Learning Advanced Spanish

Tapujos

2007-09-28T16:41:00.000-07:00

Tapujos

Concealment.

Información directa y sin tapujos.

Actuar sin tapujos.
Keep things above board.

Cruzarle a alguien

2007-09-28T16:16:00.000-07:00

Ella me cruzó ayer en la calle.

I ran into her in the street yesterday.
(in the crossed paths sense).

Darse el caso

2007-09-22T12:30:00.000-07:00

Podría darse el caso que gasto todo mi dinero arreglando el auto.

It could happen (arise) that I spend all my money fixing the car.

La situación no se ha dado al caso todavía.

The situation hasn't yet arisen.

Llamarle la atencion a alguien

2007-09-16T01:00:00.000-07:00

Me llama la atención que su camisa es verde.

The translation of llamar la atencion is rather easy to understand, it's just "attract attention" or "call attention." It's also used as a way of expressing that something stands out, or even that you like something, so you end up hearing it a lot:

- ¿Qué es lo que más te llama la atención del departamento?
- A mi me encantan las cortinas.

Menos de...

2007-09-11T04:40:00.000-07:00

As I'm selling something, my friend asked me how much I'd be selling it for. My response should have been:

Menos de lo que lo compré.

Less than what I bought it for.

To get your head around the phrase, the lo que is acting like "that which" in English.

Gustar -- you're a tricky one.

2007-09-07T04:40:00.000-07:00

Reading a blog post, I stumbled upon this:

No me suelen gustar estas combinaciones.

I'm not used to liking...

From an English speaking mindset, this is a really tough construction. It seems especially backwards since it appears to say that estas combinaciones have the habit. Odd, indeed. As I say a lot, sometimes it's best just to go with it. I doubt I would have come up with this on my own.

If it's any consolation to you, Spanish learner, my teacher has messed up things using gustar before. It's also been the root of a few debates.

Similarly:

Creo que te va a gustar la pelicula.

Revolear la chancleta

2007-09-05T21:39:00.000-07:00

Cuando las chicas vienen a Buenos Aires, revolean la chancleta.

Let their hair down.

Literally: "chuck/toss the sandal."

Ni hablar.

2007-09-03T21:35:00.000-07:00

-¡Los chicos son horribles!
-¡Ni hablar!

Goes without saying.

Lo que Martín ha dicho. (Yours, mine, and his)

2007-08-31T04:32:00.000-07:00

Complaining about his girlfriend to Dani and I, Martín threw out this nugget:

Todas las mujeres son locas con la excepción de mi madre, la tuya, y la de él.

While it's not that complicated of a phrase, I thought the inclusion of three ways to express possession in one sentence was nice. He could have just as easily said la suya to refer to Dani's mother, however using la de él in it's place sounds less repetitive to me. And probably to him. I didn't stop him to ask, I was hoping for more gold.

This is one of the things I like about Spanish: lots of constructions that let you sound less repetitive. And, apparently, there's a grammar lesson in everything.

Antes de (que)...

2007-08-28T11:38:00.000-07:00

If you're expressing what happened before or after something, it can be straightforward or a big mess. It all depends on whether it's understood who's doing the preceding or following action. If it's understood, it's easy:

Tengo que ponerme ropa antes de ir al cine.

If it's not understood who's doing the action, you're in subjuctive town, brother. And you have to add que.

Antes de que comience a caminar el bebé, los padres deberían limpiar el piso.

Aprendimos el castellano despues de que ella aprendiera frances.

Good luck and god-speed with this one.

Pedo

2007-08-24T13:19:00.000-07:00

Pedo

Fart

Estar en pedo.*

Be crunk.

*Thanks to Oriana for correcting me on this.

(More) Indirect-Object pronouns

2007-08-23T18:55:00.000-07:00

This should be just a short note about those seemingly extraneous indirect object pronouns I wrote about earlier. I recently picked up on the fact that you can (should?) use them for things, too, not just people:

Ni siquiera sabe que la he usado su computadora.
¿Me la prestas aquella camisa?

Lo que Martín ha dicho.

2007-08-22T09:16:00.001-07:00

I pick up a lot of Spanish from my friends and just "in the street." I spend a lot of time with Martín at the gym -- he's often saying things that have me doubled over. So why not share them with you, world?

Con respecto a BA Fashion Week:

Las promotoras son modelos fracasadas.

Nada

2007-08-22T09:10:00.000-07:00

We all know there's a lot of negative speech in Spanish in surprising places. Here's a couple simple ones.

Antes que nada...
Primero que nada...

First off...

Mas que nada...

More than anything...

Nada menos que...

Nothing less than...

What she said...

2007-08-18T08:11:00.000-07:00

Being a good story teller is hard. Being a good story teller in a second language? Well that's gonna be even harder. One hard part about it is getting all the verb tenses right when expressing what someone else has said. Here's a couple of examples to get you going:

Maria said: "Voy al supermercado."
I tell Miguel: "Maria me dijo que iba al supermercado."

Maria said: "Él quiere que yo sea su novia."
Later, I say back to Maria: "Me dijiste que él queria que fueras su novia."

And it gets more complicated:

Maria said: "Ayer he comido un montón de carne."
I tell Miguel: "Maria me dijo que había comido un montón de carne el dia anterior."

And even more so when someone in the past says something about the future:

Maria said: "El viernes que viene habré trabajado 60 horas en este proyecto."
I tell Miguel: "Maria me ha dicho que el viernes siguente habría trabajado 60 horas en su proyecto."

There are a few references for indirect speech online, but none that I've found are that useful. I have a handy chart, but it's not online. I'll reproduce it soon for your studying pleasure.

Llover a cántaros

2007-08-15T15:54:00.000-07:00

Llover a cántaros.

Llover copiosamente.

Lloviendo gatos y perros.

O sea, estuvo lloviendo mucho hoy por la mañana.

Hipoteca, hipotecar

2007-08-15T15:50:00.000-07:00

hipoteca

f. Contrato o derecho real por el que se gravan bienes inmuebles, sujetándolos a responder del cumplimiento de la obligación o el pago de la deuda del crédito obtenido:

Por fin he terminado de pagar la hipoteca de mi casa.

The dip/crash of the US subprime mortgage market brings about the need for this word.

Bonus: liquidar

Celestino

2007-08-13T18:14:00.000-07:00

Celestino, a

m. y f. Persona que actúa de intermediaria en relaciones amorosas o sexuales.

Get your mind out of the gutter, it's a matchmaker.

Susodicho

2007-08-12T10:58:00.000-07:00

susodicho, -a

adj. y sust. Mencionado o dicho anteriormente.

The more formal way to talk about someone (and something) you've mentioned before is susodicho. You'll definitely see it in contracts, but you'll also hear it when you're friend forgets the name of the person you're speaking about instead of saying the decidedly informal tal persona.

He leído el libro susodicho hace unos años.

Saliste con la susodicha anoche?

El susodicho es responsible para todos los gastos de la propiedad.

From time to time...

2007-08-11T15:45:00.000-07:00

A few ways to say "from time to time" or "sometimes":

De vez en cuando.
A veces.
Cada tanto.
Cada rato.
Algunas veces. ("in some situations")
Ocasionalmente.
Alguna que otra vez.

Not to be confused with "sometime":

Alguna vez.

These are some ways you can mix it up a little. Any others?

Bonus: www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2HyjeSrrts

(Extraneous) Indirect-Object Pronouns

2007-08-11T09:07:00.000-07:00

One thing I struggled with, for sure, is shoe-horning (calzador) in that extra indirect-object pronoun. If you're anything like me, you probably don't remember which of all those pronouns is the indirect-object one. Ya te digo. It's that one, right there.

So sometimes it seems a little bit repetitive to the Anglophone ear to use the IDP when you're also mentioning the subject (for clarification or emphasis). But here it is:

Le voy a llamar a Juan mañana.

- Te debo diez pesos?
- No, yo te debo a ti diez pesos.

Le dije a él que yo iba al cine y él le dijo a ella que iba al restaurante. Por esto había tantos problemas.

I'm starting to get used to the repetitiveness of Spanish. I kind of like it now.

Conjunctions and Disjunctions: E y U

2007-08-11T08:23:00.000-07:00

It's a simple point, but one that I hadn't learned until recently. Conjunctions and disjunctions have a little trick to them. You already know how to use y and o. But, you need to use e and u instead of y and o, respectively, before words starting with i or o sounds, respectively.

Todo el dia, estoy en mi hogar u oficina.

Uso el teléfono e internet en el trabajo.

Bonus: respectivamente

Tampoco

2007-08-10T04:56:00.000-07:00

Oye, campeón: no digas tambien cuando deberías decir tampoco.

Tampoco is an important word to have in your arsenal. We've all learned it, but when under the fire of face-to-face conversation, it disappears. But it's a worth it to use it right.

No puedo ir al cine, tampoco puedo cenar con ustedes.
No me gusta acostarme temprano, ni a ellos tampoco.
No quiero ir contigo. No quiero ir con ellos, tampoco.

I'll leave ni for another day.

This isn't High School Spanish: Cuyo

2007-08-09T14:03:00.001-07:00

I'm thinking that this might grow into something of a series: key words that you some how don't learn in high school Spanish.

Today's word is cuyo (whose).

- Conoces a Luli?
- La chica cuyo sueter es negro? Si, la conozco.

Why I never learned that before, I don't know. It's just so useful.

Tal

2007-08-09T09:00:00.000-07:00

¿Qué tal? Everyone learns this phrase pretty quickly when learning Spanish. It's the only words I exchange with my encargado every morning and evening. But what does tal even mean? Tal is kind of like such or just, I guess. Sometimes it's just best not to try to translate.

Here are some examples:

No me digas tal cosas.
Si lo haces en tal manera, lo vas a romper.
Vivo en Buenos Aires, como tal debería aprender el castellano.

Some weird uses are:

Somos tal para cual. Estamos siempre de acuerdo y nunca peleamos.
Tal vez vaya al café para desayunar. Quizá vaya a otro lado.
Lo hice tal cual porque estoy acostumbrado hacerlo de esa manera.
Ella es tal cual -- tiene su propia personalidad y no es falsa.
Soy tal como me ven. No tengo ningunos secretos.
Saliste con tal chica anoche? (what's-her-name)

Canchero

2007-08-08T22:10:00.000-07:00

Canchero:

adj. Ducho y experto en determinada actividad.

My friend Lorena called me canchero yesterday. Referring to the way I was dressed, she said "Disco, sos tan canchero."

The root of the word is cancha as in cancha de fútbol, and really means a skilled player.

Dapper is about as close of an English word I could come up with for this usage.

Bonus: No te preocupes, es un alago.

Inaugural Post

2007-08-08T21:58:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog: "Learning Advanced Spanish."

My aim is to share with you, the Spanish learner, the grammar tips, interesting vocabulary, and bizarre experiences I have due to less-than-perfect Spanish. I, too, am learning Spanish constantly. Despite living in Buenos Aires, I have yet to move from being an advanced speaker to being fluent. Noticing a lack of resources for the person stuck at the equivalent of a middle school reading level, I thought I would contribute what's worked for me. And maybe in turn, you can provide me with your tips.

Cuidense!