Some Useful Spanish phrases

Learning Spanish language is incomplete without knowing some words or phrases that you can use in many situations you encounter in life. These are usually small words, or short phrases composed of few words, which help you survive in a country full of speakers of the language you are learning, in our case, Spanish speakers. Some of these phrases are so powerful that they can unlock possibilities for you to be able successfully get your message across. Take for example the simple and indispensable Spanish question: ¿Cómo se dice [English word] en español?  Without knowing how to ask this to a native 'hispanohablante' when you encounter a difficult English word  to translate in Spanish, you will be stuck in a deadend!!! And all your conversation will be stuck, too! Of course, you want to avoid this at all costs, right?

Alright then! Now it's the reason that it'll do you good to learn useful Spanish phrases! Oh, and don't forget: commit them to memory, so you won't have a hard time saying that word at the tip of your tongue!!! :)

Below are a couple of them! Good luck...

¡Hola! - Hello!

Buenos días - Good morning

Buenas tardes - Good afternoon, Good evening

Buenas noches - Good night

Perdone/Perdón - Excuse me (when calling the attention of somebody)

Lo siento - Sorry (when apologizing)

Señor/Señora/Señorita - Mister/Missus/Miss

¡Adiós! - Goodbye

Hasta luego - See you later

Gracias - Thank you

Muchas gracias - Thank you very much

De nada - You're welcome

Necesito información sobre... - I need information about...

¿Me puede decir dónde puedo...? - Could you tell me where I can...?

¿Dónde hay...? - Where is there ...?

Sí - Yes

No - No

¿Tiene hora? / ¿Qué hora es? - What time is it?

Estoy perdido - I'm lost (when the speaker is a man)

Estoy perdida - I'm lost (for woman)



So, that's it! I hope you enjoyed the list of some useful Spanish phrases, and that you can use them in your travel or stay in a Spanish-speaking country...

¡Adiós, hasta luego!

Attempt at translating a fable by Aesop

Hello, guys! On this post I will show you my translation of an Aesop fable. I've been translating for years now and this is one of the translation practice sessions I do to keep my translation skills "fit". I hope you like it and as always you comments are welcome!

Source text in English:
The Woodman and the Serpent  
One wintry day a Woodman was tramping home from his work when he saw something black lying on the snow. When he came closer he saw it was a Serpent to all appearance dead. But he took it up and put it in his bosom to warm while he hurried home. As soon as he got indoors he put the Serpent down on the hearth before the fire. The children watched it and saw it slowly come to life again. Then one of them stooped down to stroke it, but thc Serpent raised its head and put out its fangs and was about to sting the child to death. So the Woodman seized his axe, and with one stroke cut the Serpent in two. ‘Ah,’ said he,
‘No gratitude from the wicked.’

My translation in Spanish: (I know this isn't perfect, so please help me correct it! thanks :)

El leñador y la serpiente
Un día invernal un leñador iba de trabajo a casa casi marchando cuando vio algo negro tumbado en el suelo cubierto de nieve. Al acercarse vio que era una serpiente que por lo visto estaba muerta. No obstante la recogió y la puso contra su pecho para darle calor mientras de prisa caminó para su casa. En cuanto llegó y entró a su casa reposó la serpiente sobre el suelo junto a la chimenea. Los niños fueron a mirarla y la vieron resucitar lentamente. Luego uno de ellos se inclinó a tocarla pero esta se elevó la cabeza y mostró los colmillos - estaba lista a pegarle al niño una mordedura mortal. Entonces el leñador cogió su hacha y de un golpe partió la serpiente en dos. -Ay-, dijo él -no hay gratitud desde los malvados.

FIN

Thanks for taking a time to read this article. See you next! :D

1st LONG QUIZ on Spanish Plural Formation for Nouns

Hello! How've you been?  I hope you reviewed my 4 last blog posts regarding how to pluralize Spanish nouns... because today you're going to take a quiz about them :O

If you studied the lessons, that's good! If you didn't, don't worry because the quiz for today is pan comido (as easy as pie),

So, grab a pen or pencil and a paper where to put your answers to the questions below.

If you're ready, let the quiz begin! :)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

A. Choose the letter you think is the correct plural form for the noun given and write them on your paper.

1. María y Pablo son ____________ .         (Clue: siblings)
   a. hermanas
   b. hermano
   c. hermanos

2. Esta es una ________ de madera.          (Clue: chair)
   a. sillos
   b. silla
   c. sillas

3. Juan ve muchos _________ en el mar.          (Clue:  fishes)
   a. pez
   b. peces
   c. pezes

4. Este mes hay cuatro __________.          (Clue: Wednesdays)
   a. miércol
   b. miércoleses
   c. miércoles

5. Barcelona y Madrid son __________ españolas.      (Clue: cities)
   a. ciudades
   b. ciudad
   c. ciudados


B. Write the plural form of the following nouns.

1. vez   __________
2. bailarín   __________
3. joya  __________
4. matriz  __________
5. dependiente  __________
6. autobús  __________
7. rey __________
8. piloto __________
9. cortaúñas ___________
10. sofá  __________

C.  Name the picture by choosing the correct word in the box below. Make sure you make these words plural if necessary.

================================================
hoz       montaña     televisión       tijeras      persona
plato       nube        pantalones      perro        árbol
================================================


1.

______________________








2.                                                                                  _____________________

3.                                                  _____________________________

4.                        

________________________








5.                                                  __________________________

6.

__________________________








7.

_______________________











8.

______________________












9.  

_____________________









10.                                                                                 ________________________

END OF QUIZ

Answers can be found here.

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Very good, the quiz is finished! Congrats.

How did you fare? Did you get a perfect mark  in the quiz regarding Spanish plurals of nouns?

Share your results in the comments section below... :)

FORMATION OF PLURAL OF SPANISH NOUNS: Words that doesn't change

Hi! Congratulations! You've reached the last rule for the plural formation in Spanish.

But before anything else, let's recap the 3 rules in making Spanish words plural that you already learned.

1. By adding -s:  
                              taza -> tazas;   padre -> padres;   océano -> océanos;   tribu -> tribus

2. By adding -es:
                             color -> colores;   ciudad -> ciudades;   papel -> papeles

3. By changing "z" to "ces":
                             luz -> luces;   vez -> veces;   lápiz -> lápices


Take some time to memorize them... and when you're ready, let's go to the last rule on how to make Spanish nouns plural.

So, the last rule is... that you DO NOTHING to change the singular Spanish noun! That's it! You've heard it right.

That means, regardless the number (simgular/plural) of the noun, the noun does not change form! The singular noun is also the plural noun. Confused? Well, let's see a couple of examples.

"Friday" in Spanish is "viernes". If you refer to all the Fridays, in Spanish you say the same: viernes, and not VIERNESES.  The latter is wrong :(

See how nothing is done to the singular form of the noun? In fact, all the days of the week (except Saturdays and Sundays) do NOT change:

SINGULAR                                      PLURAL

el lunes                          los lunes
el martes                        los martes
el miércoles                   los miércoles
el jueves                        los jueves
el viernes                       los viernes

But:

el sábado                                          los sábados
el domingo                                      los domingos


This rule also applies to Spanish words that end in -S. For example:

el paraguas (the umbrella)

los paraguas (the umbrellas)

 

el abrelatas (the can opener)

los abrelatas (the can openers)

So, there you have it! All the 4 rules for the formation of the plural of Spanish nouns. Easy, right?

Do review for the long QUIZ about the plurals of nouns! It will be posted next...

For your questions, don't hesitate to leave them below.  Buena suerte!!! :)

FORMATION OF PLURAL OF SPANISH NOUNS: Change "z" to "ces"

In the previous post, you learned that if a Spanish noun ends in a consonant you just add -es to it to make it plural. The most common consonants in which words may end in Spanish (d, j, l, n, r, s, y) all follow this rule! However, for the letter "z" you have to make some changes before adding -es.

First, you have to change "z" to "c". Then, after having done so, add -es directly to where the change is, that is, to the letter "c".

To make this clearer, let's take an example. The Spanish words "luz" (meaning ¨light¨) and "pez" (meaning ¨fish¨)  both are singular and both end in the consonant letter z. Therefore, the plural forms for them are "luces" and "peces".

Son luces. (These are lights)

Hay muchos peces. (There are many fish)

So again! To form the plural of Spanish words ending in letter z, you have to change "z" to "ces":

     pez -> pec + es = peces
     luz -> luc + es = luces

Other examples for this rule:

     andaluz (Andalusian) -> andaluc + es = andaluces
     capuz (a type of cape) -> capuc + es = capuces
     voz (voice) -> voc + es = voces
     paz (peace) -> pac+ es = paces    (as in "hacer paces", to make peace)
     nuez (nut) -> nuec + es = nueces
     avestruz (ostrich) -> avestruc + es = avestruces

Hay siete avestruces. (There are seven ostriches)

E X E R C I S E
        Give the plural form of the following Spanish words. Remember the rule for formation of plural when the word ends in -z!

1.   alcazuz     ______________
2.   vez           ______________
3.   lápiz         ______________
4.   actriz       ______________
5.   variz        ______________
6.   cruz         ______________
7.   juez         ______________
8.   raíz          ______________
9.   aprendiz   ______________
10. lombriz    ______________

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Way to go! Only 1 rule for the formation plural is left. But no worries! We'll discuss it on the next blog post. So, relax and brace yourselves for that! :)

FORMATION OF PLURAL OF SPANISH NOUNS: Addition of "es"

¡Hola! :)

In the previous post, you saw how in Spanish an -s is added to words that end in a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) to make it plural. For example: estrella (star) -> estrellas (stars)

Now, you might wonder how words that in consonants (b,c,d,f,g and so on) form their plural. You're going to learn how in today's mini-lesson!

Firstly, let's look at the some Spanish words that end in a consonant. The English translation comes after the Spanish word in italics. Know that "el" and "la" are definite articles that mean "the" in English.

el corazón           the heart                
el color               the color
la universidad     the university
la flor                  the flower

"Corazón", "color", "universidad" and "flor" are all SINGULAR. This means, there is only one (1) each.

If there is more than 1 of these nouns, that is,if the word is plural, just attach -es to the end of the singular form as shown below:

corazón + es = corazones                    hearts
color + es = colores                             colors
universidad + es = universidades        universities
flor + es = flores                                 flowers

So, by adding an -es you can form the plural of Spanish nouns that end in consonants.

Hay nueve corazones. (There are nine hearts)

El arco iris tiene siete colores. (The rainbow has seven colors)

Estas son flores amarillas. (These are yellow flowers)

E X E R C I S E
     In the blank provided, write down the plural form of the words given. DO NOT forget the plural rule for Spanish words ending in consonants!

1.  virtud        ___________
2.  actor         ___________
3.  televisión ___________
4.  pintor       ___________
5.  reloj         ___________
6.  rey           ___________
7.  edad         ___________
8.  autobús    ___________
9.  móvil       ___________
10.  papel     ___________

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Stay tuned for the next lesson wherein we'll discuss two more rules regarding the formation of plural of Spanish nouns!

Questions? Don't hesitate to ask them, and for your comments, you can post them below! I'd appreciate it.

Chau! Nos vemos pronto!

FORMATION OF PLURAL OF SPANISH NOUNS: Addition of "s"

Hi, welcome to today's mini-lesson! I'm glad that you've come here to learn some Spanish :) So, get ready and let the lesson begin...

If you are an English speaker, probably you already know that some words are changed to their plural form by adding the letter "s" at the end of the word.  Well, you're in luck! Spanish words work the same way, too!

To start with, let's have examples of English words that form their plural by adding -s.
     SINGULAR                            PLURAL
* key                                        * keys
* car                                         * cars
* castle                                     * castles
* house                                    * houses
* book                                     * books

The translation to Spanish of the words above are:
    SINGULAR                           PLURAL
llave                                          llaves
coche                                        coches
castillo                                      castillos
casa                                           casas
libro                                          libros

Observe how the Spanish plural simply attaches an -s to the end of the singular form (see the blue highlights).

For example:   llave + s = llaves
                        coche + s = coches
                        castillo + s = castillos
                        casa + s = casas
                        libro + s = libros

NOTE:  The rule of addition of "s" only works with Spanish words that end in vowels (a, e, i, o and u).

So, the addition of -s  is one of the several ways that we can use to "pluralize" (make plural) Spanish nouns. There are exceptions, but it's good that you know this rule right now!

Esta es una llave azul. (This is a blue key.)

                                                       

Estas son llaves. (These are keys.)

Estas son casas.  (These are houses.)

Estos son coches rojos. (These are red cars.)

Estos son libros de muchos colores. (These are colorful books.)

I hope you liked the lesson for today! Shortly, I'll post the next mini-lesson about plurals, so stay tuned!

For your doubts or comments, don't hesitate to share them to other learners like you!  :)

¡Buena suerte!