Last updated on
Friday, October 24, 2008 1:38 PM
EDT
¡No le hace!
Another useful conversational Spanish expression you won't find in books. This is another way to say it doesn't matter, I don't care, even if; it requires the subjunctive when there is a subordinate clause. Don't even try to translate it literarily because it won't make sense.
No le hace que llueva, tienes que ir a la escuela. It doesn't matter if it rains, you have to go to school. No le hace que no te guste. I don't care if you don't like it.
Llévate estos zapatos, no le hace que estén un poco grandes. Buy these shoes, even if they are a little big.
Llámame en la noche. No le hace que sea tarde. Call me tonight. It doesn't matter if it's late.
-Cómprame el libro que te pedí. No le hace si está caro. Buy me the book I asked you for. It doesn't matter if it's expensive.
-¡Pero cuesta 100 dólares! But it's $100!
-¡No le hace!It doesn't matter!
Probably, this expression is used only in Latin America. You can also say ¡qué le hace!
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They are mixing usted and tú commands. Someone needs to talk to the editors and fix those details. I think they should use only tú, which would be appropriate for a baseball site.
Today's main news in Mexico is the passing of actor and producer Ernesto Alonso. He is a very important person in the history of television worldwide. Thanks to him, telenovelas are a very popular genre in many countries around the world.
The manual of style of some Spanish language newspapers dictates the use of a word order that is not the usual word order. Spanish sentence structure is very flexible compared to English. Latin, the parent language of Spanish, is much more flexible than its child language. English has a very rigid word order, which makes it similar in this aspect to Chinese. That's why in English, commas are needed whenever you change the usual word order. In Spanish, we don't need commas in cases like these.
I have noticed that this causes students a lot of problems, even for advanced students. Sometimes it's difficult for them to identify the subject of the sentence. I'll copy some examples taken from El Universal, a Mexican newspaper which uses a different structure for most of their headlines: the verb comes first. That's the way they like it at that newspaper.
Headline
Usual order
Llama Lula a México a formar un bloque comercial
Lula llama a México a formar un bloque comercial
Lula (Brazil's president) proposes Mexico to form a trade block
Colapsa mina por sismo en EU
Una mina colapsa por sismo en EU (In Mexico, we normally don't use EE. UU.)
A mine collapses in the U. S. due to an earthquake ( half of the trapped miners are Mexican)
Recuperará Chrysler logotipo de pentágono y estrella
Chrysler recuperará logotipo de pentágono y estrella
Chrysler will recover the pentagon and star logo
Justifica Sarkozy polémicas vacaciones en EU
Sarkozy justifica polémicas vacaciones en EU
Sarkozy justifies his controversial vacation in the U. S.
Reingresa Linsay Lohan a centro de rehabilitación
Linday Lohan regresa a centro de rehabilitación
Linday Lohan is admitted at a rehab center again
Sancionarán a policias con brazaletes de Hello Kitty
(las autoridades) sancionarán a policías con brazaletes de Hello Kitty / Policías serán sancionados con brazaletes de Hello Kitty
Police officers will be penalized by wearing Hello Kitty bracelets (in Thailand)
In Spanish we don't use to take, llevar, and to bring, traer, in the same way as in English.
Roughly, in Spanish traer means only to bring here. Llevar means to take something somewhere else, to transport something somewhere else. If you are on the phone, people participating in the conversation will switch between these two verbs depending on their location.
Example: Two people are on the phone. One will host a birthday party, and the other will bring the cake.
anfitrión) ¿A qué hora vas a venir?
invitado) Voy para allá a las 6, yo creo que llego como a las 7.
anfitrión) ¿Y vas a traer el pastel?
invitado) Sí, voy a llevar un pastel muy grande.
anfitrión) ¿También podrías traer las velas?
invitado) Claro que sí, yo te llevo las velas. Nos vemos en un rato.
host) When are you coming?
guest) I'm going there at 6, I think I'll be there at 7.
host) And, are you bringing the cake?
guest) Yes, I'll take there a huge cake.
host) Could you also bring the candles?
guest? Of course, I'll take there the candles. I'll see you in a while.
Note how, during a phone conversation, we switch between ir/ venir, and llevar/traer. In Spanish, the distance between people on the phone is stressed apparently more than in English.
Pastel is a cake in Mexico and Spain. Torta is a cake in most other countries.
How do you like your new Spanish bus shelters? I've seen them in Mexico before, and now they are here in New York as well. They are manufactured by the Spanish company CEMUSA, which have their city fixture products in Spain, Latin America, Portugal, Italy, and the U. S..
This is a CEMUSA windowless bus shelter in Madrid. It never gets as cold as here.
A smaller CEMUSA shelter in New York
In Spanish, we don't distinguish between a bus shelter and a bus stop. We say bus stop for either, parada de autobús.
Talking about cars with people from another Spanish speaking countries is sometimes a big headache. The reason is that the vocabulary for this subject changes a bit from country to country for almost every element. In México, auto part names are often Spanglish words. Here are some examples:
Most Mexican terms for cars are not accepted by the Academy. The problem is that many terms accepted by the Academy, like salpicadero (Lit: splasher) dashboard, are useless here, because not many people on this side of the Atlantic know they even exist. Mexican terms are the most spread in the United States, and they are also used in most of Central America.
My theory for the different sets of terms is that cars first came to the Spanish speaking world to Mexico via the United States, and to Spain via France, at about the same time. So these terms were created or adapted simultaneously and independently without paying much attention to what the Academy believes is correct.
Cars also came to Mexico directly via Europe. Emil Jellinek-Mercedes, precursor of the famous Mercedes-Benz car, was the Consul General of the Austro-Hungarian empire in Mexico in the early 1900's. He was a director of Daimler and the most important European car dealer, and by that time he had sold hundreds of his cars. Mercedes is a common women's Spanish name which Jellinek borrowed from his daughter.
This is a movie featured in the festival, Bella, starring Eduardo Verástegui, Sophie Nyweide, Tammy Blanchard, Angélica Aragón, and Alexa Gerasimovich
Slide show. It might be slow the first time.
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Animals
Animals are either male or female, but regardless of their biological gender, their generic Spanish name could be masculine or feminine.
Here are some examples of feminine and masculine nouns for animals:
La araña, spider
La víbora, snake
La serpiente, snake
La culebra, snake
La rata, rat
La lagartija, lizard
La mosca, a fly
La jirafa, giraffe
La paloma, pigeon, dove
La rana, frog
La piraña, piranha
La tarántula, tarantula
La hiena, hyena
La cabra, goat
La cebra, zebra
La mariposa, butterfly
La ballena, whale
El águila, eagle (feminine noun with a masculine article)
El elefante, elephant
El delfín, dolphin
El koala, koala
El panda, panda
El oso, bear
El tigre, tiger
El tiburón, shark
El rinoceronte, rhinocero
El hipopótamo, hippopotamus
El ratón, mouse
El murciélago, bat
El cocodrilo, crocodile
El canguro, kangaroo
El pájaro, bird
El conejo, rabbit
El chivo, goat
Well, this is what happens to me, and I think the same happens to many Spanish speaking people. When I see one of these animals, by default, I think its gender is the one of its generic name. If I see a rat I think it's a female rat. If I see a pigeon I think it's a female pigeon. If I see a giraffe I think it's a female giraffe. If I see a dolphin I think it's a male dolphin. The same with a mouse, a bear, or an elephant.
Of course, with domestic animals or animals whose gender is somewhat evident, this doesn't happen. An animal can have two (or more) different Spanish names, and one of them could be masculine and the other one feminine, el chivo, a goat, la cabra, also a goat.
A few months ago, I was eating a sandwich in a park, and you know, a pigeon was observing me, so I threw some bread at the bird. A man sitting next to me said, "He liked it!" So I thought, why did he say he, if it's she, a pigeon is she, not he. Paloma is a feminine noun in Spanish.
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Vete pal ca...
Many Spanish speaking natives have the bad habit of contracting the preposition para. I advise you not to immitate it, but you need to grasp it when you listen to it. (like if para wasn't difficult enough!). Pa' is used a lot, especially in New York. Here are some examples:
Vamo pa'llá = vamos para allá (we're going over there, let's go over there) Sácate pal ca... = Sácate para el ca.. (this is a joke, people use this to curse, go to h_ll) Vete pal ca... = Vete para el ca.. = same as above. Voy pa'llá = Voy para allá (I'm going there) Ven pa'cá = ven para acá
(come here) Esto es pa'tu hermano = Esto es para tu hermano (this is for your brother) ¿Pa'qué quieres eso? = ¿Para qué quieres eso? (What do you want that for?) ¿Pa'quién es este regalo? = Who is that gift for? Este regalo es pa'ti = Este regalo es para ti (This gift is for you) ¿Pa'mí? = ¿Para mí? (for me?) Sí, pa'ti = Sí, para ti (yes, for you) ¿Pa'cuando va a estar lista mi camisa? = ¿Para cuándo ..? (When will my shirt be ready?) (at the cleaners) pa'que = para que (so that) pa'rriba = para arriba ( upwards) pa'bajo = para abajo (downwards) pa'trás = para atrás (backwards) pa'lante = para adelante ( forward) pa'dentro = para adentro (inward) pa'fuera = para afuera (outward)
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Ochos
This is a very common mistake I have to correct quite often. Cardinal numbers don't need an extra s to make them agree with plural nouns, like adjectives. I think students also get confused because dos, tres, and seis end in s. Ochos is the plural of eight, eights, but we don't say eights tables, eights books.
These are correct: cuatro libros, 4 books cinco personas, 5 people siete casas, 7 houses ocho sillas, 8 chairs nueve mesas, 9 tables
These are all incorrect: cuatros libros cincos personas sietes casas
ochos sillas
nueves mesas
For some reason OCHOS is the most popular of them all!.
Here are some examples of diminutives for common Spanish names for men and women. They might vary in each country.
Alex » Alejandro (Alexander)
Beto » Alberto, Roberto
Bety » Beatriz
Coco » Socorro (women's)
Concha » Concepción (there is a prejudice against this name in Argentina, but it's common elsewhere)
Chabela » Isabel (Elizabeth)
Chela » Graciela
Chelo » Consuelo (women's)
Chente » Vicente
Chema » José María (men's, yes, this applies to combined names too)
Chepina » Josefina
Chole » Soledad (women's)
Chucho, Chuy » Jesús
Dani, Dany » Daniel
Fer, Nando » Fernando
Fito, Rudi, Rudy » Rodolfo
Goyo » Gregorio
Güicho » Luis
Lalo » Eduardo (Edward)
Leti, Lety » Leticia
Lola, Lolita » Dolores (women's)
Lucha » Luz (women's)
Lulú » Lourdes
Lupe, Lupita » Guadalupe (typical women's name in Mexico)
Malena » María Elena
Manolo » Manuel
Memo » Guillermo (William)
Mena » Filomena
Maricarmen » María del Carmen
Marilú » María de Lourdes
Moy » Moisés (Moses, Moshe)
Neto » Ernesto
Nacho » Ignacio
Nico » Nicolás
Pati, Paty » Patricia
Pato » Patricio (Patrick)
Pepe » José (Joseph)
Paco, Pancho, Quico » Francisco
Polo » Leopoldo
Poncho » Alfonso
Quico » Federico
Quique » Enrique (Henry)
Tavo » Gustavo, Octavio
Teto » Héctor
Toño » Antonio
Meche » Mercedes. No, this name is not to honor the car, the car was named after María de las Mercedes, daughter of Emil Jellinek, who later changed his name to Emil Jellinek-Mercedes (he took his daughter's name) and who became the Consul General of Mexico in Nice, France, between 1907 and 1910.
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 or even on credit cards.
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Belinda
As you know, there are many Mexicans which for different reasons move to the United States, so it might seem strange for you to know that there are many recent immigrants who come to Mexico from different countries. The largest immigration in Mexico in the early 2000's was from Argentina. People from most other Latin American countries just cross Mexico on their way to the north, but they don't usually stay. There are also recent immigrants from the United States, Canada (mostly retirees), East Europe, Cuba, and, as always, from Spain.
One immigrant in this later category is the Spanish born, Mexican actress-singer-songwriter Belinda Peregrín Schüll. Actually, she was a toddler when her Spanish/French*** family emigrated to Mexico, where together with the rest of Latin America and the Hispanic U. S., Belinda is a young superstar. She will be a celebrity in mainstream United States someday too. Belinda has already participated in an English language Disney movie called Cheetah Girls 2. Of course, being an actress from Mexico, it's not surprising that she has worked in many soap operas as well. In fact, she's famous because she became so popular so quickly, that she had to quit her job in a year-long telenovela right in the middle of it, and Belinda had not one, but two starring roles on it! (she was playing twins). She had to be replaced by another girl but it wasn't the same. That has been the only little scandal surrounding her career, however, it wasn't entirely her fault. The company extended the show's season, but Belinda's parents couldn't extend her contract.
Here are two versions of her latest hit:
Univision. Miami, July 19, 2007:
Lyrics. You can follow the song as an exercise to practice listening Spanish. There are dozens of sites with her lyrics, but I couldn't find a single one without typos
:( This lyrics version is missing some accents in the preterit tense.
And the English voiceover version that is totally different to the Spanish one,
At the End of the Day:
In Mexico, Belinda is considered a chica fresa, lit: strawberry girl, meaning that she has a very clean reputation, background, language, image; she's always supervised by her parents.
*** Belinda herself, and many Belinda's biographies, including the official biography in Televisa, say she was born in Mexico City, but her unofficial MySpace site (it has so many misspellings that it cannot be official) says she was born in Madrid. Her mother is French, but Schüll is not a French last name, so it's probably French of German, Swiss, or Austrian origin. I thought it was probably a Jewish last name, but it seems unlikely because most Schülls live in Germany, and some of them are "von Schüll." Belinda's Spanish accent and pronunciation is 100% neutral Mexican with a very nice intonation and voice.
Recording artist and actress Belinda of Mexico performs at the 'Premios Juventud' Latin music awards show in Coral Gables, Florida July 19, 2007. REUTERS/Hans Deryk (UNITED STATES)
A young visitor, Mark, asked me if I have information about this topic for his homework. I checked the INM (Instituto Nacional de Migración of Mexico). I found this graphic but it's in Spanish, I coudn't find one in English. These are the percentages of immigrants in Mexico for the entire 1996-2006 period, this is just for documented people, there are also undocumented people who are not included:
(1) United States 17.5%**
(2) Spain 10.6%,
(3) Germany 5.6%
(4) Argentina 5.4%
(5) Colombia 3.6%
(6) Chile 3.0%
(7) Cuba 2.5%
All others 51.6%
I didn't know about Germans being the third place, but I've heard that there are many living in the Cancun region, and the German School in Mexico City (Colegio Alemán Alexander von Humboldt) say they are the largest German school outside Germany; they have 3 big campuses just in Mexico City. The largest German speaking community in Mexico is Ciudad Cuauhtemoc, Chihuahua, a Mennonite community of nearly 100,000 residents (60,000 in 2000), but they are not recent inmigrants. In fact, they are Mexicans. Argentina was higher than Spain and Germany in the early 2000's. And Colombia, the most famous Colombian celebrity living in México for about 40 years (not recent) is Gabriel García Márquez.
** The graphic for the year 2006 only, indicates United States 25%.
(Thanks Mark. About Belinda, go to www.belindaonline.com.mx, there's a contact form there.)
This very important word is primarily used in conversational Spanish. In Mexico at least, it's not used formally. You use this word when telling someone's story to a 3rd person, but you don't really believe it. This word could mean supposedly, according to him/her/it. I think this word is used in gossiping, or to tease someone, so be careful. Dizque expresses a certain degree of disbelief. It's used a lot, but text books don't teach it.
Este libro dizque está en oferta, pero está más caro que en la otra librería. This book is supposedly on sale, but it's more expensive than in the other bookstore No vino a trabajar, se reportó dizque enferma. She didn't come to work, she called in sick, but I don't believe her. Dizque su novio es muy guapo. This is kind of: She claims her boyfriend is very handsome, but I don't think so. Dizque ya lavó los platos, pero yo los veo todos sucios. According to him, he did the dishes, but I see they are all dirty. Dizque el perro se comió su tarea. He said the dog ate his homework, but I don't believe him.
According to the Academy, dizque comes from he says, or she says.
My student Greg is always watching the soccer on TV, and every time a team scores the announcer shouts golazo, golazo, azo, azo. He wants to know what azo, azo means.
-azo, -aza are attached at the end of some words to make them bigger or greater, and sometimes to indicate a hit using the object to which the suffix -azo is attached.
Here are some examples that indicate greater, bigger, awesome, et c.
Golazo, great score, awesome score (in soccer) Solazo, strong sunshine, strong sunrays Friazo, extremely cold (like in hace un friazo, it's extremely cold) Carrazo, used in Mexico to indicate a great car, an awesome car Amigazo, amigaza, great friend Cuerpazo, great body, awesome body Golpazo, a big blow Librazo, a big book, a great book, an awesome book Tipazo, tipaza, (LatAm) a great person, a cool person
The following nouns are hits, blows. Sometimes the sound produced by the hit is also represented by these words. (Hits are always -azo, masculine.)
Batazo, a hit with a baseball bat, or its sound. Balazo, a (bullet) shot and its sound. Cañonazo. A cannon shot and its sound. Portazo, when you slam the door and its sound. Cinturonazo, to whip someone with a belt Zapatazo, a hit with a shoe Latigazo, a blow with a whip Manazo, manotazo a slap (using the hand). Also a hit on the hand. Rodillazo, a hit using the knee Codazo, a hit using the elbow Cabezazo, a hit using the head, like in soccer. Trancazo. A hit, a big blow; it could also be a music hit or something very successful. Cucharazo, to hit with a spoon, perhaps the sound that makes a spoon when hitting, tapping on the table. An awesome or big spoon would be feminine, like the noun cuchara, cucharaza.)
Some others would be telefonazo, a phone call (or a hit with a phone!), darse un regaderazo, in Mexico, is to take a quick shower (we very rarely use the verb ducharse. Regadera is the showerhead).
You have to think quickly and decide if it's something great, awesome, big, or a hit. If you hear someone say codazo, an awesome elbow doesn't make sense. So it has to be a hit with the elbow.
These suffixes don't work for all words or objects. You would never hear piezazo or piesazo for a hit with the foot, you'd say patada or puntapié, a kick. You would never hear playaza for a great, big, or awesome beach, or ciudadaza for an awesome city.
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Have you visited the Cartier store on 57th street recently? Then you have probably seen La Doña banners all over the place. Cartier created a special jewelry line after actress María Félix.
María Félix was the most famous Mexican actress. On April 8, 2002, her 88th birthday, all Mexican showbiz programs were eager to obtain an interview with her. I remember listening to Jacobo Zabludowsky, a long standing Mexican journalist, trying to establish a phone call to congratulate her for her birthday. He was yelling on the phone, on the air, "María, are you there?, María, are you there?" Nobody was able to do it. There were tons of presents arriving at her house in Polanco, México City. Later on, just a couple of hours later, Polanco neighborhood's residents called radio stations indicating that La Gayosso (a hearse from that famous company) was right at her front door, and that there were flowers arriving instead of presents. Not a good sign at all.
President Fox was in Tamaulipas, right on the border with Texas. When he learned the news he suspended his agenda and returned immediately to Mexico City. That day the whole country was in shock. Salma Hayek took the first flight from L. A. to be with her. Carlos Slim, the then richest man in Mexico, and opera singer Plácido Domingo also came to honor her. Domingo was right next door from the Fine Arts Palace preparing a show that was going to premiere that very evening.
Slide show with images of that afternoon. (Greg told me it's slow. Just click on play and wait a little for the flash movie to load. It dependes on the browser you use. Firefox is very fast but it takes too much RAM. IE is very accurate HTMLwise and doesn't take too much memory, but it's slower and very unstable with Flash plugins.)
Since she died in her sleep right on her birthday, and she had been doing preparations for her birthday the night before, and according to witnesses she looked fine, the public in general and her relatives were thinking that something was not right. The only other person with her that night, in her house, was the butler. Just like in the movies or in a Mexican telenovela. And guess who was the only beneficiary in her will.
Like in a horror movie, her body was unearthed a few weeks later to get samples of her vital organs to find out whether she had been poisoned, electrocuted, or suffocated with a pillow or a plastic bag, but nothing could be proven. Her two houses and all her belongings in them were given to her butler. Nothing for her sister, nothing for her brother, nothing for her friends. The young butler took everything. The people of Mexico wanted a museum, but that was not going to happen.
Five years later, everything just turned up here, in New York. At Christie's and for auction.
The main event will take place on July 17th and 18th, 2007. Salma Hayek will be there; she will be the event's host. The evening before, Monday, July 16th, Salma will be there at a presentation for the event.
My guess is that between Salma, her billionaire French husband (or fiancée), Don Carlos Slim (currently the richest person in the world,) and many other Mexicans between politicians who were her friends like Miguel Alemán, who is uncle of Tina Nina Minnelli, Liza Minnelli's younger sister, artists like Thalia and her husband Tommy Mottola who live in New York, La Doña's relatives like actor Kuno Becker, all of them will try to rescue her whole estate and take it back to Mexico. However, I'm affraid that all of them will end up competing with Cartier. La Doña's two houses are up for auction too. Hopefully, there will be a museum in one of them after all; like the one of her friend, Frida Kahlo. Let's see what happens.
I just heard on TV that Salma Hayek's father in-law is the owner of Christie's. That would change my hypotheses a little. It was difficult for me to choose only one video. So I chose many. (The problem is that videos affect the web page downloading time.)
A friend of mine, Daniel, made a photo inventory of all her belongings about 10 years ago. There is photo book of this somewhere. I asked him how this experience of working with her at her house was. He told me, "I don't like her, she yelled at me all the time. Sir, don't touch this. Sir, don't touch that. It's impossible to work like that!"
La Doña Wikipedia Page. Not a great bio. They don't mention, for example, that she lived in Buenos Aires, and was friends with Evita Perón, and stayed with her in her final days. She was friends with Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. They don't mention the loss of her son.
Ave María Scotsman article, better than Wikipedia.
Las Flores, I hope this video is OK. In Latin America it's OK; they show it on T.V.. Before Shakira performed last May at El Zócalo, Mexico City, Café Tacuba had the audience record with 165,000 attendees. This band are kind of East-Village People. Locochones y genuinos. About 10 years ago they had another concert at Central Park which became legendary.
This is a performance in Viña del Mar, Chile
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Recording artist and actress Belinda of Mexico performs at the 'Premios Juventud' Latin music awards show in Coral Gables, Florida July 19, 2007. REUTERS/Hans Deryk (UNITED STATES)
