¿Gorra o gorro? Posted by Adir on Dec 12, 2008
Because of its distinctive gender endings, Spanish does not have many words with the same form but different meanings (true homonyms). However, there are many pairs of words distinguished only by the –o and -a (and sometimes also -e) endings which are easily confused. These are known as gender paronyms. Here are some examples: el…
One word, many meanings Posted by Adir on 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…
Idioms with “Hacer” Posted by Adir on 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.)…
Why oh why? Posted by Adir on 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…
Latin music: Marc Anthony Posted by Adir on Nov 24, 2008
Marc Anthony (Marco Antonio Muñiz) was born in New York, in 1968. Born to Puerto Rican parents, Latin music was always present in Marc’s life. Singer Paul Simon was the one who helped him kick off his career by casting him to be the leading man in the musical “The Capeman” (1998). He started as…
Special adjectives Posted by Adir on Nov 20, 2008
The following list of adjectives is special because they don’t follow the regular “-o” and “-a” endings for masculine and feminine forms, respectively; they have only one form for both genders. Check it out. egoísta – selfish materialista – materialistic optimista – optimistic pesimista – pessimistic realista – realistic alegre – happy amable – kind…
The Subjunctive II: Irregular Verbs Forms Posted by Adir on Nov 17, 2008
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…