Category Archives: Vocabulary

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 [...]

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Ask away!

5
Sep
2008

Expressions with ask.

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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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Idioms with Bread

2
Jul
2008

The word bread (pan) is the source of several idioms and expressions.
Contigo, pan y cebolla – We shall live on love alone.
Para casarse se necesitan muchas cosas, no sólo decir que contigo pan y cebolla.

Llamar al pan pan y al vino, vino. – to call a spade a spade.
Voy a hablarte claro, porque al pan, [...]

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Body idioms II

30
Jun
2008

We’re back with the second part of body idioms. This post will be totally dedicated to la cabeza (the head). Check it out!
1. ser la cabeza pensante – to be the brains. (Es la cabeza pensante de la banda. – He’s the brains of the band.)
2. tener la cabeza dura – to be stubborn, obstinate [...]

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Chilean Spanish

26
Jun
2008

I went to high school with two Chilean kids and one year I spent Christmas Eve with their families. I ended up learning some Chilean Spanish expressions. Here are some interesting ones:
¿Cachai? – Do you understand? Get it?
Agarrar p’al hueveo/leseo/chuleteo – make fun of someone
Al tiro – right away, immediately
Año de la pera – many, [...]

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Expressions with TOMAR

20
Jun
2008

Tomar is a very common verb in Spanish. Here are some uses and expressions with it.
1. to take
Tomó el libro en las manos. – He took the book in his hands.
El camarero no ha querido tomar la propina que le daba. – The waiter didn’t want to take the tip he was being given.
He tomado [...]

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