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    Entender Vs. Comprender

      Entender and comprender both mean to understand. Although comprender is very popular among students, natives don’t use it as much. The reason comprender is so popular among beginner students and tourists is that comprender is a regular verb so it’s taught before entender, which is a stem-changing verb. Many students quit Spanish before even […] More

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    Habemos, from hay. There are (including myself).

      Hay in Spanish means there is, there are, is there?, are there?.  Hay should always be singular. Hay, Había, habrá, ha habido, etc.  In spite of that, in Mexico and other countries it’s common to use a conjugation of haber that does not officially exist in Spanish: habemos. Latin American presidents often use this […] More

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    Árboles frutales (fruit trees)

    Many fruits in Spanish have different names in different countries. One example is banana, in Mexico and Spain it’s called plátano, but in other countries, it’s called banana. This is a sample list of fruit tree names in Spanish. If you pay attention, very often, the tree’s name of a fruit with a femenine noun, […] More

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    R and RR can make a big difference!

    You have to be careful with R and RR, not only spelling words, but also pronouncing them! Here are some examples:   with R meaning with RR meaning ahora now ahorra save (money, time) from ahorrar. boro boron (Chem.) borro I erase, I delete. From borrar. caro expensive carro car cero zero cerro mount, hill […] More

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    Spanish verb tenses terminology

    In English, you say present perfect, but in Spanish we say pretérito perfecto, antepresente, and in the U. S. people also call it presente perfecto, These differences happen usually between Latin America and Spain, and sometimes between schools, like instituto Cervantes and Columbia or NYU. Here is a table showing these name differences. Example English […] More

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    El cumpleaños

    El cumpleaños There are many compound nouns in Spanish that are formed by a verb and a noun. Their noun component is usually plural, so it ends in “s,” but their overall grammatical number is singular. Examples of these words are: El cumpleaños, birthday, formed together with the verb cumplir, to fulfill, to accomplish, to […] More

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    White and Black

    There are many standard expressions in Spanish and English that are exactly the same but reversed. Here are some of them: tarde o temprano, sooner or later (lit: later or sooner) sano y salvo, safe and sound (lit: sound and safe) tenedor y cuchillo, knife and fork  (lit: fork and knife) vivo o muerto, dead or alive […] More

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    El Hombre Araña

      Nouns modifying nouns are common in English, but in Spanish we normally use adjectives to modify them. As a general rule, nouns modify other nouns in Spanish only by means of the preposition de. Examples: hoja de papel, sheet of paper, mesa de madera, wooden table, collar de perlas, pearl necklace. Still, we can […] More

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    Re-, rete-, requete-, archi-, recontra-, super-, hiper-, ultra-

    Re-, rete-, requete-, archi-, recontra-, super-, hiper-, ultra- In conversational Mexican Spanish, it’s common to hear the prefixes re-, rete-, and requete-, which intensify the corresponding adjective or adverb to different degrees: feliz happy refeliz very happy retefeliz very very happy requetefeliz extremely happy rápido fast reterrápido very very fast requeterrápido extremely fast If it’s […] More

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    Carnes frías. 10 expressions that are not so easy to figure out (22)

    10 expressions that are not so easy to figure out (22) Here are 10 common random idioms you may have trouble with if you hear them for the first time: Expression Approximate literal translation (what you might think you actually heard) Explanation Cable de la luz What? cable of the light? power cord, power line […] More

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    Actually.

    Actually, remember this please English native speakers who are learning almost any other language, including Spanish, please watch out. Your word actual has a very different meaning in almost any other language. Spanish actual current, up-to-the-minute, happening at this time Portuguese atual current, up-to-the-minute, happening at this time French actuel current, up-to-the-minute, happening at this […] More

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    El agua, las aguas.

      El agua, las aguas. Many students (and natives) wonder why we say el agua (water), but in plural we say las aguas (waters). Agua is a feminine noun, and yet, we say el agua, so most people think we should say la agua instead. Most feminine nouns beginning with a stressed a sound (including […] More

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