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.
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]
To help you do story-telling when your Spanish past tenses are not that polished, you can do it the American way: by using the ‘presente histórico’ [historical present, which means you talk about something from the past using the present tense, something typically done by historians.
You can see in the following example how a happening of the past is told using the present tense, as if things were happening that very moment. You can use this rhetorical resource when your past-tense skills are yet to be fully learned.
Example:
Y ahí estoy, todo mojado, cuando de repente pasa todo un equipo de futbol y me ayuda a empujar el coche.
Translation:
And there I am, all wet, when all of a sudden, a whole soccer team passes by and helps me push the car.
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”.
Spain prefers it, even it takes more words to say or write: The so called “perfect tense”, where the verb ‘haber’ [have] functions as an auxiliary for another verb (in the gerund form) appearing right next to it, as in ‘hemos hablado’ [we have spoken]. Hispanic Americans would say a single word: ‘hablamos’ [we spoke] instead.
This form takes “less memory” from those learning Spanish, because all they need to memorize is the ‘haber’ verb conjugation and the other verbs gerunds, i.e. ‘Llegó y tomó el coche’ takes more words below, but you don’t have to know the indicative third-person past tense of the verbs ‘Llegar’ and ‘Tomar’
Remembering all kinds of people names is more important in English than Spanish, as English has no ‘tú’ treatment, and the only way to show familiarity trough the spoken word is to say a person’ name along the talking. In Spanish-speaking countries people can even talk with great familiarity to other people who call them on the streets… and get away with the fact that they don´t really remember who “that one” was.
You can use it more freely in Spain. In Latin-America the ‘tú’ treatment is reserved for family and friends only.
‘Se’ makes easier to construct some Spanish sentences, when the subject is unclear: just begin the sentence with ‘Se’ and use a verb… without a subject, as in ‘Se quemó’ [it burned], while standing before something unknown.
People pretty much use it when they’ve broken something: ‘se cayó’ [it fell], instead of [lo tiré] [I let it fell]. Such impersonal form is much more used in Spanish than in English.
You can see the abbreviation ‘EE.UU’ (‘Estados Unidos’) every day in Spanish speaking countries newspapers. The letters repetition indicates a plural is being shortened.
The need for this repetition arises from the fact that the word could is also abbreviated in the singular form, so ‘p.’ is the abbreviation of ‘página’ [page]
The two small dots appearing sometimes on top of an u (ü) before the e & i vowels are called ‘diéresis’ [dieresis]. It is more noticeable if you wrongly put them on top of any other vowel, than forgetting to use them when they are supposed to be there.
The usage rule is simple: ‘diéresis’ should be used when the u is to be pronounced; this is necessary because in most of the words with the syllables ‘gue’ and ‘gui’ the u is not spoken because of grammar. When in doubt, you can say the word aloud without the u and check how it sounds.
English expression ‘is going to…’ has been wrongly incorporated into spoken Spanish in some American countries, as in ‘vamos a estar…’ [we are going to be…', where a much shorter 'estaremos...' [we'll be...] would have been enough.
You can both save words and talk a better Spanish if you avoid this practice. Use the future tense if you are comfortable using it. If you are not, then use the common construction: ‘Voy a’ + infinitive verb (in this case you don’t need to know all verb variations for the future tense)
These reforms mainly call for some single syllable words -and some with more than three- NOT to have a stress mark, when certain vowels meet, as in ‘guión’ [slash] The advice: don’t worry about changing your orthography… at least for been very different: People have even gone to court)
In the last 10 years, the Spanish regulation Academy ‘RAE’ has published three reforms for Spanish orthography, but they all have been ignored in the other Spanish speaking countries (it also happened in other languages, but reaction has the next 10 years.
You will find these courtesy titles almost paired to “Sir” and “Lady”, although you can still find ‘Señor Don” and ‘Señora Doña’ used in Spain… which falls short of the “king” or “queen” themselves. You will see it used in most written invitations.
You will also find a college degree used instead of ‘Señor’ [Mr.] or ‘Señora’ [Lady] as in ‘doctor’ [doctor] or ‘ingeniero´[engineer]. If you don’t know whether somebody has a degree or not, stay on the safe side and use ‘Don’ freely, as it works for both: informal or important occasions.
If you can´t remember the right time of day to use ‘buenos días’, ‘buenas tardes’ or ‘buenas noches’ [good morning, good afternoon, good evening] you can always use the orthographically correct ‘Buen día’ [Good day] at any time of the day (it can be used on writing too, as an introduction for all kinds of e-mail, formal or not)
If you don´t want to sound that formal, you can say the colloquial that locals use:‘buenas’. They say it at any time of day, but mostly to their acquaintances
Don’t be confused when you hear Spanish speakers’ medical talk full of truncated words when referring to specialties, as in ‘endocrino’: short for ‘endocrinólogo’ [endocrinologist]. These apocopes are often used simply to save time or just because the speaker doesn´t really know the final part.
In most of the instances the missing part is ‘-logo’ [-logist], as in ‘cardio’ [for cardiologist], ‘procto’ [for proctologist]. Sometimes the missing part is huge, as in ‘otorrino’, for otorhinolaryngologist!
You will find these courtesy titles almost paired to “Sir” and “Lady”, although you can still find ‘Señor Don” and ‘Señora Doña’ used in Spain… which falls short of queen itself. You will see it used in most written invitations.
You will also find a college degree used instead of “señor” [Mr.] or “señora” [Lady] as in ‘doctor’ [doctor] or ‘ingeniero´[engineer]. If you don’t know whether somebody has a degree or not, be on the safe side and use “Don” freely, as it works both in formal and important occasions.
Is it ‘Yo recordé’ or ‘Yo me acordé’? [I remembered] When it comes to remembering, you use the first form if you remembered something willingfully, or the second one if you didn´t mean it, and just came to you because you saw something or it came to your mind by itself.
The pronominal form ‘me recuerdo’ is never to be used, except if you are remembering yourself in some situation, as in ‘me recuerdo en los brazos de mi madre’ [I remember myself in my mother's arms]
‘Gana’ [wins | makes | will ] is most used when talking about winning: ‘El estudiante más rápido gana’ [The fastest student wins] It is also used in the sense of making money: “Gana doce mil al año” [makes twelve thousand a year]
Yet another meaning for this word is will to do something: ‘lo hizo sin gana’ [he did it unwillingly], in this same context, ‘gana’ can be used as a noun: ‘échale más ganas’ [put more will into it]
Function:Noun
It all depends which country you are, so will the local words for bathroom be. ‘sanitario’ [sanitary] being the most universal but perhaps too formal. ‘Servicios’ is very much preferred in Spain, but it is rather incomplete, don’t use it in America as most locals will ask ‘¿qué clase de servicios?’ [what kind of services are you looking for?]
Los servicios sanitarios’ would be the whole, but kilometric form. If you are with family or friends you can always use ‘baño’ [bathroom], which can also has the verbal form ‘bañar’ [to bath], used when talking about some thing being covered with a substance, as in “baño de azúcar” [sugar bath] used in cooking recipes.
You can make your writing and talk sound more “Hispanic” by joining the typical (and correct) English short sentences with a conjunction, preposition or, like in the example below, with a mere replacement of a period with a comma.
Ritmo con síncopes’ [syncopated rhythm] is the formal description of English writing, where short sentences are not the exception but the rule. Spanish way is just the opposite around: as long as sentences have something in common. On the other side, Spanish is called “a language with runaway paragraphs” by foreigners. Example:Cuando lo necesite, tome la bolsa entre sus manos y rómpala, la piel entrará en contacto con la crema y así obtendrá el agua que necesita.
Translation:When in need you can take the bag with your hands and break it. The skin will make contact with the cream and will get the water it needs.
Querida has several connotations, some of them very different from one another: it is used frequently as an introduction in personal letters written to female members of the family, i.e. ‘Querida madre’ [Dear mother], but when used as a noun, it means “mistress”.
Querida’ (or masculine Querido) can also be used in the middle of the sentence, just as any other adjective: ‘Es una muy querida amiga’ [She is a very dear friend] “Siempre fue un hijo muy querido” [He was always a very beloved son]
Just to be on the safe side, you can use this word when talking to -or about- a lady. It works for all-kinds of situations, formal or informal. It is almost like using “madam”.
If you know the marital status, then you can use ‘señora’ for the married woman and ‘señorita’ for the unmarried. ‘Muchacha’ is used only for acquaintances. ‘Nena’ [baby] is supposed just for small female children, younger than a ‘niña’ [girl].
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