The Spanish verb vencer probably had its start as a military term to refer to the defeating of an enemy; the English word "vanquish" is related. These days, as explained in our newest lesson, on using vencer, it can refer to the overcoming of almost any obstacle or, surprisingly, the due date on a loan payment.

From the mailbox:

Can you tell me when the word alto began being used to mean "stop"? And where did it originate? People I've talked to have no idea why alto means "stop." All that I can think of is the similarity to the German word Halt.

I've wondered the same thing. And according to the Spanish Royal Academy's dictionary, you're right! Alto with this meaning, very common on road signs, comes from the German Halt, which comes from the German verb halten, meaning to stop. Although the Academy provides the basic etymology of most words, it doesn't go into extensive detail or give a date of first use.

However, according to the Diccionario Etimológico, alto with the meaning of "stop" dates to the 15th century during the Italian wars, Read More...

As in English, the s of Spanish has two distinct sounds — a hiss (like the first "s" in "schism") and a buzz (kind of like the second "s" in "schism"). A big difference, though, is that in Spanish the s maintains its "hiss" when it is used to make words plural and loses it only when it comes before certain other sounds. So while the English word "nachos" and the Spanish nachos from which it is derived are spelled alike, the final sounds of the two are different. You can learn more about the s in our lesson on pronouncing the s, one in our series on Spanish pronunciation.

Prefixes are those (usually) short pieces of words that we use to change the meanings of other words. For example, "pre-" is a prefix usually meaning "before" — as in "prewash" (prelavar in Spanish), to wash before, and "preregister" (preinscribirse), to register before. Fortunately, learning the prefixes of Spanish is easy, because nearly all the common ones are the same as or very similar to their English counterparts.