Hizbulá llama a una huelga general como colofón a su campaña contra el Gobierno.
Hezbollah calls for a general strike as the culmination of their campaign against the government.
– elmundo.es, domingo 21/01/2007 10:58 (CET)
As language learners we just love it when we encounter Spanish words that are similar to their English counterparts. As I am sure you’re all aware however, it isn’t always this simple. Often we encounter words which are very similar to a word in English, only to find it has a completely different meaning! This is what is known as a false friend. At their best false friends are a nuisance, at their worst they can be very embarrassing indeed. Everybody seems to have a story about somebody saying, “Estoy embarazada” (I’m pregnant) when trying to say “I’m embarrassed”… yes, that would be embarrassing.
Below I have compiled a small list of what I would consider some of the most noteworthy false friends. Be advised however, this list is by no means extensive. So the next time you see a Spanish word that is very similar to an English one, don’t just make an assumption as to its meaning, it could also be a false friend; when in doubt, consult a dictionary.
Stated above, this is one to pay particular attention to. ‘Embarazada’ means ‘pregnant’ and not embarrassed as it may appear at first glance.
This is one of the most common mistakes among Spanish language learners. The Spanish word ’sensible’ means ’sensitive’ and not the English ’sensible’ which in Spanish is ‘ sensato’.
Aften people mistake this one for the English word ‘actually’, its true translation is ‘currently’ or ‘nowadays’.
This verb does not mean to attend in the sense of making an appearance, instead it means ‘to take care of’ or ‘to attend to’.
This means ‘folder’ or ‘file’, as in a place to store papers and documents. The word for carpet in Spanish is ‘moqueta’.
This one may raise a few eyebrows but actually it’s less intriguing than it looks. ‘Estar constipado/a’ simply means ‘to have a cold’. Try not to mistake it with ‘to be constipated’ which in Spanish would be ‘estar estreñido’.
This looks and sounds a little like the English word ‘parent’, but it isn’t. ‘Pariente’ means ‘relative’ or ‘family relation’. As you may be aware, the word for parents is ‘padres’.
This means ‘to be friendly’ and not to be sympathetic. The latter translates as ‘estar comprensivo/a’.
In English we tend not to distinguish between the preterite and the imperfect tenses. It is easy to see why then, that these particular two tenses can cause English speakers a real problem. The uses of these two tenses however are really quite well defined; a proper understanding from the outset will enable one to correctly use the preterite and imperfect without problems.
Before examining the two tenses in more detail, it is important to lay down a brief yet concise definition of the two tenses and their uses:
The preterite tense is used for actions that were completed, or implied to have been completed, in the past.
The imperfect is for actions in the past which took place at no defined period of time, these include: habitual actions, descriptions of things in the past, and in conjunction with the preterite as a background action.
The above diagram should help one to visualize the key points. Preterite is used for events which always have a definite or implied start and end point. The imperfect is used with events with no implied start nor end.
Preterite Examples:
El desierto del Sáhara se terminó de formar hace tan sólo 2.700 años The Sahara desert formed just 2,700 years ago (definite end point) le grité y se asustó I shouted and he got scared (end point) Más de 1.500 personas encontraron trabajo a través de Trabajos Online More than 1,500 people found work through ‘Trabajos Online’ (implied end point [i.e. they already have found work]) en 1975, trabajó como profesora de Economía Internacional en la Universidad de Sevilla in 1975, he worked as an international economics professor at the university of Sevilla (specific moment in time)
Imperfect Examples:
El arrestado trabajaba como empleado en todas las empresas donde robaba The arrested man worked as an employee for the company that he robbed (habitual actions, he worked there while he was robbing the business) Volví a casa, pero ya no estaba. I returned home, but she wasn’t there (background action) Mi coche era azul My car was blue (description) No estaba preparado para la guerra He wasn’t prepared for the war (no time element)
A verb is a word used to describe an action, state or occurrence. In English, verbs are preceded by ‘to’, i.e. to be, to have, to love, etc. For native English speakers, Spanish verbs can cause initial confusion. The way Spanish verbs work is somewhat different from that of their English counterparts. Spanish verbs are generally logical so there is no need to worry. Before we get stuck-in, I feel it’s important that we are all fully aware of how verbs work in our native English so that we can compare and contrast.
Before we get started, it’s important to understand several grammatical phrases:
Tense: The form a verb takes to indicate the time of an action, i.e. past tense, future tense, etc.
Conjugation: The different forms that a verb takes, i.e. run, runs, ran, etc.
Infinitive form: The basic form of a verb without any indication of tense or subject, in English the infinitive is always proceeded by ‘to’, i.e. to speak, to talk, to laugh, etc.
Pronoun: A word used in place of a name to indicate someone or something, i.e. he, she, them, etc.
In English, verbs have a maximum of two forms, also knows as conjugations, for most tenses:
To Run
I run
We run
You run
You (all) run
He/She/It runs
They run
To eat
I eat
We eat
You eat
You (all) eat
He/She/It eats
They eat
As you can see with the above examples, the basic form of the verbs (which are in the present tense) is either the standard infinitive form or the standard infinitive form with an -s at the end (i.e. run and runs). We know who the verb refers to by looking at the initial subject pronoun: I/you/he/she/it/we/they – without the subject pronoun, verbs in English don’t work, we must always add this to qualify exactly who we are referring to. In Spanish however, things are quite different, so let’s find out how:
Spanish verbs are classified into three different categories, these are -AR verbs, -ER verbs and -IR verbs. That is to say, verbs ending in -ar, -er and -ir. All spanish verbs fall into one of these categories. This classification is important to understand and remember because the rules for verb conjugation are different depending on the category of verb.
Verbs in Spanish have far more conjugations (derivations) than their English counterparts. The reason for this is simple, Spanish verbs carry more information that English verbs. An English verb tells us:
A Spanish verbs on the other hand tells us:
Remember as I stated earlier, all English verbs must be accompanied by a subject pronoun so we know who is performing the action of the verb. To simply say ‘talks’ for example is incomplete in English, we don’t know who is performing the action of talking; is it him/her/it? We must qualify this by adding a subject pronoun, i.e. ’she talks’: now we know who is performing the action. In Spanish on the other hand, there is no need for this subject pronoun as the by looking at the verb conjugation, we know who is performing the action. It follows logically therefore that basic Spanish tenses have at least six conjugations representing the 6 groups of subject pronouns::
English Spanish First Person Second Person Usted (formal)
Third Person First Person Plural Second Person Plural Usteded (formal)
Third Person Plural
Let us examine this with the Spanish verb ‘hablar’ (an -AR verb) which means ‘to talk’. Below is a list of the verb’s six present tense conjugations:
(yo) hablo (nosotros) hablamos (tú) Hablas (usted) habla
(vosotros) habláis (ustedes) hablan
(él/ella/lo/la) habla (ellos) hablan
Notice that I have placed the subject pronouns in brackets to indicate that they are not needed and most often omitted. The subject pronoun is usually added for emphasis. Above we have the basic rules for conjugating any -AR verb in the present tense. The ending of the verb tells us who is performing the action. The basic rule is thus:
To conjugate a verb, take its stem (the verb without the -AR, -ER or -IR ending, and affix the ending that corresponds to the subject.
So the stem of ‘hablar’ is ‘habl’, that is to say, the verb without its ending; in this form it is incomplete, we must affix an ending to complete the verb. From the example above we can see that the -o ending is for the first person (I), so if we add -o to the stem we get ‘hablo’ (habl + o), which means ‘I speak’.
This is the standard way in which all regular verbs in Spanish are conjugated.
The stem of a verb is simply the verb without its -AR, -ER or -IR ending.
What we must commit to memory therefore are the various endings corresponding to each subject. These are different for most tenses.
There are two common ways to say ‘I love you’ in Spanish, these are:
Te quiero
Te amo
These both mean ‘I love you’ and can be used interchangeably. Each country however has its preference and this must be remembered. In Spain for example, ‘te quiero’ is far more common and ‘te amo’ is frowned upon as being cheesy and tacky. In South American countries on the other hand, ‘te amo’ is more widespread and doesn’t convey these same connotations that it does in Spain.
When it comes to saying ‘cool’, in spanish we have a lot of options. Below you can find a small selection of some of the most common that you will hear in Spain:
Vamos a ir a un bar muy guay. We’re going to a really cool bar.
Me molan mucho tus zapatos. Your shoes are so cool.
When you want to say that you like somebody, you can use mola:
Me mola mucho esa chica. I really like that girl.
Vimos un espectáculo muy chulo. We saw a really cool show.
If you’re a regular reader of Spanish language newspapers/internet news sites, it’s important to be familiar with spanish law vocabulary. Below is a list of some of the most useful words and phrases:
| detener | to arrest |
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| estar detenido | to be under arrest |
El herido ha estado detenido en siete ocasiones por tráfico de drogas |
The injured man has been arrested on seven occasions for drug trafficking |
| Juzgar | to try |
Es necesario investigar y juzgar, porque sólo entonces es posible el perdón |
It’s necessary to investigate and try (them) because only then will it be possible to forgive |
| estar siendo juzgado | to be on trial |
El terrorista está siendo juzgado |
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| el juicio | trial |
Anulan un juicio en Madrid porque los acusados no pudieron usar el catalán – elmundo |
A trial in Madrid is cancelled because the defendants weren’t able to speak catalan |
| condenar | to sentence |
El ex secretario de Estado para la Seguridad ha sido condenado a un año… – elmundo |
The ex secretary of state for security has been sentenced to a year… |
| el condenado | defendant / accused |
El condenado, que reconoció ante la sala que él fue el responsable de los disparos |
The accused admitted before the room that he was responsible for the shots fired |
| ENMIENDA | AMENDMENT (LAW) / CORRECTION (TEXT) |
| Usages Examples: | |
| "Bush anuncia una enmienda constitucional para prohibir el matrimonio entre homosexuales" — elmundo | "Bush announces a constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriages" |
| "…pero no me digan que no podemos defender la Segunda Enmienda mientras mantengamos los AK-47 fuera de las manos de delincuentes" — elpais | "…but don’t tell me that we can’t defend the second amendment while we keep AK-47s out of the hands of delincuentes" |
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The origins of the Spanish omelette have been set around the time of the first carlist war in the nineteenth century. It is clamed that general Zumalacárregui, an important military figure, was the first person to taste it. It all started when the hungry general arrived at a small village in Navarra. The inn where he was staying could only offer eggs and potatoes for dinner. In order to make this humble list of ingredients fit for a general, the owners of the inn decided to mix the potatoes and eggs and offer the general something special. Thus the Spanish omelette was born. Since then, the Spanish omelette has grown into one of the best known recipes in the history of Spanish cooking. |
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