Posted by adir ferreira
Learning to use Spanish verbs correctly is a hassle, and we all know that. When we learn the Pretérito Perfecto, we come up with irregular past participles. Here’s a list of some common irregular past participles.
* abrir (to open), abierto
* absolver (to absolve), absuelto
* cubrir (to cover), cubierto
* decir (to say, to tell), dicho
* escribir (to write), escrito
* freír (to fry), frito
* hacer (to make, to do), hecho
* imprimir (to print), impreso
* morir (to die), muerto
* poner (to put), puesto
* resolver (to resolve), resuelto
* romper (to break), roto
* satisfacer (to satisfy), satisfecho
* ver (to see), visto
* volver (to return), vuelto
Nos vemos prontito.
Posted by adir ferreira
Andalusia (Andalucía in Spanish) is the most populated and second largest autonomous community in Spain, as well as most visited, both by Spanish people and by foreign tourists. Among the most popular routes is the “pueblos blancos” route. On it, the traveler can visit small and medium-sized villages in Cádiz and Málaga (Sierra de Grazalema and Serranía de Ronda) and enjoy a varied and beautiful landscape. They’re called “pueblos blancos” (white villages) because its inhabitants frequently whitewash their houses, which are located on narrow streets and have red tile roofs. Many of these pueblos still have a castle or the remains of a castle.
East of Almería you’ll find the National Park Cabo de Gata-Níjar, with its beautiful and quiet beaches, going as far as Mojácar. In Almería’s countryside you can find a blend of mountains and deserts. Its landscape made it a perfect location for shooting western movies (”The good, the bad and the ugly”, “For a few dollars more,” “A fistful of dollars,” and even “Lawrence of Arabia” were shot on location there). On the way to Granada, you can choose between crossing the Alpujarras or going north towards Sierra Nevada.
Another very interesting excursion is “Ruta del Califato”. It goes through Córdoba, former capital of the Muslim empire in the 10th century, and Granada. There you’ll find remains of the Arabic splendor like La Mezquita (The Mosque), the Medina Azahara ruins in Córdoba or the Alhambra in Granada. Bullfighting and flamenco (a music and dance form that originated and is still exclusive to this region) also attract visitors from all over the world.
Among several famous people from Andalusia we have Pablo Picasso, Alejandro Sanz, David Bisbal, Lola Flores, Estrella Morente (and her father Enrique), Diego Velázquez, Federico García Lorca, Camaron de la Isla, Paz Vega, Antonio Banderas, Joaquin Sabina and Paco de Lucia.
Posted by adir ferreira
¡Che! is an interjection used mainly in Argentina and Eastern Spain (Valencia) and it’s often used to get attention or express surprise. It can be roughly translated as “Eh!”, “Wow!”, or “Hey!”. It’s also used as a discourse marker to initiate an utterance, or tagged at the end of a sentence.
¡Che, está buena la cerveza! – Man, this is some good beer!
Vamos a buscar unas cervezas, che. – Let’s go get some beers, then.
In Brazil, che is used in the southern part of the country, especially by the gaúchos (people from Rio Grande do Sul). Its origin may have derived from several native South American languages, but some people argue that it has its origin from the archaic Spanish word ce, used in order to get someone’s attention. Another theory is that it is connected with the Italian word Ciao (hello or goodbye) introduced in South America by Italian immigrants. Another version is that che is a shortened version of the word escuche (listen) , just like oye, which also means listen.
Here are some interesting articles (in intermediate/advanced Spanish) about the word Che.
- Manuel Talens’ report about Valencian and Argentinian che.
- Etimology of Che.
- Che in the website AsiHablamos (very good Latin American Spanish reference).
Nos vemos prontito!
Posted by adir ferreira
To answer that question we have to go back to the origins of the language. Spanish comes from Latin, which arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 2,000 years ago. As in many other Roman provinces, Latin became Vulgar Latin by adopting some of the vocabulary of the indigenous languages and later developed even further into the romance languages. For many reasons, mainly political and cultural ones, the dialect that was common in the north-central region of Spain, including Castile, spread throughout the region. King Alfonso X helped the process by making this dialect standard for educated use of language and government administration. That’s where the term Castilian came from.
Castilian became the primary language of what is now known as Spain, after the country was unified under Christian rule in the 15th century, but it didn’t eliminate other Latin-based languages in the region like Galician and Catalan, or Euskera (Basque), a non-Latin-based language spoken in the Basque region. All these languages have coexisted in Spain ever since, with some regions being officially bilingual.
Today, the term “Castilian” is used to distinguish the north-central standard of Spanish from regional variations such as Andalusian (used in southern Spain). It is also used to distinguish between the official national language and the other languages spoken in Spain (Castilian vs. Catalan). Sometimes, not altogether accurately, it is used to distinguish the Spanish of Spain from that of Latin America and sometimes it’s used solely as a synonym for Spanish, referring to the “pure” Spanish promulgated by La Real Academia Española, which preferred the term “castellano” in its dictionaries until the 1920s.
In many parts of Latin America, the Spanish language is known routinely as “castellano” rather than “español”, whereas in Spain choosing terms – castellano or español – may have political implications, since some people from bilingual regions can be quite sensitive to the choice of term.
To sum up, both terms are equally appropriate to refer to the Spanish language, and are interchangeable except in cases where a contrasting reference is needed.
Posted by admin
We know that a suffix is often added to a word stem to create new words, but that isn’t always the case. Let’s take the example of the suffix –ducir in Spanish and some verbs formed with it: conducir, reducir, deducir, etc. Such verbs are derived from Latin ducere, which meant “to lead”. The examples below are cognates of English verbs ending in either “-duce” or “-duct” and their meanings coincide in English and Spanish. They have irregular conjugation in the first person singular in the present (yo conduzco) and its preterite forms are conjugated as conduje, condujiste, condujo, etc. The website 123 Teach Me (www.123teachme.com) has a very good Spanish verb conjugator, so make sure you check it out. Here are the most common verbs ending in -ducir, along with a usage example of each:
Aducir (to adduce, to allege) – Él adujo que estaba borracho como atenuante. (He alleged being drunk as an extenuating circumstance.)
Conducir (to drive, to manage, to lead) – El director condujo la reunión de forma muy dinámica. (The director conducted the meeting in a very dynamic way.)
Deducir (to deduce, to infer) – Como llegaba empapado, deduje que había estado en la lluvia. (As he arrived soaking wet, I deduced he had been caught in the rain.)
Inducir (to induce, to lead) - A mí me indujeron el parto en la semana 41 del embarazo. (They induced labor on the 41st week of my pregnancy.)
Introducir (to introduce) – Este país introdujo el café en Europa. (This country introduced coffee to Europe.)
Producir (to produce) – Emilio Estefan produjo discos para artistas como Ricky Martin, Shakira y Thalía. (Emilio Estefan produced records for artists like Ricky Martin, Shakira and Thalia.)
