‘Lengua’ is frequently translated as “tongue”, “language” or “idiom”, but it should be used just for the first two, as “language” is related to ‘Lenguaje’, and the Spanish signification is associated with an individual practice: each person has his or her own language.
A nation has a ‘lengua’ and each one of its citizens, has a version of her own: her ‘lenguaje’. In English that is not the case. Both tongue and language refer to the same set of symbols.
When it comes the time to apologize in Spanish don’t use ‘me disculpo’ [I apologize myself] or ‘Doy una disculpa’ [I give an apology], because apologies are, like in English, offered… and they could even be rejected.
‘Ofrezco una disculpa’ [I offer an apology] is the right way to do apologize in Spanish, although you might find some countries in America where the wrong-way form ‘pido una disculpa’ is used the most.
‘Cometa’ can be translated straightforwardly as “ comet”, but it could also mean “kite” in both Spain and America. The context will tell you what people are talking about.
There are still more terms for ‘Cometa’ as a kite too, at least in some Latin-America countries: ‘papalote’ and ‘papagayo’ are the words used in Mexico and some Central American nations. In America you will find them as ‘barriletes’
Words with no Spanish counterpart are rare, but “Software” is one of them. ´Programa´ [program] is not the right translation, as software means also the data of those programs. To makes things harder, there is also software in other areas different from computer science, as in the musical field.
It is an intangible and it relates only to the information: the ordered elements of code or musical notes existing in a hard disk or CD. That is the reason you will find the word in Spanish untranslated. Don’t try to find a translation. And then… there is yet one neighbor: “Hardware”.
Beware when asking for fruits and some vegetables in Latin-America or Spain. They may look the same, but their local names can vary:USA’s zucchini is known as ‘calabacin’ is Spain, ‘calabacita’ in Mexico, ‘zuquini’ in Bolivia, and many more instances -almost one different per country-
The same goes for beans of Latin-American: ‘frijoles, frijoles, frejoles y porotos’, they all are ‘judías’ in Spain. The same goes for some fruits, like South-American ‘damascos’, a.k.a. ‘chabacano’ in Mexico and ‘albaricoque’ in cuba or Peru.
Only one exception is allowed for the conjunction ‘o’, bearing the ‘acento’, as in: ‘5 ó 6 pares de zapatos’ [5 or 6 shoe pairs], but only when it is in between numbers, to avoid confusion with digit ‘0’.
Many written ‘monosílabos’ [monosyllables] no longer require an ‘acento’ [stress mark] because they were found as having a single unequivocal meaning. There are many of them. Some of the most important ones are: ‘fe’ [faith], ‘fue’ [was] and ‘vio’ [saw]
This is a very common ending in ‘patronímicos’[patronymics] present in last names, it means “son of”, just as “mac” does. One example explains by itself: in Spain you can find the last name ‘Martínez’, meaning ‘hijo de Martín’ [son of Martin], while in Ireland you have “MacMartin”, meaning “son of Martin” too.
There are many examples and here are the most common ones: ‘Sánchez’ – son of ‘Sancho’, ‘Pérez’ – son of ‘Pedro’; Álvarez’ – son of ‘Alvaro’; González’ – son of ‘Gonzalo’; Fernández’ – son of ‘Fernando’.
This ending clearly shows that English and Spanish share a common root: the Indo-European. When you start studying one of them as a foreign language, you are told “you already know dozens of words” by changing a mere letter, as in ‘acción’ [action]Spanish Word: -ción
And that’s what this suffix main significance is: action, movement; as in ‘conducción’ [conduction] and ‘introducción’ [introduction]. It can also denote a state, as in ‘desesperación’ [desperation] and ‘aflicción’ [affliction]
In Spain, they say ‘buenas noches’ [good night] from dusk till dawn. In America it all depends on the clock, and changes to ‘buenos días’ at 12:01 a.m.
These abbreviations stand for “antemeridiano” [ante meridiem] y “postmeridiano” [post meridiem]. A change from the first to the second occurs at noon. In most Latin-American countries this change also indicates you should no longer greet with ‘buenos días’ [good morning] but with ‘buenas tardes´[good afternoon] instead.
This preposition is a tricky one, even for locals, because its use is ‘multimodal’ [multiple modes] One of the most important ones is to indicate who is receiving from who, i.e. in ‘el perro persigue al gato’ [the dog is after the cat] if you take it away you’ll get: ‘el perro persigue el gato’, and you can’t tell who is after who.
Sometimes you have to “take the ‘a’ away”, as in: ‘Antonio busca un sastre’ [Anthony is looking for a tailor] because if you add the ‘a’, as in ‘Antonio busca a un sastre’, then it means he is looking for a certain tailor he knows. In these instances ‘a’ gives personification to whatever follows.
‘Hacia un lugar inferior’ [toward a place below] is what ‘Abajo’ means -when paired with movement verbs, as in: ‘nadó aguas abajo’ [swam downstream]. If the associated verb doesn’t mean movement, then it has a sense of a place below: “Está allá abajo’ [he is below]
Without the ever important “movement” prefix ‘a’, ‘bajo’ can function as the “down” adverb: ‘a un volumen bajo’ [at a lower volume]. When it appears after a noun, it means in the lowest part: ‘río abajo’ [down river]
There are some Spanish expressions that come from “who knows where” and follow no syntax rule, but they appear often. Here are the most popular ones: ‘a fuerza’, ‘por poco’,'en serio’,'de golpe’, ‘de veras’,'de milagro’,'poco a poco’, ‘de memoria’ and ´tarde o temprano’
They mean “forcefully, almost, seriously, suddenly, really, miraculously, little by little, by heart, sooner or later”. They all add-up “flavor” to the language and there is no other choice but to memorize and try to use them often.
Example:
The ‘Donde’ [where] and ‘adonde’ [to where] difference is on movement: the second one is used when the action starts at someplace and ends somewhere else, as in ‘El almacén donde compramos tu traje’ [The store where we bought your suit]
When using these words in the interrogative form, don´t forget an ‘acento’ is in order: ‘¿en dónde vives?’ [where do you live?] ‘¿adónde fuiste?’ [where did you go?]
PR: 
I: 
I: 
Rank: 
Age: 
Rank: 
C: 
Links: 
