero a mí sí.
That movie is not pleasing to anyone, but to me YES.
Arturo dice que sí quiere ir con nosotros.
Arthur says that YES he wants to go with us. (Some other people don't.)
Donovan sí es un buen jugador de futbol.
Donovan YES is a good soccer player. (some other players aren't, or some people doubted that he was a good player.)
El doctor dice que sí estoy bien.
The doctor says that YES I'm fine. (I thought I wasn't, somebody said I wasn't.)
El profesor sí me dejó tarea hoy.
The teacher YES gave me a homework assignment today. (I didn't have any homework in previous days.)
Esta vez sí lo voy a hacer.
This time YES I will do it. (I refused to do it before, I couldn't do it before.)
Este jabón sí es efectivo contra la caspa.
This soap YES is effective against dandruff. (others don't work.)
Pablo sí está un poco gordo, pero está tratando de bajar de peso.
YES Pablo is a little chubby, but he is trying to lose weight.
Sí se puede
YES it's possible (Some people think it's not possible, some people are not confident that it's possible.)
Of course, in English rarely will you say that. You will use some other wording like the doctor DID say that I'm fine, this soap DOES work against dandruff. Notice how we often use this YES as an answer or contrast to a NO, like I don't like singing but I do like listening to music.
(BTW, in Mexico, the above gesture may be an insult.)
These signs above are not quite correct without the accent mark. Sí.
Sí se puede is an impersonal expression. Yes we can is not an impersonal expression. Yes we can means sí podemos, so it's not a great translation for sí se puede, but it sounds more appealing than yes, it's possible. Poder is kin to the words possibility, potential, and power.
There is almost always something wrong with the MTA Spanish translations. It's not the translation per se, which is almost perfect, but it's too literal. They are trying to be funny in English, but the jokes and the wit are not always portable between languages, and this is one of those examples.
The result in Spanish is not cool. The Spanish version is much longer than the English version, because they explain too much. It's as if the MTA thinks the Spanish speaking population needs a more extensive explanation than the English. It's also as if they think we are dumb customers, and they want to make sure we absolutely understand their warnings.
They translate the gap as the space between the train and the platform. In fact, there is one translation mistake (Spanglish) here, as a platform in a train station is called andén, not plataforma.
In English, they just mention your footwear, but in Spanish they emphasize that it's the footwear you are wearing. I mean, they want to make sure you don't get confused with some footwear you may be carrying in a shopping bag. Nope! It's the footwear you are wearing at that moment!
Mantenga su estilo, stay in style, just sounds kind of dumb and unnecessary in Spanish. In any case we would say no pierda el estilo, don't lose your style.
In Spanish, they are telling us to be careful upon getting on, and upon getting off the train as well. In English they don't even mention that!
For stay aware they could simply say fíjese. If they mean stay aware of pickpockets or situations, and if they want to be witty, they could say ¡mucho ojo!, (lit: much eye! or open your eyes! or be aware! or watch out!). Yes! in Spanish we have our own witty expressions that wouldn't translate to English, and they would make their signs more appealing!
In English, they are telling you to stay clear from the closing doors, in Spanish they are telling us to get far from the clossing doors. They could simply say no obstruya las puertas, don't block the doors.
The MTA is just trying to avoid a lawsuit in case a customer suffers an accident, but they are trying harder with Spanish speaking people. Well, maybe it's good, maybe not. Maybe they care more about their Spanish speaking riders than about their English speaking ones.
This translation issue could be that the translator prefers to play safe, so s/he over translates instead of falling short of information, but they could create a more appealing Spanish version from scratch, using our own Spanish language charms, instead of translating something that ultimately will sound stilted.
The good thing is that literal, matching translations sometimes make things easier for students.
(The lady in the image above is pop culture character La Chilindrina, from El Chavo TV series, known in all Spanish speaking countries -except Cuba- the U.S., Brazil, and some more. Even Hugo Chávez quotes them on his speeches.)
Here are some examples of diminutives for common Spanish names for men and women. These ones are used in Mexico, unless otherwise specified, but they might be valid in other countries.
Nickname
Name
Alex (m), Ale (m,f)
Alejandro (Alexander), Alejandra
Beto
Roberto, Alberto, Humberto
Bety, Betty
Beatriz
Carmela, Carmelita
Carmen
Caro, Carito
Carolina
Chabela, Chabelita
Isabel (Elizabeth)
Chava
Salvador
Chayo (Mx), Charo (Sp)
Rosario
Chela
Graciela
Chelo, Chelito
Consuelo (women's)
Chema
José María (men's, yes, this applies to combined names too)
Chente
Vicente (notice this name has only one n in Spanish).
Chepina
Josefina
Chimo (Sp)
Joaquín
Chío
Rocío
Chole
Soledad (women's)
Chucho, Chuy, Chus (Sp)
Jesús
Cleto
Anacleto
Coco
Socorro (women's)
Concha, Conchita
Concepción (there is a prejudice against this name in Argentina, but it's common elsewhere)
Dani, Dany
Daniel, Daniela
Fer, Nando
Fernando
Fito, Rudi, Rudy
Rodolfo
Goyo
Gregorio
Güicho
Luis
Javi
Javier (España)
Juli (Sp)
Julio
Lalo, Lalito
Eduardo
Leti, Lety
Leticia
Licha
Alicia
Lola, Lolita
Dolores
Lucha
Luz (women's) (From Our Lady of Light)
Lulú
Lourdes
Lupe, Lupita
Guadalupe (Common women's name in Mexico, after the Virgen de Guadalupe)
Malena
María Elena
Manola
Manuela
Manolo
Manuel
Maribel
María Isabel
Maricarmen
María del Carmen
Marilú
María de Lourdes
Marisol
María del Sol
Meche
Mercedes (women's)
Memo
Guillermo (William)
Mena
Filomena
Mena
Filomena
Migue, Miguelito
Miguel
Mina
Guillermina
Moy
Moisés (Moses, Moshe)
Nacho
Ignacio
Neto
Ernesto
Nico
Nicolás
Paco, Pancho, Quico
Francisco
Paquita
Francisca
Pato
Patricio (Patrick)
Paty, Pati
Patricia
Pepe, Pepito
José
Pepita
Josefa
Pili, Pily, Pilarica (Sp)
Pilar
Polo
Leopoldo
Poncho
Alfonso
Quico
Federico
Quique
Enrique
Riqui, Ricky
Ricardo
Rosy, Rosita
Rosa
Ruy (Sp)
Rodrigo
Tavo
Gustavo, Octavio
Tere, Teresita
Teresa
Teto
Héctor
Toño
Antonio
Trini
Trinidad (m, f)
Vero
Verónica
Vico
Victor
Yola, Yoli, Yolis
Yolanda
In Spanish these short names are less formal than in English. For example, Bill is Memo. But in Spanish you will never hear of a president who calls himself Memo Clinton or even Memo González. These names are not used on official documents neither on credit cards.
Notice the amount of nicknames including CH. Spanish people seem to like that sound.
If you have more short names, perhaps for other countries, please let me know by using the link below, so that I can add them.
nombres español spanish short names
20100712 Version 2.0 originally posted on 20070721 (spanishNY.com) top
My old book
These are photos of my old book. Have you heard about Don Quixote? My book is even older.
This is a religious/moral book, apparently, it's a manual on how to confess people, and their penitences. It has an index of sins. It was written by the economist Martín de Azpicueta, who was personal advisor to three popes.
The date is MDLXXV, that is 1575. On the Yo El Rey section, the date is one year older, 1574. In 64 or 65 years, this book will be half a millenium old. Apparently (my Latin is not that great) it was printed in Antwerpen (Amberes, Belgium). Remember that Belgium and Holland were part of Spain at that time. Some sections of the book seem to have been printed in Italy (Papal States).
Parts of the book are in Spanish, very old Spanish, like this one:
I the King.
Diez (10) was spelled Dies, and if the King signed it that way, then it was 100% correct.
Antonio de Erasso was the personal secretary of the King. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, the most famous Spanish writer, was already active during this period, so Erasso's name appears also on some of Cervantes' works.
Parts of this antique book are written in Latin.
Gregory XIII was a Pope. A very important one. Thanks to him, nowadays we use the Gregorian Calendar. The day this calendar was adopted in the United States (or colonies), September 2, 1752, after midnight, the next day was september 14, 1752. 11 days vanished. For example, September 11, 1752, didn't exist in the United States, but in Mexico it did, since catholic countries switched to the Gregorian Calendar many years earlier.
It has dated handwritten notes, like this one in 1679. Some notes are in Spanish, some are in Latin.
Remember that parts of what is now the United States were part of Nueva España (Mexico), so they mention regions of today's Mexico and Today's United States in this book. The leafs are in great shape for a nearly 500 year old book. This is because it's cotton paper. It feels like paper money.
The Spanish Empire was really big. Holland (thus, probably Manhattan), Belgium, Germany, parts of Italy, most of the Americas including Mexico, and parts of the United States, the Phillipines, and many other countries, we all were a single family.
It's remarkable that after nearly 500 years, they still publish books about Azpilcueta and his work:
Details of Book: El Doctor Navarro Don Martin De Azpilcueta Y Sus Obras: Estudio Histrico-Crtico Book: El Doctor Navarro Don Martin De Azpilcueta Y Sus Obras: Estudio Histrico-Crtico
Author: Mariano Arigita Y. Lasa
ISBN:
1145896820
ISBN-13:
9781145896826
,
978-1145896826
Binding: Paperback
Publishing Date: Feb 2010
Publisher: Nabu Press
Number of Pages: 728
Language: Spanish
There is a little difference between accidents that almost happened in English and Spanish, in English we use past tense, in Spanish we use present tense.
(almost, nearly) + accident verb in the past
(casi, por poco) + accident verb in the present
I almost fell
casi me caigo (caer)
I almost hit myself
casi me golpeo (golpearse)
I almost died
por poco me muero
his shirt almost got stained
a él por poco se le mancha la camisa (mancharse)
the plates almost fell on you
por poco se te caen los platos
my glasses nearly broke
casi se me rompen los lentes
you almost broke your leg
casi te rompes la pierna
you almost burned your hand
por poco te quemas la mano
I nearly fell asleep
casi me quedo dormido
Por poco (by little, nearly), and casi (almost) are used in most countries, but in Mexico, people also use ya mero. Ya mero me caigo is the same as casi me caigo.
Remember that many accident verbs are reflexive. romperse, to break (on you), quemarse to burn onself, electrocutarse to electrocute oneself!
Sometimes being bilingual doesn't help. I'm sure neither you nor I can understand the message on this ad. Imposible! I'm missing something. Right before creating this slogan, the person who did it probably had too many Coronas. ¡Ha de haber tomado muchas cervezas!
Más una fría que beer? Whaaaat?, More a cold one than beer?, More a cold one that beer?, More a cold one than cerveza?, More a cold one that cerveza?, or did they forget the 'b' of beber (to drink), and they wrote beer instead? Just like their new TV commercials on Spanish TV, these ads are a little lame.
Definitely, it's much better when they don't say anything.
Some textbooks teach the future, future perfect, or the conditional of probability, to state phrases like:
Llaman por teléfono, ¿quién será? : Somebody is calling. I wonder who is it. Anoche llamaron por teléfono. ¿quién sería? : Last night somebody called. I wonder who it was. ¿Dónde estarán mis llaves? : I wonder were my keys are. ¿quién habrá enviado este paquete? = ¿quién enviaría este paquete? : I wonder who sent this package.
In this last example, the conditional and the future perfect have the same function, they indicate conjecture in the past.
But in Latin America we use another structure to convey probability in the present, Haber de + infinitive (for the present), and haber de haber + past participle (for the past).
Rafael ha de estar en su casa : Rafael is probably at home, Rafael must be at home. Susana ha de estar preocupada : Susan is probably worried. Susan must be worried. Mi vecina ha de haber ido al mercado : My neighbor probably went to the market. Se ve cansado, no ha de haber dormido bien : He looks tired, he probably didn't sleep well. Se han de haber ido temprano : they probably left early. they must have left early.
It's not easy, specially because those are very short words that merge together in spoken form, and there are a couple of silent H that could throw you:
se han de haber ido sounds like /seandeaberido/ = they probably left. You will need to use your parsing skills at full speed.
But you have to know this structure, specially if you travel to Mexico or watch Mexican soap operas. We use these expressions a lot, more than the future of probability, and it's hardly explained in any book.
In Spain, haber de + infinitive is almost like tener que + infinitive, so it's used mostly for obligation.
Mi abuelo ha de estar cerca del mar porque la altitud lo afecta = Mi abuelo tiene que estar cerca del mar porque la altitud lo afecta : my grandfather has to be near the ocean because altitude affects him.
Back to the Mexican usage, we can say haber de haber haber (hay) as in ha de haber habido mucha gente, porque ya se les acabó la comida : there must have been a lot of people, because they ran out of food already.
This is an ad from the Buenos Aires Zoo:
Han de haber sido los canguros : it must have been the kangaroos.
This is a bus shelter right at the main entrance of Columbia University, New York.
The gentleman on top of the pyramid is Javier Aguirre, the coach of the Mexican soccer team.
I don't know why they are adversiting Mexico, but thank you very much. Good luck to the Mexican and the American teams. They both will need it. Argentina and Brazil are always the best soccer teams in the Americas.
It is very difficult to explain how important this monthlong event is for the rest of the world. North Korea and Brazil just played a match this afternoon, for example. Many people don't go to work, or they take their TVs to the office. Children don't go to school if their country's team is playing. Presidents, kings, princes, prime ministers, sheiks, fly to be present at the stadium if their teams are playing a decisive game. The president of Mexico attended the opening ceremony at the stadium in South Africa, for example. TV commercials in all countries just show soccer players or their fans drinking sodas, eating chocolate, driving cars, drinking beer, etc.
Today, they are playing at 32 degrees F. Kind of a surprise. Colder than the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver.
When you are learning Spanish, you might expect that sentences follow the same word order as in English. Fortunately, most of the time that's the case, but not always. Spanish has a much more flexible word order than English, a trait partially inherited from Latin.
Spoken language, songs, proverbs, or poetry, for example, very often follow a different word order for various reasons. Maybe the speaker wants to emphasize certain word or part of the sentence. Maybe the speaker wants to hint at something. Maybe the songwriter needs to change the word order to make a rhyme. In English, you usually fix this by inserting commas. In Spanish you don't need them, so don't expect commas if we change the usual word order. Let's see this example:
Yo no puedo llevar a tu perro en mi carro.
(I can't take your dog in my car).
We can change this sentence to A tu perro yo no lo puedo llevar en mi carro.
(*Your dog I can't take in my car*)
If you start the sentence with a personal a (the dog is not a person, right?) but the personal a helps differentiate the subject from the object in a sentence. If the person (or dog) is preceded by a personal a, then it cannot be the subject of the sentence. It's an object. In this example, since perro is preceded by a personal a, a Spanish native speaker immediately knows that the dog is not the subject of the sentence. Furthermore, we don't need to explicitly say the subject (yo). A tu perro no lo puedo llevar en mi carro. He emphasizes here that he cannot take your dog in his car, but maybe he could drive your cat, or maybe somebody else's dog, but not yours, maybe because he doesn't like you, or he thinks your dog is vicious, but he has no problem with carrying all other dogs.
Another possible word order for the same sentence: En mi carro no puedo llevar a tu perro.
(*In my car I can't take your dog*)
Here, he emphasizes that he cannot take your dog in his car, but maybe in his SUV he could!
Or maybe he can't carry your dog in his car, but he can walk your dog from it. (mean.)
So, with all these different combinations for
a single sentence, how do we know who or what is the subject? We need to identify the main verb or verbs. In this case puedo llevar. Puedo is the present yo form of the verb poder. We can disregard llevar because it is not conjugated. The main verb is telling us that Yo (I) is the subject.
We can still arrange more valid combinations. En mi carro a tu perro no lo puedo llevar.
(*In my car your dog I can't take*) No puedo a tu perro llevarlo en mi carro. No puedo en mi carro a tu perro llevarlo. Llevar a tu perro en mi carro no puedo. Llevar en mi carro a tu perro no puedo.
(*To take in
my car your dog I cannot*)
The main sentence parts are en mi carro / a tu perro / llevar / (yo) / no puedo.
You can make combinations of them, you may need to insert the direct object pronoun lo in some cases (singular masculine D. O. pronoun for perro). A poet or songwriter could perfectly use any of the above sentences, and a Spanish speaking listener would have no problem understanding them.
You could even move yo around:
Yo llevar en mi carro a tu perro no puedo.
This sounds like he can't do it, but maybe somebody else will, even in this person's car. A sentence like this wouldn't be used on any normal situation. Maybe only a poet or a songwriter would use something like the above example.
Yo no puedo llevar a tu perro en mi carro, pero mi perro sí te puede llevar en su carro.
carro (U.S., Mex, Central America) = coche (Mex, Spain) = auto (Argentina) = automóvil (generic)
(* ----- *) indicates an ungrammatical English sentence.
10 expressions that are not so easy to figure out (5)
Here are 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
¿qué crees?
what do you believe?
guess what.
cambiar de opinion
to change opinion
to change one's mind, also cambiar de parecer.
de mentiras
of lies
fake, a prop, toy, pistola de mentiras is a toy gun, also pistola de juguete.
echarse a perder
to throw itself to lose
to get spoiled, to rot, to be ruined
estar en pañales
to be in diapers
to be in its infancy (a situation), to be immature
foto movida : salir movido
moved photo : to come out moved
shaky picture : to come out blurred (on a photo)
hacer lo correcto
to do the correct, to make the correct
to do the right thing
hacer puente (Mex)
to make (a) bridge
to take an (usually) unauthorized extra day between two holidays, or a weekend and a holiday. To take a long weekend. El puente de semana santa, the bridge of saint week, is the long weekend of Easter.
ser buena gente
to be good people
to be a nice, kind, and/or good person
ser de confianza
to be of trust, confidence
(work) non union personnel, (personal acquaintance) no special protocol needed with that person, like part of the family
Most expressions apply to all Spanish speaking countries.
Based on the expression hacer puente, can you guess what's the meaning of this sign?
Warning: this article contains a couple of raunchy words.
As you can see in some of the examples below, you have to be very careful when saying some of these words. It's similar to the common pronunciation mistake of Spanish speaking people trying to say beach, but ending up sounding like bitch. Something similar could happen to you in Spanish, so watch out.
N
Ñ
ano
anus
año
year; that's why it's so important to say cumpleaÑos (birthday) correctly!
campana
bell
campaña
campaign
cana
grair hair, white hair
caña
cane, reed
cano
a man with gray/white hair, also a common last name,
caño
pipes, sewage
ceno
from cenar, to dine
ceño
brow, frown
cono
cone
coño
cunt (vulg.), jeez, hell (I must point out that, in Mexico, this word is often used on TV commedy shows to immitate the vocabulary people from Spain and the Caribbean use. In other words, in Mexico, this is not such a bad word, it's just foreign)
If you have ever visited Mexico City, you might have seen El Ángel. It's a traffic circle similar to Columbus Circle in New York. These city fixtures are called glorietas. The Angel was constructed to commemorate the centennial of the Independence of Mexico in 1910. This is how it looked around that time. You can see some vehicles there. On a higher resolution version, it's clear that some of them are trucks, and they don't look quite primitive, so this photo must have been taken from an early airplane a little after 1910.
This is how it looks nowadays. It's difficult to tell if there is still anything original from 100 years ago besides the monument. I don't see any of the original pine trees. By the way, in Mexico City, trees are usually green year-round.
The big white block on the upper right corner is the U. S. Embassy. This is a Google image.
Even parts of The Angel are not original, since it fell down during a strong earthquake in 1957, and broke.
lumea (the definite article is indicated at the end, "lume+a" in this case).
toată lumea
Italian
il mondo
tutto il mondo
The noun world is femenine only in Romanian; in the rest of the languages it is masculine.
todo el mundo fue a la fiesta
everybody went to the party
todo el mundo lo sabe
everybody knows it
le dijiste a todo el mundo
you told everybody
todo el mundo ha visto esa película
everybody has seen that movie
ya se fue todo el mundo
everybody left already
todo el mundo está feliz
everybody is happy
Alternatively, you could use todos i.e., todos fueron a la fiesta.
If you don't want to sound quite exaggerated, you can say in Spanish medio mundo sabe tu secreto, half the world knows your secret. Probably, only in Italian the meaning is literal, rather than everybody.
This is a vintage comic magazine for sale on the internet. If you pay attention to this cover, you don't need to know much Spanish to figure out what La Urbe de Hierro is. Try!
This word is related to the English words suburban, urban,and urbanization.
Hierro is iron.
So this is The Major City of Iron, which is one of the nicknames of New York in Spanish.
Do a search on the internet for "la urbe de hierro", with quotes, so you can see how we use this phrase.
Another nickname is La Gran Manzana, which means The Great Apple. The Big Apple would be La Manzana Grande. But still that's an easy one. And there is another one: La Ciudad de los Rascacielos, the Skyscraper City.
