Two Wrongs Don't Make A Right

The expression in my title for today's post is to make a point about negatives. Like in math, a negative plus a negative still equals a negative, it is the same when speaking Spanish.

Take the following example:

 

English	Spanish
Nobody answered her.	No le contestó nadie.

I want to bring your attention to two aspects with the above example. First, notice how negative words usually begin with the letter 'N'. Take for example nothing, never, neither, nobody, nowhere, etc. Spanish is the same way. It uses words that begin with the letter 'N' to denote a negative idea. Second, notice that the English side only has one negative word -- nobody. On the Spanish side, there are two negative words -- no and nadie. Spanish requires that every word in a negative sentence that has a negative counterpart must be in the negative. I know that sounds confusing, but it is really getting back to what I stated at the beginning about two negatives equaling a negative. The first word, No, is to negate the verb contestó (answered). The second word, nadie, is the word for nobody. Two negative words in Spanish means everything is negative in that sentence. Simple, huh?

Here are some negative words for you to learn:

English	Spanish
No	No
Nobody	Nadie
Never	Nunca (or jamás)
None	Ninguno/a
Neither … nor	Ni … ni

Hopefully this has helped a bit with turning sentences towards the negative -- at least for Spanish. If you would like to add to this post, please submit your comment below. If I can help answer any questions, please send me an email to SpanishMyWay@hotmail.com. ¡Hasta luego!

¡Feliz Cumpleaños!

On the 24^th of July, I will be another year older and hopefully wiser. Birthdays are definitely celebrated with cake and candles to blow out. However there are some slight differences from region to region. Let’s take a look at a couple.

When a girl turns 15, there is usually a special celebration which varies from place to place. This special time marks when a girl officially becomes a woman. Large parties, bands, lots of food and drink, dancing and special dresses (like prom dresses, but closer looking to a wedding dress) are worn by the birthday girl. Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay never refer to this celebration as a quinceañera, but rather as a fiesta de quince. There is usually a special mass at the Catholic Church and a large reception with family and friends. Special specific dances are done, reliving past birthdays, socializing and lots of fun are big parts of these celebrations. This is more elaborate than our American “Sweet Sixteen” depending on the family of course.

Children usually commemorate their birthdays with piñatas, balloons, and games. The traditional “Happy Birthday” song has at least 3 variations. I’m sure you already know the melody. So here they are for you to familiarize yourself with…

Version #1

¡Feliz cumpleaños a tí!
¡Feliz cumpleaños a tí!
¡Feliz cumpleaños a [name of birthday person here]!
¡Feliz cumpleaños a tí!

Version #2

¡Que los cumplan feliz!
¡Que los cumplan feliz!
¡Que los cumplan [name of birthday person here]!
¡Que los cumplan feliz!

Version #3

¡Cumpleaños feliz!
¡Cumpleaños feliz!
¡Cumpleaños feliz!
¡Cumpleaños feliz!

Birthday uses the Spanish verb cumplir which means to turn or to reach a certain age. It can also mean to accomplish or to fulfill. The word birthday is a combination of this verb and the word for years (años).

If you have any questions or comments, please add yours below. You may also email me directly at SpanishMyWay@hotmail.com. See you next week! ¡Hasta luego!

¿Qué?

This question comes from Emily in Phoenix, AZ...

"What are question words and how can you tell the difference?"

Great question, Emily; thank you for sending that into me. Also, thank you for being a regular reader of my blog. I'm sure many others are wondering the same thing. I'm going to assume here for a moment that you are talking about question words in Spanish and not in English. Let me first get into what the Spanish question words are, then talk about how you can tell them apart in Spanish.

The following are Spanish question words:

• ¿Qué? which means What?
• ¿Dónde? which means Where?
• ¿Cómo? which means How?
• ¿Cuánto? which means How Much?
• ¿Quién? which means Who?
• ¿Por Qué? which means Why?
• ¿Cuándo? which means When?

When you see questions written in Spanish, the first thing you will notice is the upside-down question mark (¿). This signifies the start of a question. It will close with the normal right-side-up question mark (?). This should be your first indication of a question.

Your second indicator is the accent mark within the Spanish question word. Spanish question words without an accent mark are used in compound sentences usually to connect two ideas together to form one sentence such as the following English example: Jane sees the ball roll into the street when the car approached rapidly. Notice how Jane sees the ball roll into the street can be one sentence all by itself. And the car approached rapidly can be another sentence all by itself. By adding the word when, you can join the two ideas to form a compound sentence. You can do this in Spanish the same way, but you would not have an accent mark on the word cuando for the word when.

When you are listening to Spanish, you will only have the intonation to help you identify a question. This is the same as in English. The tail end of the sentence will pitch upward to signify a question.

One more way you can identify that a question is being spoken is by the location of the subject word. Sometimes, a Spanish-speaker will use a subject word after the verb, but only in a question. Such as this example: ¿Vas tú al concierto? (Are you going to the concert?) Notice how both the English and the Spanish have the subject "you" following the verb. Although in Spanish, you may not hear the subject word spoken at all unlike the English counterpart.

I sure hope this clears up question words for you Emily. Thank you again for writing in and helping others while you're at it. If anyone has a Spanish-related question for me to clarify in a future blog posting, please feel free to ask in the comments section below or send me an email to SpanishMyWay@hotmail.com. I would love to hear from you. ¡Hasta luego!

Spain's Independence Day

I found the following question sent in by Josh in Sacramento, CA fitting for the month of July. As we wrapped up celebrating our own independence day earlier this week, Josh wanted to know if Spain had an independence day and when they celebrate it.

Through the centuries, Spain was occupied by various people like the Moors and the French. As a nation, they celebrate October 12th as National Day which started in the year 1492. That year, not only did Columbus sail the ocean blue, but King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella finished kicking out the Moors who had occupied the country for over a century. I would say that would be reason for celebrating.

As I mentioned earlier, the French had also invaded Spain. The communities around Madrid celebrate May 2nd because that was the day back in 1808 when the Spanish people rose up against the French who were fast taking control of their region. It sparked what is known as the Spanish War of Independence or la Guerra de Independencia. Unfortunately, that war would not end until April 17, 1814.

Even though the Spanish were not controlled by an outside empire and won their independence like the U.S., they still have many reasons that pull them together to celebrate the rich culture and tradition as a people. ¡Viva España!

I hope this helped answer your question Josh. If anyone has questions or comments, please feel free to post them below. You may send me an email to SpanishMyWay@hotmail.com. ¡Hasta luego!

Location, Location, Location

Adjectives, as you may have learned from grade school, is describing a noun which is a person, a place, or a thing. We use adjectives every day. You can’t get by without them. They are an important part of every day speech.

The main rule for adjectives in Spanish is to have them follow the item (person, place or thing) that it is describing. For example, the beautiful house would be the house beautiful if translated to English from Spanish. Of course, the number and gender of the noun will follow in the adjective that you use. Los árboles altos is a good example of that. Notice that altos ends with an –o to signify the masculine noun as well as an –s to show that it is plural.

Did you know that adjectives can change in meaning if placed in front of the noun it is describing?

Yes, this is true.  Take the following examples: 

• El muchacho bueno means the good guy (in a more noble sense), but…

• El buen muchacho means the decent guy (which could mean he’s a “simple character” too).

• La cosa cierta means the right thing (in the “true” or “correct” sense of the word), but…

• La cierta cosa means the specific thing as in all of the things I’m talking about, this certain thing is what I am referring to right now.

 But check out this example:

• El vecino viejo means the old neighbor (such as a “dear” or “precious” or “a good friend” neighbor), but…

• El viejo vecino means the old neighbor as in the neighbor is actually physically old.

• La casa nueva means the new house (as in the house I just bought is new to me), but…

• La nueva casa means the new house (as in I just had this house built and I am the first occupant of this house, it is brand, spanking new).

 As you can see, the location of your adjectives in Spanish can have very different understandings and depths to what you want to express. As always, if you have questions or would like some clarification to what I have posted, please email me at SpanishMyWay@hotmail.com. I would be happy to help you out. Until next week, ¡hasta luego!