Posts from December 2008

One word, many meanings

Posted by Adir 4 Comments
Dec 9 2008

Synonyms are terms or expressions which have the same or similar meanings and it also entails the study of the contexts in which they occur. I have chosen some very common Spanish words and their synonyms with examples, espero que les guste.

Abogado – lawyer

1. letrado – lawyer. El letrado nos leyó la carta. (The lawyer read us the letter.)
2. abogado – lawyer, barrister, solicitor. Mi hija quiere ser abogada. (My daughter wants to be a lawyer.)
3. escribano – notary. Ese contrato se ha firmado con la presencia del escribano. (This contract was signed in the presence of a notary.)
4. pasante – (young) paralegal. Trabajó como pasante de notario por muchos años. (He worked as a paralegal for many years.)
5. cuervo, picapleitos – a shyster, an ambulance chaser. Él no pasa de ser un picapleitos, no se le puede llamar abogado. (He’s nothing but a shyster, you can’t call him a lawyer.)

Agradable – pleasant, nice

1. deleitoso – delightful. Se sentaron en un jardín deleitoso para tomar un tecito. (They sat in a delightful garden to have a cup of tea.)
2. exquisito – exquisite. Nos sirvieron un vino exquisito antes de la cena. (They served us an exquisite wine before dinner.)
3. acogedor – welcoming, pleasant. Es una familia muy acogedora. (It is a very welcoming family.)
4. chido (Mexico) – nice, cool. Tu carro está chido. (Your car is cool.)
5. guay (Spain) – nice, cool. La fiesta estuvo muy guay anoche. (The party was very cool last night.)
6. a toda madre – very cool, awesome. La película está a toda madre. (The movie is awesome.)

Nos vemos prontito!!!

Idioms with “Hacer”

Posted by Adir No Comments
Dec 5 2008

In addition to its regular meanings (to do, to make), the verb “hacer” is used in very common idioms. Check them out.

hacer una broma – to play a joke. Nunca más me hagas bromas así, que no me gustan. (Don’t you ever play jokes like this with me again, because I don’t like them.)

hacer caso a – to pay attention to. No le hagas caso a este niño porque es muy maleducado. (Don’t pay attention to this boy because he’s really rude.)

hacer daño a (alguien) – to hurt/damage (somebody). No empujes más a tu hermano, que le vas a hacer daño.  (Stop pushing your brother, you’ll end up hurting him.)

hacer el papel de – to play the role of. En aquella telenovela, Laura Zapata hizo el papel de mala. (In that soap opera, Laura Zapata played the role of an evil woman.)

hacer pedazos – to smash to pieces. La explosión hizo el coche pedazos. (The explosion blew the car to pieces.)

hacer una pregunta – to ask a question. Voy a hacerte una pregunta. (I’m going to ask you a question.)

hacer un viaje - to take a trip. Él hizo un viaje a Estados Unidos. (He took a trip to the USA.)

hacer una visita – to pay a visit. Mi directora tuvo un bebé, así que tengo que hacerle una visita. (My principal had a baby so I have to pay her a visit.)

Nos vemos prontito!

Why oh why?

Posted by Adir No Comments
Dec 1 2008

All right, you go to your Spanish class, learn a thousand verb forms but still think you’re not learning enough just because you watched an Almodóvar movie and got stuck when the actor said something translated as “because” and it was not “porque”? Let’s take a look at some other “becauses” in Spanish.

1. Por: it means “because of.”
Lo hice por orgullo. – I did it because of (out of) pride.
Voy a México por los mariachis. – I am going to Mexico because of the mariachis.
Por is not normally used at the beginning of a sentence.

2. A causa de: usually followed by a noun or noun phrase, it means “because of.”
Ella salió a causa de su jefe. – She left because of her boss.
Se mojó a causa de la lluvia. – He got wet because of the rain.

3. Como: translated in English as “as”. It appears at the beginning of the sentence.

Como estaba cansada, no salió. – As (Because) she was tired, she didn’t leave.
Como no vino la maestra, salieron más temprano. – As (Because) the teacher didn’t come, they left earlier.

4. Debido a, debido a que – “due to”, “due to the fact that”
Necesitan jerseys debido al frío. – They need sweaters, because of the cold.
La población está abrumada debido a que el alcalde no arregla los agujeros en las calles. The people are weary because the mayor won’t fix the potholes on the streets.

5. Dado que, ya que, en vista de que, puesto que – All these expressions mean roughly “considering the fact that” and can be translated as “because.”
Ya que es inteligente, cree que no tiene que estudiar. – Because he’s smart he doesn’t think he needs to study.
Dado que no había muchos alumnos, la directora decidió cerrar la escuela. – Because there were few students, the principal decided to close the school.

6. Gracias a: “thanks to.”
Logró pasar en el examen gracias al empeño de su hermana mayor. – He managed to pass the exam because of (thanks to) his older sister’s hard work.

Nos vemos prontito.

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