Whether it's coincidence or linguistic forces at work, I found it surprising as I prepared a new lesson on caer much the figurative meanings of the verbs "to fall" in English and caer in Spanish coincide. In both languages, for example, it is possible to fall into temptation (caer en tentación) and to fall into a trap (caer en trampa). Read the lesson, however, and you'll find there are a few meanings of caer that aren't translated to English so neatly using "fall."

Once you get beyond the beginner's stage of learning Spanish, one of the more challenge aspects of mastering the language is learning to use the subjunctive mood — a verb form that is uncommon in English but essential to Spanish. With that in mind, updated and improved lessons on the subjunctive will appear on this site over the next few weeks, starting with a lesson on when to use the subjunctive.

Beginning Spanish students are often told that the L of Spanish is pronounced pretty much like it is in English. But that isn't necessarily true. While the English word "low" and the Spanish lo are pronounced very much alike, "tall" and tal are not. Although you may not have noticed, English has two "L" sounds that are quite different — and, as explained in our new lesson on pronouncing the L, only one of them is used in Spanish.

If you a Spanish teacher in the United States — or if you're an aficionado/a of the holiday — you may find useful these lessons and other resources related to Thanksgiving:

• Thanksgiving Spanish vocabulary
• Quick Spanish vocabulary quiz
• Gracia
• How to say thanks in Spanish
• Football vocabulary (and we're not talking soccer)
• Parents, cousins and other relatives