Abroad in Spain: Travel Blog

This Sunday I would like to tell you about another useful Spanish expression: mira a ver.  In a nutshell, this expression equates to something like “look and see” in English.  Let’s look at a sample dialogue:

Spanish husband: Cariño, ¿lo tienes todo?  No quiero tener que volver a casa a por algún artículo olvidado como la última vez.  (Honey, do you have everything?  I don’t want to have to come back home looking for some forgotten item like the last time.)

Spanish wife: Sí, creo que sí… pero, ¿dónde tengo el móvil?  (Yeah, I think so… but, where’s my cell phone?) 

Spanish husband: Pues no sé, ¿no lo habías metido en tu bolso?  Mira a ver….  (I don’t know, didn’t you put it in your purse?  Look and see….)

Spanish wife: Sí, tienes razón, aquí está.  (Yeah, you’re right, here it is.)

And that, my friends, is an explanation of this little “frase hecha.”  Continue reading this post…

In this edition of Spanish Sunday, I would like to explain the meaning of an expression used constantly by Spaniards: qué va.  It’s actually a really useful little expression used to strongly say “no” to something.  Loosely translated, you could say that qué va means something along the lines of “no way.”  Let’s look at this expression in a sample dialogue:

Random Spaniard: Chris, ¿tienes miedo de algo?  (Chris, are you afraid of something?)

 Me: ¿Miedo?  ¡Qué va!  Soy un hombre valiente y no tengo miedo de nada.  (Afraid?  No way!  I’m a brave guy and I’m not afraid of anything.)  Continue reading this post…

I’d like to take a moment to introduce you to a new feature of this site: Spanish Sunday.  You see, when I started this blog I had two big goals — the first was to make my readers aware of Spanish Culture and the second was to teach my readers a little bit about the Spanish Language.  Lately, I feel as though my blog has been heavy on the “culture” end of things and a little light on the “language” side, so that’s why I’m hoping to write one post a week –on Sundays– that has to do with teaching you some aspect of the Spanish language (hence the name “Spanish Sunday”).  Here is the first edition of “Spanish Sunday” which has to do with the names of the fingers in Spanish. 

Basically, the names of the fingers in the Spanish of Spain are as follows.  Starting with the thumb, we have the pulgar, índice, corazón, anular, and meñique.  All of these words are nouns and they are all masculine. 

To make things a little more clear, here’s a diagram I put together.  Continue reading this post…

There is more to learning a second language than simply memorizing grammar rules and vocabulary: you also need to practice and perfect your foreign language pronunciation in order to be easily understood. Most linguists agree that if you’ve started learning a second language after about seven years of age, you’ll probably never acquire truly native pronunciation; however, you can take steps to reduce your foreign accent so that you sound as native-like as possible. In this post, I’d like to list my five tips for making your Spanish accent sound more native-like.  Continue reading this post…

I thought I would write this post for those of you who want to learn more colloquial Spanish to tell you about an interesting word with a double meaning that is used often in Spain. The word is enchufe.

You see, enchufe literally refers to an electrical plug or socket; however, it is also used in Spain to refer to someone “on the inside” who pulls a few strings for you.  Continue reading this post…

A lot of my regular readers have asked me to recommend some books/tools that they may be able to use to help them hone and practice their Spanish skills. It is for that reason that I’d like to tell you about a great book entitled “The Ultimate Spanish Review and Practice” by Ronni L. Gordon and David M. Stillman.

I purchased this book after completing four years of high school Spanish to review what I had learned over the past four years. I more or less felt as though I already had a good understanding of basic grammar; however, I wanted to “revisit” some of the things that I had learned and go more “in-depth” with the language. Over the summer between my high school graduation and my first year at college, I read this book cover-to-cover and, by the time I entered college in the fall as a Spanish major, this book had put me light-years ahead of my peers.  Continue reading this post…