The Cause-Effect Trick To Remember Your Por And Para

Be it Spanish or any other language, the most painful aspect invariably turns out to be the appropriate usage of its prepositions. To us English speakers Spanish prepositions might seem way too unruly and chaotic but that’s how the Spanish speakers feel about English too. Try explaining to them, for instance, why you live “in” the house but are “at” home! Grammar rules, more often than not, defy all logic. Fortunately, when it comes to the Spanish por and para, there still exists enough logic to save your day. Mastering this logic is key to proficiency in Spanish as these prepositions are just too damn indispensable.

It’s all about the sense

One thing that’s obvious is that prepositions, more so than any other figure of speech, can never be translated word-for-word. For example, memorizing that a means “to” and por means “for” is only going to prove disastrous for your Spanish skills. The key to using the right preposition in Spanish is knowing which one conveys what you mean the best. Hence, the first step would be to rid yourself of the idea than por and para are two different translations the English “for” only to make non-natives’ lives miserable!

It’s true that the two prepositions are more related to “for” than to any other English preposition, but it runs deeper than that. Being related is one thing and carrying the same sense is another. For example, consider the following two sentences:

This book is for you

I’m looking for a book

Though both of them use the word “for” but do they carry the same meaning? Just because English uses the same word for the two drastically unrelated scenarios, doesn’t mean Spanish and other languages must too. This realization is extremely important. Don’t learn what the word translates into in English. Learn, instead, what sense it conveys. Translate the sense, not the word.

Cause and effect

Working “for” (para) him or “in behalf of” (por) him? It’s all about perspective!
Photo credit: Bark licensed CC BY 2.0

The trick is to see every “for” scenario as a “cause vs. effect” one. A means vs. an end, if you will. Por goes with the cause and para, the effect. Imagine drawing a line in space and time. Por would lie someplace at the beginning or along that line while the very end of the line is where you’ll find para. Still confused? Let’s illustrate this.

Imagine you and Freddie work in the same office and have the same boss, Rodrigo. One day, Freddie is sick and you are asked to fill in for him on his project. Now who are you working for? Freddie? Or, Rodrigo? You are working on that project “because” Freddie didn’t show up. Obviously, he’s the reason you’re on this project in the first place.

Trabajo por Freddie (I work for/in behalf of/because of Freddie)

On the other hand, Rodrigo is your employer. In this context, your working for him is actually the effect or the result of him employing you. He is the recipient of your work. He sits at the far end of our imaginary line. Hence this scenario calls for a para:

Trabajo para Rodrigo (I work for Rodrigo)

To sum up, para is used whenever “for” means “in order to” because it invariably follows a goal, an effect. And that’s also the reason why por is used whenever “for” carries a sense of “by,” “in behalf of,” “for the sake of,” or “because of.” Let these examples illustrate this:

Jugo para ganar (I play for winning or I play in order to win).

Hice para ella (I did it for her).

Notice the para in the last sentence. What’s implied here is that she is the recipient of my action and it’s only me who was supposed to do it (maybe she’s my boss). However, if I did it “because of” her (say, to please her or because she didn’t do it), i.e., I wasn’t meant to do it but I did it anyway, the Spanish would take por:

Hice por ella

Check out the following scenario in the same vein:

Compro el regalo para ella (I am buying the gift for her).

Here, the gift is “meant for” her. She’s the intended recipient and the goal of this action. However, if I were buying it “in her behalf,” the preposition of choice becomes por.

Motion and destination

Salimos para Ibiza
Photo credit: David Sim licensed CC BY 2.0

Let’s extend our imaginary-line theory to scenarios involving physical movements and see if it holds water. If we draw a line tracing any such motion, our theory says that para will only hint at what lies at the far end of the line (the destination) and por, at whatever lies either at the start of the line or someplace along it (the origin or the way).

Salimos para Ibiza (We’re leaving for Ibiza)

Here, Ibiza is at the far end of our line. So it takes para.

Now, consider this sentence:

Vamos por Ibiza (We’re going through Ibiza).

Here, Ibiza is no longer our destination. Instead, it falls someplace along the line. We will travel right through it and continue on our journey. So this time, por wins.

Vamos por Ibiza
Photo credit: Chapuisat licensed CC BY 2.0

For the same reason, por also wins if you were going toward Ibiza but it were not our final destination. But, if you were going in that direction with the intention of reaching Ibiza, para goes. See these sentences:

Ven por aquí (Come this way).

Ven para aquí (Come here).

The line in time

What if we draw our imaginary line in time? Will it hold? Let’s see. Our theory says that por will stay along the line or at the start but never the end. The end is for para.

Caminé por tres horas (I walked for 3 hours).

In this case, the line spans the entire course of action, starting when I start walking and ending when I stop. So, the “for” seems to span the length of that line, sticking “along” it and not at the end of it. That sounds like por!

Now, observe this scenario:

La tarea para lunes es leer el capítulo (The homework for Monday is to read the chapter).

Here, Monday is the destination in time. The homework has to be done by Monday. That’s where the line ends. You can observe many other examples to understand this better:

Estará aquí para marzo (She’ll be here by March).

Salen para octubre (They’re leaving by October).

Exchange or substitution

The trick is slightly different but ridiculously simple. Just remember how the English “per” sounds just like por. Of course, that will help you remember that “per” directly turns into por when translated into Spanish:

Mi carro rinde veinte millas por galón (My car goes twenty miles per gallon).

This trick can also be extended to cover all scenarios involving any kind of exchange. If por is good for “miles per gallon,” it might as well be good for “kilometers per hour” or “dollars per pound.” It can also cover a situation such as this:

Pagó cinco dólares por el libro (She paid five dollars for the book).

Why? Two reasons actually. First, there’s a clear exchange involved here: Dollars for books, not too different from “miles for gallon” or “dollars per pound.” Another reason is our cause-and-effect theory. The dollars are being paid “for the sake of” the book. The book is the reason for this transaction, and reasons are defined by por, remember? Even the car runs 20 miles only “because” there is a gallon of gas in it!

So, you see life’s much simpler than it seemed. Just remember the cause-and-effect principle and imagine actions around the imaginary line we talked about and you should be comfortable with pretty much any por-para situation. This is, of course, not all there is to por and para and there are many, many scenarios that involve them. But these broad categories should cover most of the common ones and help you get a head start in understanding the prepositions without cramming up any grammar rules. Feel free to share with us if you have any other por-para trick that helped you nail these devils.

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Learn Spanish Watching Telenovelas At DramaFever Latino

Our friend Andrew was terrible at Spanish. He would often complain about how difficult it was and how despite, his most sincere efforts, he would never be reasonably fluent in the language. We always tried to encourage him, but we must admit that we too doubted the prospects of him ever becoming fluent. Even after several Spanish courses and video tutorials, Andrew could barely get started on conversations with native speakers. It was overwhelming and he was ready to call it quits. But in a last frugal effort he decided to take some time and work from Argentina (one of the many virtues of working as a web developer).

A few months later Andrew returned a changed man. What were once fragile mutters limited to basic introductions and overused phrases became elaborate discussions plentiful in colloquialisms and hand gestures. It was a beautiful sight.

Tacit learning vs. classroom Spanish

Without enough exposure, no amount of studying will help your Spanish
Photo credit: Christoffer licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

In retrospect, although Andrew struggled more than most, his experience was not atypical. You probably know someone who moved abroad and picked up the language quite quickly – faster than if he or she would have studied it from his or her home country. Intuitively, it is not hard to see how the constant exposure to a new language in day-to-day interactions would push one to learn faster. However, educational research tells us that it is more than just frequency of exposure, but also the method of exposure. The improved rate of learning comes largely from the use of tacit vs. explicit knowledge creation.

Think of tacit knowledge as intuition. It is knowledge we already have or acquired through past experiences, but we are unable to easily explain it to others. It’s what we have learned through practice, observation, and repetition. Think of knowing how to ride a bike, or more relevant, your own native language. You may not necessarily consciously understand the ins and outs of it, but you know what sounds right and what doesn’t and how to speak it. On the other hand, explicit knowledge is what you learn from studying facts, policies, and rules, i.e., your typical classroom learning experience. Both are important methods for knowledge creation, however language learners tend to spend the majority of their time developing explicit knowledge. Meanwhile those who learn a language in a foreign country develop a more extensive tacit knowledge drawn from exposure to the local environment and even television.

Total immersion is always at hand

Tacit knowledge development is precisely the reason why most “experts” will tell you that watching foreign television is a great way to learn a language. Now, Andrew was lucky that he could afford a vacation in Argentina, both financially and job-wise. But, let’s face it, such vacations are not always terribly practical or even affordable for most of us. As much as we’d love it, not all of us are blessed with the life of a freewheeling globe-trotter. There’s job, there’s family, there’s the anxiety of an alien culture, and then there’s the expenses involved. So, does that knell the doom of immersion for us lesser mortals? Not in today’s world at least, thanks to the global connectivity provided by the omnipresent Internet!

Short of taking a long break and moving to another country, the best (and the most amusing) way to immerse yourself into a new culture is through the local entertainment they produce, which reflects the language, traditions and customs of their world. An immensely useful example is watching traditional Spanish shows or telenovelas to practice listening comprehension and absorb the elaborate yet necessary colloquialisms. It’s no coincidence that this is the method recommended by many.

If you live in the United States, you may already have access to some Spanish TV channels. Or, if you’d rather watch from your computer or phone, take a look at free sites like DramaFever Latino, which allows you to watch full Spanish telenovelas online from Latin America and Spain with English subtitles.

Nonetheless, we’re not saying it will be easy: The tacit learning method requires active engagement and participation, not mere rote memorization. But it will pay dividends! Auditory learning tends to be more organic - babies learn languages by simply listening to the flow of dialogue and drawing logical connections. While you’re no longer a baby (we’d presume) your learning process will be somewhat similar. By watching Spanish shows and telenovelas you’ll be listening to real dialogue, not perfectly enunciated classroom Spanish, which will strengthen your listening abilities in real situations.

That being said, don’t burn your books yet. The best learning method is one which effectively combines traditional explicit learning with tacit knowledge creation. After all, knowing the difference between what sounds right and what is actually right can save you moments of mild embarrassment.

DramaFever Latino

DramaFever is one of the richest sources of free TV shows and novelas
Photo credit: DramaFever Latino

Of the many resources available all over the Internet when it comes to television programming in the Spanish language, DramaFever Latino is one of the most promising ones worth giving a shot. Launched as recently as 2009, this site has rapidly become a behemoth of a database with the credit of having one of the largest collection of international television content.

Available on a wide range of platforms including iOS and Android, this library currently offers over 13,000 episodes from across 12 countries and counting. This overwhelming array of programs should be enough to satiate your taste no matter how fussy. And if you can manage to get hooked to even one such program, that’s the Holy Grail of learning Spanish! Entertainment is the best teacher, more so when it comes to learning Spanish.

You can choose to be a free member or paid depending on your financial comfort. Even if you choose to go for the free subscription, you have at your disposal the entire collection of videos, unlimited with no strings attached, albeit with commercials. A paid subscription (which is surprisingly not quite a hole in your pocket at less than $10 a month) gets you the same library but in high definition and without any commercials.

Not keen on having to sign up on a zillion websites every time you find something useful enough? Well, DramaFever allows you to login with your existing Facebook credentials so no need to waste time filling out those annoying registration forms. By the way, the paid plan is also available $9.99 a year if you’re not a big fan of paying every month. However, you are advised to first try out their free subscription before you decide to take out that credit card.

So, there you are; no more excuses for not getting enough exposure to Spanish. Just go for the kill! There is a whole world out there doing incredible number of different things to help you learn that language. It’s a shame if you still feel you don’t have enough resources at hand. Just remember: It is entirely possible to learn Spanish without spending a dime and without getting bored. All it costs is your willpower and perseverance.

Feel free to drop a note in the comment section below to share your experiences with DramaFever Latino with the rest of us. We are eager to hear you out!

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Learn A New Language With A Used Brain

Let’s be honest and admit that learning any language, let alone Spanish, is an art most of us lack a taste for. It’s more of an “acquired” taste that needs a lot of optimism and an open mind to fully appreciate. In this article, we take a step back from our core focus and review a very interesting book that talks about languages in general instead of just Spanish. This book does not teach you Spanish or any language for that matter. What it does is a whole lot more – It teaches you how to teach yourself just about any language! Review this book with us and boost your linguistic morale like many others around the world.

Could learning Spanish make you Smarter?

Learning a language is great for communicating with new people and expanding your cultural savvy. But it has other benefits: language study actually changes the brain! Language learning can up your intelligence, improve your overall linguistic ability, and if you’re older, even ward off dementia. Talk about two birds with one stone!

A recent New York Times article talks about studies which show that being bilingual improves the portion of the brain we use to plan, to solve problems, and to perform difficult mental tasks. These changes are especially strong in children, but even older adults learning a language can benefit. The article points out that “...these processes include ignoring distractions to stay focused, switching attention willfully from one thing to another and holding information in mind–like remembering a sequence of directions while driving.” Anyone who has had to switch back and forth between English and Spanish or has struggled to understand a rapid speaker will understand how that can process can challenge the brain and focus the mind. And, as it turns out, language study enables you to address mental challenges better in areas that don’t even involve a foreign language.

With so many good reasons to learn a second language – for kids and grown-ups too – it’s best to be sure you’re using the most up-to-date methods.

New language with a used brain?

How’s that for a title? Intriguing, isn’t it? That’s what we are going to explore in this article. Now that we already know how learning a foreign language boosts our faculties, it’s imperative that we start doing it instead of just sitting pretty and talking about it. But where do we start? There’s just enough amount of resources out there to keep you wondering for an entire lifetime before you’ve even started! Isn’t it ironical that what’s meant to help you learn is also the very reason that’s keeping you from taking the plunge?

Lynn’s experience with French is just as relevant to Spanish learners too
Photo credit: Lynn McBride and Amazon.com

So obviously we need to get over this primitive dilemma and learn to sift the tools and methodologies than work from those that don’t. Easier said than done. Lynn McBride explores this topic in her new book, How to Learn a New Language with a Used Brain (available as a Kindle ebook at all Amazon sites for an extremely modest $2.99, and to be released as paperback in July, 2013). In addition to revealing all the surprising ways language learning can make you smarter and more sophisticated, the book gives you the very latest methods for successful language study.

The book is short but packed with ideas for making language learning effective, and, most important, fun. Here’s a peek at what’s inside the book:

• A program for learning that you can tailor to your needs and learning style, called Six Steps to a Bilingual Life: A Roadmap for Your Language Journey, with a focus on keeping your motivation up, and finding ways to immerse yourself and practice conversation.


• Tips and secrets from from expats, language experts, and many of Lynn’s blog readers who are on the front lines of language learning (Lynn blogs at Southern Fried French).


• A “best of” review of the major resources for language learning, from freebies to packaged programs, and including lots of the dazzling new online opportunities for learning and interacting. There is also a review of the top learning packages available for purchase.


• A special section for expats, on how they can optimize their language learning. Learning a language while living in a foreign country has its own special set of opportunities and issues, and the book discusses how to manage them.

The book focuses on the three keys of language learning. The first is to find ways to immerse yourself in the language. That means listening, talking, reading and writing, after you’ve mastered some of the basics. And with today’s online resources, absolute immersion is getting easier all the time.

The second key is to make a real commitment to learning the language, and to stick to it. The book has lots of ideas for setting up a personal program that’s doable, even if you only have a few minutes a day to devote to language study.

And make it fun! That’s the third and most important key. It’s doubtful you’ll stick with a program that’s dry, boring, and dead-beat monotonous. Still wondering why you don’t remember squat of what they taught in your high school Spanish classes? There are lots of ways to spice it up, add variety, and keep your self motivated, included in the book. One of the best ways is to make language learning a family project, involving kids and grandparents. Or, to learn a language with an friend, even if it’s an on-line chat-buddy. Language learning can really, and should preferably, be a social event.

So who is Lynn McBride after all?

Lynn and Domino at Château de Balleure
Photo credit: Lynn McBride/Southern Fried French 

The author of the book we just reviewed, of course. But she’s much more than that and that’s what lends her book the credibility for us to endorse it so enthusiastically. She is an American author from the historic district of Charleston, South Carolina, who has under her belt, articles published in some of the most well-read magazines on both sides of the Atlantic. Better Homes & Gardens, France Magazine, Living France, you name it. She has also worked with Meredith Publishing (Better Homes & Gardens and Traditional Home) in the past.

Lynn’s turning point came when she moved to the beautiful wine country of Burgundy in southern France (lucky lady!) with her husband, Ron, and cat, Domino. Here in France, with the help of her French hosts, Nicole and Pierre Balvay, Lynn started the process of rapidly absorbing everything French – the cuisine, the language, and the culture. The process has still not stopped and will perhaps never. This experience have her an incredibly valuable insight into the dynamics of learning a new language and she decided to share her experience with the rest of the world through the very book that we talked about here.

Speaking of French cuisine, she has really perfected her culinary skills while living in France and her recipes have appeared in quite a few national newspapers and magazines, both online and otherwise. So, if you ever happen to wind up in her neck of the woods, feel free to gatecrash her party and feast till you drop (just don’t tell her we referred you)!

So if you’re not learning Spanish, maybe you should be! If you want to “get smart” and maximize your Spanish learning, whether you’re a beginner or an advanced student, this book will do the trick.

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6 Alien-Sounding Spanish Verbs In An Instant

Etymology is an incredibly wonderful tool when it comes to acquiring new words. Dig deep enough into the history of any language and words that seemed utterly alien and unrelated until now suddenly start to appear familiar. This works best when the language in question shares genetics with your native tongue. Fortunately, Spanish and English share a stronger ancestral bond than many acknowledge, which makes learning new words easier than it seems. Let’s see how etymological mapping can help us learn some of the most commonly used Spanish verbs that, on face value, seem to have little semblance with their English meanings.

Drinking in Spanish

Tomar is preferred over beber in most of Latin America
Photo credit: grahamc99 licensed CC BY 2.0

The English verb, “drink,” translates into Spanish as beber. Now, the two words hardly seem to have any similarity whatsoever, do they? Turns out they do! Just scratch through the surface and it won’t take you too long to realize that beber actually comes from a source that gave English a good part of its vocabulary. Well, they don’t have a direct connection but traces of their common history still exist in both languages and that’s enough for our purposes.

So, what’s the connection? Actually, beber of Spanish is a direct descendant of bibere in Latin. Now, while bibere doesn’t have anything to do with “drink,” it did give English a word rather unfamiliar to most of us, “bever.” This is an archaic word from Old English that meant “to drink.” Still doesn’t ring a bell? Now, think about this – Where do you think the word, “beverage” comes from? So, a “beverage” is something to “bever” (i.e., drink) in roughly the same way as a wreckage is something that’s been wrecked. What do you think of beber now? It should be easy to remember now. Just think “beverage” when you hear beber and etymology should take care of the rest.

By the way, in most Latin American cultures, the preferred word for drinking is tomar (to take). Though tomar doesn’t directly mean “to drink” but it’s used in the same fashion as we English-speakers often use “have” or “take” when we actually mean “to drink” or “to eat.”

Eating in Spanish

Both comer and its English translation share a common latin origin!
Photo credit: Kumar McMillan licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

This one is a tad more complicated that beber. But etymological connection still does exist despite having been twisted beyond recognition over time. The Spanish translation is comer, which looks and sounds anything but similar to the English verb. So where’s the connection?

History again. Comer comes from, you guessed it right, Latin. The Latin verb is comedō which is actually two words rolled into one – com and edō. The first word, com, is an intensifier that means “with,” and the second word, edō means, “I eat.” So, all in all, the whole shebang actually just stands for an intensified eating action, more akin to eating up, or devouring. Now, for some reasons, while the edō bit morphed into English as “eat” without the intensifier, the word as a whole morphed into the comer of Spanish. Twisted, yes, but the correlation is strong enough nonetheless.

The Spanish for believe

The verb in Spanish is creer which, again, bears hardly any semblance to the English, “believe.” But a little bit of lateral thinking and historical research would tell you that creer actually comes from the Latin word, crēdere, which meant the same thing. By now, you should have easily guessed that this crēdere somehow went on to morph into several English words having something to do with believing, such as “credible” (believable). See how the pieces suddenly add up and creer becomes familiar? In fact, even the English word, “credit,” has the same history. When someone lends you any money on credit, they actually believe in your intention to return the loan when you are able to, hence the term. And there’s a whole bunch of words in both English and Spanish, all of them sharing the same origin.

Speaking of credit, it’s a good idea to learn the Spanish for lending, isn’t it? The word is prestar and is one of the top 100 most useful verbs in this language. Now, prestar is a direct descendant of the Latin verb, praestāre, which carried a range of meanings, one of which is, “to present,” or “to provide.” Now you know where the English verb, “to present,” comes from. Even though the meanings have slightly diverged when the Latin root went down the two separate paths of Spanish and English, they are not too different after all. Lending is, in a vague way, presenting!

Some simple business in Spanish

Both comprar and vender have Latin roots relating them with their English meanings
Photo credit: Nadia & Massimo licensed CC BY 2.0

What is business if not buying and selling? Let’s start with buying. Long, long ago, there used to be a Latin word, comparāre, which was a portmanteau of com (with) and parāre (prepare). Essentially, this Latin root meant, “to make equal with,” or “to bring something together for choosing.” With time, this evolved into “compare” of English keeping the original meaning more-or-less intact. However, there was also another evolution at work at the same time, where it turned into the comprar of Spanish. In this case, the original meaning was kind of lost but the connotation retained to a degree. Comprar is the Spanish for buying. Think about it, what do you essentially do while buying? You basically “equate” the item with money; you take the thing you intend to buy and, in turn, pay the vendor an “equivalent” amount of money to complete the transaction. In a vague sense, this is what the original Latin verb stood for!

As for selling, it’s quite simple. Who’s a seller? A vendor. And who’s a vendor? Someone who sells, or vends, his wares. So, you’re familiar with this verb, “to vend”? If yes, you already know its Spanish – vender. Again, thank their common Latin ancestry for things being so easy and straightforward.

Well, these are just 6 of the 100 most important verbs in the Spanish language. And if you think you can comfortably remember and recall these six after reading this article, you can be reasonably sure you’ll find the remaining just as easy. There’s hardly any Spanish word you can’t nail this way. A little bit of research into the word’s history is all you need to see a recognizable pattern. This trick is certainly way more effective and less taxing than mindlessly cramming them up off a dictionary. Try it, your brain will thank you for it!

Why not take it a notch further and do some similar research of your own? Pick up any Spanish word you have found exceptionally difficult to remember and see if applying this method makes it a breeze. If it does, share it with the rest of us by dropping in a comment here and let them learn out of your creativity!

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Easy Trick To Learn The Spanish For Your Clothes

You could be out on vacation shopping for some items of clothing in a Spanish-speaking country or perhaps you just want to flaunt your Spanish to a bunch of native speakers. No matter what your motivation, learning to name what you wear everyday in Spanish is a cool skill to have. And, if you know the right way to learn, it should take you no more than a few minutes to conquer them all and reproduce them “on the fly” without having to fiddle with mental translations. If cramming up words after words is your forte, we’d recommend saving that skill for something harder as this one calls for hardly any efforts on your part!

Learning the Spanish for your wardrobe is easy and important
Photo credit: Dan licensed CC BY-ND 2.0

Spanish above the waist

• Blouse (blusa) – This one shouldn’t take much explaining or efforts as the words sound almost identical.


• Shirt (camisa) – Just think of La Camisa Negra (The Black Shirt), the ridiculously popular hit by Juanes and you should have no problem recalling this one. Your shirt could be with short sleeves (con mangas cortas) or with long (con mangas largas).


• Dress (vestido) – Use a simple visualization trick to remember this word. Imagine a girl on her wedding day. Imagine her wearing that prohibitively expensive dress in which she had invested months of her salary before saying, “I do!” Easy? The Venezuelans use the word, flux colloquially while in Peru, the word is terno.


• T-shirt (playera) – Well, the easiest way to remember this one is to imagine those players wearing colorful t-shirts. The ones with long sleeves are called jerseys (don’t forget to say it using the Spanish pronunciation). Some speakers also use the word, camiseta, noting the similarity between a shirt and a t-shirt.

Little Mexican girls in colorful faldas
Photo credit: Frank_am_Main licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

Spanish below the waist

• Jeans (vaqueros) – The standard Peninsular usage is vaqueros. Cows are vacas in Spanish and the ones herding them are, thus, vaqueros. And it’s them vaqueros who started wearing jeans first, the name stuck. In the north-eastern parts of Spain, they are also called tejanos. Puerto Ricans call them mahones while the Cubans, pitusas. Then again, there’s pantalones de mezclilla (denim pants) in Mexico. Nevertheless, the most commonly used word in all these countries remains what you already know and use, “jeans.”


• Pants/trousers (pantalones) – Pants came from pantaloons in English and it’s easy to see how they seem to be closely related to their Spanish counterpart.


• Shorts (pantalones cortos) – In simplest terms, these are your short pants and the Spanish for short is corto.


• Skirt (falda) – Imagine this item as one that the girl folds or wraps around her waist and you will remember falda. Another visual cue could be imagining it as a piece of clothing that hangs or falls from the waist covering the lower parts of the girl’s body.

Sombreros and vaqueros
Photo credit: Corin Royal Drummond licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

Some accessories in Spanish

• Belt (cinturón) – The Spanish for waist is cintura and hence the item that goes on there derives as cinturón.


• Bow-tie (pajarita) – Pajaro is the Spanish for bird; so, its diminutive is naturally a pajarita, a little bird. Someone, someplace must have felt exceptionally romantic to have seen a bow-tie as a little birdie perched on some man’s collar. In Chile, they call it humita.


• Cap (gorra) – A gorra is a cap con visera (with a visor), such as a baseball cap. However, if your cap doesn’t have the peak, as in a skullcap, it’s a gorro. Think of gorro as something that would go around (as in over) your head. As for the gorro-gorra distinction, just remember that “gorro means no peak,” and you should do well.


• Gloves (guantes) – Imagine feeling terribly cold, so cold that your fingers are going numb! What do you want desperately? Los guantes! Just remember this imagery and the contextual rhyme between “want” and guante.


• Hat (sombrero) – Almost all of us have grown up watching those spaghetti westerns with cowboys wearing cool sombreros doing cool things with their guns. Clint Eastwood, anyone?


• Purse (bolso) – Medieval Latin had a word for leather, bursa. Since this item was used to make “money-bags” those days (it is even today), the word also came to be used for those bags. Eventually, English switched the “p” with “b” and inherited the word as “purse.” Someplace else, someone switched the “r” with “l” and morphed it into bolsa when Spanish was born. So, bolsa is essentially a bag (more akin to a paper bag or the likes) while its masculine form, bolso is a purse or a handbag. So, how do you remember it’s bolso and not bolsa when referring to a lady’s purse? Simple, just remember that it’s the male that pairs with the female, i.e., the male bolso goes with the lady as her purse! Nowadays, however, at least in Mexico they have started using bolsa to mean both.


• Tie (corbata) – There’s a slightly bizarre visual cue that could help you remember this word. Think of a someone wearing a menacing black cobra around his neck for a tie. Think of the Hindu pantheon’s pothead, Shiva, who wears a venomous cobra around his neck all the time.


• Wallet (cartera) – The word, “card,” rhymes with carta, so you can visualize a wallet full of all sorts of cards (credit, debit, loyalty, etc.) to remember what a cartera is. Another word for wallet is billetera; think of it as something that holds your crisp, green bills. Billetera is the preferred word in Colombia, Argentina, and Chile when talking about a man’s wallet while cartera is used for a woman’s bolso. Spaniards use cartera for a wallet, bolso for a handbag, and monedero for a purse. Think of monedero as a container for your moneda (money). Incidentally, a carterista is a pickpocket in the Spanish-speaking world.

Spanish for your footwear

• Boots (botas) – The two words are too identical to be any trouble remembering.


• Shoe (zapato) – Imagine zapping a toe of the girl standing next to you in that crowded bus with your new shoes.


• Slipper (zapatilla) – This one’s obviously derived from zapato; so, if you remember the latter, you should easily remember zapatilla as well.


• Sock (calcetín) – If you know that calzón is the Spanish for underwear, you can picture calcetín as being an “underwear” for your feet!


• Stocking (media) – Think of a stocking as the tight-fitting sheer that covers about half of a woman’s leg; this idea of covering “half” of her legs should help you remember its Spanish translation since the word comes from the Latin medius which means “half” or “middle.”

Spanish underneath your clothes

• Boxers (calzón) – Picture yourself taking in the California Sun at the Santa Monica beach wearing a pair of boxer shorts and a lot of sunscreen. Just be careful while using it because in some countries, calzón also stands for the female underwear!


• Bra (sujetador) – The Latin verb, subjectare, morphed into the English verb “to subject,” and the Spanish, sujetar. In a sense, subjecting something also carries the meaning of subjugating or holding it. So, a sujetador is just something that holds those breasts. There are many other words for this item depending on where you are. While most Spaniards use sujetador, many also use bajera. Ecuadorians and Venezuelans go for sostén, while Paraguayans use corpí or corpiño. And then you have the El Salvadorans who pretty much use just the English word instead.


• Briefs/underpants (calzoncillos) – The diminutive “-illo” suffix should easily tell you that this is a much smaller version of calzones (boxer shorts), ergo, briefs.


• Nightdress (camisón) – Remember the word, “camisole”? They mean the same thing and perhaps share a common ancestry too.


• Panties (bragas) – This word derives from the Latin, braca, which means buttocks in an allusion to the “break” or “split” in one’s derriere. So, the bragas of Spanish are the piece of clothing meant to cover that “crack” in the woman’s butt. Sounds crude but that’s etymology for you!


• Undershirt (camiseta) – While it can also mean a t-shirt, camiseta is generally used for what the Americans call a “vest.”

There you are...27 items from your closet that you can name in Spanish with hardly any efforts from now on! There are many other items of clothing that are not included in the list above but are equally important to know. If you have anything interesting on them, feel free to share it with the rest.

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What Makes Audiria The Best Podcast For Spanish Learners?

There’s no contesting the immensely important role immersion plays in any rapid Spanish acquisition program. The more Spanish input we get inundated with, the better our chances of eventually being able to produce it. This idea has been carefully explored and evaluated time and again both here and elsewhere. But there are just too many sources of input out there to quickly overwhelm the layman and that’s where we step in, helping you cherry-pick the best for you. Audiria is one such free Spanish learning resource we’d strongly recommend to you, but not without the unbiased scrutiny it’s being subjected to in this review.

So what is Audiria?

Audiria was the brainchild of two Málaga-born brothers
Photo credit: Nicole Abalde licensed CC BY-ND 2.0

Audiria is a content-driven website aimed at Spanish learners across all levels from basic through advanced. The entire learning model here is built around the idea of improving your listening comprehension and to this end, they offer excellent podcasts along with exhaustive grammar and comprehension drills for their listeners.

Conceived as a not-for-profit project by two Málaga-based brothers, the site aims at promoting the Spanish language and culture throughout the world through its free language-learning podcasts. The brothers are also supported by two other members of their family, one from Burgos and the other from Madrid. All four of them are currently based out of Madrid. Outside of the family, the team of four is often helped by a volunteering contributor from Connecticut in the US.

Amongst a plethora of Spanish learning podcasts that came out of the woodwork as we got down to hunting them down for reviews, Audiria stands out on many counts. One important feature is their offer of a new podcast everyday. Yes, that’s right, a new stuff for listeners every single day without exception! This alone makes it a rich source of materials for even the most prolific of learners who love to devour a lot very quickly. And it’s not just the numbers that they excel at. Audiria podcasts are based on a wide-range of topics and areas of interest and are crafted to suit all levels of proficiency in Spanish. So, in short, there’s something for everyone.

How it works

As already said, Audiria publishes one audio file, or podcast, everyday which is available to learners for free with no strings attached. These podcasts, called chapters by the website, are mostly plain audios, but can also at times include videos.

Each podcast is tagged, and thus classified, on the basis of linguistic complexity – Level 1 podcasts are for the beginners, Level 2 for the intermediate, and Level 3 for advanced students.

Other than levels of difficulty, podcasts are also classified into various “channels” on the basis of their central themes – Press, Songs, Kitchen, Art, Don Quixote, History, Daily Scenes, Culture, Slow, Short Scenes, TV, etc. – so that the readers can choose to listen to chapters discussing topics of their specific interest.

Each chapter is posted along with a well-documented transcript to aid comprehension and these transcripts are sent right to the learner’s email if they are subscribed to receive them. These transcripts go a long way in helping the listeners get their heads around certain podcasts recorded with a high, native-level rate of speech.

To further reinforce their comprehension, learners can take tests answering a bunch of random questions pertaining to the chapter in question and, if registered, can review their progress using a bunch of statistical analyses. Furthermore, the site also offers a “Utilities” section where one can look up the meaning of any new Spanish word they come across while listening to the podcasts. The same section also allows one to review the conjugations of any Spanish verb, quite handy at times.

An extremely rich aspect is the “Resources” section where one can find neatly categorized links to a wide variety of online resources, all bunched up under the “Multimedia” sub-section. These resources include online tutorials, dictionaries, radio and television sites, Spanish learning games, and online language learning communities among others.

Why we love it

The biggest strength of Audiria’s content is its freshness. There’s a new podcast every day to ensure you never get bored or repetitive. All four contributors being native speakers of Spanish, the content is expectedly authentic, more so in the “TV” and “Pictures” channels. And if you already have leastwise an intermediate-level acquaintance with the language, the readings from Don Quixote and Alexander Dumas are worth listening to. Furthermore, the selection of external links in the “Resources” section seems mighty thoughtful and methodical. Those links can satisfy pretty much all your Spanish learning needs; none of them is there “just for the heck of it.”

Audiria podcasts are modeled on real-life scenarios and contextual Spanish
Photo credit: Mystery People licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

Another big plus is that the chapters are modeled on real-life scenarios and contextual usage. Nothing sounds artificially staged. This serves to offer you an interesting window to the rich Hispanic culture and lifestyle. And there are just tons of reading, listening, and writing activities for practice. It is this neat packaging of interesting content with reinforcing practice that makes Audiria such an engaging experience.

On the technical side, the audio quality is excellent to begin with and so is the quality of transcripts (one of the benefits of having a native Spanish-speaking electrical engineer on board). As far as the site itself is concerned, the clean layout leaves little room for confusion and the page itself loads fairly quickly. No overdose of ads either; there are some on the right but they are small, few, and quietly tucked away in their corners never interfering with your learning. This is quite unlike the annoying “in-your-face” flash ads, popups, or banners many other peers toss at you.

If awards and recognitions drive your trust in a service or product, Audiria claims to have been elected as the official project of the UNESCO International Year of Languages in 2008. We sure do hope that UNESCO’s verdict counts!

And what they could do better

There is yin and there is yang. There is good and there is bad. Of course, Audiria is a marvel to work with and an irresistible tool worth every Spanish learner’s arsenal. However, like anything else in the world it, too, has its fair share of flaws. Actually, calling them flaws might be too harsh on them and even an exaggeration. How about areas of improvement, instead?

To begin with, they still lack a simple list of general language topics one can expect to have covered with them, a syllabus. It’s no big deal but a definite good-to-have especially from the standpoint of absolutely fresh learners who are as clueless about what they need to learn as they are about what to learn.

Being a madrileño service, Audiria’s Spanish follows the accent of Spain throughout
Photo credit: Osvaldo Gago licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

The explanations are left a tad wanting when it comes to key grammar concepts. A glaring example is chapter 339 which does explain the imperfect tense that the narrative uses but fails to explain how this tense is different from the preterit. Anybody with any experience in teaching or learning Spanish would vouch for the confusion such pairs cause in the beginning.

Another downside (not sure if it’s even fair to call it a “downside”) is that being an essentially madrileño service, Audiria podcasts are almost exclusively European in nature. What this means is they are excellent if the accent and pronunciation you intend to pick is that of Spain. But if you prefer or just need a Latin American dialect, Audiria might not help much at least with the pronunciation bit. The basics are still the same though and it will still teach you Spanish if you are not fussy about accents.

Final takeaway

But these little clinks, in no way, take away from the otherwise extremely effective Spanish delivery mechanism that Audiria is and should not deter you from experiencing it. Overall, it’s a wonderful resource to get exposure to spoken Spanish, picking up some interesting trivia on culture and literature along the way. One promise that Audiria delivers quite efficiently is that of being an engaging teacher. Just use it for what it does best, i.e., the podcasts and activities, and you are good. For grammar tips you’re better off referencing some other site that specializes in it.

And don’t forget to let our fellow learners know about your experience with Audiria! Actually, feel free to do it better – let us know if you stumble upon something else that trumps Audiria or is at least as good and we all can explore it together, maybe?

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Colombian Spanish – Street Speech From Shakira’s Homeland

While the jury is still out on which Spanish is The Absolute, an overwhelming number of both native and non-native speakers hold the Colombian flavor in high regard. This ambiguous claim might, and often does, spawn a heated debate amongst Spanish speakers for every nationality has reasons to take their Spanish as “standard” Spanish. Nevertheless, if you have set your heart on the Colombian variant, it won’t hurt to learn about some of its most defining features and nuances. The Spanish spoken in Colombia differs from the others in more ways than a few and this article discusses some of the most salient ones of all.

Colombian Spanish is often seen as the most prestigious of all
Photo credit: Juan Carlos Jara Guzmán licensed CC BY 2.0

Well, before we start with the salient features of Colombian Spanish, it is important to note that this is not a single, homogenous dialect spoken uniformly throughout the country. Colombian Spanish is, instead, more of a blanket term applied to a diverse collection of disparate dialects spoken in various regions of this nation. At times, and naturally so, it is also a function of demographics in addition to geography.

On a broad level, the Spanish spoken in coastal Colombia carries an interesting resemblance to the Caribbean dialects owing to the close proximity between the regions. On the other hand, the highland speech tends to be more conservative. It is the educated, and generally conservative, speech of the capital city, Bogotá, that essentially enjoys the widespread respect accorded to Colombian Spanish throughout the New World. This is the Spanish you’re most likely to hear on the television and read in the newspapers.

Too formal?

Colombians use usted even with family and friends!
Photo credit: Edgar Zuniga Jr. licensed CC BY-ND 2.0

Usted is no alien to the Spanish speaking world but in Colombia, particularly Bogotá, it enjoys more currency than anyplace else. While the rest of the world would limit the usage of this word to only formal settings, Colombians use it all the time. Here, usted is used wherever non Colombians would typically use tú or vos, such as with friends and family. Voseo, which is the hallmark of Latin American Spanish, is practically alien to most parts of Colombia.

Of course, there are exceptions to the rules since Colombian Spanish is not a single dialect but a rather inconsistent continuum of almost unrelated dialects. One such exception is the prevalence of voseo in areas like Valle del Cauca and the Paisa region.

It’s not that Colombians never use tú. It’s just that the usage is very minimal and carries a radically different connotation in Colombian societies. When a man uses tú with a woman, it’s seen as flirtatious. And between two men, it’s taboo! Between two men it’s instantly taken as a sign of homosexuality or, leastwise, effeminate behavior. Just stick to usted all along and you’ll do just fine in all situations in this country. Might seem pretty awkward at first but it’s easy to get accustomed to.

Colombian pronunciation

They say the Bogotá accent is the clearest of all and consequently the easiest to understand from a non-native speaker’s standpoint. This meme, along with the fact that this is the Spanish our gorgeous Shakira speaks, should sufficiently incentivize your decision of choosing Colombian Spanish as your target accent!

Though not too many, there still exist some pronunciation features that are more definitive of Colombian speech than any other. One of them is the way they pronounce their j’s as in the word, jardín. While elsewhere it would be rendered with a guttural similar to the one heard at the end of loch in Irish, Colombians prefer the rather simpler sounding “h” of English. So, jardín sounds like “har-deen” in this country and not like “xar-deen” as it does elsewhere. Colombian Spanish shares this feature with some other dialects such as those of Canary Islands, Southern Spain, the Caribbean, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.

There’s also a distinct way they pronounce the letters, b, d, and g, in Colombian Spanish. While these letters carry a much softer sound in most cases in other dialects, they are uttered exactly as they are in English by the Colombians. For the linguistic nerds out there, this can be summed up as the “plosive” pronunciation where parts of your mouth enact a sort of explosion. Imagine your lips mildly exploding when you pronounce “b” in English, or your tongue causing a similar explosion with your alveolar ridge when pronouncing “d”. All you need to remember is that he softer sounds for these letters, prominent in Spanish, is more or less absent in Colombian Spanish. The only exception could be the Nariño region where the softer variants do exist.

Gatito or gatico?

Gatito o gatico?
Photo credit: Fluckr You licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

Diminutives are one of the most defining features of Latin American Spanish and words like ahorita and poquito are commonplace in that part of the world. That these little suffixes (such as the -ito in poquito) mildly or radically alter the meaning of the word in question is well-known. Although the degree and direction of this change in meaning largely depends on the dialect, culture, and context, they abound. And Colombian Spanish is no exception.

What’s salient about Colombian Spanish, though, is the suffix itself. Here, -ito is more commonly replaced by a more ubiquitous -ico in words where the last syllable has a “t” in it. In all other cases, -ito prevails. So, the Mexican gatito becomes gatico in Colombia. Colombians share this practice with the Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Costa Ricans, and the Venezuelans.

Another salient feature of this dialect is that it allows for usage of diminutives not only with nouns and adjectives like elsewhere, but also with verbs! Just as with nouns and adjectives, verbs can also take on these suffixes to intensify the action, particularly in the continuous form represented by the -iendo ending (equivalent of the -ing form in English). Thus, while corriendo is “running,” one can turn it into corriendito to imply “scurrying.”

Even prepositions can take on these suffixes in Colombian speech with a similar intensifying effect. So, while junto a is “next to,” juntico a turns it into “right next to.” Double diminutives are also common as in Mexico giving innovations, like, ahoritica (right at this moment) and buenecitico (perfect or top-shelf). As obvious, two diminutives make it sound more intensive than just one and are, hence, typical of more loaded conversations.

Who’s the daddy?

The lower class Colombians speak a very strange Spanish
Photo credit: I. D. R. J. licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

A curious trait of Colombian Spanish is the way family members address each other. No, this is not about usted or tú. This is something even more awkward for a newcomer. What do you think that Latina wife of yours would address you as? Mi amor? Mi esposo? Mi marido? Well, if she is from Colombia, she is most likely to call you – hold your breath – mijo (a colloquial portmanteau for mi hijo or “my son” elsewhere)! Yes, Colombian couples address each other as mijo and mija. Don’t ask why; this is what it is. Just get used to it.

And it doesn’t end here. While your Colombian wife addresses you like a son, think of how she addresses your kids. Well, parents in this country usually call their sons papito (daddy) and daughters, mamita (mommy)! So, who’s the daddy after all? But don’t worry, this kind of awkward usage is not educated Colombian Spanish. You’re more likely to hear them in lower and lower-middle class families.

Another peculiarity of Colombian street-speech is the usage of que in irrelevant contexts. Practically any sentence can be made to start with this word without affecting the meaning. Just another Colombian habit. You are quite likely to hear sentences like these in this country:

Que sale mañana (They’re leaving tomorrow)

Que gracias (Thanks)

This usage is, again, associated with uneducated, lower socio-economic strata of the Colombian society.

There are far more peculiarities in any dialect of any language, let alone Colombian Spanish, to be justifiably covered in a single article. Books have been written discussing these idiosyncrasies and anyone crazy enough about this dialect ought to conduct further research. But no amount of reading and researching can ever rival the value-add of having a native speaker from Colombia as friend. Interacting with them in real is the best way to understand all aspects of their language.

If you have any experience with the Colombians, feel free to share it with the rest of us in your comments. We’d love to learn more about this fascinating dialect through your experiences!

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The 4 Keywords Of Argentinean Spanish Other Than Che

The Argentineans could practically go on for hours at a stretch with anyone who’d care to listen! And, naturally, this overdose of spoken Spanish is bound to spawn an entire jargon of local slang and idiosyncrasies that could catch even a master of Spanish off-guard. Even someone who can’t say, “My name is Bill,” in Spanish would know that che is what the Argentineans live and breathe. What many don’t know, however, is that Argentinean life doesn’t start and end with just che. A dialect of Spanish as rich as Argentinean ought to do much better than that; here, we explore 4 words from Argentina that you just can’t do without.

Boludo

Unless you mean to insult, use boludo only with someone this close, if you must
Photo credit: Alberto licensed CC BY 2.0

Long, long ago in the days of yore when they used to fight with horses and cannons, it often made sense to have a “cannon-fodder.” This wretched mortal would be typically the one pushed into front line of the battle so as to take the hit from incoming shots and die first, thereby, saving the more precious manpower behind him. It was a brilliant, though cruel, strategy to waste the enemy’s cannonballs on insignificant soldiers and then score later in terms of ammunition.

Obviously, this wretch was popularly thought of as someone having a lot of guts to step into what’s practically a suicide mission. Lot of guts translated into big balls or, in Spanish, boludo. So, basically, the term would stand for someone brave and courageous and thus has “big balls.” But then, another school of thought noted them as utter fools as there was no bravery involved in certain death. Hence, with time, this word came to carry this connotation.

Although, in the streets of Argentina, a boludo would generally be an immature jackass or a moron, it might not always be as offending as it seems. Most teenagers are often heard using this word amongst themselves as casual appelative. It often combines with che in one of the most common street expressions, “¡Che boludo!” This could mean, “Hey moron!” or “Hey buddy!” depending on the context.

At any cost, stay away from using this word unless you are in extremely casual and friendly settings as you never know how it might come across. Especially if you’re older than, say 30, an overuse of boludo might be taken as an attempt to play up a certain image or even cultural or lexical poverty. And if you’re feeling even more adventurous, there’s pelotudo; same meaning but a much bigger punch.

By the way, this word refers to a wealthy person in El Salvador! So, be careful if you’re traveling to both the countries.

Quilombo

Slums of La Boca: ¡Qué quilombo!
Photo credit: Richie Diesterheft licensed CC BY 2.0

This one actually comes from Portuguese, blame it on the shared border with Brazil. Historically, quilombos used to be remote, inland ghettos settled by runaway slaves from the Brazilian sugar plantations. Needless to say, the living conditions in these slums, mostly concentrated along the southern frontiers of Brazil, were poor enough to be compared with Hell on Earth.

Due to the miserable state of affairs in these settlements, the word came to be colloquially used for the whorehouses of Buenos Aires – and sometimes also Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, and rest of Argentina – which were equally wretched if not more. With time, though, it has further evolved and generalized to cover any similar situation. So, basically, a quilombo today is a mess or any messed-up situation regardless of the context.

How intense is the connotation? Let’s just say it’s a tad stronger than “mess” but a touch gentler than something like a “shit storm.” Anyway, cutting through all its interpretations, at heart, quilombo remains something raucous, miserable, and downright bad.

Needless to say, you’d be better off limiting this word’s usage to only the most casual of contexts as it’s not a terribly sophisticated expression. Typical usage would be:

¡Qué quilombo! (What a bloody mess!)

Se armo un quilombo (It was a freakin’ mess)

¡Tu casa es un quilombo! (Your house is such a mess!)

Onda

Everything nice is buena onda!
Photo credit: Claudia_midori licensed CC BY 2.0

Onda is also quite prevalent in Mexico as a colloquial term for “vibes.” Literally speaking, this word means “wave” which is similar in connotation to “vibe.” This is the reason why microwave ovens are translated to hornos microondas in Spanish. Pretty straightforward, isn’t it?

Using la onda in isolation simply means cool or good – a tad stronger than bueno. Although there are many phrases using this word, it’s not uncommon to hear it being used on its own in an expression. One example is, ¿Qué onda?

Well, this is quite a handy word due to its versatility and ubiquity, at least in Mexican and Rioplatense dialects of Spanish. The most common expression using this word is ¿Qué onda? which means, “What’s up?” Here, the question essentially meant to be asked is more like, “What’s making waves?” or “What’s going on?”

Other than the extremely common expression mentioned above, the word finds usage in quite a few other contexts as well. Some of the most common expressions use onda along with buena or mala, in the phrases, buena onda (good intention/faith/mood) or mala onda (bad faith/intention/mood). Whether onda indicates nature, mood or intention, depends on the preposition attached to it:

en buena/mala onda (with or in a good/bad intention)

de buena/mala onda (in a good/bad mood)

buena/mala onda (cool/mean or a good/bad thing or situation)

Let’s review some examples:

Mi jefe es muy buena onda (My boss is pretty cool)

La música de esa banda es la onda (This band’s music is the best)

Lupe es mala onda (Lupe is quite mean)

Ahora, estoy de mala onda (I’m in a bad mood right now)

Las mujeres hablan en mala onda de Juan (The women talk harshly about Juan)

Pedo

These Argentineans are definitely en pedo
Photo credit: Leonardo Daniel licensed CC BY 2.0

Going by the dictionary, this word means just a “fart,” but in the streets of Argentina, they are used in contexts that have little to do with this unpleasant Biology. One most common expression you can hear everywhere you go in Buenos Aires is en pedo which means drunk. So, if you ask me if I’d ever try eating reptiles and I answer, “¡Ni en pedo!” I essentially mean that I won’t eat them even if I were drunk.

Another interesting phrase involving pedo is vivir en nube de pedos. If you abide by the literal translation, this would conjure up a rather disgusting image of someone living in a cloud made of farts. But in colloquial speech, this simply refers to someone living in a dream-world, totally detached from reality. Interesting?

The play with words doesn’t stop here. Ever seen a scuba diver slowly ascending back to the surface after a long session? It’s no mean feat to push through the immense pressure of all the water on top of your head, especially when you have gone too deep. Now imagine that diver letting out a fart so strong that it propels him to the surface in one loud jet! There’s an expression for this vision in Spanish – Subir como pedo de buzo – which literally means, “to climb like a scuba diver’s fart.” Well, the image might not be pleasant but the expression is quite handy in a lot of contexts. Essentially it relates to someone “rapidly climbing up the social ladder.”

Of course, these are not the only words that define Argentinean Spanish and you’ll discover many more as you start conversing with the locals. But, these are by far the most prevalent expressions you are likely to encounter on a stroll down the alleys and streets of this country. Just try avoiding their usage in formal settings and you should be just fine. And if, by any chance, you’ve been there and done that, please feel free to share your experiences. Any words or expressions you feel should make the list of Argentinean slang keywords? Share them!

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32 Spanish Verbs In Your Kitchen In Under 10 Minutes

However eccentric one’s tastes, the allure of good food can hardly be denied. How about adding a little gastronomical twist to our mundane Spanish learning regimen then? Even if you don’t particularly enjoy cooking, the ability to talk about the goings on in your kitchen in fluent Spanish will go a long way winning you the heart of that Latina who is famous for her yummy mole! This article is going to help you learn and remember for ever, some of the most frequently used Spanish verbs related to cooking with a special focus on clearing the air on two very similar sounding verbs (and thus quite confusing), cocer and cocinar.

The cocer-cocinar dilemma

Broadly speaking, both words mean “to cook” in English but scratch the surface and you will discover that there is quite a subtle yet well-defined difference between them. To understand this difference, we need to first understand what cooking generally involves. Now regardless of whether you can cook, you know what goes on in your kitchen.

Cocinar or cocer?
Photo credit: Neeta Lind licensed CC BY 2.0

The food you see on the table, is prepared in many stages, each a process in itself. Chopping, peeling, mixing, marinating, boiling, baking, frying, steaming, and so on. In English, the whole shebang is collectively referred to as “cooking.” In this sense, the word in Spanish is cocinar. This is an excellent example of how nouns and verbs give rise to each other in many languages. This happens all the time. And it happens in English too. That’s how you have the verb, “tutor” deriving from the noun, “tutor” (my English tutor tutors my cousins). It’s just a natural phenomenon. In Spanish, we have the noun, cocina (kitchen) giving us the verb, cocinar which essentially stands for all actions that are performed inside a kitchen. Thus, it covers everything from chopping to frying (of course, having sex in the kitchen doesn’t count).

However, cooking in English also stands for something more specific. The act of processing a food over heat, e.g., boiling, frying, roasting, etc. This set of activities have a slightly different representation in Spanish – cocer. You can see cocer as a subset of cocinar. Look at it this way: Cocinar is the whole gamut. All activities involved in it can be categorized under preparar (preparing the food, e.g., chopping, marinating, peeling, etc.) and cocer (cooking over fire, e.g., boiling, steaming, frying, baking, etc.).

Interestingly, etymology ensures you never forget these words ever again. Turns out, these words are related to the English “cook” sharing a common Latin ancestor, coquō. Never mind how the /k/ sound morphed into /s/; some evolutionary forces at work here.

By the way, here’s a fun fact: In Dominican Republic, cocina is a slang for the back seats in a guagua (a local name for “bus” in DR).

Some more kitchen verbs

Homemade guacamole from a Mexican kitchen
Photo credit: Naotake Murayama licensed CC BY 2.0

Now that we are even with the 2 most basic culinary verbs, it’s time to explore some more. In this section, we’ll learn not only the Spanish for some of the most common kitchen-related action words, but also invoke etymology and visualization to ensure we never lose them from memory. Ready to get started? It shouldn’t take you more than 10 minutes to learn them all and permanently commit them to memory without any repetitive cramming (a previous article had attempted to help you acquire 13 kitchen words in Spanish in a similar fashion). Here we go:

1. agregar (to add) – Does this not sound eerily similar to “aggregate”? Well, that’s because it is. They obviously share a common Latin ancestry. This word is used whenever you are adding an ingredient to your mess while preparing it for cooking.


2. ahumar (to smoke) – No, this is not about cigarettes. This is what you do to, say, salmons. Cooking with smoke. But you guessed it right, ahumar does come from the same source as fumar (to smoke, e.g., a cigarette) and the common ancestor here is fumō, again Latin. This word also gave us the English word, “fume.”


3. batir (to beat) – This one’s a no-brainer; the two words sound close enough to stay in your head without much trouble.


4. capear (to cover) – You can easily relate to this word when you realize that “to cap” also means “to cover” in English. But capear is not used in every context. This word specifically refers to covering something in, say, butter for the purpose of frying.


5. cubrir (to cover) – Now, this is the word you use when speaking of physically covering your food with an actual lid or cover. Also note how this word rings similar to its English counterpart, “cover,” and it should be a cakewalk to recall.


6. napar (to cover) – Again! How many words do they have for covering in Spanish! Don’t worry, it’s all about the context. In this case, we are completely bathing a dish in a sauce or something similar so that the latter completely covers not just the dish but also the plate! Drooling already? Think of a black forest pastry completely drowned in hot chocolate and that’s what napar implies. So, while capear is while cooking, napar is while serving. Not sure where this word comes from but you can visualize the hot chocolate cover as having no parallel to help yourself remember and recall it effortlessly.


7. cortar (to cut up) – Again, the reason cortar sounds so similar to “cut” is their common Latin ancestry. Think of it as an action that renders something shorter or smaller.


8. trocear (to cut up) – This one doesn’t seem to be any different from cortar except that it obviously has a different etymology.


9. desvenar (to remove the veins as in from chillies) – Another no-brainer. The prefix, des-, lends the meaning of removing something while venar comes from véna which, in turn, comes from the Latin vēna that gave us the English “vein.” Think of desvenar as “de-vein.”


10. enharinar (to coat/sprinkle with a thin layer of flour) – In English, when you coat something with a balm-like thingy, it’s embalming. Similarly, in Spanish, when you coat something with harina (flour), it’s enharinar.



Flamear or quemar?
Photo credit: Jenene Chesbrough licensed CC BY 2.0



11. quemar (to burn) – This one has an interesting history. Quemar is a direct descendant of the Latin word for burn, cremō. And, it is this Latin word that gave us “cremate” in English. For those of you who don’t know, cremation is the traditional burning up of a dead body at funeral in some cultures.


12. flamear (to burn) – This word doesn’t exactly burn your food unless you are reckless enough. Here, you use flame as a show-off by smothering the hot dish in a liquor, such as brandy, and then igniting it to create what’s typically known as, flambé. The flame in this process is used more for its visual effects than to actually burn the food.


13. llenar (to fill) – Imagine you are being served mezcal at a Mexican restaurant and the absent-minded server continues to pour to the point where it’s about to spill. What would you do? You’d obviously say, “no,” once you see your cup’s full. Use this imagination to remember that lleno is the Spanish for “full.” It is this word that gives us the verb, llenar.



Papa rellena
Photo credit: Robert Luna licensed CC BY 2.0



14. rellenar (to stuff) – The prefix, re-, is often added to many Spanish verbs to accentuate the action, giving it a sense of being kind of overdone. It has the same etymology as the similarly-spelled prefix in English but with a slight difference, e.g., frijoles refritos is “well-fried beans” and not “refried beans” as most assume. Similarly, adding the prefix to llenar gives it a sense of “over-filling” or, simply put, “stuffing.” Drool over papas rellenas (stuffed potatoes) if that helps.


15. freir (to fry) – Well this one sounds like its English counterpart given their shared origins.


16. derretir (to melt, thaw, or liquify) – Imagine yourself as an action-packed, hot-headed bag of testosterone while you’re still young and active. But then you’re going to lose much of this youthful vigor and thaw down as you grow older and retire. This visual mnemonic should be enough to affix this word to your head for a lifetime.


17. guisar (to stew) – Though this word has Proto-Germanic roots, just as English does, it would probably be easier to rely on visualization in this case as its etymology is kind of complicated. Think of yourself guised as your favorite superhero, say Spiderman, busy stewing something in the kitchen.


18. hervir (to boil) – This one comes from the Latin fervere which gave English the word, “fever.” Heat is the lowest common denominator here.


19. sancochar (to parboil) – Though this word means almost the same as hervir, there’s a slight difference. You use hervir when you are actually boiling some liquid, such as water. However, it’s sancochar when you boil some food stuff in that liquid.


20. hornear (to bake in an oven) – From the Latin furnus comes the English “furnace” and the Spanish horno. So, naturally whatever you do in an horno (i.e., bake) is hornear.



Machacar en un molcajete
Photo credit: ccharmon licensed CC BY-ND 2.0



21. machacar (to crush, pulverize, pound, or grind) – Think of a burly macho dude crushing a fistful of walnuts in one effortless twist. Can you relate?


22. pelar (to peel) – Both have a common root and hence the similar ring.


23. remover (to stir) – If mover is “to move,” adding the prefix, re-, would add a certain overkill to this action; thus, remover means, “to move thoroughly” or, “to stir.”


24. mezclar (to mix) – Again, the words sound too similar to warrant any special memory cue.


25. salar (to add salt) – Sal is Spanish for “salt,” so, salar naturally becomes the Spanish for adding salt to your food.


26. sazonar (to season or garnish) – Again, they sound fairly similar.


27. helar (to freeze) – Hielo is the Spanish for “ice” hence the derived verb.


28. congelar (to deep-freeze) – This one comes from gelu, the Latin for “ice.” Incidentally, gelu gave us the English word, “congeal,” which means, “to solidify or coagulate by cooling.”


29. nevar (to froth egg-white) – Generally, this word means, “to snow,” but in the kitchen it refers to frothing of egg-white given the visual similarity between the latter and the physical snow.


30. untar (to spread) – What happens if you untie a polyethylene bag of yoghurt? It spreads all over. rings a bell?

That should be enough for now. These were some of the most commonly verbs used in the kitchen and should have you covered for most culinary situations. The same word-association tricks that we used here can also be used in acquiring other words, such as these 13 Spanish names of kitchen objects.

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