Univision joins Nielsen ratings
Wednesday December 21, 2005
Univision, the largest Spanish-language TV network in the United States, will be included in the influential Nielsen ratings for the first time starting the day after Christmas, the network and ... Read More
Prueba tu conocimiento
Tuesday December 20, 2005
How well do you know the words of the Christmas season? Find out by taking this self-scoring test. ¡Buena suerte! Take the test...
What is etymology?
Monday December 19, 2005
If you guessed that etymology has something to do with insects, you were thinking of entomology. To find out about entomology, please visit About's Animals and Wildlife site. To find ... Read More
Splitting verbs not common in Spanish
Sunday December 18, 2005
In English, it is common to separate an auxilary verb from the main verb, as in the sentence "I have already finished the book," where "easily" separates "have" and "finished." ... Read More
Spanish is a great language, isn't it?
Saturday December 17, 2005
The last two words in the headline above are what is known as a tag question, and they exist in Spanish too, ¿no? This in our grammar glossary explains what ... Read More
Statements of opinion and the subjunctive mood
Friday December 16, 2005
The subjunctive mood in Spanish is used after statements of doubt. Thus the subjunctive is used in "dudo que haga frío (I doubt it is cold, where haga is in ... Read More
¿Por qué? Why? ¡Porque! Because!
Wednesday December 14, 2005
Por qué and porque have obvious similarities and are easy to confuse. Throw por que and porqué in the mix, and the situation becomes even more confusing. Here's a guide ... Read More
Jesús en pesebre, the children's favorite Christmas hymn
Tuesday December 13, 2005
As is befitting a children's song, the Spanish translation of "Away in a Manger" has easier grammar and vocabulary than many of the other Christmas carols that we've analyzed in ... Read More
Uncountable or mass nouns
Monday December 12, 2005
All sorts of nouns represent things that can be counted — houses, cars, Spanish lessons. But some nouns, even though they represent things, refer to things that exist as a ... Read More
Idiomatic uses of tener
Sunday December 11, 2005
Tener is one of those verbs that has many idiomatic uses, such as tener hambre (to be hungry) and tener prisa (to be in a hurry). So many uses does ... Read More
What do llevar, aceptar and suscribirse have in common?
Saturday December 10, 2005
The English verb "taking" doesn't have the same meaning in a sentence such as "I'm taking the bus" as it does in "he's taking the book." So it shouldn't be ... Read More
Progressive verb forms
Saturday December 10, 2005
If you're like most English speakers, you're using progressive verb forms quite often in your speech. But you should be avoiding the temptation to do the same in Spanish. Here's ... Read More
Not all accent marks are created equal
Friday December 9, 2005
Usually, accent marks are placed over vowels to indicate which syllable of a word gets the most stress. But there are some accent marks that don't have anything to do ... Read More
Venid, adoremos, the annotated version
Thursday December 8, 2005
If you're a Spanish teacher, have you looked at any of our annotated Christmas carols? This week, the Spanish version of "O Come All Ye Faithful" has become the third ... Read More
Asking questions
Wednesday December 7, 2005
Questions in Spanish have some similarities to questions in English: They often use a different word order than other types of sentences, and they often begin with a special type ... Read More
How many?
Tuesday December 6, 2005
If you aren't using an exact number to describe a quantity of something, you're probably using an adjective such as pocos or muchas. Learn how these adjectives are used in ... Read More
Prepositions following hablar
Monday December 5, 2005
Knowing which prepositition to use after a given verb is sometimes as important as knowing the verb itself. The rules for which preposition to use aren't always self-evident. Hablar, to ... Read More
Here's something about Spanish that's perfect
Sunday December 4, 2005
Spanish has seven types of perfect verbs (although one type is nearly obsolete and is found mostly in literature). But just because those verbs are perfect doesn't mean the others ... Read More
Good, better, best
Sunday December 4, 2005
If you known your adjectives, you already know how to say someone is happy, sad or rich. In this lesson, you can learn how to say someone is happier, sadder ... Read More
Collectively speaking
Sunday December 4, 2005
Many times it makes more sense to refer to groups of people or things rather than the individual items of persons. To do that, we often use collective nouns. They're ... Read More
Flexible verb
Saturday December 3, 2005
Quedar is one of those verbs that seems like it can mean just about anything, depending on how it is used. Although dictionaries often give the meaning as "to stay" ... Read More
Referring to decades
Saturday December 3, 2005
The most common way of referring to decades in Spanish is using the form los años ochenta for the '80s and los años cincuenta for the '50s. But there are ... Read More
Four-letter words of Spanish
Friday December 2, 2005
No, we aren't talking about those words avoided in polite society. This month's collection of words for our Word of the Day minilesson are all words that each have four ... Read More
And the most popular Spanish-language movie is ...
Thursday December 1, 2005
Are you a fan of Spanish-language films? Or are you looking for a gift for someone who is? You can hardly go wrong with our list of the 10 most ... Read More