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.
Cullen ranks at No. 485 on 2009 list of most popular names for baby boys.
May 8, 2008.
by Michael Slezak
Categories: Celebrity Babies, Ridiculata, Twilight
Twihards, what hath thou wrought? According to data released yesterday by the Social Security Administration, “Cullen” — as in the popular Twilight character Edward Cullen (played in the related films by Robert Pattinson) — ranked as the 485th most popular name for baby boys born in the U.S. in 2009, up a whopping 297 spots from 2008. Call me old-fashioned, but if you’re going to engage in a passionate display of fandom for any franchise, why not get yourself a Cullen tattoo? I mean, at least if you wind up regretting that decision in 20 years, you’ll just have to pay for a little laser treatment, not a decade’s worth of therapist bills FOR YOUR INNOCENT CHILD who might end up being totally Team Jacob anyway. (Jacob, for the record, ranks at No. 1 for the eleventh straight year.) Or, here’s a wacky thought, if you’re really into the glittery vampire, name your child Edward (which, incidentally, ranks at No. 137, up 11 places from ’08).
Okay, I’ll get off my Judgy McJudgerson soapbox now. You can view the 1,000 most popular names for boys and girls here. Once you’re done perusing it, be sure to post any additional observations about pop-cultural trends in the comments.
p.s. “Oprah” doesn’t even crack the top 1,000? Sounds like somebody needs to create a Harpo subdivision to remedy that situation, no?
Listen to him. Besides, if you plan to call a baby "Cullen," and he will live among Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese speaking people, take this into account:
1. (nalgas) backside (colloq), butt (AmE colloq), bum (BrE colloq), ass (AmE vulg), arse (BrE vulg);
te voy a pegar en el ~ I'm going to spank o smack you
Matching entries from other side of dictionary
asshole n vulgar (anus) vulgar: ânus cu sm
Every time I get diarrhoea, my asshole burns.
Toda vez que eu tenho diarréia, meu cu dói.
arse n UK (body part) UK, vulgar cu sm
Additional Translations
culo nm (volgare) vulgar arse
culo nm (volgare) fanny
Segnala un errore
Compound Forms/Forme composte
baciare il culo v adulare per ottenere favori ass-kissing
bel culo (volgare) nice arse
che culo che hai! (slang: persona con molta fortuna) lucky bastard
culo e camicia hand-in-glove
farsi il culo (volgare) sweat your ass off
in collusione con; in combutta con; culo e camicia hand and glove
leccare il culo v adulare per ottenere favori ass-licking
prendere per il culo vtr (volgare) fuck around
There are many more variations, like culero, for example. It sounds horrible. Let me just tell you that Kool-Aid is sometimes used as an euphemism for this word. Tú eres un kool-aid. The name Cullen resembles that vulgar word. Maybe Colon would be better.
Think twice before naming your baby Cullen.
Unless he plans to work on a baby powder or a Pampers commercial.
Spanish language media has a hard time with Vladimir Putin, and now with Elena Kagan. They need to change the pronunciation to avoid a situation on live TV.
Let's see which one is used the most by doing a seach for these phrases:
¿qué pasa? : Results 1 - 10 of about 17,100,000Spanish pages for "¿qué pasa?". 59%
¿qué ocurre?: Results 1 - 10 of about 5,910,000Spanish pages for "¿qué ocurre?". 20.4 %
¿qué sucede?: Results 1 - 10 of about 4,450,000Spanish pages for "¿qué sucede?". 15.35%
¿qué acontece?: Results 1 - 10 of about 1,520,000Spanish pages for "¿qué acontece?" 5.25%
Search statistics are not perfect, specially because pasar has more meanings besides that of to happen, but they'll give you a fair idea. Since qué acontece is used also in Portuguese, I had to search Spanish language pages only. The masculine nouns acontecimiento and suceso mean event (evento), usually a big or important one.
So prepare a sticker with all these forms to say what's happening? and put it on the refrigerator's door, so that some of you don't keep forgetting this.
Ah... no! Unlike in other Romance languages and English, suceso does not mean success. However, the expression fue todo un suceso means that it was a magnificent event or happening, not too far in meaning from a big success.
Those were Flex and Belinda. I used to know how this language switching is called in linguistics, when I remember I'll let you know. If you pay attention, you can hear this all the time in New York. No no no, it's not Spanglish.
At the very end, Flex says "Esto es 'flow' panameño,..... y mexicano....." And Belinda replies, "también." (This is Panamenian 'flow', ..... and Mexican. Too.) Flex is from Panama but he lives in Mexico, and Belinda is a Mexican singer born in Madrid. (Flex's real artistic name is Nigga, but since he was told that name was not politically correct in the U.S., his name here is Flex. So you'll see this other name on the lyrics. He calls Belinda Beli.)
Pardon my ignorance. I had to check in the Urban Dictionary what "flow" is:
1. Flow
n. A rapper's ability to rhyme to phat beats in a skillful manner
You heard that new Nas single? Nigga got one tight-ass flow!
is a linguistics term that basically means switching back and forth between two or more languages in the course of a conversation. It can also refer to the ability to switch languages or dialects quickly from one conversation to the next depending on the situation or conversation partner. For example, a child who has an English-speaking mother and a Spanish-speaking father may speak only English with the mother and only Spanish with the father even though they all speak both languages and are all participating in the same conversation.
There are a few different ways that code switching can occur in a conversation. It can happen from one sentence to the next, within a sentence from phrase to phrase, or one word at a time. Intersentential switching is switching from one language to another for whole sentences at a time. For example, if you’re telling a story in language A about something that was said in language B, you might quote someone in language B because they were speaking in that language.
My mother hugged me and whispered, “Cuìdate, mi hija.” (Take care of yourself, my daughter.)
Intersentential code switching might also be used to emphasize a particular sentence, or to more accurately convey meaning when sufficient words or idioms do not exist in the other language. Intrasentential switching is switching languages in the middle of a sentence. This can mean changing languages for a phrase or for just one word (which is also called “tag-switching”).
Yo compré los groceries para la cena. (I bought the groceries for dinner.)
I like you porque eres muy amable. (I like you because you are very nice.)
Noun endings in English almost can't change, in Spanish they often do
In English, nouns practically don't change. They usually only change to form the plural: car, cars, house, houses, dog, dogs. Some nouns have a bigger change like wife, wives, wolf, wolves, mouse, mice, louse, lice, die, dice. Plural endings aside, these are some of the few nouns that can be modified to change its meaning: duck, duckling, etc.
In this occasion, I want to show you how we change noun endings in Spanish, besides number and gender changes I mean, and how these endings can affect the meaning. Sometimes the resulting word means something totally different than the original.
Original noun
meaning
Noun with ending (inflected noun)
meaning of the inflected noun
abuela
grandmother
abuelita
Granny.
agua
water (like aquatic)
agüita
For some reason, maybe endearment, some mothers and grandmothers talk to their little children using diminutives. Tómate tu agüita. Drink all your water. Lávate las manitas. Wash your little hands.
amigo
friend
amigote
Bad influence friend. Mostly used by wives, girlfriends, and mothers. Siempre estás con tus amigotes. You are always with your bad influence friends.
amigo
friend
amiguito
little friend (usually a little kid.)
año
year (like annual)
añito
Often used by Caribbean people to describe a little boy or girl's age. La niña tiene 4 añitos. The girl is 4 "little" years old. The girl is only 4 years old.
caja
box (or cash register)
cajón : cajetilla
Drawer : cigarret pack
carro
car
carrazo : carrito
A great looking car : supermarket kart
casa
house
casucha
Shack.
casa
house
casota
Big house
cebolla
onion
cebollín, cebollita de cambray
scallion (baby onion with green stem)
chico
young guy
chiquito, chiquillo
little kid
coche
car (in Mx and Spain)
cochecito
toy car, baby stroller (MX: carriola)
cola
tail, butt, queue
colilla
Cigarrete butt.
cuchara
spoon
cucharita : cucharón : cucharada : cucharadita
Tea spoon : ladle : spoonfull : tea spoonfull.
cuerpo
body (like corps)
cuerpazo
A sexy body.
gato
cat
gatillo
Fire arm trigger.
hacer un papel, desempeñar un papel
to play a role
hacer un papelón
to make an embarrassing scene
hermano
brother
hermanito
Little (younger) brother.
Juan, Pedro, Ana
John, Peter, Anna
Juanito, Pedrito, Anita
Diminutive given names are sometimes used for little children, or for endearment in grown ups. For example, La señora Anita or Doña Anita sounds like an elderly lady.
libro
book (like library, librarian)
librillo
Little, meaningless, ugly book. (appearance or contents.)
mano
hand (like manual)
manecilla
Hand of a clock.
oferta
sale (special price)
ofertón
bargain
olor
smell
olorcito
Funny, or pleasant, or strange smell. It depends on the context. Olorcillo is mostly negative or suspicious. Like when a baby is sitting next to you on an airplane!
palo
stick
palillo
toothpick (Mx)
perro : gato
dog : cat
perrito : gatito
Puppy : kitten.
suegra
mother in law
suegrita
Depends on the way it is said. I could be dear mother in law, or the same but very sarcastic, which I would say happens more often when using this form of the word.
ventana
window
ventanilla
vehicle window, cashier's window
You won't find some of these nouns in a dictionary, and that's a problem, because these words exist.
Homero y sus amigotes.
The fact that words almost never change is one of the reasons why English is so strict in its word order. It's just like Cantonese. Words don't change. In Latin, a language whose words change, you can seemingly scramble all the words within a sentence without changing the overall meaning of it. The ending of each word indicates its function within the sentence. Spanish has a more flexible word order than English and Cantonese, but less flexible than Latin, its mother language. It's somewhere in between.
The Dutch shrimp that fell asleep because he didn't put on his batteries
In Mexico we have a number of proverbs (refranes) that eventually become known in many Spanish speaking countries. And in Holland too.
One of them is Camarón que se duerme, se lo lleva la corriente. The literal translation is Shrimp that falls asleep, is carried away by the current. This means that if you take no action, if you don't do something about a situation that requires your attention, you'll miss it. You will be affected by your own carelessness. You won't be "in" like the rest. The clock is ticking. Somebody else will snatch the opportunity. This is a similar British version: Time and tide wait for no man.
We also have an expression ponerse las pilas, which means to put on your batteries. This is the reverse of the previous proverb. This means that you must take action. You need a wake up call. You must energize yourself. You must open your eyes. You must react! This expression spread relatively quickly to all Spanish speaking countries (including the US) in a matter of about 15 years.
So the shrimp must put on his batteries if he doesn't want to be carried away by the current. El camarón tiene que ponerse las pilas si no quiere que no se lo lleve la corriente.
Is it clearer now?
Now, Prince Willem Alexander of Holland knows the meaning of this first hand. Notice in this video how he changed the proverb's ending. Notice also the prince's face, as he is momentarily taken aback (el príncipese sacó de onda) by the ensuing laughter of the Mexican VIP audience. This happened at a signing ceremony of a binational energy agreement.
Prince Willem Alexander of Holland didn't put on his batteries. He was taken away, but not by the current, but by something quite worse than that (and quite hilarious as well.) Just picture this: During this formal meeting, he said something like ... and now, ladies and gentlemen, let me conclude by giving you a Mexican proverb: Shrimp that falls asleep,gets all fkuced up. (laughter.)
The word he utilized was chingada, which is a strong Mexican curse word not allowed on TV. However, being this a royal occasion, his risqué speech was allowed on the air without beeping the word out. His wife is from Argentina, so maybe she heard this expression, wrongly thought it was the right one, and helped her husband prepare his speech. Maybe. This word is meaningless in Argentina and most other Spanish speaking countries.
(Put on your batteries!)
(
Dutch people like jokes anyway. One day I arrived at Schiphol airport, I asked the immigration officers for a stamp for my collection. They put a stamp on my forehead, then they laughed, and after a few seconds they put another one on my passport. I took it nicely. They were very young.
Notes: La pila is a battery, but you can also use la batería. El camarón is a shrimp in Latin America. In Spain they say la gamba. Sacar de onda a alguien. Mexican slang meaning to take someone aback, to disconcert someone. Sacarse de onda. To be taken aback, to be disconcerted.
10 expressions that are not so easy to figure out (3)
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
planta baja
low plant
ground floor
Su servidor
your servant, your server
Truly yours
El mero mero (Mx)
"The mero mero"
the boss, the most important, the man, top dog. (Mexican expression but may extend to other countries.)
en el acto
in the act
right away, immediately
amigo del alma
friend of the soul
beloved friend, more than best friends (not exactly soul mate)
de cuarta, de quinta
of fourth, of fifth
not top quality, not even second quality, but fourth or fifth. A really bad product or service.
dar guerra
to give war
usually of a kid who is very mischevous or gives a lot of hassle. ex: el niño da mucha guerra.
últimamente
ultimately, lastly
recently, lately (misleading adverb)
martes 13
Tuesday the 13th
Friday the 13th (the bad luck day in Spanish is not Friday the 13th).
muy de mañana
very of morning, very of tomorrow
very early in the morning
Most expressions apply to all Spanish speaking countries.
For more information about using these expressions, you should search them on the internet. There are always 100's of examples of how natives use them. You can also identify the countries where they are used the most. For example, I was surprised to find out on search results that English speaking people use el mero mero in California.
Since this is Easter weekend, I'll show you these images of churches. They look very old because they really are. These are probably the oldest surviving actual photographs of the Catedral in Mexico City. These are daguerrotypes (a very old technique to make real pictures) taken by a French "photographer" in January 1840. At that time, for example, California, Nevada, the Grand Canyon including the entire Arizona state, and more, were part of Mexico, so imagine. The cathedral's clock and bells have been dictating the rhythm of life in the city for centuries already. The photos are part of the the George Eastman House Still Photography Archive. The image below the video is the attrium (to the right of the main structure, which can be seen on the video.)
This is a photograph of El Zocalo taken in 1840. From 1700 to 1843, there was a 2 floor mall right in the middle of the square called El Parián, that market used to have shops selling goods from the Phillipines and China. (There used to be regular ships coming and going between Manila and Acapulco.) The mall was taken down in 1843, which certifies these pictures' age because you can see El Parián right there in the photo. Now, every market sells goods from China. Mexicans (Novohispanos) started to bring Chinese products to the Americas in the 1600's, and now every country has to do that. (I believe this image is mirrored sideways, left is really right and right is left.)
Probably Paintbrush, but great nevertheless. (yes, the original came out inverted, as it was usual with the first daguerrotypes, so they say.) Image from Mexico Maxico.
To me, it looked like a ghost town, un pueblo fantasma. Was it siesta time? Where are the people? They say that with this process, cameras needed a 10 minute exposure, so people moving would not appear.
This is a lithograph of El Parián mall, probably as seen from one of the cathedral's twin towers.
This is a picture of a church in Veracruz taken in 1839, making it one of the first daguerrotypes in the world. It's even older than the previous ones. Is it my imagination or can you make out the ocean and some boats in the background?
But this is a new one. This is the Disneylandesque pink stone cathedral of San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato.
(I wish I knew the photographer's name).
Felices Pascuas. Happy Easter.
This is a 1839 daguerrotype of a Mexico City college. You can see people in this one. I think that those people standing on the sidewalk for so long, may have been some kind of guards assigned to the building. There is a person sitting on the sidewalk that resembles today's street vendors. On the sidewalk, you can see also some shadows or ghost-like, blurry objects. Probably those were people who stood there just for a few minutes, but not long enough to be fully captured in the image. (Remember that people needed to remain 10 long minutes in the same position to appear on a daguerrotype.) Daguerrotypes were officially patented in France in 1839, so these ones must be the first photographs of Mexico City ever? And the first photos of Mexicans ever?
Every time I read video comments written on YouTube and other popular internet sites, I know some of them would be impossible for some of my students to understand. Many of them are written by kids, many of them have terrible typos because it's like texting, they don't care about typos, they just care about getting their messages through quicky. Many comments are written in Spanish by foreigners, so they are actually in Spanglish (Spanish and English), many are written in Portuñol (Portuguese and Spanish), Romañol (Romanian and Spanish), even Polañol (Polish and Spanish). I'll try to translate some of them to plain Spanish, so you can see what I mean. Maybe the next time you see one of them, you'll understand at least a little. These are actual YouTube comments.
TXT
Plain Spanish
Approximate translation
ha akgun tempo que no ouço esta cancion.. pero ahora tive vontade de ver este video.. (Portuñol)
Hace algún tiempo que no oigo esta canción, pero ahora tuve la voluntad de (me dieron ganas de) ver este video.
It's been some time since I don't hear this song, but now I had the will to see this video.
la cancion dice justo lo k me esta pasando! :(
La canción dice justo lo que me está pasando.
The song says exactly what is going on with me.
Esta cancion me encanta xq me recuerda al amor de mi vida
Esta canción me encanta porque me recuerda el amor de mi vida.
I like this song because it reminds me of the love of my life.
k linda cancion
Qué linda canción.
What a nice song.
było gdzieś na pewno los amo :) (Polañol)
(Polaco) los amo :)
(Polish) I love you guys :)
Jajajajjaajajajaja el Miguel uauauauau jajajajajaja,el começo es muy llegal adorei :) (Portuñol)
Jajaja (Typical Spanish for ha ha ha) el Miguel uauauauau (uauau, typical Brazilian joy expressions) el comienzo es muy bueno, los adoro.
Ha Ha Ha Miguel..ha ha ha ha. The beginning is great, I adore it.
X dios amo ese cap!! son increibles juazjuaz!!!
Por Dios, amo ese capítulo. Son increíbles. juaz juaz (Juaz is an expression from Spain)
OMG, I love this episode. They are incredible. Juaz Juaz.
a fost el grupo q mi a marcat viata...mereu vor fi in corazon nuestro.....te kiero (Romañol)
Ha sido el grupo que me ha marcado la vida. Ellos siempre van a estar en nuestro corazón. Te amo.
This band has left a mark in my life. They will always be in our hearts. I love you.
t kiero ...
siempre la mejor!!!!!
Te quiero. Siempre la mejor.
I love you. Always the best.
zajebiste mówiąc jednym słowem..Ich liebi dich .....Gracias .:)))))
(Polish) Te amo (German) Gracias.
This person is from Poland. She can't write in Spanish so she writes I Love You in German (they assume it's easier than Polish, anyway), and at least she knows how to say thank you in Spanish.
k weno.... Xk no pones otra. :)
Qué bueno. Por qué no pones otra.
How good. Why don't you put another one?
waa k estaa canciiOn me hacee llOraaa , me poneee un poqO maaL!
Buah que esta canción me hace llorar. Me pone un poco mal.
This song makes me cry. It makes me a little sad.
brasileiro tbm gusta de la buena musika rsrsrsrsrs (Portuñol)
Al brasileño también le gusta la buena música. rsrsrssrssr
The Brazilian also likes good music. rsrsrssrssr (rsrsrs, typical Brazilian internet joy expression)
La Madre Patria, my uncle the painter, and John & Jacqueline Kennedy
Patria in Spanish is the motherland. This Spanish word is related to the English words patriot, patriotic, and patriotism. Now that I was talking about Plácido Domingo, it reminded me of this idiom or nickname. So if patria is the motherland, what would La Madre Patria, The Mother Motherland or The Motherland of the Motherland, be?
This is La Madre Patria:
That's Spain's nickname in Latin America. Just do a Yahoo, Google, or whatever search on "La Madre Patria", so that you know how do we use this nickname.
In my particular case, this Madre Patria thing might be true.
The oldest photos of any of my ancestors I know of, are from Santander, in Spain (in Cantabria, all the way to the north, by the Bay of Biscay, or Golfo de Cantabria, a Celtic name). This means, these are the farthest ancestors of mine, who I know how they looked like, and they were already very old in these fading pictures. They are ca. 1880. They are my great great great grandparents, or the parents of my tatarabuela, unofficially they would be my tátara-tatarabuelos (unofficialy, because although that word is used, it does not officially exist on the dictionaries). I am their chozno, but sincerely, I don't know what is the official word to describe their relationship to me. An average individual would have 4 different grandparents, 8 different great grandparents, 16 different great great grandparents, and 32 different great great great grandparents, so these are only 2 of my 32 great great great grandparents! (In royalty, for instance, this is not always true, as some ancestors married their own relatives, so some ancestors are repeated).
I know many of them through the internet, and I can tell this couple has hundreds of living descendants in Spain, Mexico, United States, France, and most likely elsewhere. Some of them are also descendants of John Sutter, who discovered the gold in California. One of their children was one of the best friends of President Benito Juárez, who was his official portraitist as well, and who also painted President Lincoln, and at least two 19th Century Popes. There is a story about President John & Jacqueline Kennedy escorting one of my great great grand uncle's paintings from the U. S. back to Mexico, to give it to the President of Mexico. The painter was the first member of that family who emigrated to Mexico. More recently, my then very young grandfather, his brother, his father, uncles, and cousins (all males BTW), catched up with the painter's descendants in Mexico.
Feliciana was a native of Santander, in Catabria, but Sebastián was actually born in the neighboring San Sebastián, in the Basque Country (on the map it's right at the border with France on the Bay of Biscay). The story of these pictures is a very sad one. Since there was no Skype back then, this was the only way for the painter to see his aging parents, maybe for the last time. His proud parents back in Spain knew their son was a successful artist, who met many famous people, including presidents and Popes.
abuelos = grandparents bisabuelos = great grandparents tatarabuelos = great great grandparents tátara-tatarabuelos = great great great grandparents (unofficial) chozno = great great great grandchild (official)
J o s é
E s c u d er o y E s p r o n c e d a, Benito Juárez,
siglo XIX,
óleo sobre tela,
Presidencia de la República.
Just like the president, this artist had his studio and lived right there in the National Palace, close to the Juárez family apartments. My great uncle was the only person allowed by the president himself to call him "Beno".
This is the J. F. K. & Jacqueline Kennedy story with my great great grand uncle's painting (Google is incredible!) We knew this in the family, but it's the first time I can find a document that verifies it. See the section "Returning Historic Painting". The painting above may not be the same that the President and Jacqueline Kennedy escorted.
The article has some errors. It was Jacqueline Kennedy's idea to buy the painting which was up for auction, it wasn't really a donation. As it was customary, they needed to bring a present for Mexico during their visit, so she saw in that painting the perfect gift. Benito Juárez was not a revolutionary leader. He has been the only "pure" Native American (or Native Mexican) president of the country.
This is the portrait my great uncle painted, being escorted by Jacqueline Kennedy and President J. F. Kennedy. President López Mateos is standing next to J. F. K. (I can't believe someone in my family had this clipping and never showed it to me before.)
I am affraid this Mexican ex-president took the painting for himself. I have been able to find similar paintings of Juárez, but not this exact one. It may probably be at his daughter's home. Jacqueline Kennedy wanted it to be in a museum!
Thanks to my uncle Manuel Alegre, from Spain, for those pictures.
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