Last updated on
Monday, February 11, 2008 10:17 PM
EDT
Pounds
If you are a Newyorker, then this must be something very familiar to you:
You know these plates are 10 pounds, 100 pounds, 45 pounds, 35 pounds. But, do you see the word pound anywhere on them?
In Spanish, pound is libra. 10 libras (LBS), 100 libras, 45 libras, 35 libras. I think libras are used mostly in the U.S., but also in Cuba. Many old scales that Cubans still use indicate pounds, so people buy food by the pound, and if you ask them, they usually know their own weight in both, pounds and kilograms. I think in Mexico we use libras for pressure in tires.
Chicle, which is the Spanish word for chewing gum, does not come from the brand Chiclets, the brand comes from the Spanish word for chewing gum. In fact, the word chicle comes from the Nahuatl (Aztec) word tzictli. The story of the brand includes a XIX century Mexican dictator, Mr. López de Santa Anna, and his assistant, Thomas Adams.
A few years ago, I had a Japanese student who complained that in Spanish (and in English) we always change the words over and over on an article to avoid repetition. He told me that for him, it seems very disorganized, and that he thinks that when you chose one word, you should always be consistent and stick to the same word. He said that's the way he writes in Japanese.
Maybe he is right, reporters like to avoid repetition and always use words that have a similiar meaning within an article, thus making the reading less boring but more complex.
So, like I told my Japanese student, if you are reading a newspaper article that reports someone's speech, you'll probably run into some of these verbs in the preterit tense. If you are studying the article, don't stop at each word to look it up in the dictionary, for now just assume they all mean "he said" (or "she said".)
dijo, he said. This is usually the first verb used, followed by
afirmó, he said
señaló, he said
indicó, he said
sostuvo, he said
aseguró, he said
explicó, he said
argumentó, he said
advirtió, he said
opinó, he said
recalcó, he said
subrayó, he said
enfatizó, he said
reiteró, he said
destacó, he said
insistió, he said
agregó, he said
Las Mañanitas is for many Spanish people what Happy Birthday is for Americans; it's the song we sing on birthdays. It's customary in many Spanish speaking countries, including Mexico and sometimes in Spain, and it's usually sung by a mariachi band. I was able to find a video that includes Las Mañanitas together with the Happy Birthday tune at the end. The way it works is that idealy, you have to hire the band to play the song at the party, but since that's sometimes expensive, this guy paid them to perform in a video for his girlfriend.
My video. I was right on the other side of the
Hudson. After doing some math, I know I visited those buildings literarily about five thousand
times over several years. The last time was the night before; I went
to a store called Lechter's. The sonic of the aircraft getting near at a cruising speed
and at a very low altitude is
real. It was way too loud to be normal. The aircraft was coming from my right
hand side, where the only "obstructions" were the Statue of Liberty
and Ellis Island. We
were actually much closer to the towers than it seems in the video.
I tried to hide the voices since it's very difficult for me to listen
to them again.
Univision #1 Network for Entire Week Beating ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and CW
Thursday September 6, 1:04 pm ET
"Adios" to Separate Hispanic Ratings and "Hola" to Single National Service
MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Univision captured the #1 network ranking among all Adults 18-34, not just Hispanics, and outdelivered ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and CW for the entire first week of Nielsen's single national panel (NPM).
In the first entire week (8/27/07-9/2/07) since all networks were reported from one single ratings sample, Univision ranked as the #1 network with an +11% advantage over its nearest competitor, FOX, and beating ABC by +43%, CBS by +42%, NBC by +57%, and fully +125% ahead of CW for all Adults 18-34, not just Hispanics. Univision was also the #1 ranked network all night every night Monday through Friday last week among the same coveted young adult demographic.
In addition, Univision aired 9 out of the top 20 programs of the entire week, regardless of language, among all Adults 18-34.
"Taking the #1 spot for the first week of Nielsen's single sample NTI ratings, clearly demonstrates Univision's ability to compete head-to-head with any and all networks," said Alina Falcon, Executive Vice President and Operating Manager of the Univision Network. "Now with a single ratings source, advertisers can see, more easily than ever, just how important Univision can be as part of their overall media plans."
Univision Communications Inc. is the premier Spanish-language media company in the United States. Its operations include Univision Network, the most-watched Spanish-language broadcast television network in the U.S. reaching 99% of U.S. Hispanic Households; TeleFutura Network, a general-interest Spanish-language broadcast television network, which was launched in 2002 and now reaches 89% of U.S. Hispanic Households; Galavision, the country's leading Spanish-language cable network; Univision Television Group, which owns and operates 62 television stations in major U.S. Hispanic markets and Puerto Rico; Univision Radio, the leading Spanish-language radio group which owns and/or operates 70 radio stations in 16 of the top 25 U.S. Hispanic markets and 5 stations in Puerto Rico; Univision Music Group, which includes Univision Records, Fonovisa Records, La Calle Records and Mexico-based Disa Records as well as Fonomusic and America Musical Publishing companies; and Univision Online, the premier Spanish-language Internet destination in the U.S. located at www.univision.com. Univision Communications also has a 50% interest in TuTv, a joint venture formed to broadcast Televisa's pay television channels in the U.S., and a non-voting 14.9% interest in Entravision Communications Corporation, a public Spanish-language media company. Univision Communications has television network operations in Miami and television and radio stations and sales offices in major cities throughout the United States.
The word baja in Spanish doesn't make much sense by itself, since it's an adjective in the feminine form meaning low or lower. Yet, I have often seen it, for example, in restaurant dish names like enchiladas baja, fajitas baja, tacos baja. These names sound a little funny to me because I think they stem from the name of the Baja California peninsula in Mexico, but I don't see the relationship between the meal and the peninsula.
The Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés sent a few expeditions in the 1500's that discovered California, which they thought was an island, but it later turned out to be a peninsula. California became, in the following years, the region including the current State of California together with the peninsula. In the early 1800's, California was divided into the Alta California or Upper California, and the Baja California or Lower California. Alta California became eventually part of the United States.
So the adjective bajo (masculine) or baja (feminine, a peninsula is a feminine noun in Spanish, plus the name California seems feminine) by itself doesn't make much sense. It just means lower. It should always be accompanied by the noun it modifies, so only Baja California makes sense.
These adjectives are frequently used in the New York media to refer to Upper Manhattan and Lower Manhattan. They are Alto Manhattan and Bajo Manhattan. In this case, it's used in the masculine form, perhaps because a county (borough) in Spanish is masculine, condado. But, on the other hand, and island is feminine, so it could also be called Alta Manhattan and Baja Manhattan, but they sound odd, imagine, each of these names have 5 letters "a" with no other vowel.
In English, people use expressions like to speak a language fluently, to be fluent in English, I want to become fluent or to speak broken English. Many students always want to say this in Spanish and come up with sentences like yo quiero hablar español fluídamente, or quiero llegar a ser fluida, I want to become a fluid. This sounds, to my Spanish ear, like there is a river coming out of someone's mouth. Fluir, fluído, are related to water, to liquid, to flow. Some come up with better approaches like hablar con soltura, hablar de corrido.
The truth is that in everyday Spanish, those sentences are not common. In linguistics, fluidez, fluency, is a characteristic of language production, however, most people who are not into linguistics would simply say hablar español bien, or hablar español muy bien, or sé hablar muy bien español (to speak spanish well or very well). I think these sentences would be equivalent to to speak Spanish fluently and I speak Spanish fluently.
(Photo: Cascadas de Agua Azul, Chiapas, Mexico)
20070903 (spanishNY.com) top
Free Spanish lesson for Bank of America
Bank of America has launched a flawed Spanish advertisement campaign with grammar errors, unfortunately. La oportunidad de crecer financieramente espera por ti en Bank of America. The opportunity to grow financially waits for you at Bank of America.
In English, the verb to wait takes the preposition for, to wait for. In Spanish, esperar, when it means to wait for, doesn't take the preposition por (nor para), it takes a direct object. Using esperar with the preposition por is a mistake of Bank of America.
Estoy esperando el autobús. I am waiting for the bus. Bank of America style: Estoy esperando por el autobús. Estoy esperando a mi hermano. I am waiting for my brother. In this case we need the personal a. Bank of America style: Estoy esperando por mi hermano. Te espero en la oficina. I'll wait for you at the office. (we use present in Spanish for a case like this.) Bank of America style: Espero por ti en la oficina.
So, this is the wrong Bank of America style:
La oportunidad de crecer financieramente espera por ti en Bank of America
Correct:
La oportunidad de crecer financieramente te espera en Bank of America
Persona is always a feminine noun in Spanish, it doesn't matter if you are talking about a man. You have to make sure the adjectives and articles are also feminine. Never say el persona, or un persono bueno to refer to a male person because that doesn't exist. Some examples:
Manuel es una persona muy divertida pero su hermano es una persona muy aburrida. Manuel is a funny person, but his brother is a very boring person.
Hay muchas personas en este restaurante, mejor vamos a comer en casa. There are many people in this restaurant, let's better eat at home.(This restaurant is too busy, let's better eat at home.)
In Spanish, one way to classify verbs is by their endings, -ar, -er, and -ir. In a few years, the -ar verbs will be the big majority. The reason is that almost every new verb that is being incorporated into the language is always -ar. Many of these verbs come from either English or other foreign languages, or are slang, and many are not recognized by the Academy. There are probably some new -er and -ir verbs, but I can't think of a single one. Examples of these verbs are:
boicotear
to boycott
chamaquear (Mex)
to take advantage of someone's inexperience
chatear
to chat
checar, chequear
to check
cliquear
to click
comadrear
to gossip (among women)
flirtear
to flirt
formatear
to format a disk
parquear (Spain). Estacionarse in Latin America.
to park a car
teclear
to type on a keyboard
testar (Spain), testear (Argentina). Probar, someter a prueba, poner a prueba in Mexico.
to test
transar (Mex)
to swindle
By the way, fortunately, these new verbs are regular.
20070825 (spanishNY.com) Last update: 20071018 top
Punto com
In Spanish we don't have a variety of names for the symbol "." (dot, period, point). We always call it punto, no matter the context in which we use it.
3.1416 (tres punto catorce dieciséis. Remember that about 50% of the Spanish speaking people don't use commas for decimals like they do in Europe and South America.)
"Nuestra investigación -añade- supone un nuevo impulso para que los geólogos sigan estudiando el proceso por el que la Tierra ha acabado siendo el planeta que es hoy.Esto no es más que otra pieza del puzzle de la Tierra". (de la Tierra [punto]) Note this story was written by the Spain's EFE news agency. They are using more and more Spanglish words in their articles lately; in Latin America, we would say rompecabezas instead of puzzle. Although they are quoting someone, the Spanish translation is theirs.
; (punto y coma)
A couple of punto expressions: estar a punto de, to be about to ex: está a punto de llover, it's about to rain punto de vista, point of view
www.univision.com (univisión punto com)
20070824 Last updated on 20071115 (spanishNY.com) top
This past weekend
I've heard students say sentences like these:
El fin de semana pasado fui a la playa
El fin de semana pasado visité a mis amigos
Voy a ir al cine el fin de semana siguiente
They seem to be direct translations from:
I went to the beach this past weekend
This past weekend I visited my friends
I'm going to the movies this coming weekend
In Spanish, you don't need emphasize or even say that you are going to do something next weekend, or that you did something this past weekend. The verb tense makes it obvious which weekend you mean:
El fin de semana fui a la playa. Obviously this past weekend.
Este fin de semana visité a mis amigos. This past weekend. Voy a ir al cine este fin de semana. Next weekend, obviously.
Entender and comprender both mean to understand. Although comprender is very popular among students, we natives don't use it as much. The reason comprender is so popular among beginner students, dropouts, and tourists, is that comprender is taught before entender. Comprender is a regular verb and entender is a stem changing verb. Many students quit Spanish before even knowing that entender also exists, so they stick to comprender forever. It's typical of American tourists in Mexico to say nouuu comprendouuu. If you are a student and you want to sound more fluent, use entender instead of comprender. One of my students told me he likes comprender better than entender because it reminds him of the English verb to comprehend. I told him that's not a good reason to use comprender instead of entender, and he should switch to entender if he wants to sound less like a beginner student.
Here are some search examples using Google for Spanish language pages only, and enclosing the phrases in quotation marks:
no lo comprendo
60,800
no lo entiendo
1,120,000
no me comprendes
15,500
no me entiendes
49,100
compréndeme
34,300
entiéndeme
60,800
comprendes esto
1,040
entiendes esto
12,400
no comprendo
616,000
no entiendo
2,330,000
Now you believe it? And I really think that many of these matches above that use comprender were written by students or foreigners. This doesn't mean you shouldn't use comprender at all, it means you should use entender some 70% of the time, and comprender 30%.
I think we use comprender from a more psychological, personality point of view, and entender from a more speech, sound point of view.
Different cultures have different words to designate family members that other cultures don't have. For example, some Asian cultures have one word to designate a paternal grandfather, and a different word to designate a maternal grandfather. That's not the case in Spanish cultures, but still we have more words for family members than English. One of these words is consuegro and consuegra.
First, suegro and suegra are father and mother in-law. Consuegros are the relationships between your parents in-law, and your parents. Your father and your father in-law are consuegros, and your mother and your mother in-law are consuegras. And we can make more combinations: your mother in-law is consuegra of your father. Your father is consuegro of your mother in-law. Your father in-law is consuegro of your mother. Your mother is consuegra of your father in-law.
Consuegros can be also seen as the relationships between the two couples of grandparents of a child.
