Most of the words we think of as pronouns — words such as "she" and "that" in English, ella and ese in Spanish — refer to a particular person or thing (or more than one). But that's not always true, as our updated lesson on indefinite pronouns shows. Words like qualquiera (anyone) and algo (something) are usually pronouns too, even though they don't refer to any particular person or thing.

Although ser and estar both mean "to be," to the native Spanish speaker they don't mean the same thing. As a result, at least for those who start out knowing English, some adjectives can change in meaning depending on whether they're used with ser or estar, as explained in our new lesson on using adjectives with ser and estar.

Michael Jackson recorded at least one song in Spanish — and his pronunciation is flawless.

For a 2001 special edition of his "Bad" album, Jackson recorded "Todo mi amor eres tú," a translated version of his hit "I Just Can't Stop Loving You." He performed it as a duet with Siedah Garrett.

According to Univision, Jackson developed the Spanish version in cooperation with Rubén Blades, the Panamanian salsa star. Read more...

From the mailbox:

I am confused about the proper tenses to use in reporting indirect speech. If I use one of the so-called "reporting verbs" (afirmar, añadir, contestar, declarar, decir, explicar, insistir, preguntar, pretender, proclamar, sostener) in the main clause and que to introduce the dependent clause, what tense should I use in the dependent clause when the main clause verb is in a past tense? Either the imperfect subjunctive or conditional? Always one of these two?

Fortunately, the answer is simpler than you suppose. Read more...

Despite likely biases, the Spanish-language media of Honduras continue to be the most reliable sources of information about the political situation in Honduras. The situation today remains fluid: Ousted President Manuel "Mel" Zelaya has threatened to return to Tegucigalpa, but, at least according to Honduran media reports, his plan has been refused landing permission.

To learn more about developments (in English), check out these other About.com resources:

• Christopher Minster's Latin American History blog is closely tracking developments. Also read his biography of Manuel Zelaya for insight on how the current situation came to be.
• Bridget Johnson's World News blog also has provided some coverage.
• Kirsten Hubbard's Central America travel site has kept watch over how the political developments have affected tourism.

Name a rule of Spanish grammar, and chances are you can come up with an exception — even the rule that says nouns are either masculine or feminine. While that's nearly always true, there are a few words that you'll hear used both ways. You'll hear both el Internet and la Internet for example, and even a very common word such as azúcar (sugar) is sometimes used as feminine and sometimes as masculine (white sugar can be either azúcar blanca or azúcar blanco). While researching for the lesson on ambiguous gender, I even came across real-life references to el azúcar refinada — figure that one out!

If you're new to Spanish and the matter of verb conjugation, chances are that the first conjugation set you learned was that of the present tense indicative. A good second conjugation to learn is that of the imperfect indicative: It's an easy form to learn, few verbs are irregular in that tense, and it's quite commonly used.

It would be hard to come up with a more dramatic political turn of events than has taken place in Honduras this week — and if you know Spanish, the Honduran news media are providing a fascinating look at the politics, passions and intrigue that surround Sunday's coup and its aftermath.

The best Spanish-language Honduran sources for news of developments include these:

• El Heraldo.hn, a typical online newspaper from Tegucigalpa, the nation's capital.
• Tiempo.hn, from San Pedro Sula, Honduras' industrial capital. This is a great site for pictures, plus you can view the full print edition.
• La Prensa.hn, also from San Pedro Sula. Along with quality video, this news source comes with a clear point of view: "No al chavismo", claman miles de hondureños, reads the current headline. "No to Chavism, thousands of Hondurans cry out," a reference to Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez.

If you can pay attention to cognates and are aware of the basic background of developments, you might be able to understand much of the gist of the articles with a basic knowledge of Spanish. Read more...

Just because the dictionary might tell you what a Spanish word means doesn't mean you can always translate it that way and still sound like you're speaking natural English. For example, seguir typically carries the idea of "to continue." So you could try translating "Siguen sin pagarme" as "They continue without paying me." But there's a more natural way of getting that idea across, as our lesson on seguir shows.

It's fairly obvious that the word "count" in the sentence "I can count on you," and the word "count" in "I can count with my fingers" don't mean the same thing. The same is true with the Spanish equivalents for the verb contar: "Puedo contar contigo" and "Puedo contar con los dedos." And as our new lesson on contar explains, contar also has some other meanings that "count" doesn't have.