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 ... Read More

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 ... Read More

There's no single way to translate the word "for" in time expressions such as "for one year." As explained in today's featured lesson, how you express that concept in Spanish ... Read More

To the casual observer, there isn't much difference in Spanish and English punctuation other than the use of the inverted question mark and exclamation point in Spanish. But there are ... Read More

The basic rule seems so simple: A singular noun takes a singular verb (such as es, tiene or estaba), while a plural noun takes a plural verb (such as son, ... Read More

One of the delights of studying another language is learning different ways of saying familiar things. For example, as explained in our new lesson on using "we" verbs, in English ... Read More

If you're a beginning Spanish student, you may have had it drilled into your head that descriptive adjectives come after the noun — so that phrases such as salsa verde ... Read More

Spanish has quite a few days of indicating who owns or is in possession of something. Among them are the use of possessive pronouns, explained in our most recently updated ... Read More

Unfortunately for those of us learning the language, there's more than one way to express fractions in Spanish. For example, to say "one-third," you can use una tercera parte or ... Read More

It's amazing what suffixes can do in Spanish. Take a simple word like papel, meaning "paper." With suffixes it can become: papela, identification card papeleo, paperwork papelero, paper (as an adjective) papelito, slip of ... Read More

Like many common verbs, volver has more than one meaning. Its most common meaning is "to return," but it can also mean to turn something, or even to ... Read More

One of the questions that frequently comes up are the differences between between varieties of Spanish in various regions. While the differences in the uses of vos and vosotros are ... Read More

What you know is important — and that's especially true with a verb such as conocer. Usually meaning "to know," conocer can be expanded in use by adding a prefix ... Read More

Of course, most Spanish words come from Latin. But many of them, 7,000 by one count, came originally from Arabic as a legacy of the Moorish invasion of 711 CE. ... Read More

Although we think of infinitives as being the "to" forms of verbs, so that salir, for example, means "to leave," that isn't always the way they're used in Spanish. For ... Read More

For those of us who started out our lives learning English, there are plenty of seeming simple words that can trip us up when we try to say them in ... Read More