There are gradations is Spanish too for the very rich, so magnate doesn’t change: ‘magnate’, a billionaire is a ‘milmillonario’ (still to be widely accepted), a multi-millionaire is a ‘multimillonario’ and a millionaire a ‘millonario’
‘Milenario’ has nothing to do with money, but with time: it means “millennial”.
Fingers in Spanish have special names too: the thumb is ‘el pulgar’, the index is ‘el índice´, the middle is ‘el cordial’ [related to the heart], the ring is the ‘anular’ [for the 'anillo'] the little finger is the ‘meñique’ or ‘auricular’ [because some people use it for ear (áurícula’) cleaning]
There are informal names too, as ‘el dedo gordo’ [the fat finger] for the thumb, and ‘el dedo chiquito’ [the little finger] for the little one.
‘Antaño’ is a very old word about very old times, and gives Spanish sentences the flavor of times gone past: ‘Ya no hacen vinos como los de antaño’ [they don´t make wines as in the old times] If you find it resembles the word ‘año’ [year], you are right, they are related: ‘antaño’ comes from ‘ante-’ [before -] and ‘año’ [year]
‘Como en antaño’ is very much in use, but the ‘en’ is out of place: ‘como antaño’ (‘como antes’) is the right way to use this word.
Example:
Las mujeres de antaño no podían estudiar en las universidades.
Translation:
In the old times, women couldn´t study in universities.
‘Bien’ [good] has a second meaning: [very] and it is very much alive in the Spanish language. You can find in food praising ‘está bien rico’ [it is very tasty] or -for example- in the time of day: ‘ya es bien tarde’ [it is very late already]
This adjective works very much like the word “well”, but it has to appear before the adjective to function as “very” -and praising something too-
One who has both talent and knowledge, and also gets to produce new ideas is known in Spanish as ‘sabio’. Sometimes the word is mistakenly used as ‘erudito’ [erudite], but this last word means knowing many things about many topics, not necessarily related with one another.
Also, if you get to know about somebody who knows a great deal about one subject, but doesn´t produce that many new ideas, you can call him/her ‘docto’ [taught]
Example:
No solo era erudita sino sabia también
Translation:
Not only did she was an erudite, but a wise woman as well
‘Dolencia’ comes from Spanish ‘dolor’ [pain] and it is used frequently instead of ‘enfermedad’ [sickness]. In case it comes across, you should find out whether or not a pain is involved.
Should pain be out of the picture, you must take it as ‘ sickness’, not as a suffering pain.
In Spanish, this word has a clear different meaning than ‘ética’ [ethics], as ´moral’ refers to a way to achieve the ethical principles. The first is about practice and the second about theory.
Furthermore; ‘Moral’ is taken in Spanish as a series of ‘modos’ [ways] and ´etica’ as a series of principles.
‘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.
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]
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?]
Don’t get confused by ‘ahí’ and ‘allí’, just because they don´t have direct equivalents in English. They form a group with the word ‘aquí’ [here], that is: ‘aquí, ahí, allí’. They refer to something either close to the speaker, closer to the listener or far from both.
Although English doesn´t have the third one, English speakers manage by adding “over” when talking about something far from both speaker and listener, as in “over there”, the ‘ahí’ counterpart.
Even if you think ‘acentos’ [diacritical stress marks] can be spared, you should keep an eye on using at least the most frequent ones, as Spanish speakers are used to exploit this “visual resource” to make reading faster. This is especially true when ‘homónimos’ [homonimous] are present.
‘Homónimos’ are words that sound the same, but have different meanings. The example below has two pairs: ‘si’-'sí’ [if-yes] and ‘tú’-'tu’ [you-your]
Your Spanish will sound more Castilian if you try your sentences to go from the active subject to the passive one, as opposed to the English sentence construction, where the subject receiving the verb action goes first more often.
You can say ‘Troya fue sitiada por los griegos’ following English construction: “Troy was besieged by the greeks” or you can say ‘Los griegos sitiaron Troya’ [The Greeks besieged Troy], in the so called “active voice”: the “Castilian way”.
Some people in Spain prefer to use this word instead of “Spanish”, when it comes to talk about their language; and this is because there are in the country some bilingual regions, with a language of their own. As ‘Castilla’ prevailed militarily and politically over the other provinces, its language became the official tongue in the country… but the other ones are not forgotten.
In the rest of the world, you can use ‘Español’ or, with more detail: ‘Español castellano’ [Castilian Spanish]. In linguistics, there is yet another denomination: ‘Español de España’ as opposed to ‘Español de México’ or another Latin-America country. This is important for the foreigner, as some “bad words” are normal words in other countries.
Spanish Noun: Gente Pronunciation: Gayn-tay Translation: People Function: Noun Using ‘gente’ (a collective) when talking abou a single person might be wrong, but people in Spain often do, i.e. ‘Ví una gente en el corredor’ [I saw somebody on the hall]. Latin-Americans try not to do it, as the word is defined as a group of persons. You can use ‘gente’ for both “people” and “a person”, but try not to do it in Latin-America, where you should try to use ‘una persona’ [a person] or ‘alguien’ [somebody] instead. Example: – ¿Quién lo dice? – La gente Translation: – Who says? – People
Interjections in Spanish, as in English, are used to show surprise, disagreement, even pain. Generally speaking, you can use ‘Ojalá’ and all the vowels: ah, eh, i, oh, uh (although ‘i’ is not an official one, but is used to show disbelief, just the same as English ‘So?’)
‘Ojalá’ is pretty much used as ‘god willing’ is used in English, but it lacks the religious feeling of its English counterpart. The vowels are followed by an ‘h’ when written: ‘ah’, ‘eh’, ‘oh’ and ‘uh’; they show surprise, estrangement, shock and disbelief, respectively (if you want to sound Caribbean and show an interested surprise, say the one Bart Simpson uses: ¡Caramba!)
You can use ‘en’ as a wild card when you are in a hurry or just don’t remember the exact preposition to use when something is «on», «in» or «at» something.
Foreigners can take advantage of ‘en’ being acceptable as a substitute for ‘encima’ [on], ‘dentro’ [in] or even the adverb ‘ubicado’ [at]. English is clearly mucho stricter when it comes to these prepositions.
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