Disclaimer: some of these words are really vulgar or rude, use at your own risk!
Tío/a = Dude [Tío, ¿qué dices?]
Pavo/a = Guy, girl [¿Quién es ese pavo?]
Ir a saco = Go all out, not beat about the bush [Este tío siempre va a saco con las mujeres, qué asco]
A tomar por saco / A tomar por culo = Fuck off [Vete a tomar por culo, eres un imbécil]
Pirarse = To leave [Me piro, que tengo muchas cosas por hacer / Pírate tío, no queremos que vengas con nosotros]
Pillar = To buy or To grab or To catch [Píllame una cerveza cuando te pases por el super, porfa // pilla tus cosas, nos piramos // creo que he pillado un resfriado]
Ser un/a cortado/a = To be a very shy and self-conscious person [al principio es muy cortado, pero cuando te pilla confianza no calla nunca]
Qué corte = It’s so embarrasing [qué corte, mis padres me han pillado mirando porno / joder, menudo corte me da hablar con esa chica]
Alucinar = It assumes the object you’re praising has had such an impact it is comparable to a hallucinogenic drug [Alucina, Cristina está embarazada / este coche es de alucine, tío]
Pasta = Money [Ojalá tuviese suficiente pasta para pillarme un coche nuevo]
Ser un cachondo = To be extroverted and funny [Javi es un cachondo, me cae muy bien] (it’s NOT the same as “estar cachondo, which means to be horny!)
De puta madre = Awesome, great [Esta comida está de puta madre]
Ni de coña = No way [Ni de coña me gasto 100 pavos en un regalo]
Acojonarse = To be scared [Estoy acojonado, ni de coña voy al cementerio de noche]
Estar depre = To be really sad [Está muy depre, debemos hacer algo para que se anime] (even though depre stands for depression, it doesn’t mean a literal depression)
Me parto = LOL [Me parto contigo, tío]
Me meo = LOL (too) [¡Ay que me meo!]
Ser buena gente = To be a good person [Es buena gente, puedes confiar en él]
Ni zorra = No idea [Ni zorra, tío]
Ni puta idea = No idea (too) [No tengo ni puta idea]
Camello = Drug trader [Ese tío es un camello muy famoso en el barrio]
Echar la pota/Potar = To throw up [Estoy muy taja, creo que voy a potar]
Estar como una cabra = Mad as hatter [Esta tía está como una cabra, me da miedo]
Let me give you some context for this phrase: my grandmother told me that her Andalusian grandma (who was always saying proverbios y refranes) used to say that someone who is in their 20s “está en edad de merecer.”
That was something that I’ve never heard, and I obviously had a really naughty thought (I think my great-great grandmother thought exactlythe same), but the DRAE’s definition is “época en que los jóvenes buscan mujer o marido” (time when young people seek wife or husband).
So now everytime someone is looking for a partner, I use this new expression. Thank you, grandma!
I know we all use WordReference for everything: it’s easy; it has everything we need (a really useful App that you can use anytime, a forum where you can ask for opinions, you have the conjugations and sometimes you have a synonymous dictionary, too!). But sometimes you need to be more precise with your definition, so you need to use other dictionaries or resources.
First of all, I don’t think you know what dictionary the interface Word Reference actually uses: for the Spanish monolingual dictionary they use Espasa-Calpe’s 2005 Diccionario de la lengua española, they use the same editorial house for their synonymous dictionary in Spanish (Diccionario de sinónimos y antónimos). Another great thing you can find in WordReference is that sometimes they have native’s audios (they have Central-North Spanish accent and Argentinian’s rioplatense accent right now).
But what if you need more recent definitions? In the past 10 years a lot of words have been added to different dictionaries (even RAE’s!), so I’m going to make a list of the most useful. I’m probably going to include some other resources, such as corpuses and conjugators.
There are two interfaces that use DRAE: GoodRAE (where you can search words from the definition) and diRAE (where you can be more specific about your research)
Diccionario panhispánico de dudas de la RAE – you can use this one when you have any doubts about a word or a concept: you can search ‘yeísmo’ and it shows a more complete definition than the one in the DRAE, or you can search a loanword such as ‘zapping’ and it will give you the preferable word in Spanish (in this case, ‘zapeo’), this is from 2005.
Diccionario Salamanca de la Lengua Española de Santillana – from 1996, there are some words that don’t exist in this dictionary, although it’s a good resource because it shows when you have to use certain words, or some phrases you can use.
Diccionario Larousse – from 2012, it shows the origin of the word, an example of the word used in a sentence and some synonymous.
In diccionarios.com you also have an English-Spanish dictionary and a French-Spanish one, too. There are other kinds of dictionaries in Spanish, but you’ll have to pay.
Wikcionario – just like Wikipedia, you need to know that anybody can edit the content
These are some of my favorite bands, artists and songs in Spanish. I’ve seen a couple of lists like these going around but I thought I’d make my own, too. These songs are not necessarily to study Spanish but you could always print out the lyrics and learn new vocab or expressions. I tried to include artists from different Spanish speaking countries, mostly Latin America, and different genres. I also included a Spotify link to the artist if you wanna listen to more of their work. Feel free to add more or tell me what you think of some of these!
Hi guys, today I came here to show you a photo of @begy_dlp ❤️ This beautiful couple are her grandparents Ramona e Carlos in the day of their wedding! She was 20 years old and he was 21. This photo was taken in 1922 or 23 at Madrid, Spain. Your grandmother was so beautiful! #history #historia #história #storia #istoria #histoire #historie #vintage #antique #antiquephoto #photo #photooftheday #ancestors #ancestry #heritage #geschichte #istorie #Tarih #family #1920s #madrid #spain #spanish #fashionhistory #fashion #20thcenturyfashion #wedding #loveyourancestors #love #grandparents https://www.instagram.com/p/B91__8oHZ8x/?igshid=16jkvhokjbupy
This photograph its amazing! I found it on Pinterest! These two hardworking women are from coruña, Spain and they are carrying salt with her heads, May, 21 1917. Photographer: Georges Chevalier When I see woman like them, I remember the washers. The washers were women who went almost everyday washed their family’s clothes in the river or in some tank with water. Source:http://elpaisajecontemporaneo.blogspot.com/2018/03/coleccion-fotografica-online-del-museo.html?m=1 #history #historia #história #storia #istoria #histoire #historie #1917 #may #antique #antiquephoto #photo #photooftheday #historyinpictures #historyinphotos #coruña #spain #spanish #españa #salt #workers #women #geschichte #istorie #pic #old #colorizedphoto #past #memory #fashionhistory https://www.instagram.com/p/B9pornkHWB0/?igshid=yqc46yib6hj6
I took the list from funwithlanguageswhen I started learning spanish and added the spanish equivalents bit by bit as I learned them through Duolingo, Memriseand other sources.
the, a (technically articles) - el(masculine) & la (feminine) // un (masculine) & una(feminine)
this - esto
that - eso
good - bueno
bad -malo
all -todo
no - ninguno
many - mucho
few -poco
other - otro
same - mismo
different - diferente
enough - suficiente
one -uno
two -dos
first - primero
next - próximo
last (meaning “past”, e.g. “last Friday”) -pasado
last (meaning “final”) - último
easy -fácil
hard - difícil
early - temprano
late - tarde
important - importante
interesting - interesante
fun - divertido
boring - aburrido
beautiful - bonito
big - grande
small -pequeño
happy - feliz
sad -triste
busy - ocupado
excited - emocionado
tired - cansado
ready -listo
favorite - favorito
new - nuevo
right (meaning “correct”) - correcto
wrong - equivocado
true - cierto
Pronouns
Know them in the subject (“I”), direct object (“me”), indirect object (“to me”), and possessive (“my”) forms.
I - yo
you - tú
she - ella
he - él
usted = formal you
we - nosotros(all men/men & women) / nosotras (only women)
you (plural) - vosotros (all men/ men & women) /vosotras(only women)
they - ellos(all men/men & women) /ellas (only women) / ustedes(formal you plural)
Nouns
If your language has grammatical gender, then learn each noun as “the [noun]” with “the” in the correct gender. (e.g. in Spanish, instead of learning language = “idioma”, learn language = “el idioma”.) This will help you remember the gender.
everything - todo
something - algo
nothing -nada
everyone - todos
someone - alguien
no one - nadie
Spanish - el español
English - el inglés
thing - la cosa
person - la persona
place - el lugar
time (as in “a long time”) - el tiempo
time (as in “I did it 3 times”) - una vez
friend - el amigo
woman - la mujer
man - el hombre
money - el dinero
country - el país
(name of your home country; germany) - Alemania
city - la ciudad
language - el idioma
word - la palabra
food - la comida
house - la casa
store - la tienda
office - la oficina
manager - el jefe
job - el trabajo
work (as in “I have a lot of work to do”) - trabajo
problem - el problema
question - la pregunta
idea - la idea
life - la vida
world - el mundo
day - el día
year - el año
week - la semana
month - el mes
hour - la hora
mother, father, parent - la madre, el padre, el padre
Why does my ability to speak Spanish disappear in Spanish class? Like, I’m fluent in normal circumstances and then my teacher asks me a a question and it’s just ningún pensamiento, cerebro vacío
anotarse : annotate, but it also can mean “being up for something” (ex: esta noche voy al cine, te apuntes?) trad: tonight i am going to the cinema, are you up for it?
trastornar : upset
huir : escape
pretexto: excuse
alejar : get away
consternado: worried
averiguar: figure out
echar la bronca: telling someone off
A mí me la suda : idiomatic expression that means : i don’t give a fuck (Spain)
my boyfriend found me an online copy of GENKI 1 im so excited to start!!
I’m also studying Spanish.
If anybody wants to talk about these languages send me a message!! I’m also on tandem and you guys can find me on duolingo at cestfallon - I just started the Japanese language tree (:
I’m also living in Paris and still improving my French but I don’t study it really anymore so if you guys want to talk about this or speak French that works too!!
I am sorry it’s been like a long while since I’ve been on here. I was kinda going through a tough time emotionally and mentally and you know…ended up spending the majority of my free time in bed watching useless youtube videos. Thankfully I managed to pull myself out of it yesterday and released that NOT doing anything in my free time is only making me feel worse. So I guess I am writing this so that I feel like I have committed to trying harder. I really need to reintegrate languages into my day to day life. Now that I am working a full-time job it’s a bit harder but I’ll find a way. My biggest struggle right now is that I am mixing everything because I moved from Brasil basically straight to Paris so my brain wants to answer in Portuguese every time someone speaks French and on top of that I have 3 other interns on my team right now that speak Spanish and the office language is English. So the terrifying conclusion: all my romance languages are deteriorating and slowly turning into one jumbled mess. HELP!
I’ll update soon with a plan on how I plan to integrate my languages into my everyday life (mostly French, and Spanish and Portuguese).
If you have any tips on how to fit languages into a busy schedule or about Paris let me know! Thanks
Do any fellow native English speakers get really worried about messing up the formal/informal you distinction in most languages?
Like generally I get it, but my brain is like “well what if you meet someone for the first time but they’re you’re age but they may be a year older than you but they might also be younger” like sis calm down
does anyone else find their grammar getting worse in their native language as they learn more languages?
for example, i’ve always known the difference between their/there/they’re, and i’ve never really understood how people could mix them up, but now i find myself making typos all the time mixing those up even though i know the difference??
