Category Archives: Vocabulary

Feeling good?

30
Sep
2008

Hello everybody! Feeling good today? Well, I’m feeling wonderful posting a brand new tip so you can improve your Spanish. Talking about feelings, translating the verb to feel into Spanish can be a tricky business. Let’s check out how some common sentences with feel in English are translated into Spanish:
1. Feeling an emotion.
Me siento muy [...]

By adir ferreira | Also posted in Language | Comments (1)

Color…ish!

22
Sep
2008

Spanish has a particular way of saying the …ish suffix when referring to colors, like whiteish, greenish, blueish, greyish, etc. The adjectives are derived in several different ways. Check it out!
Blanco (white) - blanquecino/blancuzco
Rojo (red) - rojizo
Azul (blue) - azuláceo/azulino
Amarillo (yellow) - amarillento
Negro (black) - negruzco
Verde (green) - verdusco/verdoso
Gris (grey) - grisáceo
Rosa (pink) [...]

By adir ferreira | Also posted in Language | Comments (2)

By the way…

19
Sep
2008

By the way, examples of afterthoughts in Spanish.

By adir ferreira | Also posted in Culture, Language | Comments (0)

Greetings

15
Sep
2008

Hello, everybody! Let’s learn (or review) some of the most common greetings in Spanish:
Hola - Hello, Hi
Hola, aló, bueno, diga, dígame - Hello (on the telephone)
Adiós - Goodbye/ Chao, Chau (informal, from italian “Ciao”)
Hasta luego - See you later
Hasta pronto - See you soon
¿Cómo estás? / ¿Cómo está? - How are you? (The [...]

By adir ferreira | Also posted in Culture, Grammar, Holidays, Language, Literature | Comments (0)

Mi vida loca

8
Sep
2008

I’m a helpless internet addict and as a teacher I’m always looking for alternatives to supplement my classes. While surfing the web, I came across this course, by BBC Online, called Mi Vida Loca. It’s a mystery series and it has tons of audio, video and explanations both in English and in Spanish. There are [...]

By adir ferreira | Also posted in Culture, Entertainment, Grammar, Language, Links, Pronunciation | Comments (1)

Ask away!

5
Sep
2008

Expressions with ask.

By adir ferreira | Also posted in Language | Comments (2)

Expressions with Take

11
Aug
2008

Whenever I teach my students vocabulary, I always tell them to take notes using real and meaningful examples and to learn fixed expressions. Let’s take for example the verb “to take”. If we look it up in an English-Spanish dictionary, dozens of entries will crop up and if we´re not very familiar with the language [...]

By adir ferreira | Also posted in Language | Comments (0)

False Friends

4
Aug
2008

English and Spanish have many similarities, but sometimes what could be helpful ends up getting in the way. That’s the case of some words called “false friends”. They are pairs of words from different languages that look or sound similar, but are actually different in meaning. If students rely on the similarity and use the [...]

By adir ferreira | Also posted in Language | Comments (0)

Elections en español

15
Jul
2008

US elections are around the corner and candidates are doing their best to get votes from the ever-growing Latin communities.  John McCain  www.johnmccain.com/espanol and Barack Obama www.barackobama.com/espanol have Spanish versions of their websites with lots of useful information. In case your Spanish is a little rusty, here’s a list of some handy political vocabulary.
apoyar – [...]

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Vegetables

5
Jul
2008

OK, so your mom always told you: “Eat your vegetables, theyre good for you!”; and guess what? She was right! Heres a list of some common verduras in Spanish.
artichoke — la alcachofa
asparagus — el espárrago, los espárragos
avocado — el aguacate, la palta
bean — la judía, la haba, la habichuela, el frijol
beet — la remolacha
broccoli — [...]

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