Spanish Language December 2012 Archive

If you're like many English speakers, sometime tonight or in the first hours of 2013 you'll either sing or hear the classic New Year's song Auld Lang Syne. If you ... Read More

Corte de apelaciones, medidas de fuerza, costas de Brasil, canciones de amor and incendio de un avión. What do these phrases have in common? Aside from the fact that they ... Read More

All languages in everyday use are changing constantly, and one of the most marked changes in Spanish in recent years has been the expansion of its vocabulary, much of that ... Read More

If you're a beginning Spanish student, you learn fairly early about a verb's properties such as tense (past, present, future and variations thereof), its person (first, second or third) and ... Read More

This evening and Tuesday, believers and their friends throughout the world celebrate a miracle — for Christians, Christmas marks the mortal birth of the Baby-God. Despite the secularization of the ... Read More

One problem that some people face when learning a foreign language is that when they try to read (or listen to) something a bit above their knowledge level, they quickly ... Read More

One Spanish-language film, Chile's No, has made the shortlist of nine films eligible to be among the five nominated early next year for the Oscars' best foreign-language film. Even beginning Spanish ... Read More

The differences between the two Spanish verbs for "to be," estar and ser, can be difficult to grasp for some people who are new to learning Spanish. Spanish speakers think ... Read More

Here's an interesting etymological tidbit I just discovered: Despite their vastly different meanings, there's a connection between the words "monster" and "demonstration": Both come from a Latin family of words ... Read More

The Spanish verb reconocer, obviously derived from conocer, has at least three common meanings. Fortunately, they correspond fairly well common meanings of the English cognate, "recognize." In our lesson on ... Read More

A down pillow has nothing to do with looking down, and neither of them has anything to do with a down payment. Obviously, "down" is a word of many meanings ... Read More

Jenni Rivera, known in Spanish as la diva de la banda (the diva of banda) for her stellar performances in that style of regional Mexican music, will be remembered not ... Read More

While the "must" in the sentence "You must study hard" is used to tell you what you should be doing, the "must" in "You must be kidding" suggests that a ... Read More

From the mailbox: After reading your explanation on the use of "it" in Spanish, I saw this expression on a Spanish-language website advertising a women's tennis tournament: Lo mejor está por llegar. I ... Read More

The Jewish celebration of Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, begins at sundown tonight. Although it isn't the biggest event on the Jewish calendar, it nonetheless is connected ... Read More

Yes, you could translate servir as "serve" most of the time and be understood. But usually this Spanish verb is used to indicate that someone or something is suitable or ... Read More

If you can count to 29 in Spanish, you can learn to tell time. Then if you want to sound friendly, you can learn a few time-related greetings such as ... Read More

As you travel around the Spanish-speaking world, chances are that you'll frequently be asked about your family. Even if you're new to Spanish, you can learn how to refer to ... Read More