Shakira at Zocalo Square, Mexico City, May 2007

The 200,000+ people in this video will make you dizzy.

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A la calle

In urban Spanish calle, street, means more than that. We have several expressions like estar en la calle, Lit: to be on the street, which could be translated as either I'm bankrupt, or I'm out (i.e. not at home.) If you are on the phone with someone and you hear a lot of background noise, the person might say hay ruido porque estoy en la calle, it's noisy because I'm out, Lit: It's noisy because I'm on the street. Quedarse uno en la calle, means to be left with nothing, homeless. Apostó  y se quedó en la calle, he gambled and lost all he had. Voy a la calle, I'm going out. Perro callejero, stray dog, Lit: street dog.

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Not all cognates look like twins: naranja and orange

Cognates are words that have the same origin. If, in addition, these words have the same meaning, they are true cognates, but if the meanings are different then they are false cognates. Examples of true cognates are teléfono and telephone, auditorio and auditorium, obtener and obtain. Examples of false cognates are the typical embarazada, pregnant, and embarassed; actualmente, currently, and actually; éxito, success, and exit; collar, necklace, and collar.
An example of true cognates that are difficult to recognize are naranja and orange. Both words come from the same origin which is the Sanskrit (India) naranga, from which it traveled to the Persian narang, and then to the Arabic naranj. From here this word took two different paths to English and Spanish. To Spanish is passed on directly from Arabic, and perhaps this is the reason why the Spanish word is so similar to the original Sanskrit word. The path it took to English was different, since it came to the south of France as auranja, where it suffered an extreme makeover, after which it looked like araunge, orrange and finally orange in French and English. The main difference between the original Sanskrit naranga (ga pronounced as in margarine) and the Spanish naranja is the Spanish pronunciation of the letter j, which is different to the j in most other languages; otherwise, the pronunciation in Spanish would have been identical to the pronunciation in Sanskrit and related languages.
 
Other examples of cognates that don't look alike are atún and tuna (fish), jarabe and syrup, azúcar and sugar, etc.
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Why are Spanish names so long?

The Spanish naming format in most countries is as follows:
   Given_Names  Fathers_Lastname  Mothers_Lastname
As you can see, the most evident difference with English names is that we keep our mother's last name as part of our own name. Just as in English, the father's last name is the most significant one for listing purposes. Most offices in the United States don't know how to deal with the Spanish naming format, and incorrectly file documents using the rightmost last name, which is the mother's last name.
    Women usually have a special naming format after they get married:
 Given_Names  Fathers_Lastname de Husbands_Fathers_Lastname
These names are our official names appearing in most documents. This naming system is used in most Hispanic countries, except in Argentina and perhaps a couple of other countries, where the typical name consists of two given names and the father's last name only, like Diego Armando Maradona and Jorge Luis Borges, to name a couple. Still, some people there use two surnames when the first one is a very common one.
Advantages: It is much easier to track down one's ancestry; cousins, aunts and uncles, parents, etc. are disambiguated thanks to the second last name.  I have my ancestry tracked down, in some branches, to the late 1500's, thanks to the disambiguation, certainty, and accuracy provided by the extra last name, and thanks to the church archives that have kept safe all those documents for so many years despite many events, including at least two world wars and a civil war.
Below is a copy of a baptism certificate, which worked also as a birth certificate, of a great great great great grandfather of mine (4 greats), that shows that this Spanish custom is not recent. (On this certificate there is also the name of a 5-great, Josef de Escudero, and a 6-great, with the same exact name.) He -the 4th great- was born in 1784, and even though his original document still exists, we needed a translated certified copy because it was originally written in Basque, a language from the north of Spain and the south of France that we don't understand.  His name was Juan Antonio Escudero Balzategui, where Escudero, squire or esquire, was his father's last name, and  Balzategui his mother's maiden name. The document is bilingual Basque/Castilian Spanish:

Disadvantages: My U.S. based bank cards have my name all wrong due to shortage of space (or due to excess of names.) They all display different combinations of my full name. One solution is to link both last names using a hyphen, but then the resulting name doesn't fit in most U.S. forms. Another modern disadvantage is that your mother's maiden surname is right there. It probably makes it all much easier for identity thieves.
Gabriel García Márquez is one of the most famous people who are known by their full Spanish formatted name. Gabriel is his given name, García is his father's last name, and Márquez is his mother's last name.
Last name in Spanish is apellido, and we even have a verb for this, apellidarse, which has no equivalent in English but means to have as last name, to be "last-named, or to be "surnamed." Gabriel se apellida García Márquez. Gabriel's last name(s) is (are) García Márquez.
  
Photo: Gabriel García Márquez.
Another example, Carlos Slim Helú, the second richest person (Apr. 2007.) Slim is his father's last name, and the most significant one for listing purposes, and Helú is his mother's last name.

Photo: Carlos Slim Helú and Bill Clinton

What a coincidence. The person I used as an example a few weeks ago, can be used again as a new example, and posing for a picture next to the same person. As always, Ms. Helen Coster of Forbes gets something wrong when writing about Don Carlos. On her headline, instead of writing Mr. Helú, she needed to say Mr. Slim, Mr. Slim Helú, or Mr. Slim H., but not Mr. Helú (and even less just Helu.) In the Spanish naming format, if you are going to use only one lastname, you use the father's lastname. That's another common mistake. I think this is explained on the Associated Press Manual of Style. Journalists should read it. Probably the only exception is when the father's last name is a very common one, like Spain's president Rodríguez Zapatero who is often referred to as Zapatero.

By the way, Mr. Slim's name has nothing to do with the English word slim, which some Forbes and CNBC journalists make fun of. I recall reading somewhere that it originally was Solim or Salim, but it ended up as Slim on his father's documents when he landed in Mexico. He just donated almost one day of his income.

Helu Makes $100 Million Donation



(AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Now, continuing with the same example. The Miami Herald had this story on july 14th, 2007:

A 'Major Movie Star' sighting

By LESLEY ABRAVANEL
"...Telecommunications tycoon Carlos Slim Domit Jr., whose father was recently named the richest man in the world with a fortune surpassing $68 billion, partied at Mokai last weekend, creating quite a buzz with everyone trying to catch a glimpse of the man whose dad was able to dethrone Bill Gates from the top spot...."

The second lastname deambiguates who is the father and who is the son. That's another advantage of the Spanish naming format. Carlos Slim Helú is the father, Carlos Slim Domit is the son. Domit is Carlos Slim Jr.'s mother's lastname. If you use the mother's last name, then there is no need for the Jr.

In other words: Carlos Slim Domit = Carlos Slim Jr.

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Dates as street names in Hispanic countries

Hispanic nations have a little "exotic" tradition which is naming streets, avenues, and squares with dates that celebrate national historical events. Almost every major town in Mexico has a street or avenue called 16 de Septiembre, September 16th, which is the Independence Day, Cinco de Mayo, or 20 de Noviembre, November 20th, the Revolution Day, for example. One of the main avenues in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is called 9 de Julio, July 9th, Argentina's Independence Day. They also have an Avenida de Mayo and a Plaza de Mayo, May Square. There is an avenue called 11 de Septiembre, September 11th, in Santiago, Chile, commemorating Pinochet's 1973 coup d'état! There is an Avenida 18 de Julio in Montevideo, Uruguay, after their Constitution Day.  And how about the U.S.? Sometimes I've heard of a 4th of July Parade, but never of a 4th of July avenue, street, or square.

Photo: Avenida 9 de Julio, Buenos Aires.
 Months in Spanish should not be capitalized, unless they are part of a proper noun.
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Color coffee

In most Spanish speaking countries, color brown is color marrón, but not in Mexico. A few weeks ago, I changed my cell phone and wanted a blue one, but the salesperson told me that they didn't have any left, and she added "but we have it in color coffee." She tried to sound fancy. Color coffee!. Then I thought, what? color coffee? she tries to sound fancy, but that's exactly how we say color brown in Mexico, we say color café, color coffee. So I got the box labeled color coffee containing the new cell phone and verified that it was true. So you know, color brown in most Spanish speaking countries is color marrón  except in Mexico; we say color café. And that's not fancy, that's just the way it is down there. Color marrón in Mexico roughly corresponds to the color maroon in English, but color maroon doesn't correspond to color marrón in other Spanish speaking countries.
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Nacer, to come to life

Nacer is a verb that means to be born, but it's not a passive verb like to be born. Yo nací means I was born, but yo fui nacido would be incorrect. To add more to the confusion, in Spanish fish are born, birds are born, iguanas are born, trees are born, plants are born, flowers are born. This wouldn't be always true in English, so to be born is not a good translation for nacer. The best translation I can think of for nacer is to come to life. Los bebés nacen, babies, los perritos nacen, puppies, los árboles nacen, trees,  los peces nacen,  fish, los pollitos nacen, chicken, chicks, etc.  Also, figuratively, we can say in Spanish  los ríos nacen, rivers are born, las estrellas nacen, stars are born, los volcanes nacen, volcanoes are born.
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Invitar

This verb means to invite, more or less. In Spanish, when we say te invito al cine, I invite you to the movies, it really means, let's go to the movies and it's on me. If we say te invito a comer, I invite you to eat, it really means, let's go eat, I treat. If somebody tells you ¿me invitas a cenar?, Would you invite me to have dinner?, it really means, let's eat dinner but you treat. Te invito un trago means Let me buy you a drink. Latin Americans speaking in English usually mean to treat when using the verb to invite. Be aware of this when you invite a Spanish speaking person to go somewhere. Invitados means guests.
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Foca, seal

Some people in Canada will start their annual tradition today: killing baby seals with bats by hitting them on the head. They say it's normal, but no matter how many times we hear their arguments a little bit modified each year, I still don't get how it can be normal. I don't think it's normal to kill just the newborn members of a major species with bats for commercial reasons. They may do it in other countries with other animals, but that would be illegal. In Canada it is legal (and not just among the Inuit people, which would be somewhat understandable. Besides, Inuit people don't target babies, they hunt adult ring seals.) The killings begin today.

 
 
Foca, seal in Spanish, comes from the Latin phoca.

No, I wasn't there in Canada, but I had the opportunity to meet the Inuit people in Greenland about 8 years ago.

The airport from the window before landing.

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Monte de Piedad

This is a pawn-shop-like institution that came to Spain and it's colonies in 1702. One of the original ones, and still operating under the same name, is the one in Mexico City, which was founded as a religious institution in 1775. It's official name is El Sacro y Real Monte de Piedad de Ánimas, but it is better known as Nacional Monte de Piedad. According to their web site, one of its original goals was to help people not only in this world, but also in the far beyond: ánimas means souls. Today, the 200+ year old Monte de Piedad, at least the one in Mexico, is a private, non-profit institution with about 28 branches distributed throughout the country. In most other Hispanic countries, the corresponding Monte de Piedad entities gave place to cajas de ahorros, savings banks, but unlike Mexico, the original concept disappeared. To pawn in Spanish is empeñar. Casa de empeños is pawn shop.
 Nacional Monte de Piedad
There were Monte de Piedad in Italy, France, Portugal, Austria, Germany, Belgium. There is one in Malta. In Latin America there are regular pawn shops called Monte de Piedad that are not related to the original ones. Even in the U.S. there is a pawn shop montedepiedad dot com.
Monte de Piedad would literarily mean Mount of Piety, Mount of Mercy, but monte, from the Latin  monte or mons, in this case is more related to an amount of money and funds than to an actual mountain. The English word amount (mount=monte) is related to monte with this meaning. Monto, amount in Spanish, is also related to monte and amount. Its name in Latin is Montes Pietatis. The first Monte di Pietàwas founded in Perugia, in mid 1400's, to defend the citizens from usury. The name in Spanish comes from the Italian one. Remember that at that time, the south half of what today is Italy was part of the Spanish Empire, but Perugia was roughly in the upper half.
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Alcatraz

The word Alcatraz in the United States is associated to this island

Alcatraz in Spanish speaking countries


Alcatraces by Diego Rivera


Another alcatraz, gannet

In any case, alcatraz is a Spanish word of Arabic origin, and the island was named after its original residents. The feathered ones I mean. As for the flower, only this specific variety of lily portrayed above, Zantedeschia aethiopica, is called alcatraz. This lily is very popular in Mexico, but most people there are unaware that it's the national flower of Ethiopia.
This is an interesting photo of alcatraz flowers on Alcatraz Island. I would call it "Alcatraces en Alcatraz." I'm sure there is a Mexican yard keeper working in this national park.

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Luz, more than light

In most Spanish speaking countries, luz is not only light or lights, but also electricity. La oficina tiene luz y teléfono means the office has phone and electricity services. One of my students, Dr. Smith, who is from Arkansas, (and later seconded by Zittel of NY) told me his mother used to say in a familiar way, to pay the light bill. That's exactly how we say it in Spanish, pagar el recibo de la luz or pagar la cuenta de la luz, to pay the electricity bill. So then, apagar la luz means to turn off the light or to turn off the lights, and  pagar la luz means to pay the electricity bill. When there is a blackout, apagón, we say se fue la luz, the lights went out, no one says the electricity is gone. Probably, in the beginning, light bulbs were the only home devices that used this resource. Therefore, light at home became a synonym of electricity service. (after all, they are very similar, they are electromagnetic energy.)
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Sample list of proper nouns in Spanish

This is a sample list of proper nouns in Spanish. Very often, I speak using proper nouns that I take for granted, but some of my students just can't figure out what they mean, even during a conversation and within a certain context. Some proper nouns are easy to identify, like Jorge Washington, but I'm listing them since some students may find it surprising that these names were also translated at some point. This list intends to show samples of proper nouns from here and there that are quite different between the two languages, those that have unexpected spelling differences, or those that are spelled the same but are pronounced differently.
People
Platón. Plato.
Alejandro Magno. Alexander the Great.
Cristóbal Colón. Christopher Columbus.
Miguel Angel. Michelangelo.
Tomás Alva Edison. Thomas Alva Edison.
Luis Pasteur. Louis Pasteur.
María Curie. Marie Curie. So why never Alberto Einstein? Odd. It's kind of arbitrary.
Toro Sentado. Sitting Bull. (American) Indian chief whose native name was Tatanka Iyotanka. Some of them, like Geronimo (Jerónimo), had Spanish names, as that region was part of Mexico when they were born, and some of them lived in Mexico at certain periods of their lives, again, like Geronimo, who lived in Sonora and Chihuahua.
Jorge Washington. George Washington.
Ana Frank. Anne Frank.
I think translating historical names is an old fashioned practice. George Washington's name would be often translated to Spanish, but you would never hear Jorge Bush, for example.  However, this practice is still very much alive in the monarchy and pope's names.
Reina Isabel II (segunda). Queen Elizabeth II.
Príncipe Carlos de Gales. Prince Charles of Wales.
Princesa Diana. Princess Diana. (different pronunciation of Diana.)
Príncipe Guillermo. Prince William.
Príncipe Enrique. Prince Henry.
Papa Juan Pablo II (segundo). Pope John Paul II (the second)
Papa Benedicto  XVI (dieciséis). Pope Benedict XVI
And perhaps the last historical figure (who was not a king or a pope) whose name was translated to Spanish was the infamous Adolfo Hitler. Adolph Hitler, Adolf Hitler. It's strange to end a tradition with such a name.

Historical (and prehistorical) events and periods
La Primera Guerra Mundial. First World War.
La Segunda Guerra Mundial. Second World War.
El Diluvio Universal. The Flood. (also below in Religion.)
La Edad del Hierro (RAE). La Edad de Hierro. Iron Age.
La Edad de Piedra. Stone age.

Geographical Names. (I think there is a Merriam Webster bilingual dictionary for geographical names.)
Alemania. Germany
America. The Americas. America in Spanish is not the United States; it's both, South America and North America.
Asia. Asia. (In cases like this, remember that the pronunciation might be different.)
Brasil. Brazil.
Ecuador. Equator.
Estados Unidos. United States.
Francia. France.
Grecia. Greece.
La Habana. Havana.
Inglaterra. England.
Irak. Iraq.
Misuri. Missouri. (mostly in Spain or in Spanish institutions like the EFE news agency).
Nueva York. New York.
Nueva Gales del Sur. New South Wales.
Eastern Hemisphere. Hemisferio Oriental.
España. Spain.
Reino Unido. United Kingdom.
El Canal de la Mancha. (Lit: The Channel of the Stain.) The English Channel. See article "Channel of the Stain."
Gran Bretaña. Great Britain.
Suiza. Switzerland.
Sudamérica. South America.
Western Hemisphere. Hemisferio Occidental.

Arts,  Literature
Miguel Angel. Michelangelo.
Romeo y Julieta. Romeo and Juliet. The pronunciation of Romeo is different in both languages.
La Cenicienta. Cinderella.
Blancanieves. Snow White.
Caperucita Roja. Little Red Riding Hood.
Alejandro Dumas. Alexandre Dumas.
Los Tres Mosqueteros. The Three Musketeers.
Nerón. Nero.
Platón. Plato.
Julio Verne. Jules Verne. (But never Guillermo Shakespeare.)

Movies, Cartoons, Comics, TV
Lo que el Viento se Llevó. Gone with the Wind.
La Guerra de las Galaxias. Star Wars.
Plaza Sésamo. Sesame Street. Barrio Sésamo in Spain.
El Hombre Araña. Spiderman.
El Llanero Solitario. The Lone Ranger.
Los Picapiedra. The Flintstones.
Pedro Picapiedra. Fred Flintstone.
Ratón Miguelito. Mickey Mouse. (nowadays known mostly by its English name though.)

Dates and holidays
La Pascua. Easter.
El Miércoles de Ceniza. Ash Wednesday.
La Noche Vieja. New Year's Eve.
El Día de Año Nuevo. New Year's Day.
La Nochebuena. Christmas Eve.
La Navidad. Christmas.
El Día del Perdón. Yom Kippur.
El Día de San Patricio. St. Patrick's Day.
La Noche de Brujas. Halloween.

Religion
San José. St. Joseph.
San Juan. St. John.
San Pedro. St. Peter.
San Judas. St. Jude.
Santo Tomás. St. Thomas. (together with Santo Domingo the only two "santo" and not "san.")
María. Mary.
Pascua. Easter. Passover.
El Diluvio Universal. The Flood.
El Arca de Noé. Noah's Ark
La Biblia. The Bible.

Organizations
Company names are not usually translated, but international organizations are.
Organización de las Naciones Unidas (ONU). United Nations Organization.(UNO)
La Cruz Roja, Red Cross

Universe
La Tierra. Earth.
La Luna. Moon.
El Sol. Sun.
Marte. Mars.
Plutón. Pluto.
La Vía Láctea. The Milky Way.
La Osa Mayor. Ursa Major. (the big she bear.)
Piscis. Pisces.

New York
La Ciudad de Nueva York. New York City.
La Estatua de la Libertad. The Statue of Liberty.
Las Torres Gemelas. The Twin Towers.
El Parque Central. Central Park.
La Quinta Avenida. Fifth Avenue. (But never Avenida del Parque. Park Avenue.)
La Calle Cuarenta y Dos. Forty Second Street. (But places like Times Square are not translated, yet, the translation could be La Plaza del (New York) Times.) Newspaper names are not usually translated.
El Puente de Brooklyn. Brooklyn Bridge.
El Bajo Manhattan. Lower Manhattan.
El Alto Manhattan. Upper Manhattan.
El Desfile del Día de San Patricio. St. Patrick's Day Parade.
El Condado de Manhattan. Manhattan Borough.
El Bronx. The Bronx.

A complete list would be endless, but I hope this tiny one contains enough proper nouns to give students an idea of what to expect when reading an article, a novel, a map, or the Spain's Hola magazine talking about the British royalty.
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Mañanita, muy de mañana, tardecita, nochecita, muy noche, muy de noche, madrugada

In conversational Spanish, in Mexico and Central America, I'm not sure about other countries, we use these variations of noche, evening or night, mañana, morning, and tarde, afternoon or evening. Nochecita is the diminutive of noche and it  means early night, evening. Tardecita is the diminutive of tarde and it means early afternoon, perhaps right after 12pm. Mañanita and muy de mañana mean very early in the morning. Muy noche or muy de noche are very late at night. Madrugada is our word for the wee hours.
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