Category Archives: Spanish

Buen Provecho…¡Comida!

Since it is summer (verano) and all the food is growing, people are out having bbqs and enjoying the weather, I thought today’s Spanish tip could be about food!

Food probably has the most variation among Spanish speaking countries. What one country calls “turkey” for instance can be many different words in different countries. However, here is a starting point.

Food –Comida, Alimento

Breakfast is desayuno

Lunch is almuerzo -or in Spanglish –lonche

Dinner is cena

Snack –Bocadillo, Refrigerio, Merienda, Tentempie -I’ve heard many words for snack, but no consensus on the standard. I usually use bocadillo

Tengo hambre =I’m hungry (Literal translation is “I have hunger”)

Tengo sed =I’m thirsty.

Comer = To eat. For example, “Me gusta comer” means “I like to eat” -if you like a certain food, you can add that food to the end. “Me gusta comer fresas” =”I like to eat strawberries”

Estoy lleno(a) –I’m full -When I lived in Mexico, everyone said this, but when I did, I was corrected by my host family to say “Estoy satisfecha” which is a more polite way of saying the same thing basically “I feel satisfied”.

Buen Provecho –I find it interesting that we don’t have an expression in English to say that we hope the food is good, that we enjoy it, that we have a good appetite for it. Instead we’ve borrowed from the French with “Bon Apetit”, or simply say “Enjoy”. But Buen Provecho is used at even the most casual of dining experiences in Latin America, so it is useful to know.

Many foods that have become folded into American dininig experience are known by their Spanish names -most commonly from Mexico such as burrito, taco, chimichanga, tortilla, jalapeño, churro, torta, salsa, tamale, rellenos, enchilada, and more. Many other countries such as Puerto Rico have different foods with different names. Sometimes they are the same food, but just called by a different name. Some foods in Puerto Rico are: pinchos, mofongos, tostones, pasteles (different than pastel in Mexico which is cake -these are closer to tamales), coquito (a drink), and more.

However, there are many other more common foods that may be good to know:

Bread =Pan

Egg = Huevo

Butter = Mantequilla

Fruit = Fruta

Apple =Manzana

Vegetable = Verdura, Vegetal

Zanahoria =Carrot

Grains =Granos, Cereales

Flour =Harina

Meat =Carne

Beef = Carne de res

Chicken =Pollo

Fish =Pescado (as opposed to pez or peces that are still swimming)

Milk =Leche

Cheese =Queso

Nut = Nuez

Candy/Sweets =Dulce(s)

Sugar =Azúcar

Postre = Dessert


For food, there is a lot to know. Everyone has to eat and there’s lots of variety! However, this is usually an area that most people learn just by doing, so don’t worry too much about it. If you have the basics, you’ll learn the foods (hopefully) by eating them with people who speak Spanish! And it will definitely be a little different wherever you learn it. ¡Buen provecho!

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Struggles of English Speakers Learning Spanish

When an English-speaker first starts learning Spanish, there are a few things that are harder than the others. For me, some of these I still struggle with. Usually it is because there is no English equivalent, or the equivalent is not used very much.

This is a list of the common struggles an English Speaker faces when learning Spanish:

Por/Para =Both of these can generally mean “for” but there are lots of differences of when to use one and not the other and other things they can mean too (like by, in order to, and idiomatic expressions as well). And if you make a mistake and use the other one it can actually make a meaning change. For instance, if you said -“Compré las flores por Susana” instead of “Compré las flores para Susana”, you have completely changed the meaning. The first one with por means that you bought it for her because she couldn’t buy them herself -she was unable to buy them so you bought them FOR her. The second one, with para means that you bought them FOR her, like as a gift. As you can see, por and para are confusing to English speakers and will probably be a lifelong challenge when learning Spanish. This is one we can tackle more in-depth in a future post.

Imperfect Tense -In English we don’t really have an imperfect tense, but to describe it basically it is for things that are ongoing in the past. Like things you did on a regular basis, not just a one-time event. Like “Cuando era joven” means “When I was young” -it was not just a one time moment, but a continuous one. Or “Estudiaba casi todos los días” instead of “Estudié por una hora” – The first one means “I used to study almost every day” the second one means “I studied for one hour”. This is one that I can usually do correctly, but every now and then there is that grey area of whether that was considered which type of “time”.

Estar/Ser- This is another struggle for English Speakers learning Spanish because in English there is only one “To Be”. In English we ARE all sorts of things. We ARE our age, we ARE our feelings, we ARE our gender, we ARE in our location. In Spanish, there is this designation which descibes which type of thing we ARE or it IS. Estar is usually used to describe something that could easily change. It is something momentary. Ser on the other hand, is used to describe something that is more permanent. So while “Estoy en Puerto Rico” (I AM in Puerto Rico)  is temporary, “Soy de Colorado” (I AM from Colorado) is permanent. Like por and para if you make a mistake, it can mean a difference in understanding. For instance, if you said “Estoy listo(a)”  it means “I’m ready” If you said “Soy listo(a)” it means “I’m smart”. Or if you said someone “está enfermo” it means they are sick (temporarily). If you said someone “es enfermo” they would be “sickly” -or of a permanent disposition of being sick.

Subjunctive– If you hear English-speakers complaining about Spanish, it might just be because of the Subjunctive tense. Subjunctive is not really a tense, but a mood, or a feeling of uncertainty/desire. We used to have it a lot more in English when people used Old Shakespearean English, but for the most part it has been stripped from our normal speaking. Even in phrases where we still use it, we see a slow transition away from it. For instance, “I wish I were a millionaire”  (subjunctive) is often changed to “I wish I was a millionaire”  (indicative).  Other examples of English subjunctive could be “The lawyer recommends that he stay in the country” (stay instead of stays) or “The rules require that you be at least 50 inches to go on this ride” (be instead of are). In Spanish it is used much more in phrases like “Dudo que vengas“, ( I doubt that you [will] come) “Es importante que escriba a su madre” (It’s importante that he write [or writes] to his mother). In indicative, or certain tense, you would say “No dudo que vienes” (I have no doubt that you [will] come) or “El escribe a su madre porque es importante a él” (He writes to his mother because it is important to him).

Of course there are the tricky irregular verbs, gender changes, the rules of pedir vs preguntar, saber vs conocer and always new vocabulary, but those are easy compared to these struggles. This is just an overview without much explanation on how to learn these rules, but it’s good to be able to recognize some of the more tricky parts to learning Spanish, so you can spend some time focusing on these troublesome areas. In the following months, I will try and focus on some of these specifically.

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Fun Spanish Words and Why Spanish is Long

There are a few words in Spanish that are just fun to say. They are long, strange and/or hard to pronounce the first time you try them, but once you’ve got them down, they are really fun -and impressive (impresionante) to your friends that you know how to say them!

For instance:

Sneeze: Estornudo (Es-Tor-Noo-Doe)
Parking: Estacionamiento (Es-Ta-See-Own-Ah-Me-En-Toe)
Unfortunately: Desafortunadamente (Des-Ah-For-Too-Nah-Dah-Men-Tay)
Early Morning/Late Night: La Madrugada (Lah Mah-Drew-Gah-Dah)
Rugrat/Squirt: Esquincle (Es-Quink-Lay)
Pants: Pantalones (Pant-ah-Loan-es) -Comes from the old word pantalooms
Regrettably: Lamentablemente (Lah-Men-Tah- Blay-Men-Tay)
Gossip (a person): Chismoso(a) (Cheese- Moh-So) If it’s a woman, it ends with the “a”
Gratitude: Agradecimiento (Ah-Grah-Day-See-Me-En-Toe)
Definitely: Definitivamente (Def-Een-Ah-Teev-Ah-Men-Tay)
Bat (the animal): Murciélago (Mur-See-A-Lah-Go) -This one is so cool they named a Lamborghini after it.
Mushrooms- Champiñones (Champ-een-yon-es) (another word for mushrooms is “Hongos”)
Sausage –Salchicha (Sahl-Chee-Cha)
Population- Población -(Poe-Blah-See-Own)


Cool Spanish Word =Cool Marketing for a Sports Car (Probably wouldn’t have seemed so cool if it were called a Lam Bat)

You’ll notice that some of the longer ones end in “mente”. This suffix is for most any adverb that ends in “ly”. Absolutely! ¡Absolutamente!

Because of things like this, on average Spanish words are just a bit longer and take a bit more space and time to say. To compensate, some people think Spanish speakers talk faster, but really, they are probably getting the information out at the same speed, but the syllables are coming out faster. For instance, here is a paragraph in English and Spanish using some of the above words.

Hello. I am calling about the pants my little squirt ordered off the Internet last night while we were sleeping. Regrettably, we can not buy the pants he ordered.

Buenos días. Estoy llamando sobre los pantalones mi esquincle ordenó por Internet ayer en la madrugada mientras estabamos dormidos. Lamentablemente, no podemos comprar los pantalones que él ordenó.

As you can see, for every two syllables, two words or two sentences in English, it takes about three in Spanish. But they are oh, so much more fun to say, so it’s worth it! 🙂

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Meses del Año

In continuing on with the theme of calendar dates, here are los meses del año, or months of the year:

January = enero

February  = febrero

March = marzo

April = abril

May =mayo

June = junio

July = julio

August = agosto

September = septiembre

October = octubre

November = noviembre

December = diciembre

To put the days of the week, the seasons of the year and the months of the year all together, one could say:

Tengo mi cumpleaños en el verano.  El día este año será lunes el dieciocho de julio.

If you can translate that you will know my birthday! 🙂

This video is helpful, but the pronunciation of “mayo” is probably Argentinian or Spanish (from Spain). Also, you do not need to capitalize the months unless they are first in a sentence or a proper noun (Cinco de Mayo Event versus just May 5th -el cinco de mayo).


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