Go ahead. Look in the dictionary. “Cara” means “face”. I agree.

But there’s one special usage of the word which seems to be more commonly used in Spanish than its English equivalents. The reason I say that is I notice that I say and/or hear the “cara” expressions in Spanish much more than I hear the “nerve” equivalents in English. Maybe it’s just a subjective impression, or perhaps Spanish speakers behave worse than their English speaking counterparts. (Said jokingly, in case anyone is wondering).

Here are some of the “cara” expressions with their English equivalents:

1. ¡Pepe tiene mucha cara! - Pepe’s got a lot of nerve.
2. ¡Qué cara tiene Pepe! - Pepe’s got a lot of nerve.
3. ¡Pepe es/tiene una cara dura! - Pepe’s got a lot of nerve.

I think the “lot of nerve” expression is common to both US and UK speakers. A purely UK translation of the above sentences would be “Pepe’s a cheeky swine”.

Anyway, this post is about learning Spanish and the point is that you will need to know this type of “cara” expression in Spanish since it’s very commonly used.

Brad

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Once again, the two words look like they should mean the same, but they don’t. Here are the definitions:

(Spanish) compromiso = (English) an obligation, promise, or agreement
(English) compromise = (Spanish) mutuo acuerdo (literally: “a mutual agreement”)

Here are some examples:

Spanish

1. No puedo ayudarte hoy porque tengo varios compromisos.
2. Usted lo puede probar sin compromiso.
3. Ella lo invitó por compromiso.
—
4. Los dos partidos llegaron a un acuerdo sobre el nuevo impuesto.
5. Llegamos a un acuerdo sobre ciertos puntos antes de que firmaran.

English

1. I can’t help you today because I have several things to do.
2. You can try it without any obligation.
3. She invited him because she felt obliged to.
–
4. The two (political) parties reached an agreement over the new tax.
5. We made a compromise on certain points before they signed.

Brad

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There are two basic types of questions: yes/no questions and questions with an interrogative. Here are the rules for each, followed by some examples:

Yes/No questions

The subject usually goes before the verb (¿Pepe está aquí?). Notice that I’ve chosen the word “usually” with great care: there could be reasons to say “¿Está Pepe aquí?” and this is a perfectly correct question.

Questions with an interrogative (¿qué?, ¿dónde?, ¿cuándo?, etc.)

The subject always goes somewhere after the verb (¿Dónde está Pepe?). Once again, I’ve chosen the word “always” very carefully: you’ll never hear a native speaker say “¿Dónde Pepe está?” although you might hear the same questions with the subject removed from the question structure as in “Y Pepe, ¿dónde está?”.

Here are a few examples of each:

Yes/No questions

Spanish

1. ¿Pepe vive aquí? (¿Vive Pepe aquí? is correct too)
2. ¿Tus padres han llegado ya? (¿Han llegado tus padres? is correct too)
3. ¿Jaime fue a fiesta? (¿Fue Jaime a la fiesta? is correct too)
4. ¿Luisa lo compró? (¿Lo compró Luisa? is correct too)

English

1. Does Pepe live here?
2. Have your parents arrived yet?
3. Did Jaime go to the party?
4. Did Luisa buy it?

Questions with an interrogative

Spanish

1. ¿Dónde vive Pepe? (¿Dónde Pepe vive? is NOT correct)
2. ¿Cuándo llegaron tus padres? (¿Cuándo tus padres llegaron? is NOT correct)
3. ¿Adónde fue Jaime? (¿Adónde Jaime fue? is NOT correct)
4. ¿Qué compró Luisa? (¿Qué Luisa compró? is NOT correct)

English

1. Where does Pepe live?
2. When did your parents arrive?
3. Where did Jaime go?
4. What did Luisa buy?

Notice that I said that the subject goes somewhere after the verb with questions that have an interrogative. In a longer question, all and any of the following are correct translations of “What time did Juan arrive from work last night?”:

1. ¿A qué hora llegó Juan anoche del trabajo?
2. ¿A qué hora llegó del trabajo anoche Juan?
3. ¿A qué hora llegó anoche Juan del trabajo?

Brad

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The short explanation: You can’t do it.

Longer explanation:

It’s very common to end a question with a preposition in English:

1. Who are you talking to?
2. What are you saving for?
3. Where are you coming from?
4. Who are you living with now?
5. Which car are you coming in tonight?

In order to get a grasp on how these questions are worded in Spanish, you need to reword them as shown below:

1. To whom are you talking?
2. For what are you saving?
3. From where are you coming?
4. With whom are you living now?
5. In which car are you coming tonight?

Sounds a bit odd, right? But the second set of questions if perfectly understandable in English and you can use them as a jumping off point into Spanish:

1. ¿Con quién estás hablando? (con quién in Spanish, and not a quién when using the verb hablar)
2. ¿Para qué estás ahorrando?
3. ¿Desde dónde vienes?
4. ¿Con quién estás viviendo ahora?
5. ¿En qué coche vienes / vendrás esta noche?

This is a problem mainly for English speakers who are starting to learn Spanish. In my teaching experience, the problem takes care of itself quickly since you’ll never hear anything like “¿Quién vives con” instead of the correct “¿Con quién vives”. As an interesting experiment, try asking a native Spanish speaker “¿Quién vives con” to see what sort of reaction you get.

Brad

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This post might save you from an embarrassing situation if you were to say, for example, “Compré una carpeta azul por $1000″. While trying to say “I bought a blue rug (carpet) for $1000″ what you actually said was “I bought a blue folder for $1000″ which might induce the listener into thinking that you were either very rich or very foolish or both. Here’s the solution:

(Spanish) carpeta = (English) folder (portfolio)
(English) carpet, rug = (Spanish) alfombra - (also “tapete” in some Spanish-speaking countries)

Here are some examples of each:

Spanish

1. Pagamos mil dólares por esta alfombra.
2. Mi tía tenía alfombras por toda la casa.
3. Las alfombras persas son famosas por su alta calidad.
—
4. He dejado mi carpeta con los papeles importantes en casa.
5. Tenía el documento en una carpeta pero no la encuentro.
6. Hay 10 ficheros en esta carpeta. (ordenadores / computadoras)

English

1. We paid a thousand dollars for this rug.
2. My aunt had rugs all over the house.
3. Persian rugs are famous for their high quality.
—
4. I left my folder with the important papers at home.
5. I had the document in a folder but I can’t find it.
6. There are 10 files in this folder. (computers)

As you can see in the last example, “carpeta” is the word used for “folder” in computer speak. In case you’re interested, there’s a page with computer terminology in Spanish on the main website.

Brad

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This is another false cognate (words that look similar in different languages but have different meanings) that causes problems for English speakers learning Spanish. The correct meanings of “asistir” and “assist” are the following:

(Spanish) asistir = (English) attend
(English) assist = (Spanish) ayudar

Here are some examples of each verb:

Spanish

1. Unas 25 personas asistieron a la reunión.
2. No asistimos a clase ayer porque no teníamos coche.
3. Asistió a la boda aunque no era familia suya.
—
4. Los bomberos ayudaron a los accidentados.
5. No la pude ayudar ayer porque no estaba allí.
6. Los ayudamos como pudimos y nos fuimos.

English

1. About 25 people attended the meeting.
2. We didn’t attend class yesterday because we didn’t have a car.
3. He attended the wedding although it wasn’t his family.
—
4. The firemen assisted the injured people.
5. I couldn’t assist her yesterday because I wasn’t there.
6. We assisted them the best we could and left.

Brad

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This is a common mistake in Spanish for intermediate and advanced learners:

English has a special use of the future tense (will) which does NOT translate into Spanish. In English, when we want to emphasize that someone habitually refuses to do something, we can use the future tense, as in:

“He won’t accept a job as a gardener”, or “she won’t eat broccoli”. Both of these sentences could be reworded in English as “He refuses to accept a job as a gardener” or “she refuses to eat broccoli” and imply that this is an ongoing situation while not referring to any specific situation in the future. When this is the case, we use the reflexive verb “negarse a” which means “to refuse”. The future in Spanish is NOT used in this situation. Some examples:

English

1. He just won’t listen to me. (meaning ‘he never listens to me’)
2. He won’t accept a job as a gardener. (meaning ‘he refuses to accept that job ever’)
3. She won’t eat broccoli. (meaning ’she never eats broccoli’)
4. They just won’t pay attention to the math teacher. (meaning ‘they never pay attention to him’)
5. They won’t come here when my father is at home. (meaning ‘they never come when he’s there’)

Spanish

1. Se niega a escucharme. (wrong: No me escuchará)
2. Se niega a aceptar un trabajo como jardinero. (wrong: No aceptará un trabajo como jardinero)
3. Se niega a comer broccoli. (wrong: No comerá broccoli)
4. Se niegan a prestarle atención al profesor de matemáticas. (wrong: No le prestarán atención…)
5. Se niegan a pasar por aquí cuando mi padre está en casa. (wrong: No pasarán por aquí cuando…)

Brad

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False cognates, in case you aren’t familiar with the term, are words that look similar in different languages but have different meanings. The use of “actualmente” in Spanish is a stumbling block for most beginners, and not so beginners. Here are the facts:

(Spanish) actualmente = (English) presently / currently
(English) actually = (Spanish) en realidad

And here are some examples showing how to use both “actualmente” and “actually”:

Spanish

1. Actualmente no tengo trabajo.
2. Actualmente no es buen momento para invertir en bolsa.
3. Obama es actualmente el presidente de los Estados Unidos.
4. Mi salario actualmente es bajo pero me lo subirán en junio.
—
5. En realidad Paco es mi primo y no mi hermano.
6. ¿Si estoy enamorado de ella? En realidad, no, no lo estoy.
7. En realidad no la creo.

English

1. I currently don’t have a job.
2. It is presently not a good time to invest in the stock market.
3. Obama is currently the president of the United States.
4. My salary is low at present but they’re going to raise it in June.
—
5. Actually Paco is my cousin and not my brother.
6. ¿Am I in love with her? Actually, no, I’m not.
7. Actually I don’t believe her.

Brad

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This post is for beginners and people who don’t really know Spanish, but follow the “put an “o” on the end of the English word and you get a Spanish word!” theory. You can also classify the post under both “common mistakes” and “Brad’s pet peeves”.

Here’s the rule: don’t ever say or write the word “serioso”. If you do, you will never find a boyfriend or girlfriend, your dog will run away from home and a tornado will pass directly over your house. You will join the list of the perpetually unemployed and have to eat hot sauce on your ice cream for the rest of your life. Just don’t do it!

What you can do is use the word “serio”. Since it’s an adjective, it takes both masculine and feminine and singular and plural forms: serio, seria, serios, serias. Here are some example sentences:

Spanish

1. ¿Qué te pasa Pablo? Estás muy serio hoy.
2. ¿Qué te pasa María? Estás muy seria hoy.
3. Tenemos serios problemas en la fábrica. (”problema” is masculine)
4. Nos dio varias alternativas pero eran poco serias.

English

1. What’s wrong Pablo? You seem very serious today.
2. What’s wrong Maria? You seem very serious today.
3. We have serious problems in the factory.
4. He gave us several alternatives but none of them were serious.

Brad

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This short post is about the common Spanish idiom “no tiene abuela” or “parece que no tiene abuela” which is a humorously critical expression used when someone sings his or her own praises too much. The logic of the expressions is easy to follow: your grandmother is usually the one who talks on and on about what a nice, good-looking, extremely intelligent boy or girl that you are and, if you don’t have a grandmother, then you have to do it yourself. That’s why the English equivalent is “to blow one’s own horn” or “to be full of oneself”.

By the way, this the most fantastic, cleverly crafted blog about learning Spanish that has ever been created not only in the history of the Internet, but also in the history of mankind.

Does anyone care to post the proper reply to the above sentence using our new expression?

Brad

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