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A Practical Guide to the Coronavirus Pandemic in Spanish Posted by Anais on Apr 30, 2020
If you have been reading some of my previous posts, you may be familiar with the most popular newspapers in Spanish and practiced your language skills by checking them daily. Another thing you have surely noticed is that coronavirus has been the main subject on all media since months. In this post, you will find…
Recipe of Venezuelan cachitos de jamón Posted by Anais on Apr 23, 2020
At these times of uncertainty and self-isolation, many people have discovered new passions to keep them busy, and making your own bread has become a new trend—if social media is to be believed. Now, if you want to go the extra mile on the art of bread making, you can try this recipe that I…
Spanish false friends to avoid at all costs! Posted by Anais on Mar 30, 2020
What is a false friend? No, it is not exactly that lousy fellow from your neighborhood. We are talking here about a false cognate. But what is a cognate? Well, a cognate is a word that is not only written practically the same, but also has the same meaning as in another language. For instance…
Spanish: A Language with carácter (Part 3) Posted by Anais on Mar 16, 2020
Welcome to the third and last part of this blog post, where we are getting to know better the special marks that make Spanish stand out from other languages. The acento agudo (acute accent) will be reappearing to explain its second most important use, as well as the opening question/exclamation marks. We are almost done!…
Spanish: A Language with carácter (Part 2) Posted by Anais on Feb 24, 2020
Welcome to the second part of this blog post, where we are delving into those special little marks that distinguish altogether Spanish from other languages. So, which other character grants la lengua de Cervantes its unique flavor? It is, of course, el acento agudo (the acute accent) and the accentuation principle. Let’s begin! Acento…
Spanish: A Language with carácter (Part 1) Posted by Anais on Feb 17, 2020
The Spanish language can be distinguished by many features: the way its words are formed, its sonority, its many regional varieties… But an easier way to recognize it among most other languages is its unique set of caracteres (written characters). Let’s make one thing clear: Spanish uses the Latin alphabet as well as English and…
The Neutral Accent in Spanish… Is it real? Posted by Anais on Jan 27, 2020
Admit it: You probably have tried to imitate the impeccable accent you have always been hearing on soap operas or TV series coming from the Spanish-speaking world, but you may have noticed it sounds very different from the language spoken elsewhere. Well, I congratulate you for using your TV as a learning tool—it is indeed…