In previous posts we have learnt about the “Pretérito Perfecto”, the “Imperfecto” and the “Indefinido”. In this post we are going to learn how to form and use the “Pluscuamperfecto”, the last of the past tenses in Spanish. In a next post we will learn how to use all the […]
Probably the majority of you, blog readers and language learners, already know, heard of, or even used one or both of the language learning platforms: Duolingo and Rosetta Stone. The motivation of this post is personal experience and a recurrent flow of students coming to my arms, back to “traditional” […]
In today’s post, you will learn how to translate the verb “to advise” in Spanish. This is a false friend in Spanish because the meaning of “to advise” has nothing to do with “avisar”. To advise: ‘aconsejar, asesorar’ Avisar: ‘to notify, to warn, to call’ Not the same, are they? […]
A few days ago, a follower of my Facebook page asked me for help with his personal nightmare in Spanish. For him, the irregular verbs in the Pretérito Indefinido (Past Tense) were just something he couldn’t understand, so he wrote me a few lines asking me for some tips. As […]
As you all know, all nouns in Spanish have a genre, they are masculine or feminine. The main trait to distinguish if a word is masculine or female is by the ending. If the word ends by -o is masculine and if it ends by -a is feminine, although there […]
Last week, a friend and I launched Mucha Guasa (‘Much Banter’) an educational page intending to teach Spanish in a fun way. A daily video of my friend singing or performing a line from a song or a movie translated into Spanish, which you, my dear Spanish lovers / learners can […]
In this short post you will learn how to translate the verb “to realize” in Spanish. This is a false friend in Spanish, because we have the verb “realizar” but it’s nothing alike “to realize”. To realize ➠ ‘darse cuenta’ Realizar ➠ ‘to make, accomplish’ See? Not the same. Now, look […]
Suggest plans How useful is it to find the ways to propose, accept and refuse plans? In this post you will learn how to do exactly that. There are several ways of suggesting plans. Here I’ll show you few: – ¿Porqué no vamos a la playa mañana? – Why don’t […]
Just as the English language has its phrasal verbs that cause so many headaches to the poor learners of English, Spanish has a quite nice list of phrasal verbs too. Phrasal verbs in Spanish = Perífrasis But first, what is a phrasal verb? It’s a combination of two verbs, one […]
“Ser” and “estar” are not the same thing, as the Spanish singer Alejandro Sanz tells us is his song “No es lo mismo” (here you can have a look at the lyrics in Spanish and its translation into English) In a previous post, I wrote about the differences between […]
First of all, what is DELE? DELE means Diploma de Español como Lengua Extranjera (Diploma in Spanish as a Foreign Language). These diplomas offer the only internationally accredited official titles which confirm a command of the Spanish Language and are awarded by the Spanish Ministry for Education, Culture and Sport. The exams to […]
In this post we will see very useful vocabulary about Internet, social networks, computers… Ordendores (‘computers’) – Portátil (‘laptop’) – Ordenador de mesa (‘desktop computer’) Activities Clicar, hacer clic, cliquear, pinchar (‘to click’). We have different options, all valid, for this verb. […]
Today I’m determined to solve one of my students’ worst nightmare. (cheers and applauses…) When do we use “quedar” and when “quedarse”? What does it mean “quedar”? and “quedarse”? These two verbs have completely different meanings and uses, let’s take a look at them: Quedar Quedar has a few meanings: […]
The 14th of February is Valentine’s Day so in today’s post I will show you some useful vocabulary and expressions related with this “loving” subject. We call this day El Día de los Enamorados or San Valentín in Spanish. What do we do in this day when we are love someone […]
We will learn some vocabulary related to describing someone’s personality in Spanish. When we want to ask about the physical aspect and the personality of someone we don’t know, we ask a general question: ¿Cómo es? (How is he / she?) But if we are just curious about the personality […]
