November 17, 2008 – 10:18 am
These are the most common irregular verb forms in the Present Subjunctive. The stems are derived from the present tense first person “yo” form.
caber (to fit) - quepa, quepas, quepa, quepamos, quepáis, quepan
caer (to fall) - caiga, caigas, caiga, caigamos, caigáis, caigan
decir (to say) - diga, digas, diga, digamos, digáis, digan
hacer (to make, to do) [...]
November 13, 2008 – 1:09 pm
BBC Online has many interesting resources for students who want to improve their Spanish. One of them is Cool Spanish. It’s basically informal and slang words used in Spain and some countries in Latin America. They come with audio and translations, so you won’t get lost. Check it out at http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/cool
Here’s another very good Spanish [...]
November 10, 2008 – 12:51 pm
The subjunctive isn’t a tense: present, past, or future. It is a mood (or mode), because it indicates how the speaker feels about or perceives a situation rather than when an action occurred. The subjunctive expresses unreal, hypothetical, theoretical, imaginary, uncorroborated, or unconfirmed conditions or situations. These expressions come from the speaker’s doubts, emotions, wishes, [...]
November 7, 2008 – 12:58 pm
One of our readers wrote and asked for tips on Business Spanish, more specifically job interview expressions. Here are a few useful gambits and sentences.
Your résumé
I studied at … – Estudié en …
I majored in … – Mi licenciatura es en …
I specialized in … - Me especialicé en …
I also took courses in … [...]
November 3, 2008 – 1:24 pm
Spanish has a myriad of interesting expressions using the word “Dios” (God), not all of them religious. Check them out!
1. a la buena de Dios – without preparation, carelessly. Como no sabía coser, hizo el vestido a la buena de Dios.
2. como Dios le da a entender – without thinking a lot, using the basic [...]
October 27, 2008 – 10:58 am
Mario Benedetti was born in Uruguay and is not well known in the English-speaking world, but he is considered one of Latin America’s most important living writers. He lived in Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba and Spain from 1973 to 1985, during a military dictatorship in Uruguay. Nowadays he divides his time between Montevideo and Madrid.
Benedetti has [...]
October 23, 2008 – 11:00 am
Spanish has thousands of fixed expressions. I have chosen some adverbial phrases with the preposition “a” so you can see how colorful those expressions can be.
A ciegas - without thinking
A deshoras - at an inappropriate time
A diestro y siniestro - left and right
A duras penas - with difficulty
A fe mía - truthfully
A gatas - on [...]
October 20, 2008 – 10:55 am
Do you know the origin of the months of the year? In Ancient Rome there were only ten months in the calendar initially. That created a lack of alignment with real time, and artificial adjustments had to made every year. Eventually Julius Caesar supervised a reform of the calendar that took into consideration the four [...]
October 16, 2008 – 10:30 am
I came across these videos of a supposedly Mexican telenovela and it cracked me up! It’s called “the Mexican soap opera for people who only had three weeks of Spanish in the fourth grade”. If you know some Spanish you’re going to laugh your head off! Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WckCw_-7e3M
Nos vemos prontito.
October 13, 2008 – 9:42 am
Hello, there! A reader wrote asking whether road signs are different in Spanish speaking countries. It turns out that you probably won’t have too much difficulty with the signs because they use internationally recognized pictures or symbols. If you want to have a look at the international road signs, check this link: http://www.sitographics.com/enciclog/trafico/entrada.html. Speed [...]
