The Spanish word “monstruo” actually does mean “monster” in English.

So you’ve just played your first piano concerto in public, and someone comes up to you and enthusiastically says “¡Eres un monstruo!” Should you be offended?

No. It’s a rather amusing - for an English speaker - idiomatic use of the word “monstruo” in Spanish. The person is actually telling you that your talents range somewhere between fabulous and sheer genius. You should be happy about being called this and reply with “no es para tanto” if you want to downplay the complement, “está clarísimo” if you too are convinced you are a genius, or a simple “gracias” if you would like to just acknowledge the compliment.

PS: “no es para tanto” is another difficult phrase to translate. Frequently it can be translated as “it’s not such a big deal” but in this situation one would probably say “you’re exagerrating” or “you’re too kind” or some other similar phrase. “está clarísimo” could be translated as “it’s very obvious” here.

Brad

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Different Spanish speaking countries have different ways of answering the phone. For example, in Spain it can be “diga“, “digame” or “¿sí?“, in Mexico it can be “bueno“, and in Colombia it can be “¿aló?“. I say “can be” because there might be other ways of answering, depending on the situation.

The following are some ways to ask “Who’s calling?” in Spanish. I’ve indicated whether they are “formal” or “informal” which in this situation means the difference between asking when you think that it might be a friend (informal) and when you don’t have any idea who it is (formal).

1. ¿Quién llama? (formal)
2. ¿Quién es? (formal)
3. ¿Quién eres? (informal)
4. ¿Eres Juan / María? (informal meaning “Is that Juan / María?).

And if someone calls asking to speak to someone else, you can use the very formal “¿De parte de quién?” which translates literally as “On behalf of whom?” although it doesn’t sound quite as heavy in Spanish.

Brad

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We have a nice Spanish idiom today for using when you find or received exactly what you needed, wanted or were looking for. It’s usually used in a phrase like this:

Me viene como el anillo al dedo.

Of course, the “me” will change according to who is being benefitted:

Me / te / le / nos / os / les viene como el anillo al dedo. (It’s just what I / you / he-she / we /you /they were looking for).

The literal translation “like a ring on a finger” is similar to the English “it fits like a glove”, but it isn’t used in the same way. Here are some example translations of “me viene como el anillo al dedo” into English. We’ll suppose that the situation is one where you’ve decided that you need to buy a new car, you don’t have much money, and your neighbor tells you that he will sell you his cheap since he never uses it. “me viene como el anillo al dedo” could be expressed in English as:

1. That’s just what I needed!
2. That’s exactly what I was looking for.
3. That suits me perfectly!
4. That’s come just at the right time!
5. That’s a real godsend!
6. That’s just what the doctor ordered!

I’m sure there are other ways to translate the phrase, but the above should give you an idea.

Brad

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OK, the holiday mood is on and the blogging mood is off, so I’ll take advantage of the former to provide a quick list of the greetings that one can use at Christmas and New Year’s:

1. ¡Feliz Navidad! -  Merry Christmas! (GB: Happy Christmas!)

2. ¡Feliz Año Nuevo! -  Happy New Year!

3. ¡Felices fiestas! -  Happy holidays!

4. ¡Felices pascuas! -  Happy holidays!

5. ¡Feliz Navidad y próspero Año Nuevo! -  Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Note: in conversation - and frequently used as a goodbye phrase - number two is  often abbreviated as “¡Feliz Año!“.

Brad

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The literal translation of this expression is “return to (do something)” although no traveling is involved. Of the three ways of saying “again” in Spanish, this is possibly the most difficult one to get used to. However you must learn it because it is so commonly used. The examples below illustrate its usage:

Spanish

1. Leí el libro hace un año y volví a leerlo el mes pasado.
2. Has vuelto a hacer un buen trabajo.
3. Ha vuelto a haber un terremoto en Perú.
4. Me alegro de volver a verte aquí.

English

1. I read the book a year ago and I read it again last month.
2. Once again, you’ve done a good job.
3. There’s been an earthquake in Peru again.
4. I’m happy to see you here again.

Brad

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The literal translation of this one makes sense in English: “another time”. So in Spanish, you can say something like “I read the book a year ago and I read it “another time” last month” as shown in the first of the following examples:

Spanish

1. Leí el libro hace un año y lo leí otra vez el mes pasado.
2. Has hecho un buen trabajo otra vez.
3. Ha habido un terremoto en Perú otra vez.
4. Me alegro de verte aquí otra vez.

English

1. I read the book a year ago and I read it again last month.
2. Once again, you’ve done a good job.
3. There’s been an earthquake in Peru again.
4. I’m happy to see you here again.

Next post: volver a + infinitive

Brad

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The next few posts will deal with how to say “again” in Spanish since there are several, very commonly used ways to say it. There’s really no explanation needed - the examples should be enough to get the idea:

Spanish

1. Apaga el motor, déjalo enfriar, y luego enciéndelo de nuevo.
2. De nuevo, has hecho un buen trabajo.
3. De nuevo ha habido un terremoto en Perú.
4. Me alegro de verte aquí de nuevo.

English

1. Turn off the motor, let it cool off, and then start it again.
2. Once again, you’ve done a good job.
3. There’s been an earthquake in Peru again. / There’s been another earthquake in Peru.
4. I’m happy to see you here again.

Next post: otra vez

Brad

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I read something this morning about mistakes people make when learning Spanish. It mentioned things like prepositions, making literal translations, following English word order and other typical mistakes which are hard to avoid. But the one that really caught my attention was this one: being afraid to speak to people or, in other words, wanting everything to be perfect before practicing speaking to people.

This is worth mentioning in the blog because it was not only my biggest mistake, I also see it in most of the students I’ve taught. One lady especially comes to mind: she had no trouble grasping the grammar and learning the vocabulary but actually trembled in the class when she had to speak since she was sooooo worried about making a mistake.

One example of my own stupidity was one morning in the early days in Tijuana when I had successfully - but not without an enormous amount of trepidation and worry - bought a bus ticket to Guadalajara. I then left the station and was starving to death. I paced back and forth in front of a bakery and didn’t go in because I didn’t know the names of anything in Spanish. And yes, I went hungry. (As a side note, none of my teachers had taught me that you can point and say “Uno de eso” and you will get what you are asking for).

The students I’ve had who aren’t bashful have always learned more quickly than those who were, even if they had less talent for grammar and other intricacies of language learning. In my own experience, when I decided to learn Portuguese I had a devil-may-care attitude towards it (I suppose since it was a hobby whereas learning Spanish had been a serious goal) and it was a totally different, rewarding experience.

For those of you who are like I was, it’s essential that you remember that people in Spanish speaking countries are generally friendly and extremely tolerant of foreigners’ mistakes when trying to speak Spanish. The best method I’ve found for easing into practicing conversation is to find a native Spanish speaker who is trying to learn your language, and exchange conversation time: 30 minutes only in Spanish and then 30 minutes only in English (or whatever language). It’s a good way to prepare yourself for situations out there in “real life”.

Brad

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The diminutive form of Spanish nouns can be used to indicate a smallish size (”mi casita” = my little house) or some sort of emotional relationship to the object (”mi casita” = my beloved home). This second point is harder to grasp for people learning Spanish. If you imagine a sixty year old mother calling her 45 year old son “my little boy”, or the owner of a fierce Doberman referring to his “doggie”, you can begin to get a feeling for how it’s used.

The forms vary according to countries and even within countries. There’s nothing that really identifies any one of the endings as indicating a person’s origins. Where I live in southern Spain the “-illo” form is used along with and seems to be slightly more common than the “-ito” form, but in my wife’s part of the country (Extremadura) everything is “-ino”.

I’ll finish this short entry (it really is a long subject) with a small list of the different variations of the phrase “a very small doggie”. One thing to note about these examples that the adjective “chico” also has a diminutive form. Not many adjectives do this in Spanish - the only ones I’ve been able to come up with are caliente (warm) calentito, grande (big) grandecito, ligero (light) ligerito, joven (young) jovencito, mayor (older) mayorcito, nuevo (new) nuevecito, and viejo (old) viejecito. I’m sure there are others, however. Now for the very small doggie:

1. un perrito muy chiquitito
2. un perrillo muy chiquitillo
3. un perrico muy chiquitico
4. un perrino muy chiquitino

Brad