Some words and phrases that are difficult to translate between Spanish and English
Back to the Spanish article index page
The following is a list - not in any particular order - of words or phrases that are hard to translate between Spanish and English. You'll also find a few commonly mispelled words that people search for, and due to the mispellings, never find the answer to. Please help us to make this list bigger by sending your own contributions to us.
- goofy can be tonto (literally "foolish") in Spanish. Graciosillo (literally "funny") is another possibility.
- of coarse doesn't exist in English. The correct spelling is of course and can be por supuesto in Spanish.
- hello or hallo is always hola in Spanish. Of course, there are many other ways to greet people.
- vos is a special verb form used in parts of South America. For a more complete discussion, click here.
- macho The word in Spanish simply means "male" as opposed to female except when you put it in context. If you say "Pepe es macho" you are just saying "Pepe is a male". In order to give it the meaning it has in English, you need to use a term like "creerse": "Pepe se cree muy macho porque pega a su hermano" (Pepe thinks he's a real man because he beats up on his brother).
- aber or aver are mispellings of the Spanish verb haber.
Back to the Spanish article index page
Computer programs to learn Spanish: www.braser.com


