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
This is how Romance people say everybody: language the world all the world = everybody Spanish el mundo todo el mundo French le monde tout le monde Portuguese o mondo todo o mundo Romanian lumea (the definite article is indicated at the end, “lume+a” in this case). toată lumea Italian il mondo tutto il mondo […] More
Warning: this article contains a couple of raunchy words. As you can see in some of the examples below, you have to be very careful when saying some of these words. It’s similar to the common pronunciation mistake of Spanish-speaking people trying to say beach, but ending up sounding like bitch. Something similar could happen […] More
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 querer decir to want to say to mean. ¿Qué quieres decir? : what do you mean? en mi vida in my life never, never […] More
This was an AT&T commercial on the Spanish television in the United States that we had to watch many times a day for months. My students at that time asked me to explain to them what this singer was saying. Paulina Rubio singing Causa y Efecto, the song on the AT&T […] More
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
This Charlie Chaplin movie, The Pilgrim, was made nearly a century ago, in 1923. It was not really made in Mexico, but more north in a California movie studio. In this scene, Charlie Chaplin is deported to Mexico. Charlie Chaplin really traveled in Mexico. He married 16 year-old Lita Gray, who had […] More
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
