Tag Archives: expressions
Baseball expressions in everyday Spanish Posted by Anais on Nov 19, 2018
Now that MLB’s winter season is here, the “Play ball!” shout can be heard from Central America to the north coast of South America, where béisbol (baseball) is eagerly followed by young and old alike since its introduction in that region in the 19th century. America’s old-time favorite sport is so much ingrained in the…
Mochileando para Aprender: Essential Spanish Travel Vocabulary Posted by Jakob Gibbons on Mar 7, 2016
It’s common sense: one of the easiest and most effective ways to learn a language is to travel to a country where it’s spoken. With a huge world language like Spanish, your opportunities are wide open. While Japanese learners are largely limited to a single island, aspiring Spanish speakers can backpack all the way from the Southwestern…
The Many Dialects of Spanish (and What They Mean for Language Learners) Posted by Jakob Gibbons on Feb 22, 2016
Ambitious language learners the world over are devoting hours and hours every week to learning Spanish, but most of them have never spared a thought for which Spanish. Last week we posted about European vs Latin American Spanish, but the differences don’t stop there. Spanish, like its distant cousin English, is a pluricentric language, meaning…
Mexican Spanish in 11 Phrases Posted by Jakob Gibbons on Sep 23, 2015
Many people immediately associate Spanish with its namesake country in Europe, but actually Mexico is by far the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world. Its more than hundred million inhabitants have taken this global language and in many ways made it their own: in Mexico, se habla mexicano. I recently spent about 8 months traveling…
“¿A que no hay huevos?” Spanish idioms with the word”huevos”. Posted by Magda on Dec 26, 2014
Hay algo fascinante en el lenguaje: cuanto más sabes, más te sorprende. Esto ocurre sobre todo con el vocabulario, y las expresiones idiomáticas. Una palabra que es una cosa cuando va sola, y cambia completamente de significado al aparecer en una frase hecha, o según el contexto. Hoy quiero compartir con vosotros los distintos usos…
Making polite requests in Spanish Posted by Magda on Mar 27, 2014
In Spanish, as well as in English, there are different ways of making requests or asking somebody to do something. They can be made in a direct way, as a command, which can be considered improper or too rude depending on the context, and in an indirect way. Polite requests are always correct, but more…
Formal and informal ways of saying “Goodbye” in Spanish Posted by Magda on Mar 18, 2014
Some posts ago we had a quick review on how saying “Hello” in Spanish, and now it is time to work on different ways of saying “Goodbye”. Remember that depending on the context and how close our relationship with the addressee is, the farewell will be different. If it is a friend or a relative…