spanish

spanish questions and answers Every language has a short list (a few dozen or so) of standard “answers” or “responses” to indicate commonly expressed sentiments (e.g yes, no, maybe, I don’t know, good luck, etc.) and knowing these and being able to whip the correct one out immediately and automatically in response to someone goes a long way towards sounding like a native and making people feel comfortable speaking to you, and Spanish is no different.

I’ve compiled a list of the most common such responses and comebacks in Spanish with an explanation for each below, this is one of the few circumstances where I’d actually recommend you just memorize the whole list as you’re guaranteed to use these with great frequency whenever you’re talking with native speakers.

Es Un Decir

This is a handy expression you may find yourself frequently using when you’re misunderstood, particularly if you feel like you might have said something potentially offensive or weird. It means something like “it’s just a saying” or “it’s a way of speaking”. Example:

“Quiero hacer amor con tu madre, ¿está bien?” = “I want to make love to your mother, ok?”

“¡¿Qué?!” = “What?!”

“Ehhh….Sólo es un decier que tenemos en gringolandia, quiere decir que tu madre es muy agradable.” = “Ehhh…It’s just a saying we have in America, it means your mother is very nice.”

¿No Qué No?

This is kind of a snappy comeback you’d use when someone told you something that you disagreed with and later you found out that you were right, it’s sort of like saying “I told you so” and literally means something like “Really? ‘No’, huh?”. Example:

“Eso no es possible.” = “That’s not possible.”

You show that it’s possible.

“¿No qué no, eh? ” = “Really, is that so? ”

Conste

“Constar” means “to be clear, certain, or evident” and that’s a pretty good explanation of how this particular expression works, though it’s not used in quite the same way we would use one of those words. “Conste” means that something is obvious or evident, and is usually used with the same meaning as our expressions “for the record” (“que conste” means “let the record show”) and when used as a response to something it means “you promised and I’ll hold you to it” in the sense of “it’s on the record, I won’t forget about it”, e.g.

“Te llamo mañana.” = “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“Conste.” = “You promised, I’ll hold you to it.”

¿Y Qué?

This literally means “and what?” so you can probably guess how it’s typically used: it’s how they would say “so what?” in Spanish. Mind you, as in English with our expression “so what?” it can potentially have a rude connotation to it and is considered a bit brusque. Example:

“¡Tu grande vaca morada se cagó en mi césped!” = “Your giant purple cow shat on my lawn!”

“¿Y qué? Es fertilizante, así…de nada” = “So what? It’s fertilizer, so…you’re welcome.”

¿Y?

Used the same way that we would use “And??” in English, meaning something like “so what?”, as in “and…what??”. Example:

“¡Pero la mierda sólo es en una grande pila! ¡Mira!” = “But the shit is just in one big pile! Look!”

“¿Y? Sólo untala por.” = “And? Just spread it around.”

Da Igual / Da Lo Mismo

These two phrases mean the same thing and essentially amount to “it doesn’t matter” or “what’s the difference?”. “Da igual” means literally “it’s equal” and “da lo mismo” means literally “it’s the same thing” but they’re both used whenever one wants to say that something doesn’t matter or that it doesn’t make a difference. Example:

“¿Quieres el carro rojo o el blanco?” = “Do you want the red car or the white one?”

“Da igual.” = “Doesn’t matter.”

O Sea

This means something like “you know” or “in other words”. You’ll notice the use of the subjunctive here (if you don’t understand that completely already, be sure to see my article called The Subjunctive Explained) so “sea” means something like “could be” or “would be” and “o”, or course, means “or”, so with “o sea” you get something literally like “or that could/would be” which we would say a bit easier with the expression “in other words”. Got it? Example:

“Pues, la respuesta pueda ser “sí”, pueda ser “no”, o sea…no sé.” = “Well, the answer could be yes, it could be no, that is to say…I don’t really know.”

Claro/Claro que Sí

It literally means “clear” but is 100 times more commonly used to mean “sure” or “of course” or “naturally”. “Claro que sí” essentially means the same thing and translates to something like “Of course yes” as in “of course the answer is yes”. People will frequently use this particular expression in one-sided conversations, especially on the phone, to show that they’re still listening with the occasional “claro”. Examples:

“¿Vienes?” “Claro.” = “Are you coming?” “Of course.”

[On the phone]

Them: “Blahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblah…blah blah!”

You: “Claro.”

Them: “Así, blah blah!! blahblahblahblahblah.”

You: “Claro.”

Them: “¿Sabes?” (“You know?”)

You: “Claro.”

Them: “Blah blah es blah! ¿No pienses?” (“Don’t you think?”)

You: “Claro.”

Get it?

Para Nada

It literally means “For nothing” but is the way that you would say “No way”, so it’s just another way of saying “no”, really. Example:

“¿Vas a comer tu vaca grande morada?” = “Are you going to eat your giant purple cow?”

“¡Para nada!” = “No way!”

En Absoluto

This one can sometimes be cause for confusion for some beginners because it’s actually a negative but doesn’t look like it because it doesn’t have the word “no” in it. It does not mean “absolutely” which is what it looks like, it actually means “absolutely not” (no, I don’t know why they did this, but they did). Example:

“Así, ¿no vas a comprar ese carro?” = “So, you’re not going to buy that car.”

“En absoluto, es demasiado caro.” = “Absolutely not, it’s too expensive.”

¡Imagínese!

The best equivalent of this would be “imagine that!” and would be used in similar circumstances, it’s a bit formal and would be used in situations where saying something like “holy shit!” would be inappropriate.

Something interesting about this one is that it’s reflexive (notice the “se” on the end) with the verb itself (“imaginar“) being in the formal singular 3rd person imperative form (“imagíne”). If you were speaking to someone that you would use the tú form with, then you’d say “imagínate” instead.

Example:

Grandma: “¡Tienen teléfonos ahora que pueden tomar fotos!”

You: “¡Imagínese!” = “Imagine that!”

En Tus Sueños

Literally and actually means “In your dreams”, yet one more way of saying “no”. Example:

“¿Quieres quitarte la ropa y bailar como Shakira para mí?” = “Do you want to take your clothes off and dance like Shakira for me?”

“En tus sueños.” = “In your dreams.”

Estás Loco

Means what it looks like: “you’re crazy”, used in precisely the same way that we would. Also used where we would say “you must be kidding!”. Example:

“Debes usar un carro en lugar de tu vaca morada.” = “You should use a car instead of your purple cow.”

“¡Estás loco!” = “You’re crazy!”

¿Verdad?

“Verdad” literally means “truth” but is frequently used to mean something like “Really?” or “Is that so?”. Examples:

“Manejo una vaca grande morada.” = “I am driving a large purple cow.”

“¿Verdad?” = “Really?”

“Sí, verdad.” = “Yes, really.”

Ni Loco

“Ni” literally means “nor” (unless uttered by The Knights Who Say ‘Ni’, in which case that’s an entirely different context) so you can see how in this case “ni loco” means “not even if I were crazy”, so one more way of saying “no” emphatically. Example:

“¿Alguna vez consideraría comer Taco Bell?” = “Would you ever consider eating Taco Bell?”

“¡Ni loco!” = “Not even if I were crazy!”

Ya Basta

As you probably already know, “ya” means “already”. And since “Basta” means “enough”, you can easily see how the expression “ya basta” would mean “enough already”. Example:

“¡Papa! ¿Ya llegamos? ¿Ya llegamos? ¿Ya llegamos? ¿Ya llegamos? ¿Ya llegamos? ¿Ya llegamos?” = “Dad! Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?”

“¡Ya basta!!!!” = “Enough already!!!!”

¿En Serio?

“Serio” means “serious” –> “en serio” means “seriously?”. Simple. Use it where we would use “seriously?” or “really?”. Example:

“Vine al trabajo por vaca morada.” = “I came to work on a purple cow.”

“¿En serio?” = “Seriously?”

“No.” = “No.”

¡Qué Barbaridad!

“Barbaridad” means “barbarity”, that is “something barbaric”, a cruelty, some terrible event. So “qué barbaridad” means something like “what a barbarity!” and would be used when we would say “how terrible!” or “oh my god” in response to a bad event that has just taken place, such as a natural disaster. Example:

“¡Japón acaba de sufrir un terremoto terrible!” = “Japan has just suffered a terrible earthquake!”

“¡Qué barbaridad!”

¿Cómo no?

This just means “Why not?” and is used in exactly the same way we would use that expression, it’s just another way of saying “yes”. It can also be used to mean “Why not?” in the literal sense of a question asking someone why they’re not doing something. Examples:

“¿Quieres venir?” = “Do you want to come?”

“¿Cómo no?” = “Sure, why not.”

“No quiero venir.” = “I don’t want to come.”

“¿Cómo no?” = “Why not?”

Es El Colmo

“Colmo” means “height” as in “the height of stupidity”, meaning to the very greatest degree. The expression “es el colmo” or “eso es el colmo” means “that’s the last straw” or “that’s it [in the sense of it being the last thing you're going to take, the final insult, etc.]“. Example:

“Tu vaca morada ha comido todos mis azaleas…eso es el colmo, ahora voy a comer tu vaca.” = “Your purple cow has eaten all my azaleas…that’s the last straw, now I’m going to eat your cow.”

“¡Mooooo!” = “Nooooo!”

No Puede Ser

Very simple, “poder” means “can or to be able to” and “ser” means “to be”, so with “no puede ser” we end up with “it cannot be” or “that can’t be”. Example:

“He comido tu vaca morada. Jajaja.” = “I’ve eaten your purple cow. Hahaha.”

“¡No puede ser!” = “It cannot be!”

No Me Diga

It literally means “don’t tell me” and is frequently used in that sense to mean something like “don’t tell me that” but it’s usually not meant that you literally don’t want them to tell you something, but as an expression of exasperation in the same way that we would use the expression “don’t tell me that”. The tú form for use with people you’re familiar with would be “no me digas”. Example:

“Necesito una vaca morada nueva.” = “I need a new purple cow.”

“Lo siento, pero estamos agotados.” = “I’m sorry, but we’re all out of stock.”

“No me diga…” = “Don’t tell me that…”

Está Bien

This is how you say “ok” without saying “ok”, which is, by the way, a very common expression in the Spanish language and is probably the English expression that has the widest cross-language penetration in the world (meaning that it’s commonly used in more languages than any other English expression). It’s also what you would use to say “that’s good” (that’s the literal translation of the expression, by the way: “está” = “is” and “bien” = “good”) or “alright” or “fine with me” etc. You get the idea. Examples:

“Ya me voy.” = “I’m leaving now.”

“Está bien, hasta luego.”= “Alright, see you later.”

“Ya me voy, ¿está bien?” = “I’m leaving now, ok?”

“Está bien.” = “Ok.”

De Acuerdo

Just another way to say “ok”, essentially. “Acuerdo” means “agreement” and “de acuerdo” literally translates to something like “in agreement”, as in “I’m in agreement” or “I concur”, though it doesn’t quite have the same formality as those expressions and usually just means “ok”. It’s typically used in situations where some sort of accord or compromise is come to, as in agreeing to meet at a certain place at a certain time or how much to pay for something, etc. Examples:

“¿Te ve a las once, entonces?” = “I’ll see you at eleven, then?”

“De acuerdo.” = “Ok.”

“Cuesta veintiocho pesos.” = “It costs twenty-eight pesos.”

“De acuerdo.” = “Deal.”

Déjese De Cuentos

Means something like “cut the crap” or “shall we dispense with the bull?”. “Dejar” means “to leave” and is being used in the imperative here as a command, so you’re being told to leave something, and “cuento” means “story” but is also used to mean a lie like we might use “tale” in “a tall tale”, and you see it used like this in the expression “contar cuentos” which means “to tell tales” (“to lie”). You see it used the same way here with “déjese de cuentos” where you’re being told to dispense with the tall tales. Example:

“Puedo venderte ese carro por sólo cien mil pesos.”= “I can sell you this car for only a hundred thousand pesos.”

“Déjese el cuento, ¿cuanto puede bajar?” = “Cut the crap, how much can you come down?”

¿Cómo?

This means something like “What? How’s that?” and is used to express mild surprise at something you just heard. “cómo” literally translates to “how” so this isn’t just a statement of surprise but it’s also a question that should elicit a response, so you’re not only expressing your disbelief but you’re also asking how it is that this thing came to be. Example:

Dr. Evil: “Me absteno de lanzar los misiles nucleares por…¡un trillón de dólares!!”

El Presidente: “¡¿Cómo?!”

Seguro

“Seguro” literally means “safe” or “secure” but in this context it means “sure” and is used the same way we would use “sure” as a response meaning “yes”. Example:

El Presidente: “¿Aceptas un cheque?”

Dr. Evil: “Seguro.”

No Me Importa

Literally means “it’s not important to me” and it’s the most common way of simply saying “I don’t care” in Spanish, it’s an expression that you’ll definitely hear a lot regardless of the regional dialect in question. Example:

“¿Quiere hielo en su trago, señor?” = “Do you want ice in your drink, sir?”

“Seguro, no me importa.” = “Sure, I don’t care.”

¡Qué Esperanzas!

This literally means “what hope!” and is another way of saying “no”, “no way!”, or “not a chance!” in an emphatic way. Example:

“Papa, ¿va a comprarme un carro para mi cumpleaños?” = “Dad, are you going to buy me a car?”

“¡Qué esperanzas!” = “Not a chance!”

Ni Modo

This is one more way of saying “oh well” or “oh well, what can you do?”, but keep in mind that it’s not a particularly sympathetic expression, so if the bad thing that happened, happened to someone else, you may not want to use this. Example:

“¡Tu vaca gorda morada comió mi pobre gato!” = “Your fat purple cow ate my poor cat!”

“Ni modo…” = “Oh well…”

“No me gustas tú.” = “I don’t like you.”

No Es Para Tanto

“Tanto” means “much” or “so much” or “that much”, so the literal meaning we get here is something like “it’s not for that much” and the way it’s really used to express the feeling of “let’s not get carried away here” or “ok, that’s a bit much”. Example:

“Mi vecino me está molestando mucho ahora.” = “My neighbor is really irritating me lately.”

“Puedo atropellarlo con mi vaca morada.” = “I can run over him with my purple cow.”

“No es para tanto.” = “Maybe that’s a bit much.”

The End

That’s it! If you’ve got any more expressions you think ought to be on here, tell me in the comments and I’ll be glad to add them to the list and give you credit.

Sources/Credit:

Many thanks to the folks over at Foro de Español, the Wordreference Forums, Sylvia my Ecuadorian Spanish tutor, Joseph Keenan’s Breaking Out of Beginner’s Spanish, and Dover Publications’ Easy Spanish Phrase Book for not only giving me tons of ideas for this list but also helping me making sure that the full meaning and context of the expressions above are properly expressed to avoid any potential confusion or misuse by the reader. Thanks again!

The secrets of how to use free online resources to teach yourself Spanish, from home, in just a few months - Also: Here are the internet's Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources

I run a newsletter entirely about how to learn Spanish online for free where I send out every cool new tip and technique that I learn to my subscribers and not only do they get it before anyone else but frequently they get things that no one else ever does. Additionally, I've spent a great deal of time putting together a 3-part series of articles for you on the internet's best free resources for the Spanish-learner that you'll get when you sign up for my newsletter--in addition to all of what you get below, I'll be sure to send you any updates about cool new sites, resources, and learning tips and techniques that I come up with:

Part 1: An article called “Spanish Learning Systems: Should you bother?” about whether or not you should even bother with a pre-packaged Spanish-learning system (e.g. Rosetta Stone or Pimsleur) and, if you do decide you want to, where you can go online to find programs that are literally 1/10th the price of older, more common systems like Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur but actually work even better. Also, at the same time, you’ll get a separate e-mail with a very long list of my favorite Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources (tools, references, sites with free lessons, articles, blogs, forums, etc.) that's far to long to include here, especially with all the other stuff I've got below that's just on this site alone, and I'd like to offer it to you (completely free, you don't have to do anything other than sign up) right now.

Part 2: I explain what language exchanges are (essentially they allow you free access to an unlimited number of native speakers to practice your Spanish with), why they're absolutely essential if you're teaching yourself (I'm serious when I say this: it's impossible to get fluent without them if you're learning a foreign language on your own), how to use them, and which ones are the best.

Part 3: I cover chat rooms which are specifically devoted to connecting you with native Spanish speakers who want to learn English so you can chat with them in Spanish (and they'll help and correct you) and then you do the same for them with their English (these are completely free to use, but rather hard to find, but I'll tell you where the best ones are!). Sign up below!

Also, if you like what you see here PLEASE SUBSCRIBE to my Twitter feed and/or RSS feed so you can be updated any time there’s a new post.

Cheers,

Andrew

What’s a ‘Juanes’?

It’s a contraction of his first and middle names: “Juan” + “Esteban” = “Juanes”, kind of like “Brangelina” or “Bennifer”

Juanes is one of the biggest names in the Spanish-language music world, probably second only to Shakira. He’s now a solo artist, though he started out in a band called Ekhymosis that he started in 1988 and later disbanded 10 years later in 1998. He’s sold more than 12 million albums and won 17 Latin Grammys, more than any other artist.

An interesting fact about Juanes is his refusal to (almost) never sing in English or really any language other than Spanish, his explanation being that “Singing in Spanish is very important because it’s the language in which I think and feel. I respect people that sing in English, but for now I’ll keep my Spanish.”

Yerbatero

Yerbatero is a guitar-driven rock song that significantly deviates from Juanes’ previous romantic latin-pop songs which had previously dominated his discography, and it seems to have been quite a success with it being his most popular music video on YouTube, beating even La Camisa Negra and debuting on the Latin Pop Charts at number four.

The word itself is an Andean slang term that means “herbalist” or, more accurately in this context, “healer” and comes from the word “yerba mate” which is a type of tea popular in Latin America and especially Argentina, and a “yerbatero” was originally a seller of yerba mate tea. This will make a great deal of sense once you start reading the lyrics below and see how Juanes is referring to himself as a sort of healer of broken hearts.

The Video

The usual instructions follow for this:

The way I want you to do this is to play it once all the way through, then let’s look at it one verse at a time, and translate it. Now, go back and play the verse we just analyzed several times and see if you can hear and understand everything being said, then go on to the next one. Here it is:

First verse:

Le traigo el remedio
Para ese mal de amor que le estremece
No se merece sufrir
si su pareja le dejó

Translation:

I’ll bring you the remedy
For that love sickness that makes you shudder
You don’t deserve to suffer
If your partner left you

Where it says “le estremece”, the verb in question there is “estremecer” which does in fact mean “to shudder or tremble”, but the line immediately after that is where we see something kind of interesting in the phrase “No se merece sufrir”: “merecer” means “to deserve or be worthy of” and can be used in several different ways, not just as above where it means that a person deserves something, but also in the sense of “___ is worth doing”, e.g. “Esa película merece una mirada” = “That movie is worth a look”.

Also, the word “pareja” in the last line usually means “pair” but can also be used to refer to one member of a pair as it is in this case, and one of the literal translations of the word is actually “partner”.

Tengo toda clase de brebajes, plantas medicinales
Las he traído desde muy lejanos bosques hasta aquí

Translation:

I have every kind of potion, medicinal plants
I have brought them here from distant forests

Oh what a funny word “brebaje” is, because although “potion” is probably the best contextual translation of it here, the actual meaning of the word is something more like “concoction” or “foul drink” and it’s also a slang term for something sailors call “grog“, haha.

Notice the use of “desde” and “hasta” here, even though the contextual translation (correctly) doesn’t show it as it’s literally written, which would be something like “I have brought them from forrests very far away to here”, you’ll almost always see these two words paired up in Spanish to express “from ___ to ____” as “desde ____ hasta _____”. The expression can not only be used with physical locations but also with time, as in “I’ll be here from this morning until this afternoon” = “Estoy aquí desde esta mañana hasta esta tarde.” “Desde” literally translates as “from” and “hasta” means “until”.

Next verse:

Soy yerbatero, vengo a curar su mal de amores
Soy el que quita los dolores y habla con los animales
Dígame de que sufre usted
Que yo le tengo un brebaje
Que le devuelve el tono y lo pone bien

Which means:

I’m a healer, I’m coming to cure your love sicknesses
I’m the one who takes away the pain and speaks with the animals
Tell me what you suffer from
‘cause I have a potion for you
‘cause I return you to your complexion and it makes you well

Let’s look at the first line where it says “vengo a curar su mal de amores”, now “vengo” is the present first person form of “venir” which means “to come” and “curar” means “to cure or heal”, but what’s interesting is the phrase “su mal de amores”, because “mal” literally translates as “bad” but can be used in so many other ways that all make sense when you understand that the primary definition of the word is “bad”: it can mean evil, harm, damage, or even “bad times” in the context of “in bad times and good” as we saw Shakira use it in her song Suerte where she says “Contigo celebro y sufro todo mis alegrías y mis males” which means “With you I celebrate and suffer everything, the good times and the bad”, or it can mean “illness” as it does in this case. This is just one of those words that has a billion different meanings depending on the context and that gets used left, right, and center that you should be aware of.

In the sentence “Dígame de que sufre usted” the word order is a little screwy, so let’s have a look at that. What it literally translates to is “Tell me of that suffer you”, or a little more logically, “Tell me of that which you suffer”, because “de” means “of”, “que” means “that”, and “sufre” is the present 3rd person form of “sufrir“, which means “to suffer”. Also, “Dígame” is a contraction of “díga” (imperative form of “decir” which means “to tell”) and “me”, which you always do when making a command like that which is reflexive (meaning that the verb acts on a reflexive pronoun like me, te, se, etc.).

In the next sentence where it says “Que yo le tengo un brebaje” you may be confused by the way he’s using “que“, and…it’s honestly very hard to explain, because that word doesn’t really literally translate as “because”, but it’s the best contextual translation of it in these particular circumstances. Essentially, it means “that” or “so that” here because it’s sort of a continuation of the previous sentence, it relies on the previous sentence to work. Ok, the previous sentence was: “Tell me what you suffer from”, and then this next one says “que yo lo tengo un brebaje” which sort of translates to “Tell me what you suffer from so that/such that I have a potion for you” which sort of makes sense, but if we take what we can tell his meaning is from that sentence and express it as we normally would in English, it would come out as “Tell me what you suffer from ’cause I have a potion for you”, get it?

“Que” is really confusing for beginners because, far more so than “mal”, it has many, many different possible meanings all of which are entirely dependent on the context, and to make things even more confusing there’s an entirely different word that people tend to get confused with it because it’s almost spelled the same way: “qué” (notice the accent! that makes it a whole ‘nother word altogether, “que” does NOT equal “qué”), which is the Spanish word for “what”, which of course means you’ll see it all the time as well, frequently in conjunction with “que” in the same sentence or even side-by-side.

Remember:

“que” = “that”/”so that”/”than”/”such that”/

“qué” = “what”

Deep breath (we’re not done with this verse yet!)

The last line where it says “Que le devuelve el tono y lo pone bien” you see an interesting verb, “devolver” which means “to return” and “le” working as a pronoun meaning “you”, so the verb here, “devolver” is reflecting back on “le”, it’s action is being done to it, so the returning is being done to “le” which is “you” in this case, “le devuelve” means “return you”.

Ok, so we have “que” being used in the same way as the previous line, so “que le devuelve” means “because I return you…”, now “el tono” means “the tone” where tone means “complexion” (check the definition, it’s 2nd) in this case, and taken in the current context of illness and him being the yerbatero, the healer, he’s of course saying that he’ll return you to your previous healthy complexion, he’ll make you better, basically, you see?

That last bit, “lo pone bien” is just saying essentially the same thing again, “pone” is the present 3rd person form of “poner” which means “to put”, and what’s doing the putting? “lo” is, which means “it” and of course refers to the potion, and since “bien” means “good” or “well”, it’s literally saying something like “it puts you well”, which really means “it makes you well”.

Finally, that one’s done. Next one:

Si a usted, señor, lo deja su mujer
úntese en el alma pomadita de clavel
Y para la señora que el marido ha sido infiel
No se preocupe, busquese uno usted también

Translation:

If your woman leaves you, sir
Rub some carnation oinment on your soul
And for the lady whose husband has been unfaithful
Don’t worry, get yourself some too

Let’s go to the second sentence where it says “úntese en el alma pomadita de clavel”, the verb in question at the beginning there is “untar” which means “to smear” and it’s reflexive here, with “se” filling in for “you”. “Alma” is the word for “soul”, “pomada” is “ointment” so “pomadita” is “little bit of ointment” really, and “clavel” means “carnation”, so the literal translation of “úntese en el alma pomadita de clavel” is “rub yourself on the soul a little ointment of carnation” which contextually means “rub some carnation oil on your soul”, got it?

Now, in the last line we see “No se preocupe, busquese uno usted también”, “preocupar” means “to worry” and in this case it’s reflexive, which it almost always is, as the way that they say that someone is/was/will worry in Spanish is to say that they “worry themselves” as opposed to just “worry” as we would in English, it essentially means the same thing.

Now, “buscar” (which is what that word you see there, “búsquese”, is based on) is a verb that normally means “to look for or to search”, but a secondary definition for it is “to pick up” as in, “Voy a buscar el correo” = “I’m going to pick up the mail”, which is how it’s used here where it’s translated as “get yourself”. It’s in the command form and reflexive, with the command form of “buscar” being “busque” and “se” being a pronoun meaning “you” here, so “busquese” means “get yourself” as in “get yourself some of this awesome ointment I’ve got”.

Next verse:

Sufre de depresión, mal de amor
Lleva varias noches sin dormir
Y sus días no van bien en el trabajo

Translation:

Do you suffer from depression, love sickness?
Have you spent many nights without sleeping?
And your days don’t go well at work?

We’ve already discussed “suffrir” and the way that you see “mal” used here with “mal de amor” to mean “love sickness”, so I don’t need to cover that. “lleva” is the 3rd person present form of “llevar” which literally means “to take, carry, wear, handle, have, keep, deal with, or cope with” but has so many little variations on those meanings depending on the context that to decipher which one it is you have to look at the context, and in this case he’s saying “llevas varias noches sin dormir”, so I would literally translate it as “take” with the meaning as in “take a nap”, “take a class”, etc. so you get “do you take many nights without sleep?”, got it?

The last line where it says “en el trabajo” has “trabajo” functioning as a noun that means “work”, in this case “el trabajo” is referring to your place of work, your job, so you could also translate this last line as “at your job”.

Last bit:

Anda moribundo, preocupado, cabizbajo, desenamorado
Le tengo la solución si le duele el corazón

No soy doctor, soy yerbatero…

Translation:

Continue dying, worried, downcast, unloved?
I have for you the solution if your heart hurts

I’m not a doctor, I’m a healer…

Right, now “moribundo” is simply an adjective that means “dying”, but “anda” is the verb “andar” which usually means “to walk”, right? Well…let’s get confused again, “andar” is also very frequently used to mean “to go” in the sense of indicating action as in “to go do something” usually in the form of “to go [verb]” so it’ll be “andar + verb”. It sort of makes sense if you think of “andar” as meaning generally “to go” and frequently used to indicate that the person is walking which is, of course, one way you can go about going, right? So it generally means “to go” and is frequently used in the specific context of walking but not always.

Now, “cabizbajo” is just an adjective that means “downcast, crestfallen, or melancholy”, and “desenamorado” is really obvious if you take a second to look at it and you already know that “enamorar” means “to love” and you also know that the way you make a verb’s past participle (the “-ed” version of it, as in “loved” is the past participle of “love”) is to simply add “-ado” to the end of it where the “-ar” at the end was. So you know that “enamorado” means “loved”, and now I’ll tell you that one way they make a word “un”ed in Spanish (as in, covered –> uncovered, known –> unknown, loved –> unloved) is to add the preposition “des” to the beginning of it, that’s kind of like the Spanish “un”, so:

“des” + “enamorar” + “ado” = “des” + “enamorado” = “desenamorado” = “unloved”

In the next to last line we’ve got “Le tengo la solución si le duele el corazón”. The first part is pretty simple and you’ve probably got no problem understanding it: “le tengo la solución” – “le” is just a pronoun meaning “you” that’s reflected back on by “tengo” which is the present first person form of “tener” which means “to have” and when you do that it translates as “I have for you the solution…”, and “si” just means “if”.

Then, we see “le” this time filling in for “your heart” and being reflected back on by “duele” which is the third person present form of “doler” which means “to hurt or cause pain” and in this case the “corazón” at the end is simply added for clarification because “le duele” says “it’s hurting” so of course you wonder “what’s hurting?” and “el corazón” is added at the end to clarify, so a more accurate translation that’ll help you understand how that sentence is working would be like this:

“Le tengo la solución si le duele el corazón” = “I have for you the solution if it hurts, your heart that is”

And it’ll make even more sense to us English speakers if we make one more minor little tweak and stick some strategic commas in there:

“Le tengo la solución si le duele, el corazón” = “I have the solution for you if it, your heart, hurts.”

If you’re having trouble understanding, go back and look at those sentences and really pay attention to what I did with the commas, I hope that explains it for you.

Next verse:

Soy yerbatero, vengo a curar su mal de amores
Soy el que quita los dolores y habla con los animales
Dígame de que sufre usted
Que yo le tengo un brebaje
Que le devuelve el tono y lo pone bien

That’s a repeat, we’ve covered it.

Another repeat. Next:

Si a usted, señor, lo deja su mujer
úntese en el alma pomadita de clavel
Y para la señora que el marido ha sido infiel
No se preocupe, búsquese uno usted también

Another repeat. Next:

Soy yerbatero…Soy yerbatero…Soy yerbatero…

Translation (do I really need to?):

I’m the healer…I’m the healer…I’m the healer…

That’s it! We’re done. I hope you enjoyed this iteration of the series, which I plan to keep on doing forever because it’s a fantastic learning method, everyone seems to like it, and there is an endless supply of music videos and other various medias (I’m thinking about trying some short clips from TV shows or movies at some point) out there for us to learn from. Let me know what you think in the comments, and also give me any suggestions for songs or music videos you’d like to see me do in the future!

The secrets of how to use free online resources to teach yourself Spanish, from home, in just a few months - Also: Here are the internet's Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources

I run a newsletter entirely about how to learn Spanish online for free where I send out every cool new tip and technique that I learn to my subscribers and not only do they get it before anyone else but frequently they get things that no one else ever does. Additionally, I've spent a great deal of time putting together a 3-part series of articles for you on the internet's best free resources for the Spanish-learner that you'll get when you sign up for my newsletter--in addition to all of what you get below, I'll be sure to send you any updates about cool new sites, resources, and learning tips and techniques that I come up with:

Part 1: An article called “Spanish Learning Systems: Should you bother?” about whether or not you should even bother with a pre-packaged Spanish-learning system (e.g. Rosetta Stone or Pimsleur) and, if you do decide you want to, where you can go online to find programs that are literally 1/10th the price of older, more common systems like Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur but actually work even better. Also, at the same time, you’ll get a separate e-mail with a very long list of my favorite Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources (tools, references, sites with free lessons, articles, blogs, forums, etc.) that's far to long to include here, especially with all the other stuff I've got below that's just on this site alone, and I'd like to offer it to you (completely free, you don't have to do anything other than sign up) right now.

Part 2: I explain what language exchanges are (essentially they allow you free access to an unlimited number of native speakers to practice your Spanish with), why they're absolutely essential if you're teaching yourself (I'm serious when I say this: it's impossible to get fluent without them if you're learning a foreign language on your own), how to use them, and which ones are the best.

Part 3: I cover chat rooms which are specifically devoted to connecting you with native Spanish speakers who want to learn English so you can chat with them in Spanish (and they'll help and correct you) and then you do the same for them with their English (these are completely free to use, but rather hard to find, but I'll tell you where the best ones are!). Sign up below!

Also, if you like what you see here PLEASE SUBSCRIBE to my Twitter feed and/or RSS feed so you can be updated any time there’s a new post.

Cheers,

Andrew

Bueno

Bueno can be very accurately translated to the English word “well” in the context of “Well…”, not “well” as in “feeling well” in this case. It’s used in almost exactly the same way in many of the same circumstances, and is probably the most common sentence-starter in Spanish–you will very, very frequently hear sentences start with “Bueno, …”. Examples to give you an idea:

“Bueno, no es lo que queria decir.” = “Well, that’s not what I meant to say.”

“Bueno, tengo que ir.” = “Well, I have to go.”

It very frequently is used to indicate the transition from one thing to another, such as indicating that you’re going to leave now or that it’s time to get down to business: the transition from introductions and niceties to actual business at a meeting may be indicated with a simple, single “Bueno…” just as we would do the same with a single “Well…”

Mira

omg wtf that's a cheese car...and it looks DELICIOUS!! Also means “Look” or “Look here”, but it’s used much more narrowly than “fíjate que” in that “mira” is almost always used to set the record straight. You would likely here it used in the context of some sort of argument or confrontation, as in “Look here, if you don’t clean that up I’m going to run over you with my cheese car!”, which would be “¡Mira, si no limpies eso voy a atropellarte con mi carro de queso!”, or “Look, I didn’t say you couldn’t touch my cheese car, just don’t eat it, ok?” which would be “Mira, no te estaba diciendo que no podias tocar mi carro de queso, solo que no lo comias, ¿ok?”

Haz De Cuenta Que

This phrase means something like “Imagine that…”, “Pretend that…”, or “Make believe that…” and is used whenever you would want to say one of those phrases in English–don’t use “pretender” or “imaginar“, neither are appropriate really: “pretender” means something more like “to aspire to” and “imaginar” is used like “imagine” in the sense of “I thought” or “I suppose” e.g. “I imagine you’re quite busy” or “I thought you’d have already heard about it.”

If you wanted to say anything along the lines of “Make believe that you are a car made of cheese”, or “Pretend that you’re the mayor of Cheeseville, what would you do?”, you would use this phrase as such:

“Haz de cuenta que eres un carro de queso.”

“Haz de cuenta que eres el alcalde de Quesovilla, ¿qué harías?”

Pues

Like “bueno”, but more informal. It frequently finds itself in places where an English speaker would say “Well”, “ummm”, “let’s see”, “errr…”, “Hang on, let me see here…”, etc. Examples:

“¿Quieres ver una película?” (“Do you want to see a movie?”) may be answered with something like: “Pueeesss…..no sé, ehh….sí.” (“Weeelllll….I dunno, ehh….sure.”)

In many places, Mexico in particular, “pues” will be shortened to “pos” or even just a hiss that kind of sounds like “pss”. In Spain it’s “pue” instead. Which one you should use should be determined, as always, by how the people around you are speaking.

La Verdad Es Que

“The truth is that…” or “The truth of the matter is that…”, but a more contextual translation that would give you a really good English equivalent would be “actually”, because they use it the same way we do that word and about as frequently (in other words: very). Many beginning learners will say “Actualmente…” when they want to say “Actually…” but that’s incorrect as you know, “actualmente” translates more to “currently” than “actually” and is used to express what’s currently going on right now.

Example:

“¿Estás bien?” (“Are you ok?”)

“Pues…la verdad es que no me siento bien.” (“Well…actually, I don’t feel well.”)

Entonces

It literally and contextually means “then” and is used in a very similar way that we use that word. Normally it’s used to indicate that one event followed another, just as we use it (“Then I went to the store” = “Entonces fui a la tienda”), and it’s also used in a sort of “So what, then?” kind of way, sometimes used the same way we use “so”, as in:

“So, what happened next?” = “Entonces, qué pasó después?”

“So…you’re not coming then?” = “Entonces…¿no vienes?” or “Pues…¿no vienes, entonces?”

O Sea

“In other words…”, “That is to say…”, or “I mean…”

Interesting structure in this phrase, because you’ve got the subjunctive involved (click me if you need help with that) due to the fact that’s sort of a hypothetical (as in, it means something like “if one were to say it this way” or “one could say it this way”). “O” means “or” and “sea” is the 3rd person present subjunctive form of “ser“, which means “to be”. This is an extremely common verbal crutch that you’ll hear used quite frequently in the way we would use “like” or “you know”. Examples:

“El jefe no me ha hablado todavía, o sea de verdad no sé.” = “The boss hasn’t talked to me yet, so in other words I don’t really know.”

“[blah blah blah long explanation about something], o sea la verdad es que solo me gusta mucho la ropa interior feminina.” = “[blah blah blah long explanation about something], in other words I just really like women’s underwear.”

Es Decir

More literally means “that is to say” and can be used pretty much anywhere you would use “o sea”, except it’s considered a bit more correct and less slangy than “o sea” is.

Luego

“Luego” also technically translates to “then” and is frequently interchangeable with “entonces”, though “luego” is more often used to indicated something happening next in sequence, e.g. “…then I went to the store, then the airport, then home.” would be something like “…luego fui a la tienda, leugo al aeropuerte, y leugo a la casa.”

Sometimes it’s used when we would use “later”, as in the most common example of “Hasta luego” which means “See you later”. Other similar expressions include “Luego voy” (“I’ll go later”), “Luego te digo” (“I’ll tell you later”), “Luego lo hago” (“I’ll do it later”), etc.

Actualmente

Not “actually”, first of all. This is a false friend, it doesn’t mean what it looks like it does. “Actualmente” actually (see what I did there? ) means “currently”, “at the moment”, “these days”, or, as the dictionary defines it, “nowadays”. The best basic translation is probably “currently”. Examples:

“Qué pasa?” “Pues, actualmente no sé, creo que esperemos a que Juan llegue.” = “What’s happening?” “Well, currently I don’t know, I think we’re waiting for Juan to arrive.”

“Actualmente hace muy buen tiempo, pero podría llover más tarde.” = “Currently the weather is very nice, but it could rain later.”

A Propóstito / Por Cierto

They both pretty much just mean “By the way”. Just as with “by the way”, they usually indicate a change in subject or a transition into some new sort of business. Just use them the same way you would “by the way”, e.g. “A propósito, ¿sabes donde está María?” = “By the way, do you know where Maria is?” or “Por cierto, ¿no ibas a ir a la tienda?” = “By the way, weren’t you going to go to the store?”

Por Lo Menos

It means “At least”. “Por” means “for”, “lo” means “that” or “it”, and “menos” means “less” or “least” in this case, so you put them together and you get “that which is least”, or…”at least” Examples:

“¡Por lo menos preguntale el nombre antes de que le quites la ropa, hombre!” = “At least get her name before you try to take her clothes off, man!”

Por Fin

“Finally” or “At last”.

Frequently said with exasperation that the thing in question is finally happening. Examples:

“¡Por fin! ¡Estás aqui!” = “Finally! You’re here!”

“Por fin, tenemos la tarea de todos.” = “At last, we’ve got everyone’s homework.”

Es Que

This is the Spanish equivalent of “It’s that…” or “It’s such that…” or “The thing is that…”, all of which are roughly the same thing. This is one of the most common and most useful, all-purpose phrases in Spanish, and can be used for nearly anything–I guarantee you that if you ask a Spanish-speaking person “Why?” or “Why is ____ ?”, there’s a superb chance that their answer will begin with “Es que…”, meaning “Well, it’s that…” or even “Pues, es que…” (hey, don’t forget: you can mix-’n-match all this stuff! )

“Es que” is always used to answer something, in response to something, it requires some sort of preceding question or statement to actually respond to.

Che

This is pretty much exclusive to Argentina and just means something like “Hey!”, or “Hey buddy”, e.g.

“¡Che! Me gustan tus zapatos.” = “Hey, I like your shoes.”

“¡Che! ¿Que tal, hombre?” = “Hey! What’s up, man?”

Lo Que Pasa Es Que

“What’s happening is that…” or “What’s going on is…”, that’s it. It can be used anytime “Es que…” can, which means pretty much any time.

Quizás / Tal Vez

They both just mean “maybe” or “perhaps”, that’s it, very simple. You’ll sometimes see it spelled “quizá” minus the “s” on the end. Examples:

“Quizás no debí haberme comido todas esas ardillas, creo que tengo una bola de pelos.” = “Maybe I shouldn’t have eaten all those squirrels, I think I have a hairball.”

“Tal vez El Presidente nos preste algunas de sus prostitutas si nos aburrimos.” = “Perhaps the President will let us borrow some of his prostitutes if we get bored.”

Resulta Que

Literally, “It results that…” or “It results in…”, more accurately it means something like “It turns out that…”. If you wanted to say “Well, it turns out that the dog doesn’t like broccoli!” you would say that “¡Pues, resulta que el perro no le gusta el brócoli!”

You would also use this particular expression to mean “it works out that” in a mathematical context, such as saying “The price of the car works out to 20,000 pesos.” would be done as “Resulta que el precio del carro es veinte mil pesos.”

Así Que

Just another way of saying “So” when used at the beginning of a sentence, such as “So, you think I’m fat?” would be “¿Así que crees que estoy gordo?”, or “So, you’re coming then?” would be “¿Así que vienes?”. The reason it’s used in this very specific manner is due to what it really means, “así” means “this way” or “like this” or “in this manner”, and “que”, of course, means “that”, so “así que” literally means something like “It’s going to be like this, then is it?” in reference to whatever follows that “Así que”–got it?

Aunque

“Although”, “Even though”, etc. Examples:

“Aunque me dicen que estoy loco, aún voy a rezar al monstruo volador de espaguetti.” = “Even though they tell me I’m crazy, I’m still going to pray to the flying spaghetti monster.”

“Aunque hui del “Superbowl” como de la peste, aún tenia que oír personas se quejan sobre Christina Aguilera. No era feliz.” = “Although I avoided the Superbowl like the plague, I still had to hear people complain about Christina Aguilera. I wasn’t happy.”

Además

“Moreover”, “Besides…”, “Also”, etc.

This is occasionally also used where we would use “too”, e.g.

“Él es guapo y además inteligente.” = “He’s handsome and smart, too.”

“Queso es demasiado suave, demasiado débil, y además huele muy mal.” = “Cheese is too soft, too weak, and besides, it smells terrible.”

Ni Modo Que

“No way that…”, or “No way in hell that…”. “Modo” literally means “way” so this one is pretty intuitive. It’s never just used on its own like “No way!” is in English, something always follows it and that something will always involve the subjunctive (click me if you need help with that). Examples:

“¡Ni modo que vaya a hablar con ella!” = “Like hell I’m going to talk to her!”

“Ni modo que yo puede ir contigo, lo siento” = “No way can I go with you, sorry.”

Sin Embargo

“Sin embargo” means “However”, “Nonetheless”, “Nevertheless”, “Notwithstanding”, etc.

Frequently used while someone is shaking their finger at you, haha. They’ll acknowledge your point, quite aware that they’re about to invalidate it, and then say “sin embargo” right before they do so. As such:

“Entiendo que queso no es tan furte que el acero, pero sin embargo voy a hacer un carro de él.” = “I understand that cheese isn’t as strong as steel, but nevertheless I’m going to make a car out of it.”

yes, that's Berlusconi “Admito que pagué por una docena, más o menos, de prostitutas con fondos del estado, ¡pero sin embargo aún creo que esté adecuado estar El Presidente!” = “I acknowledge that I did pay for a dozen or so prostitutes with state funds, but nonetheless I still think I’m fit to be President!”

Menos Mal Que

“Good thing that…”, or “It’s just as well that…”. Fantastic little sentence-starter that you can get a ton of mileage out of. It literally means “Less bad that”, and is just they’re way of saying “It’s good that this thing happened.” Examples:

“Menos mal que no estacione mi carro de cheese al sol, ¡derretiría!” = “Good thing I didn’t park my cheese car in the sun, it would have melted!!”

“Menos mal que no te olvides los ratones, ¡los serpientes tengan mucho hambre!” = “Good thing you didn’t forget the mice, the snakes are really hungry!”

Fíjate Que

“Look”, “Look here, …”, or “Look at that…”, etc. “Fijar” means “to fix” in the sense of to focus or fixate on something, not as in “to repair” (that’s “arreglar“), so “Fíjate”, as you can imagine, means something like “fix yourself” (as in, “focus yourself”, i.e. “pay attention”) and “que” means “that”, so “fíjate que” means something like “fixate yourself on that”, or “focus yourself on that” and best translates to what we might say as “Look, …” or “Look at that”. It’s just used to call someone’s attention to something.

An example would be if you wanted to say “Look, there’s a giant car made out of cheese!”, it would be “¡Fíjate, hay carro enorme hecho de queso!”

“Fíjate” without the “que” means “Watch out!”, “Look out!”, or “Pay attention, …”

Also, note that “Fijarse que + subjunctive” = “Make sure that…”, as in “Make sure that the oven is off.” (“Fíjate que esté apogado el horno.”). This is usually used the way that we would say “Check that…” instead of what most English-speakers will be inclined to use, “checar“–most Spanish speakers use “Fijarse que + subjunctive”, not “checar”.

Lo Bueno / Lo Malo

“The good thing…” / “The bad thing…”

“Lo” = “It” and when placed before another word it means “that which is ____”, e.g. “lo bueno” means “That which is good”, “lo malo” means “That which is bad”, and of course the more accurate contextual translation in English would be “The good/bad thing…”. This works with a ton of other words, such as:

“lo peor” = “the worst thing…”

“lo único” = “the only thing…”

“lo extraño” = “the strange thing…”

“lo gracioso” = “the funny thing…”

Such as in “¡Lo mas extraño es que El Ministerio de Transporte no me daban permiso que manejar mi carro de queso en las carreteras públicas!” = “The strange thing is that the Department of Transportation wouldn’t let me drive my cheese car on the public roads!”

A Ver

“Let’s see…” or “Let’s see here…”

Fantastically useful little sentence-starter here. It’s frequently used to call attention to something, such as:

“¿Tienes un dólar?” “A ver…” = “Do you have a dollar?” “Let’s see…”

“A ver si mi paquete ya haya llegado…” = “Let’s see if my package has arrived yet…”

“A ver si mi carro de queso flote…” = “Let’s see if my cheese car floats…”

It will be frequently used with “si” or “qué” to mean “Let’s check and see…” or “Let’s check…”, as in:

“A ver qué haya en televisión…” = “Let’s see what’s on TV…”

Con Razón

“No wonder…” or “Little wonder that…”

“Razón” means “reason”, so with “con razón” you get “with reason”, e.g. “Con razón tu carro de queso derretió, ¡lo dejaste al sol!” = “No wonder your cheese car melted, you left it in the sun!” or, using the literal translation (see if this makes sense to you now , it should), “With reason your cheese car melted, you left it in the sun!”

Por Eso

“Because” or “That’s why”.

It’s frequently used to explain or to help make things understood when it might not be clear what’s going on, e.g.

“Señor Andrew, ¡manejas un carro de queso!”, “Sí, por eso mis pantaloncillos están amarillo.” = “Señor Andrew, you drive a cheese car!”, “Yes, that’s why my pants are yellow.”

“Fíjate, hay video musicale Shakira en televisión.”, “Sí, por eso no puedo levantarme” = “Look, there’s a Shakira music video on TV.”, “Yes, that’s why I can’t stand up.”

En Fin

“Well, anyway…” or “So, anyhow…”

It literally means something like “In conclusion…” but isn’t always necessarily used to conclude something (though it frequently is, that is it’s often used to lead into the conclusion), sometimes it’s used to change subjects or bring the conversation back to what was originally being discussed. Examples:

“En fin, la verdad es que sobreviví sólo por comer mi carro de queso cuando quedé varado en el desierto.” = “So anyway, I actually did survive only by eating my cheese car when I was stranded in the desert.”

Total

“So it turns out that…”

“Total” literally (and normally) means, simply, “total” as in “complete”, but when it’s put at the beginning of a sentence as a starter it basically means something like “So anyway, it turns out that…” and is frequently paired with “que” in the process of doing so e.g.:

“Pues, total que no me levanté a tiempo esta mañana.” = “Well, turns out that I didn’t wake up on time this morning.”

Vale

Not very common at all in this particular context in Latin America, but I’ve noticed (thanks to Ben and Marina’s FANTASTIC free podcasts that I highly recommend) that it’s used all the time in Spain, it’s their equivalent of our “ok” or “you know”, it’s a constantly used filler word there. You can use it like you would “ok”, you can use it like you would “well” (“vale” and “pues” are frequently interchangeable), you can use it like you sometimes would “ummm”! See below:

“¿Vale?” “Sí, vale.” = “Ok?” “Yeah, ok.”

“Pueesss, vale, vamos a ver lo que tenamos aqui…” = “Wellll, ok, let’s see what we’ve got here…”

“Creo que mi carro de queso no funciona muy bien, vale?” = “I think my cheese car didn’t work very well, you know?”

“Vale…ehhh…donde pongo mi busto del culo de Shakira, es doscientos kilos de bronce, sé que está en algun lugar por aquí…” = “Ok…ehhh….where’d I put my bust of Shakira’s ass, it’s two hundred kilos of bronze, I know it’s around here somewhere…”

Ya

What a fantastic little word. It’s a bit difficult because if you use the literal translation of “ya”, which is “already”, every time you hear it, it won’t make sense, but you have to understand this word because you will hear it used ALL. THE. TIME…I mean constantly.

It can mean “already”, of course, it can also mean “now”, or if made negative it can mean “anymore” as in “not anymore”, e.g. “Ya no viene” = “He’s not coming anymore.” It’s often used simply as emphasis, usually to emphasize that something is being done, it’s being done now, or that something will be gotten to in just a second if the listener would just be patient and quit friggin’ bugging you about it. Examples:

“Ya voy.” = “I’m already going” / “I’ll go in a minute” / “I’m going!!!!” [in response to someone repeatedly insisting that you go] – which translation is correct depends on the context.

“Ya están las hamburguesas.” = “The hamburgers are ready/here now.”

“¡Ya estoy allí!” = “I’m already there!”

“La verdad es que ya quiero salir.” = “Actually, I already want to leave.” / “Actually, I want to leave now.”

To confuse you even further, when “ya” is combined with “que” it means something completely different: “Since…”, “Seeing that…”, “Seeing as how…”, etc. It’s used to mean something like “Well, since ___ has/is already occurred/occurring…”. Here, look at these and see if you get it:

“Ya que comiste mi carro de queso, ¡¿como vamos a ir a la casa?!” = “Since you’ve eaten my cheese car, how are we going to get home?!”

“Ya que compraste todo lo que necesitabamos, supongo que podemos ir a casa ahora.” = “Seeing as how you already bought everything we needed, I suppose we can go home now.”

Sources

First and foremost the wonderful Spanish speakers I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and talking to over the years, whether that was in person or via Skype. Secondly, my own personal experience based on reading and listening to actual contemporary Spanish-language media (which I can’t recommend enough). Also, the guys over at HTLAL (if you’re not a member you should be), Joseph Keenan’s fantastic Breaking Out of Beginner’s Spanish, and the Foro de Español forums.

Ok, well that’s it. If you’d like to delve into this even further there’s a list of muletillas (what this stuff is called in Spanish) over on Spanish Wikipedia organized by country, though it’s lacking definitions. If this interested you I can almost guarantee you you’ll be interested in two other similar posts I’ve done:

How to Not Sound Like a Gringo – The 17 Most Common Spanish Errors and How to Avoid Them

Manners in Spanish – The Basics of Being Polite in Spanish-Speaking Cultures

Edit (12/9/2011): Thanks to a commenter below, I can highly recommend this very extensive article (be warned: it’s entirely in Spanish) on muletillas, definitely worth checking out. Thanks, Mijail999.

I await your corrections and questions in the comments (and I do appreciate them, by the way).

The secrets of how to use free online resources to teach yourself Spanish, from home, in just a few months - Also: Here are the internet's Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources

I run a newsletter entirely about how to learn Spanish online for free where I send out every cool new tip and technique that I learn to my subscribers and not only do they get it before anyone else but frequently they get things that no one else ever does. Additionally, I've spent a great deal of time putting together a 3-part series of articles for you on the internet's best free resources for the Spanish-learner that you'll get when you sign up for my newsletter--in addition to all of what you get below, I'll be sure to send you any updates about cool new sites, resources, and learning tips and techniques that I come up with:

Part 1: An article called “Spanish Learning Systems: Should you bother?” about whether or not you should even bother with a pre-packaged Spanish-learning system (e.g. Rosetta Stone or Pimsleur) and, if you do decide you want to, where you can go online to find programs that are literally 1/10th the price of older, more common systems like Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur but actually work even better. Also, at the same time, you’ll get a separate e-mail with a very long list of my favorite Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources (tools, references, sites with free lessons, articles, blogs, forums, etc.) that's far to long to include here, especially with all the other stuff I've got below that's just on this site alone, and I'd like to offer it to you (completely free, you don't have to do anything other than sign up) right now.

Part 2: I explain what language exchanges are (essentially they allow you free access to an unlimited number of native speakers to practice your Spanish with), why they're absolutely essential if you're teaching yourself (I'm serious when I say this: it's impossible to get fluent without them if you're learning a foreign language on your own), how to use them, and which ones are the best.

Part 3: I cover chat rooms which are specifically devoted to connecting you with native Spanish speakers who want to learn English so you can chat with them in Spanish (and they'll help and correct you) and then you do the same for them with their English (these are completely free to use, but rather hard to find, but I'll tell you where the best ones are!). Sign up below!

Also, if you like what you see here PLEASE SUBSCRIBE to my Twitter feed and/or RSS feed so you can be updated any time there’s a new post.

Cheers,

Andrew

About This Song

Te Aviso, Te Anuncio is the first song by Shakira that was actually written in English first, titled as Objection (Tango), on her first English-language album ever, the massively successful Laundry Service, which was released in 2001. So this song was first written (by Shakira) in English, and then she did a Spanish version of it (mind you, she didn’t translate the English version into Spanish, that sort of thing almost never works, she wrote a Spanish version of it that, although similar, definitely isn’t a direct translation).

The song itself starts out as a classical tango between Shakira and her ex-lover with allusions to one of the most famous tango songs of all time, Gerardo Matos Rodríguez’s La Cumparsita, which means “The little parade”, and was originally written in 1917. It shortly after proceeds into latin rock territory once Shakira’s ex-lover leaves and she starts whaling on an electric guitar.

Shakira hates silicone haha What follows is…entertaining, to say the least, and frankly downright weird (in an awesome and hilarious way), where Shakira expresses her dissatisfaction with her ex’s behavior via kidnapping him and his new girlfriend, who she also fights with (in cartoon form–note the helpful graphic I’ve provided) while two ‘superheros’ who look like they got their costumes at the Salvation Army proceed to beat up on her ex. It’s just all kinds of fun, definitely watch it once or twice through just for amusement, it’s worth it

The Video

The usual instructions follow for this:

The way I want you to do this is to play it once all the way through, then let’s look at it one verse at a time, and translate it. Now, go back and play the verse we just analyzed several times and see if you can hear and understand everything being said, then go on to the next one. Here it is:

First verse:

Nunca pensé que doliera el amor así
Cuándo se entierra en el medio de un no y un sí
Es un dia ella y otro dia yo
Me estás dejando sin corazón
Y cero de razón

Which translates to:

I never thought love would hurt like this
when you’re buried in the middle of a no and a yes
It’s her one day, me the next
You’re leaving me without a heart
and zero reason [for it]

“Doliera” is the imperfect subjunctive of “doler” which means “to hurt”, the subjunctive in this case is being used because the statement expresses doubt and uncertainty (if you need more help with the subjunctive check out my post on it here: The Spanish Subjunctive Explained). “Se entierra” means “one is interred (buried)” and is the 3rd person singular conjugation of the verb “enterrar” which means “to bury”. “Medio” means “half” literally and this is how they frequently express “in the middle” or “between”. “Dejar” means “to leave or to let” and in this case the gerund (“dejando”) is combined with the present “tú” form of “estar” (to be) to express that he is currently (as in right now) leaving her without a heart–note that whenever this is done (you see estar + gerund) instead of just the present form (in this case that would be “dejas”) it means that the action in question is actually happening right now, at that very moment, not potentially 5 minutes (or hours) in the future as can be the case with the present form depending on the context.

Ay, te aviso y te anuncio que hoy renuncio
A tus negocios sucios
Ya sabes que estoy de ti vacunada
A prueba de patadas
Por ti me quedé como Mona Lisa
Sin llanto y sin sonrisa
Que el cielo y tu madre cuiden de ti
Me voy, será mejor así

Which means:

Oh, I’m warning you and I’m announcing to you that today I’m renouncing
your dirty business
You know that I’ve been vaccinated against you
to protect me from your kicks [referring to tango kicks]
Because of you I’m left like Mona Lisa
Without tears and without a smile
Let Heaven and your mother take care of you
I’m leaving, it will be better that way

Ah, here we go, now “avisar“, as you may have guessed, is indeed related to “advise” in that it means “to warn”, and “anunciar” means “to announce”, which I’ve no doubt was chosen so that it would rhyme when she says “hoy renuncio” which means “today I renounce”, so she’s making it clear that she’s loudly and publicly announcing her renunciation of him!

“Negocio” means “business”, pluralized in this case to express the fact that he has got several various dirty dealings that qualify as “dirty business”, and “sucio”, of course, means “dirty”.

A really interesting phrase we see next that I needed some help sorting out is “Ya sabes que estoy de ti vacunada”, which literally translates to “Already you know that I am from you vaccinated” where “vacunado” is the past participle of the verb “vacunar” which means “to vaccinate”; the word order is really screwy here and the lack of punctuation to help out makes it worse. What she’s saying isn’t “I am of your vaccinated” which is what it looks like, she’s using de to mean “from”, so she’s actually saying “I’m vaccinated against you”, as in “I’m immune to your charms” as we would say in English, but the word order is such that you have to insert a couple of commas to read it properly: “You already know that I am, from you, vaccinated”–that makes sense!

And next up is something even more confusing unless you’re a Spanish-speaking tango dancer: “A prueba de patadas” which means “to be kick-proof” with regards to what she’s vaccinated against (kicks, his kicks). This refers to the kicks you see in the tango dance, so she’s saying that she’s immune to his sexy dance moves, haha! In this case the word “prueba” is used, which normally means “test”, however when it’s used with “de” like this it can sometimes mean “X-proof”, e.g. “prueba de balas” means “bullet proof”. And, of course, “patada” means “kick” so when you combine the two in the phrase “prueba de patadas” you get “kicks-proof”

The next thing I’d like to address is the use of “Que” in this statement: “Que el cielo y tu madre cuiden de ti”. When you see this in Spanish–it’s hard to spot, you have to go off the context more than anything, though it almost always occurs at the beginning of a sentence or clause–it means literally “that” but it means it in the sense of “That the following may occur” or, a better translation, being “Let the following occur” as in “I want the following to happen”, so when she says “Que el cielo y tu madre cuiden de ti”, she’s saying “I want that heaven and your mother take care of you”…sort of…make sense?

Next verse:

Sé que olvidarte no es asunto sencillo
Te me clavaste en el cuerpo como un cuchillo
Pero todo lo que entra ha de salir
Y los que estan tendrán que partir
Empezando por mi

Which translates to:

I know that forgetting you isn’t a simple matter
You drove a knife through my heart
But all that comes in must go out
And those that are [still in] will have to go
Starting with me

“Olvidarte” is the infinitive of the verb “olvidar“, which means “to forget”, with “te” added on to the end which directs the action of “olvidar” to “te” (you) in this case. In that same sentence we see a very interesting, and commonly used, word with multiple meantings: “asunto“. Which, in this case, means “matter”, but can also mean similar things such as “issue” (in the sense of a problem) or “affair” (in the sense of a situation, not a romantic affair), and is also used when Spanish-speakers say the equivalent of our English expressions, “It’s none of your business” by saying “No es asunto tuyo” (literally, “it’s not your affair”), and “The thing is that…” by saying “El asunto es que…” (literally, “the issue is that”). Also, “sencillo” means “simple”, so her expression “asunto sencillo” obviously means “simple matter” as in “it’s not a simple matter”.

The next line includes the verb “clavar” to express that her lover has proverbially driven a knife or stake through her heart, as we would say, and “clavar” literally translates to “to nail, drive, or thrust” in reference to stabbing or driving a sharp object such as a knife or nail into something. Notice the exact wording of the expression that’s actually used in this case and you’ll see it’s clear that it’s a metaphor: “Te me clavaste en el cuerpo como un cuchillo” which literally means “You stabbed me in the body like a knife” so she’s saying that he has caused her great and sudden pain like when someone stabs you with a knife, except her pain is emotional, it’s just like when we refer to “our heart” in English in reference to emotions and romance: we’re talking about the symbolic heart, that which represents our feelings, not the real one, and you see it when we say that a lover/ex “stabbed us in the heart” or, the more recently popular and funny expression, “He/she crapped on my heart!”

After that there’s the expression “Y los que estan tendrán que partir” and I’d like to point out that the word “tendrán” is actually the third person plural future of the verb “tener” (click to see the full conjugation) so what’s literally being said is “And those that are will have to leave” because, as you probably already know, “estar” is always used to indicate the presence of something in a certain location (you would say “Estoy en Bogotá”, not “Soy en Bogotá”), and so she’s saying “those which are still there” by saying “los que estan”, and the way that “have to” is most commonly said in Spanish is by using “tener + que + [action]“, e.g. “I have to go” = “Tengo que ir”, and since she wants to say that these things (plural) will have to go (if they’re there) she does this by using the future conjugation in the “ustedes” form, which is “tendrán”. Got it?

And, of course, the last line, “Empezando por mi” means “beginning with me” (in reference to that which will have to go) as “empezando” is the gerund (“-ing” version) of the verb “empezar” which means “to begin”.

Next verse:

Ay, te aviso y te anuncio que hoy renuncio
A tus negocios sucios
Ya sabes que estoy de ti vacunada
A prueba de patadas
Por ti me quedé como Mona Lisa
Sin llanto y sin sonrisa
Que el cielo y tu madre cuiden de ti
Me voy

Which is just a repeat of a verse we covered before. Next:

Tal vez tú no eras ese para mi
No sé como se puede ya vivir queriendo así

Which means:

Maybe you weren’t that for me
I don’t know how anyone can even live
Wanting like this

Now, the first line, “Tal vez tú no eras ese para mi”, is in reference to the previous verse where she said “Me voy, será mejor así” in the last line which means “I’m leaving, it will be best that way”, so she’s saying that maybe he wasn’t the best for her (“ese” in the first line of the current verse refers to “mejor” in the last line of the previous verse). Oh, and “tal vez” is a very common expression that means “perhaps” or “maybe”.

Next verse:

Es tan patético, neurótico, satírico y sicótico
Tú no lo ves, el tango no es de a trés
Ahí voy planeando escapar y me sale al revés
Pero voy a intentarlo una y otra vez, voy

Which means:

It’s so pathetic and neurotic and satirical and psychotic
Don’t you see? Tango is not for three
There I go planning to escape and I get the opposite
But I’m going to try it one more time, I’m leaving!

Ok, this is cute and kinda funny at this point. The first line is the funniest, but it’s also pretty obvious and I don’t think there’s anything there I need to explain, do I? I guess I’ll mention that “tan” is a very common word that means “so” in the sense of “a lot”, and a very similar word that you’ll frequently confuse it with is “tal” which means “such”.

Where she says “me sale al revés” that literally translates to “It takes me out backwards” but this is an idiomatic expression meaning “I get the opposite” because “al revés” means “the wrong way round”, “sale” is in the 3rd person present so it means “it takes out” (that is, “it” is the one doing the taking out, not her) and it’s reflexive so it’s happening to her: “me sale al revés” = “it takes me out the wrong way round”.

In the last line you see the verb “intentar” which means “to try” and with “lo” tacked onto the end, of course, it means “to try it”.

Next verse:

Ay, te aviso te anuncio que hoy renuncio
A tus negocios sucios
Por ti me quedé como Mona Lisa
Sin llanto y sin sonrisa
Te aviso que estoy de ti vacunada
Y no me importa nada
Que el cielo y tu madre cuiden de ti
Me voy, será mejor así

Which is the third repeat of that same verse we previously dealt with. Next:

Ya me voy, ya me fui
Es mejor así
Ay, que el cielo y tu madre cuiden de ti
Me voy
Ay, que el cielo y tu madre cuiden de ti
Me voy
¡Será mejor así!

Which is a repeat except for the first line which means “I’m going already, I’ve already left” due to “ya” (“already” or “now”) at the beginning of the sentence, and then “fui” is the preterite “yo” form of “ir” (“to go”) that means “I left” when used reflexively (“se/me/te/etc.”) in this case with “me”.

That’s it! We’re done. I love doing this with music videos, TV shows, movies, etc. (for more information on that check out my post on learning Spanish with “The Telenovela Method”), you learn an enormous amount of the language just from a few minutes of one of those. Any suggestions for how to go forth with this? Modifications? Improvements? Let me know what you think in the comments. Also, of course, there will be more where this came from, whether it’s Shakira or other artists or other media like clips from movies or what-have-you, it seems people really like this, so we’re definitely going to keep doing this indefinitely.

The secrets of how to use free online resources to teach yourself Spanish, from home, in just a few months - Also: Here are the internet's Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources

I run a newsletter entirely about how to learn Spanish online for free where I send out every cool new tip and technique that I learn to my subscribers and not only do they get it before anyone else but frequently they get things that no one else ever does. Additionally, I've spent a great deal of time putting together a 3-part series of articles for you on the internet's best free resources for the Spanish-learner that you'll get when you sign up for my newsletter--in addition to all of what you get below, I'll be sure to send you any updates about cool new sites, resources, and learning tips and techniques that I come up with:

Part 1: An article called “Spanish Learning Systems: Should you bother?” about whether or not you should even bother with a pre-packaged Spanish-learning system (e.g. Rosetta Stone or Pimsleur) and, if you do decide you want to, where you can go online to find programs that are literally 1/10th the price of older, more common systems like Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur but actually work even better. Also, at the same time, you’ll get a separate e-mail with a very long list of my favorite Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources (tools, references, sites with free lessons, articles, blogs, forums, etc.) that's far to long to include here, especially with all the other stuff I've got below that's just on this site alone, and I'd like to offer it to you (completely free, you don't have to do anything other than sign up) right now.

Part 2: I explain what language exchanges are (essentially they allow you free access to an unlimited number of native speakers to practice your Spanish with), why they're absolutely essential if you're teaching yourself (I'm serious when I say this: it's impossible to get fluent without them if you're learning a foreign language on your own), how to use them, and which ones are the best.

Part 3: I cover chat rooms which are specifically devoted to connecting you with native Spanish speakers who want to learn English so you can chat with them in Spanish (and they'll help and correct you) and then you do the same for them with their English (these are completely free to use, but rather hard to find, but I'll tell you where the best ones are!). Sign up below!

Also, if you like what you see here PLEASE SUBSCRIBE to my Twitter feed and/or RSS feed so you can be updated any time there’s a new post.

Cheers,

Andrew

“Polite”

There really isn’t a direct equivalent in Spanish for our English word, “polite”. The closest is probably “educado”, which literally means “educated” but isn’t really used that way, it more often means that someone has good manners or is, as used to be said but not so much anymore, “well groomed”. There are other words, such as “amable” and “pulido” but those more accurately translate to their English equivalents of “amiable” and “polished”, respectively. The term “educado” could be just as readily and accurately applied to the high-school dropout mechanic down the street as it could to a university professor, so it really doesn’t refer to the person’s education level, it refers to how well they were raised and brought up, which doesn’t just include manners and politeness, but mainly so.

Greetings

Upon meeting someone, depending on the circumstances, there are a number of greetings you can employ. The first one that Spanish students are typically taught is “Buenos Dias” if it’s morning or “Buenas Tardes/Noches” if it’s afternoon or evening, and then “hasta luego” upon departing–this is fine if you’re dealing with a shop clerks, waiters, etc. or if the person you’re greeting will likely only ever meet you this one time. If it’s someone who you will almost certainly see again, such as a new coworker or a friend’s friend, then from the second encounter onwards you’ll be expected to use a more personal greeting, of which there are several that most Spanish students have been taught: mucho gusto (most common one and an excellent choice, this one’s always safe), tanto gusto, and…encantado/encantada–a word about this word: in short, don’t use it, it basically translates to “enchanted” and sounds about as goofy in Spanish as saying “Enchanted!” upon meeting someone in English would sound. I’ve noticed that a lot of Spanish texts, especially the sort used in high school and university Spanish classes, teach this word as if it’s a perfectly normal thing to say: it’s not. “Muchísimo gusto” would be appropriate for someone you’ve been dying to meet, such as the mother of your boyfriend/girlfriend that you’ve been going out with for 6 months and who you’ve heard “such wonderful things” about

After this you’ll want to say some version of “How are you?” or “How’s it going”, here’s your list of options in order of most formal to least:

¿Cómo está? or ¿Cómo está usted?
¿Comó le va?
¿Qué tal? or ¿Qué tal tu?
¿Cómo estamos?
¿Cómo estás?
¿Qué hay de nuevo?
¿Qué pasó? or ¿Qué pasa? (varies depending on country)
¿Qué me cuentas? or ¿Qué me dices?
¿Qué onda? or ¿Quiúbole? (Mexico and Carribean)

Please note that every one of those except the first one (“¿Cómo está?” and “Cómo está usted?”) are informal to some degree or another and imply that you have some level of friendship/familiarity with the person.

Nicknames

Obviously, if you’re using someone’s nickname with them, you’re being informal and friendly with them, but another thing to note is whether or not anyone else does the same, just like in English: if no one else calls José “Pepe”, then you shouldn’t either. Use generic nicknames only when you know the person well enough that you’re certain they won’t be offended (e.g. calling someone “viejo” which translates to “old man”, or “compadre” which is like the U.S. English equivalent of “buddy” or “dude” or the British English equivalent of “mate”).

An interesting cultural note is that in Latin America women in the work place will often be referred to with affectionate, pet names by the men, such as “linda” or “cariño”–this is one of many things that’s frequently looked down on in North America but isn’t in Latin America. Just be aware of it.

Greeting Everyone

Make sure you greet and say goodbye to everyone, even if they’re in a large group, whenever possible–to not do so can be seen as rude.

Also, on a related sidenote, shopkeepers and retail employees will frequently answer the phone with “A sus ordenes!” (“at your service” or, literally, “at your orders”)–I know this is extremely common in Colombia, though I can’t comment on elsewhere. Edit: In Argentina they’ll frequently answer with “¿Qué desea?” or “¿En qué lo puedo ayudar?” (thanks, cuentanueva ).

To use “Usted” or to use “Tú”?

This is something that Spanish learners tend to worry about far more than they should, and they tend to make it far more complicated than it needs to be. This particular problem can be solved 99.9% of the time with one very simple rule: if you would use “Mr.”, “Mrs.”, or “Ms.” with the person, then you use “usted”, if you would use their first name, then use “tú”, that’s it.

If you move into a new apartment or house, you may initially greet your neighbor as “Mr. Garcia”, and you would certainly use “usted” for the time being, but if you later began addressing each other by first names and he became “Juan” to you, that is precisely when you would start using “tú” with him.

This applies even when you don’t know the person’s name, such as with a bartender, taxi driver, or cop: would you call your bartender “Mr. Smith” or would you call him “Joe”? “Joe”, right? Then you use “tú” with him. A police officer you would almost always address as “Officer Smith”, and therefore you would use “usted” with them.

The one thing that will throw this rule awry is a significant age difference, this is the only time that it might not apply and/or you could end up in a situation where you are calling the them “usted” and they are calling you “tú”, or vice-versa. If their is a significant age difference, the younger person will almost always continue to use “usted” with the older person even after the older person has started calling them “tú”, such as would be the case with someone and their friend’s grandmother, or between you and a young child (you would use “tú” with them while they would continue using “usted” with you). You’ll notice, however, that this still obeys the “Mr./Mrs./Ms.” rule that we established earlier.

People will not hesitate to tell you to use to with them (“Tuteame!”), but they will almost never tell you to use “usted” with them because it would seem rude, so if you’re really uncertain then yes, “usted” is definitely the safe bet. The best way, though, to really determine what to do is to listen to those around you and how they are addressing the person in question, and then simply follow their lead.

Also, note that in Argentina and the Southern Cone in general it’s quite common for them to use “vos” in place of “tú”, and the rule there is that you just use “vos” anytime you would use “tú”, very simple.

Titles and Old People

Titles are a bit more important in Latin cultures than they are in the English-speaking world, and, oddly, a bit more loosely used: anyone in a position of importance or, sometimes, with at least a university degree, will be referred to as “doctor”, e.g. a secretary will very frequently tend to refer to her boss as “Doctor ____” even though they’re very rarely actually a doctor, they get this title simply by being in a position of importance or authority. Lawyers are always given the title of “doctor”, as well. Engineers get the title “Ingeniero”, teachers are called “Profesor”, and teachers are also sometimes referred to as “Maestro” which is also usually extended to any craftsperson or skilled tradesmen and sometimes even plumbers, carpenters, electricians, etc.

The most common title you’ll run into, however, is “licenciado” which literally means “graduate” and is extended to basically anyone who wears a tie and is a lot like the “doctor” title except even more generously applied.

The default title, as you probably already know, is “señor”/”señora”, which you use if you don’t know the person particularly well, aren’t sure what to use, and none of the other choices immediately fit. It’s roughly equivalent to “Sir” or “Ma’am” in English and is precisely what you use day-to-day when it’s someone that you’re not particularly well acquainted with, or if you’re just not sure it’s the safe bet that should always be acceptable.

Are you speaking to an old person (“old” generally means 50+)? If yes, use “Don/Doña” almost without exception, obviously in conjugation with the “usted” conjugation of any verbs. This applies to everybody, regardless of their status or status relative to you: the 80 year-old doorman at your hotel should be addressed as “Don Alberto”, the 60 year old waiter gets “Don’ed”, the old woman begging for change even gets the “Doña” treatment. Edit: this is not so common in Argentina, it’s something that’s considered a bit old-fashioned and not really done any more, though it is still highly prevalent in Mexico and, I’m pretty sure, Colombia, at a minimum.

This may also be applied to someone of especially high status, such as the CEO of your company, though even then the person will typically be older.

Social Lubricant

There are lots of little words and expressions in English that function as what’s known as “social lubricant”, little niceties such as “excuse me”, “pardon”, “with your permission”, “may I”, “if you don’t mind”, etc., and Spanish is no different except that these sorts of expressions are used even more frequently than in English.

One particular thing you’ll notice they do much more frequently than you may be used to is ask permission, and they have 8 different ways of saying it (in order of most formal to least):

Con permiso (“With permission”)
¿Me permite? (“Will you permit me?”)
Perdón (“Pardon”)
¿Se puede? (“May I?”)
Comper’ (shortened version of “con permiso”)
Hágase un poco para allá, por favor (“Move over a little, please”)
Abreme espacio / Abreme cancha (“Give me some space”)
Hazte pa’llá (explained below)

The first 5 are acceptable for most situations regardless, the last 3 are much more slangy and should be used with care. Note that “¿Se puede?” (“Can one?” literally, meaning something like “May I?”) or “¿Se puede ver?” (“Can one see?”) is the common way of asking to see something in a store or asking permission to pick up or touch a product such as a painting, china, food, or something else delicate. “Hazte pa’llá” would mean “scoot over a bit” if you’re speaking to a friend in a friendly way, or it could mean “Get out of the way!” if not.

If you’re carrying a heavy object, like if you’re helping someone move a large piece of furniture, and you need people to get out of the way, the way you would say “Coming through!” would be “¡Golpe avisa!”. Edit: The above-mentioned Argentinean informs me that he’s never heard “golpe avisa” because these sorts phrases vary greatly from country to country, he says: stick with “Disculpe”, “Perdón”, “Permiso”, and “Cuidado” if you need someone to move, those will work everywhere.

Give my regards…

Always remember to say “gracias” when someone does this–English-speakers will frequently just say “Sure, will do” or something similar when someone says something like “Give my regards to your wife.” In Spanish you always, always say “thank you” when someone does this, as you’re expressing gratitude for their “detalle“, or thoughtfulness (literally “detalle” translates to “gesture” in this case).

Phone Manners

Spanish-speakers tend to be a bit more formal and polite on the phone, phrases that you’ll frequently hear used (overused?) on the phone are things like:

“Si es tan amable” = “If you please”
“Si no es mucha molestia” = “If it’s not too much trouble”
To ask for someone, you might say “¿Me puede comunicar con _____?” or, more casually, “Está por ahí _____?
To say our equivalent of “Speaking” in response to someone asking for you when you answer the phone, you simply say “Él/Ella habla”.

Mi Casa Es Su Casa

Not only is this a saying so common in Spanish that it’s made its way into regular usage in the English language, but it’s also representative of a very common sentiment, a certain special type of hospitality, in Spanish-speaking countries.

A frequent point of confusion for foreigners is the reference by someone to their own home as “your home”, or “tu casa”–someone may give you directions to their house or apartment, for example, and then at the end of it say “…y entonces llegas a tu casa!” (“and then you arrive at your house!”) where “tu casa” is in reference to their house. It’s just a nice gesture of hospitality frequently used there, that’s all.

Another common expression is “Estás en tu casa” or “Está usted en su casa” in response to any request a guest makes in someone’s home, such as asking permission to use the phone or pull up a chair. They’re telling you that you are, effectively, in your own home so of course you can. Edit: Additionally, there’s: “Siéntase como en su casa”, “Como en su casa”, and “Como si estuvieras en tu casa”, etc.

Also, one more thing that’s just an expression of hospitality and not to be taken literally is the expression “es tuya” (“it’s yours”) in response to you complimenting something in their home (a painting, china, rug, etc.), this definitely does not mean they literally want to give it to you.

Making Requests

All that time spent learning the imperative and now you’re about to find out that you’ll never use it (well, rarely): sorry. When asking for something in Spanish (whether you’re “ordering” at a restaurant or bar or asking a friend for something, you’re still really asking, not giving an outright order), you would almost never use the imperative, it sounds far too rude. You may have been taught that the way to ask for a coffee is “Traigame un café, por favor” but even with “por favor” that’s still far too pushy and will come off as impolite, the way that ordering something in a restaurant, bar, or store is done 98% of the time is by using “¿Me trae ______, por favor?”, e.g. “¿Me trae un café, por favor?”. Edit: You’ll also frequently hear “No” tacked onto the beginning of these phrases, it still means the same thing and is sort of like us saying “Couldn’t you please ____?” e.g. “Couldn’t you please bring me some coffee?”, so it would be “¿No me trae un café, por favor?”, etc.

The same sort of thing goes when asking for just about anything else from just about anyone else, the only thing that varies is the level of formality depending on who you’re talking to: just use the same formula as above with one of several of the most commonly used verbs:

Traer (“to bring”): This should be your automatic default that you use with the great majority of people the great majority of the time. This one is always a safe bet, regardless of who you’re talking to. Use this with friends, waiters, and random people on the street.
Permitir (“to permit”): This is one of the most formal, and the expression you’ll be using, “me permite”, most closely translates to “May I?”; this is what you would use with someone who would rate an extra bit of respect and formality, such as your father-in-law or your boss, someone you would certainly be using “usted” with.
Dar (“to give”): A bit informal, safe for use with friends and people you’re familiar with and normally address with “tú”, usually just means “Can you hand me that?”, e.g. “¿Me da ese bolígrafo, por favor?” = “Can you hand me that pen, please?”.
Prestar (“to loan”): Informal and implies that the item in question will be returned in short order, “¿Me presta _____, por favor?” means “Can I borrow ____, please?”.
Regalar (“to give as a gift”): Be careful, as this implies that the item in question will be permanently gifted to the person requesting it, as in “Can I have ____? [permanently]“.
Pasar (“to pass”): Very common in colloquial use and is a more informal version of how “prestar” is used, it means precisely what it seems: “Can you pass me ____, please?”.
Another common, formal way of asking for something is to say “¿Puedo tomar ____, por favor?”, which literally and actually means “Can I have ____, please?”.

Saying Goodbye

You’ve got lots of different choices here and, frankly, this isn’t as big a deal as a lot of other stuff. “Adiós” and “Hasta luego” are appropriate for almost all situations, though you should remember that “adiós” is typically used for situations where you’re not going to see the person for a while (if you’re going to see them the next day when you come back into work, then you wouldn’t use this). “Nos vemos” is a very common informal farewell that basically means “See you later”, as is “Ciao”/”Chau” (spelling varies, pronunciation stays the same: “Chow”) and “Hasta mañana”.

A somewhat more formal way of saying goodbye is “Que le vaya bien” which roughly means “I hope it goes well for you” but note that this is only used when the person you’re saying it to is the one leaving, not you. A much for formal one is “Vaya con Dios” which means “Go with God”, but this one is rarely heard unless it’s coming from a priest or it’s an especially formal situation or ceremony.

A couple of informal, colloquial ways of saying farewell that you’ll commonly hear used amongst friends are “Cuídate” which means “Take care” and “Pórtate bien” which means “Behave yourself”. If they’re about to go to bed, you could say “Que descanses” which means “Rest well” or “Rest up”.

Miscellaneous

When you pass by someone you’re even vaguely acquainted with who is eating, you always wish them “Buen provecho” or just “Provecho” which means “bon appetit” (which is French, ironically).
Generally speaking, don’t throw things, it’s almost always considered very uncivilized behavior, e.g. don’t crumple up a piece of paper and throw it, or anything else, in in the trash can, and especially don’t throw someone at someone (e.g. tossing a pencil to someone who asked for one).
Don’t turn your back on someone, especially if they’re speaking to you or part of your group, this is still kind of rude in English-speaking cultures, but it’s much more so amongst Spanish-speaking ones.
Don’t point at people.
Spanish-speakers tend to stand closer when talking, try not to back away or act weird about it.

In Conclusion

I would like to note that these are all very broad generalizations that were chosen to cover things that tended to be prevalent throughout the Spanish-speaking world in general, and Latin America in particular: there is so much stuff that’s country-specific or even specific to a certain region of a country (such as the Paisa region of Colombia versus the coast/carribean region versus Bogotá) that I couldn’t possibly cover it in a single post. I’m sure there is stuff in here that doesn’t apply in X country or X city, and of course plenty of stuff that does but isn’t here, this couldn’t be helped. You are more than welcome to mention stuff like that in the comments, I sincerely welcome additional information that may be useful to other people who will read this: yes, seriously, please post it.

Also, on an related note, I’ve got another post I did in a very similar vein to this one that you should also checked out called How to Not Sound Like a Gringo – The 17 Most Common Spanish Errors and How to Avoid Them.

Sources: Joseph Keenan’s Breaking Out of Beginner’s Spanish, Cuentanueva on reddit, some friends over at Colombia Blog who have helped me understand Colombian culture immensely over the years, and my own personal experience with countless Spanish-speakers kind enough to share their culture with me.

The secrets of how to use free online resources to teach yourself Spanish, from home, in just a few months - Also: Here are the internet's Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources

I run a newsletter entirely about how to learn Spanish online for free where I send out every cool new tip and technique that I learn to my subscribers and not only do they get it before anyone else but frequently they get things that no one else ever does. Additionally, I've spent a great deal of time putting together a 3-part series of articles for you on the internet's best free resources for the Spanish-learner that you'll get when you sign up for my newsletter--in addition to all of what you get below, I'll be sure to send you any updates about cool new sites, resources, and learning tips and techniques that I come up with:

Part 1: An article called “Spanish Learning Systems: Should you bother?” about whether or not you should even bother with a pre-packaged Spanish-learning system (e.g. Rosetta Stone or Pimsleur) and, if you do decide you want to, where you can go online to find programs that are literally 1/10th the price of older, more common systems like Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur but actually work even better. Also, at the same time, you’ll get a separate e-mail with a very long list of my favorite Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources (tools, references, sites with free lessons, articles, blogs, forums, etc.) that's far to long to include here, especially with all the other stuff I've got below that's just on this site alone, and I'd like to offer it to you (completely free, you don't have to do anything other than sign up) right now.

Part 2: I explain what language exchanges are (essentially they allow you free access to an unlimited number of native speakers to practice your Spanish with), why they're absolutely essential if you're teaching yourself (I'm serious when I say this: it's impossible to get fluent without them if you're learning a foreign language on your own), how to use them, and which ones are the best.

Part 3: I cover chat rooms which are specifically devoted to connecting you with native Spanish speakers who want to learn English so you can chat with them in Spanish (and they'll help and correct you) and then you do the same for them with their English (these are completely free to use, but rather hard to find, but I'll tell you where the best ones are!). Sign up below!

Also, if you like what you see here PLEASE SUBSCRIBE to my Twitter feed and/or RSS feed so you can be updated any time there’s a new post.

Cheers,

Andrew

About this song

“Ojos Así” means “Eyes like those” and the song itself is actually over a decade old (originally released on the album Donde Están Los Ladrones? on July 24th, 1999) though it still remains one of Shakira’s most popular Spanish-language songs and the 5th most successful song of her career. One of the really interesting aspects of this song is that it contains some Arabic lyrics in the form of chants, which are based on the Phrygian dominant scale, which is a musical scale extremely common in Arabic and especially Egyptian music, which is why it was chosen for Ojos Así, so that it would lend an Arabic feel to the song (notice the neon Eye of Ra in the background of the video).

The Video

The usual instructions follow for this:

The way I want you to do this is to play it once all the way through, then let’s look at it one verse at a time, and translate it. Now, go back and play the verse we just analyzed several times and see if you can hear and understand everything being said, then go on to the next one. Here it is:

First verse:

Ayer conocí un cielo sin sol
y un hombre sin suelo
Un santo en prisión
y una canción triste sin dueño
Ya he ya he ya la he
Y conocí tus ojos negros
ya he ya he ya la he
Y ahora sí que no
puedo vivir sin ellos yo

Translation:

Yesterday I met a sky without sun
and a man without shame
A saint in prison
and a sad song without an owner
Ya he ya he ya la he [chorus/chanting]
And I met your black eyes
Ya he ya he ya la he [chorus/chanting]
And now I really can’t
live without them

Ok, first I’d like to talk about the verb “Conocer” which is used in the first sentence in the preterit form “conocí” (in this case meaning “I met”) and literally means “to know” in Spanish, but actually can be used in several different ways and a better translation of it might be “to be familiar with” because it’s almost exclusively used to refer to familiarity with people and places, it’s never used to state that you know a fact (that’s what “saber” is for). If you check the definition for “conocer” there you’ll see that the second definition is “to meet”, and the reason for this is that a more accurate translation of “conocer” is “to become familiar with [a person]” and the way that we say that in English is “to meet”, as in “I met him”. The reason one of the definitions of “conocer” is “to know” is that, in the specific context in English of expressing your familiarity with a person or place, you say that you “know” them/it. The problem with this is that people will read that definition and think that “conocer” works for other contexts where we would use “know” and it doesn’t. I would ask you to note the fact that, really, the very best translation of “conocer” is “to become familiar with”, if you’ll keep that in mind you’ll never have trouble with it.

Not too much interesting after that, but at the end we get to something that looks a bit odd: “Y ahora sí que no puedo vivir sin ellos yo”. What’s that “sí” doing there? “And now yes I can’t live without you”? No, but…sort of. “Sí”, in addition to meaning “yes”, is frequently used for emphasis and if you’ll check the definition of it you’ll see that the 2nd one under “uso enfático” (“emphatic use”) covers this. When it’s used in this context it most closely translates as “really” or “certainly” and is used to add weight to the statement that comes immediately after it, e.g. “¡Sí, sí quiero ir!” = “Yes, I really want to go!” and you’ll quite frequently see it used immediately after it has just been used to mean “yes” as in the above example.

Next verse:

Le pido al cielo sólo un deseo
Que en tus ojos yo pueda vivir
He recorrido ya el mundo entero
y una cosa te vengo a decir
Viajé de Bahrein hasta Beirut
Fuí desde el norte hasta el polo sur
y no encontré ojos así
Como los que tienes tú

Translation:

I ask the sky for only one wish
That in your eyes I could live
I have already wandered around the entire world
and I have come to tell you just one thing
I travelled from Bahrein to Beirut
I went from the north to the south pole
and I didn’t find eyes like those
Like those that you have

Ok, so we first get “pido” which is the present “yo” form of “pedir” which means “to ask or order”, “cielo” as I hope you’ve figured out means “sky”, “deseo” comes from the verb “desear” (“to desire”) and means, in this context, a wish or desire (I went with “wish”). I’d like to note that a LOT of nouns in Spanish are derived from their verbs, e.g. an “order” (noun) in Spanish is “un pedido” and the verb meaning “to order” is “pedir”, a scream (noun) in Spanish is “un grito” and the verb for “to scream” is “gritar”, and there are a LOT of those, so many in fact, that if you know the verb but not the noun or vice-versa you can often safely make a guess based on the one you do know, and even if it’s not exactly right people will know what you mean and can tell you what the correct word is.

Next we get “Que en tus ojos yo pueda vivir” and the first use of the subjunctive (need help? see my article here: The Spanish Subjunctive Explained) which makes sense because she’s making a wish (the first “W” in W.E.I.R.D.O., right?). After that we see the verb “recorrer” used in the form of its participle “recorrido”: “recorrer” really means “to travel through” and in this context is best translated as “wandered around” since she’s talking about the whole world and saying that you’ve traveled “through the world” would get the message across, but not very well.

“Vengo” is the present “yo” form of “venir” and I’m mentioning it I suppose because it has an irregular conjugation. “Viajé” is the preterit “yo” form of “viajar” which means “to travel”. Now, “hasta” is a bit interesting because of what it usually means and how it’s actually used here when she says “Viajé de Bahrein hasta Beirut”: it literally means “until” but is often used the way we would use “to” in the context of “from ___ to ___” as it is here where she’s saying “from Bahrein to Beirut”. “Desde” means “from” or “since” and is often seen used in conjunction with “hasta” as it is here: “Fuí desde el norte hasta el polo sur”.

Next, “encontré” is the preterit of “encontrar” which means “to find”, and then we get to “Como los que tienes tú”: “los” is the plural version of “lo” which is a direct object pronoun used in a way in Spanish that’s kind of hard to explain, but it’s sort of like how we use “that” in a very specific context: “that which is”, so in this case “los que _____” means “those which ______”, so “Como los que tienes tú” literally means “those which you have”.

Right, next verse:

Rabbul samae, fecal rajae
Fe aynaha aral hayati
Ati elaica men hazal caouni
Arjouca rabbi, labbi nadae

That’s the Arabic, and the above is the best transcription of it I could find, if you speak Arabic and want to help with that or the following translation, you’re more than welcome to in the comments. Here’s the translation I found for it:

Lord of the sky, I’m calling you
In his eyes I see my life
I come to you from this world
Oh God, please answer my call

Viajé de Bahrein hasta Beirut
Fuí desde el norte hasta el polo sur
y no encontré ojos así
como los que tienes tú

Which is just a repeat of what we’ve already heard. Next.

Ayer vi pasar una mujer
debajo de su camello
Un río de sal y un barco
abandonado en el desierto
ya he ya he ya la he
Y vi pasar tus ojos negros
ya he ya he ya la he
Y ahora sí que no
puedo vivir sin ellos yo

Which means:

Yesterday I saw a woman passing
underneath her camel
A river of salt and a boat
abandoned in the desert
And I saw your black eyes pass by
And now I cannot
live without them

You’ll notice that she says “vi pasar una mujer” where “vi” is the preterit of “ver” (“to see”), which is fine, but then you see the infinitive, “pasar” (“to pass” in this case), being used oddly where we would say “passing”: the infinitive in Spanish can be used in this way, and often is as opposed to the strictly correct gerund–the gerund is the “-ing” version of a word, and is represented in Spanish by adding “ando” to “-ar” verbs and “iendo” for “-ir” and “-er” verbs, so the proper gerund of “pasar” in this case would be “pasando”, but it’s not used because the more common way of saying that would be to just use the infinitive as she did. The gerund is, by far, most commonly used in conjunction with “estar” (scroll down to the 14th definition, lol it’s there) to express the fact that something is being done right now at that very moment, e.g. “Sí, estoy escuchando” = “Yes, I’m listening”, or “Estoy barriendo el suelo” = “I’m sweeping the floor” whereas “Barro el suelo” more likely means “I’ll sweep the floor [in a minute]“.

“Debajo” means “below” or “underneath” in this case. Then everything is normal until we get down to “Y ahora sí que no” where we again see “sí” used emphatically (instead of to mean “yes” as it normally would) which we covered earlier.

The next verses are just repeats of what we’ve covered before:

Le pido al cielo sólo un deseo
Que en tus ojos yo pueda vivir
He recorrido ya el mundo entero
y una cosa te vengo a decir
Viajé de Bahrein hasta Beirut
Fuí desde el norte hasta el polo sur
y no encontré ojos así
Como los que tienes tú

Rabbul samae, fecal rajae
Fe aynaha aral hayati
Ati elaica men hazal caouni
Arjouca rabbi, labbi nadae

Viajé de Bahrein hasta Beirut
Fuí desde el norte hasta el polo sur
y no encontré ojos así
como los que tienes tú

Rabbul samae, fecal rajae
Fe aynaha aral hayati
Ati elaica men hazal caouni
Arjouca rabbi, labbi nadae

Viajé de Bahrein hasta Beirut
Fuí desde el norte hasta el polo sur
y no encontré ojos así
como los que tienes tú

Le pido al cielo sólo un deseo
Que en tus ojos yo pueda vivir
He recorrido ya el mundo entero
y una cosa te vengo a decir
Viajé de Bahrein hasta Beirut
Fuí desde el norte hasta el polo sur
y no encontré ojos así
Como los que tienes tú

Yes. Lots of repeat, I know (I’m actually happy because that makes my job of translating and analyzing this stuff that much easier ), but…we’re done! I have to admit, I really love that song, and I also think Shakira looks waaaaaay better as a brunette, especially with the dreadlocks and everything, definitely hot (she looks good as a blonde as well, but I still prefer her with her natural color).

Oh, by the way, regarding the Arabic in this song, you do know that Shakira is part Lebanese, right? Her father is of Lebanese descent, she does speak some Arabic, and she’s always had Middle Eastern influence on her music and performances. In fact, from the section of her Wikipedia article that talks about her influences:

She has also been influenced by her Arab heritage, which was a major inspiration for her breakthrough world hit “Ojos Así“. She told Portuguese TV “Many of my movements belong to Arab culture.”

Very cool, huh?

Ok, well that’s the last Shakira post that I’ve got in the queue, and I’d really like to hear some suggestions from my readers about which artist or video I ought to do next (you guys do seem to like these types of posts, yes?), I might try to find some clips from movies or TV shows, it doesn’t have to be a music video. Let me know in the comments!

The secrets of how to use free online resources to teach yourself Spanish, from home, in just a few months - Also: Here are the internet's Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources

I run a newsletter entirely about how to learn Spanish online for free where I send out every cool new tip and technique that I learn to my subscribers and not only do they get it before anyone else but frequently they get things that no one else ever does. Additionally, I've spent a great deal of time putting together a 3-part series of articles for you on the internet's best free resources for the Spanish-learner that you'll get when you sign up for my newsletter--in addition to all of what you get below, I'll be sure to send you any updates about cool new sites, resources, and learning tips and techniques that I come up with:

Part 1: An article called “Spanish Learning Systems: Should you bother?” about whether or not you should even bother with a pre-packaged Spanish-learning system (e.g. Rosetta Stone or Pimsleur) and, if you do decide you want to, where you can go online to find programs that are literally 1/10th the price of older, more common systems like Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur but actually work even better. Also, at the same time, you’ll get a separate e-mail with a very long list of my favorite Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources (tools, references, sites with free lessons, articles, blogs, forums, etc.) that's far to long to include here, especially with all the other stuff I've got below that's just on this site alone, and I'd like to offer it to you (completely free, you don't have to do anything other than sign up) right now.

Part 2: I explain what language exchanges are (essentially they allow you free access to an unlimited number of native speakers to practice your Spanish with), why they're absolutely essential if you're teaching yourself (I'm serious when I say this: it's impossible to get fluent without them if you're learning a foreign language on your own), how to use them, and which ones are the best.

Part 3: I cover chat rooms which are specifically devoted to connecting you with native Spanish speakers who want to learn English so you can chat with them in Spanish (and they'll help and correct you) and then you do the same for them with their English (these are completely free to use, but rather hard to find, but I'll tell you where the best ones are!). Sign up below!

Also, if you like what you see here PLEASE SUBSCRIBE to my Twitter feed and/or RSS feed so you can be updated any time there’s a new post.

Cheers,

Andrew

The video

The way I want you to do this is to play it once all the way through, then let’s look at it one stanza at a time, and translate it. Now, go back and play the stanza we just analyzed several times and see if you can hear and understand everything being said, then go on to the next one.

(Please note: if you’re in a country where this video is blocked for you try here, here, or here)

And here’s the first stanza and then the translation:

Suerte que en el Sur hayas nacido
Y que burlemos las distancias

Which translates to:

It’s lucky that you were born in the south [meaning South America]
and that we can overcome the distance

Ok, the first thing you’ll notice is the use of the subjunctive–which I’ll be making a separate, and very comprehensive, post on quite shortly it’s now up: The Spanish Subjunctive Explained–with the verb “hayas”, which means “you have” and is in the subjunctive because she’s saying that it’s lucky that this happened, which is a personal expression of opinion and therefore requires the subjunctive. “Nacido” is the past participle of the verb “nacer“, which means to be born.

The next word we come to is a bit tricky, and I honestly have to admit I’m not sure I’ve nailed the translation (if not, I’m sure I’ll hear about it in the comments ): burlar. Its primary definition is “to evade”, however it could also mean “to make fun of or mock”, and in this case it could be either one, however I personally think that “evade” or “get around”, i.e. “overcome”, makes more sense–maybe they’re making fun of the distance between them, but it makes more sense to me that she’s saying that they’re lucky they got around it. Also, “burlemos” is the present subjunctive form of “burlar” (the subjunctive gets a lot of play in this song).

Next stanza:

Suerte que es haberte conocido
Y por ti amar tierras extrañas

Which means:

It’s lucky that I have known you
and because of you I love foreign lands

“Conocido” is the past participle of “conocer” which means “to know [a person]” (“saber” is used when referring to facts). “Por” in this case means “for” as in “because of”, “amar” means “to love”, though I should point out that when Spanish-speakers want to say that they love somebody (lover, wife, parent, child, etc.), they say “te quiero”, not “te amo”; “amar” has a bit more of a deep, poetic connotation to it and can come off as kind of cheesy or weird if not used properly and, also, it’s only used to express romantic love.

Yo puedo escalar los Andes solo
Por ir a contar tus lunares

Which translates to:

I can climb the Andes alone
to go and count your moles

“Escalar” means to climb, “los Andes” obviously refers to the Andes mountains (remember, Shakira is Colombian and the Andes cut right through Colombia), a “lunar” in this case is a mole or beauty mark.

Contigo celebro y sufro todo
mis alegrías
Y mis males
Lo ro lo le lo le
Lo ro lo le lo le

Sabes que
Estoy a tus pies

Which means:

With you I celebrate and suffer everything
The good times and the bad

le ro lo le etc. etc.

You know that I’m at your feet.

“Contigo” is a contraction of “con” and “tú” (you would never say “con tú”, you’d always say “contigo”), “celebrar” means to celebrate, “suffrir” means to suffer, so far so good.

Now we come to “alegrías” and “males”, which is where it gets tricky because there isn’t really a good direct English translation of either of these words, “joy” is pretty close for “alegría” but it more literally means “happy things” or “happy times” depending on the context, and the same thing with “males” which is the plural of “mal” which is normally an adjective that simply means “bad”, though it can also be a noun, as it is in this case, that means “bad things” or “bad times”.

Lastly, you see the previously mentioned “saber” being used here to state a fact: that she’s at his feet (“sabes que estoy a tus pies”).

Contigo, mi vida
Quiero vivir la vida
Lo que me queda de vida
Quiero vivir contigo

Which means:

With you, my dear [lit. "life"]
I want to live life
What I have left of life
I want to live with you

You see “contigo” again, “vida” literally means “life” and in this first use (“contigo, mi vida”) it’s used to refer to her lover, she’s say that he’s “her life”, then it’s immediately used in its literal sense, I’m sure on purpose, sort of like someone saying “I love you, my love” where “love” is first used as a verb and then as a pronoun.

She then says “Lo que me queda de vida”: we’ve discussed what it means when you see “lo” used like this in the previous ‘La Tortura’ post, but we’ll quickly revisit it: “lo” is a direct object pronoun used in a way in Spanish that’s kind of hard to explain, but it’s sort of like how we use “that” in a very specific context: “that which is”, so in this case “lo que _____” means “that which ______”, so “lo que me queda de vida” literaly means “that which I have left of life”, got it?

Oh, and in case you didn’t figure it out, “quedar” means “to be left or remain”, so in this case with it being reflexive towards “me”, it means “what’s left to me / what remains for me”.

Next verse:

Suerte que es tener labios sinceros
Para besarte con mas ganas
Suerte que mis pechos sean pequeños
Y no los confundas con montañas

And that translates to:

It’s lucky that I have sincere lips
So I can kiss you passionately
Lucky that my breasts are small
And that you don’t confuse them with mountains

“Labio” means “lip”, “sincero”, as you’ve likely guessed, means “sincere” or “honest”. “Besar” means “to kiss”, and tacking the “te” on the end means “to kiss you”.

Now, the “con mas ganas” part is the one that’s going to require a bit of explanation: much to my consternation, I can’t find a Spanish dictionary anywhere that recognizes “ganas” as a noun, but it is a noun and it’s used as a noun here in this particular instance. Normally it would be the present “tu” form of “ganar“, which means “to win”, but not in this case. I personally, from experience and context, would translate it as “enthusiasm”, “appetite”, or “passion”, and now I just tried plugging it into a couple translation engines and they recognize it as a noun and all three of them (Google, Yahoo, and Babel) define it as “desire” which is one I didn’t think of and would probably work just as well as my translation of “passion” in that I could’ve translated that sentence as: “So I can kiss you with more desire”.

After that we get to…boobies! Indeed. No clue why she says this, but she does: “pechos” means “breasts” (in the sense of a woman’s breasts), but do remember that “pecho”, singular, just means “chest” in the normal sense (I know you want to know so I’ll tell you: “tetas” is how you say “tits” or “boobs”). “Los” is the plural of the previously explained direct object pronoun “lo” and refers to her breasts, “confundir” means “to confuse”, and “montaña” means “mountain”. Next!

The following stanza is:

Suerte que herede las piernas firmes
Para correr si me hace falta,
Y estos dos ojos que me dicen
Que han de llorar cuando te vayas

Which means:

It’s lucky that I inherited strong legs
so that I can run if I need to
and these two eyes tell me
that they have to cry when you leave

Now we run into a verb you likely haven’t heard before, “heredar“, which means “to inherit” and isn’t especially notable except for the fact that you don’t hear it often – it can mean to inherit either money or a certain physical or personality trait from your parents. “Pierna” is “leg”, “firma” means “strong” or “firm” depending on the context (in this case I think “strong” makes more sense, though they do look quite firm as well ).

Then we come to “Para correr si me hace falta”: “correr” means “to run”, but where it gets complicated is at “me hace falta”…now, this particular phrase, “hacer falta”, can have multiple meanings: usually, it’s used to indicate that something’s needed, necessary, lacking, or missing (see the 2nd definition of “falta” under “also: hacer falta”), e.g. “me hace falta suerte” which means “I need some luck” or “Me hace falta sucra” which means “I’m lacking sugar” or “I need some sugar”. The reason for this is that the secondary definiton of “falta”, after the primary definition of “mistake”, is “lack or absence”, and since “hacer” means “to make or do” when you say “hacer falta” you’re “making lack” or “making need/necessity”. Now, when you put “me” before a verb it becomes reflexive back on you so that whatever that verb is doing, it’s doing to you, and so consequently when you say “me hace falta” you’re literally saying “it makes a lack for me” or “it creates an absence for/to me”, you see? It sorta makes sense, haha.

Next, she goes on to talk about his eyes (how typical) and says “Y es que tus dos ojos me dicen que han de llorar cuando te vayas”: “ojo” means “eye”, that’s simple, but what’s this “han de llorar”? Well, “llorar” means “to cry”, that’s easy enough, but the use of “haber” here is rather odd: in this case it means “to have to”, as in “to have to cry”–normally that’s expressed with “tener que”, but if you’ll scroll down to the 3rd definition for haber (here) you’ll see:

haber de hacer algo -> to have to do something

So it can be used to express obligation, to say “to have to”, but it’s unusual and I’ll tell you that 98% of the time I’ve heard someone say that someone has to do something in Spanish, they’ve used “tener que”, not “haber de”, but it can (and is, obviously) done, so it should be noted.

Lastly, we get to “te vayas” which is the present tú subjunctive of “irse” which is a very common Spanish way of saying “to go” in reference to a person leaving to go somewhere and makes sense if you think about it: it’s reflexive, so again the verb is doing whatever it is it does to the person that the reflexive pronoun represents, in this case that verb is “ir” and so “se va”, for example, literally means “you make yourself go” or “me voy” means “I make myself go” (FYI “me voy” is a very common way of saying “I’m leaving”).

Now…you’ll notice that in this particular case it’s in the subjunctive (“te vayas” instead of “te vas”)–why? Well, she says “cuando te vayas” meaning “when you leave”, but his leaving isn’t certain, it’s very much an if/when-you-leave sort of thing, it’s unknown, it’s not a concrete thing, he isn’t scheduled to depart at precisely 9 AM the next morning so therefore we have uncertainty and therefore we have…the subjunctive! Yaaaaay!

Le ro lo le lo le
Le ro lo le lo le

Sabes que
Estoy a tus pies

This is just a repeat chorus, we’ve covered this. Next.

Le ro lo le lo le
La felicidad tiene tu nombre
y tu piel

The word for “happiness” in Spanish is “la felicidad”, and the word for “skin” is “piel”, so what she’s saying here when she literally says “happiness has your name and your skin” is that happiness is, to her, the sound of his name and the feel of his skin against hers…daaaawwwwww, so cute (it’s late, I’m getting weird).

The next, and final verse (though it’s repeated a couple times) is:

Ya sabes, mi vida
Estoy hasta el cuello por ti
Si sientes algo así
Quiero que te quedes junto a mi

Which means:

You already know, my love [lit. "my life"]
I’m up to my neck because of you
If you feel the same way
I want you to stay together with me

As you should already know, “ya” means “still” or “already”, and as we mentioned previously “mi vida” can be used to mean “my love” because in this case she’s saying “my life” in that he is her life, so that’s why we translated it that way.

Now, “estoy hasta el cuello”: “hasta” means “until”, “up to”, or “as far as” and “cuello” means “neck”, so she’s saying she’s up to her neck because of him (up to her neck with what, I don’t know–I’m honestly not quite sure what she’s trying to say here). Then she says “si siente algo así” (“sentir” means “to feel”) which literally means “if you feel something like this”, because “algo” means “something” and “así” means “this way or like this”.

Next she says “Quiero que te quedes junto a mi” which is something like “I want that you keep yourself together with me” because, as we’ve discussed, “quedar” means “to remain or keep” and “junto” means “together”. Now, when “quedar” is made to be reflexive, as in this case, it means “to stay” (if you’ll look at the definition for “quedar” and scroll waaay down to the heading “Pronomial Verb”, you’ll see it) in the personal sense because the verb (“to keep”) is being done to the person it’s reflexive upon, so when you say “te quedes” you’re saying “you keep yourself” meaning “you stay” and…did you notice something else? “te quedes” is in the subjunctive Why? Because when she says “Quiero que te quedes” she’s making a wish (first letter in W.E.I.R.D.O., right?), she’s expressing a desire, and that always requires the subjunctive.

That’s it folks, we’re done. Again, I congratulate you if you’ve made it this far because if you have you’ve learned a lot of Spanish in the process. I’ve got a bunch of posts in the queue and I’ll begin work on doing another one of these posts for Shakira’s Ojos Así (there’s the video if you want to get started ahead of time–doesn’t she look better as a brunette, her natural color? I think so…like the dreadlocks on her, too) so look for that in a week or two (do I even need to tell you? Subscribe if you haven’t, then you’ll know!). Thanks again for taking the time to read this.

The secrets of how to use free online resources to teach yourself Spanish, from home, in just a few months - Also: Here are the internet's Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources

I run a newsletter entirely about how to learn Spanish online for free where I send out every cool new tip and technique that I learn to my subscribers and not only do they get it before anyone else but frequently they get things that no one else ever does. Additionally, I've spent a great deal of time putting together a 3-part series of articles for you on the internet's best free resources for the Spanish-learner that you'll get when you sign up for my newsletter--in addition to all of what you get below, I'll be sure to send you any updates about cool new sites, resources, and learning tips and techniques that I come up with:

Part 1: An article called “Spanish Learning Systems: Should you bother?” about whether or not you should even bother with a pre-packaged Spanish-learning system (e.g. Rosetta Stone or Pimsleur) and, if you do decide you want to, where you can go online to find programs that are literally 1/10th the price of older, more common systems like Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur but actually work even better. Also, at the same time, you’ll get a separate e-mail with a very long list of my favorite Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources (tools, references, sites with free lessons, articles, blogs, forums, etc.) that's far to long to include here, especially with all the other stuff I've got below that's just on this site alone, and I'd like to offer it to you (completely free, you don't have to do anything other than sign up) right now.

Part 2: I explain what language exchanges are (essentially they allow you free access to an unlimited number of native speakers to practice your Spanish with), why they're absolutely essential if you're teaching yourself (I'm serious when I say this: it's impossible to get fluent without them if you're learning a foreign language on your own), how to use them, and which ones are the best.

Part 3: I cover chat rooms which are specifically devoted to connecting you with native Spanish speakers who want to learn English so you can chat with them in Spanish (and they'll help and correct you) and then you do the same for them with their English (these are completely free to use, but rather hard to find, but I'll tell you where the best ones are!). Sign up below!

Also, if you like what you see here PLEASE SUBSCRIBE to my Twitter feed and/or RSS feed so you can be updated any time there’s a new post.

Cheers,

Andrew

What do I consider fluent?

I personally have two different types of fluency, I think this works really, really well, and it’s very simple and easy to understand:

1. Native fluency: Simple, this is when you’re at the same level of proficiency in the language as a native speaker–you have their vocabulary, you know all the idioms and slang and cultural references a native would, and you have a perfect accent. If a native speaker were to have a 3-hour-long conversation with you face-to-face (presuming your appearance wouldn’t give you away as a non-native) and they were asked afterward by someone if you were a native speaker of their language, they would say with 100% certainty that you were.

I’ve known one person like this, a cute little Japanese girl I knew in college named Saria. She came to the U.S. for the first time when she showed up for college (she would’ve been 18), and she spoke perfect American English, if you had talked to her for an hour or so you would’ve sworn she was an American (obviously of Asian descent due to her appearance, but definitely American none the less). I seem to recall she had been learning English since grade school and had taken a personal interest in it and American culture, so she watched lots of American movies and learned the accent and all the slang and idioms and such from that.

2. Conversational fluency: This is what I aim for when I’m learning a language, and when I’ve achieved it then it’s time to move on to a new language. It’s when you’re capable of having a conversation about normal everyday things with a native speaker at a normal conversational rate of speed–things in the news, sports, grocery shopping, buying a cup of coffee, buying clothes, picking up a girl at a bar, making jokes, etc.: everyday stuff. The way that I test this is the following criteria that I got from Tim Ferriss (also a well-known polyglot) and modified a bit:

I must be able to speak for 30 minutes straight with a native speaker about items randomly pulled from a newspaper (online or paper, doesn’t matter) without using any reference materials. I cannot choose not to use a randomly chosen item (I can’t say “oh, that one’s too hard, pick another”), though I may ask the native speaker for help if I run into a word or phrase I don’t understand (just like you’d be able to in the real world–the reason I don’t allow any other references is because you wouldn’t typically have those in the real world). Also, this must be done at a regular conversational rate of speed (the rate of speed at which a native speaker would normally speak).

There ya go. I’m really curious to hear what other people’s definitions are of fluency, put them in the comments!!

Oh, P.S. For those of you who want something really complicated (and it’s official, too! U.S. Foreign Service Institute stamped and approved!), check out the ILR (Interagency Language Roundtable) Scale.

The secrets of how to use free online resources to teach yourself Spanish, from home, in just a few months - Also: Here are the internet's Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources

I run a newsletter entirely about how to learn Spanish online for free where I send out every cool new tip and technique that I learn to my subscribers and not only do they get it before anyone else but frequently they get things that no one else ever does. Additionally, I've spent a great deal of time putting together a 3-part series of articles for you on the internet's best free resources for the Spanish-learner that you'll get when you sign up for my newsletter--in addition to all of what you get below, I'll be sure to send you any updates about cool new sites, resources, and learning tips and techniques that I come up with:

Part 1: An article called “Spanish Learning Systems: Should you bother?” about whether or not you should even bother with a pre-packaged Spanish-learning system (e.g. Rosetta Stone or Pimsleur) and, if you do decide you want to, where you can go online to find programs that are literally 1/10th the price of older, more common systems like Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur but actually work even better. Also, at the same time, you’ll get a separate e-mail with a very long list of my favorite Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources (tools, references, sites with free lessons, articles, blogs, forums, etc.) that's far to long to include here, especially with all the other stuff I've got below that's just on this site alone, and I'd like to offer it to you (completely free, you don't have to do anything other than sign up) right now.

Part 2: I explain what language exchanges are (essentially they allow you free access to an unlimited number of native speakers to practice your Spanish with), why they're absolutely essential if you're teaching yourself (I'm serious when I say this: it's impossible to get fluent without them if you're learning a foreign language on your own), how to use them, and which ones are the best.

Part 3: I cover chat rooms which are specifically devoted to connecting you with native Spanish speakers who want to learn English so you can chat with them in Spanish (and they'll help and correct you) and then you do the same for them with their English (these are completely free to use, but rather hard to find, but I'll tell you where the best ones are!). Sign up below!

Also, if you like what you see here PLEASE SUBSCRIBE to my Twitter feed and/or RSS feed so you can be updated any time there’s a new post.

Cheers,

Andrew

The video

“La Tortura”, as you have likely guessed, means “The Torture”. This is a video about the relationship between two former lovers–the man, in this case Alejandro Sanz, has cheated on her (Shakira) and he wants to come back. She really, really, reeeaaalllly likes him and has a hard time saying “no”, but has learned her lesson and “no” it is, finally.

The way I want you to do this is to play it once all the way through, then let’s look at it one stanza at a time, and translate it. Now, go back and play the stanza we just analyzed several times and see if you can hear and understand everything being said, then go on to the next one. Here’s the first one:

[Sanz:]

Ay payita mia, guardate la poesia
Guardate la alegria pa’ti

Lot’s going on here. Ok, “payo / paya” is a Peninsular Spanish (i.e. Spanish from Spain, aka “Iberian Spanish”) slang term that means “a non-gypsy person” – lol wtf, right? Gypsies are still a very persistent problem in Europe, and recently got a lot of news attention thanks to France’s President Sarkozy, so payita is an affectionate term of endearment in this case – as you probably already know adding “ito / ita” to the end of any noun makes it “little”, so in this case “payita mia” translates to “my little non-gypsy”. Because some of you are probably wondering, the word for “gypsy” in Spanish is “gitano / gitana”. “Guardar” means to guard, keep, or save, “poesia” means poetry, “alegria” means happiness, and the end where he says “pa’ti” is just a sort of slang or informal contraction of “por ti”, sort of like “don’t” is to “do not”.

So, what we get is:

Ay, my little non-gypsy, save the poetry for yourself
Save the happiness for yourself

Next stanza:

[Shakira:]

No pido que todos los días sean de sol
No pido que todos los viernes sean de fiesta
Tampoco te pido que vuelvas rogando perdón
Si lloras con los ojos secos
Y hablando de ella

Ay amor me duele tanto

Which translates to:

I’m not asking that every day be sunny
I’m not asking that there be a party every Friday
Nor do I ask you to come back begging forgiveness
If you cry with dry eyes,
Speaking about her

Oh my love, it hurts so much

You’ll notice the use of the subjunctive a couple times there (“sean”), which I can’t possibly explain here without making this post even more ridiculously long than it already is, plus I’ve written up an entire article on the subjunctive that does an excellent job of explaining it and includes tons of examples, so if you’re not already familiar with it I would direct you there: The Spanish Subjunctive Explained.

“Tampoco” can be kind of funny, it can literally translate in English to “either” OR “neither”, it can be either one depending on the context, but regardless it always results in the sentence being negative. You could say “Yo tampoco” which would mean “Me neither“, or you could say “Yo no voy tampoco” which would mean “I’m not going either” – see?

“Volver” means to turn around or return and “rogar” means “to beg”, so “vuelves rogando perdón” means to return while begging forgiveness. “Doler” means to hurt, so “me duele tanto” (which you’ll hear repeatedly throughout the song) means “It hurts me so much”.

Alright, next one:

[Shakira:]

Que te fueras sin decir a dónde
Ay amor fue una tortura…
Perderte

Which translates to:

That you left without saying to where
Ay my love, it was a torture…
To lose you

She’s using the preterit form of irse to say “you left” (“te fueras”), the preterit of ser (“fue”) to say “it was” (remember, the preterit conjugation of “ser” and “ir” are identical: you have to determine which it is via the context), and “perder”, as you likely know, means “to lose” – tack “te” on the end and you’ve got “to lose you”. Done. Simple. Next.

[Sanz:]

Yo sé que no he sido un santo
Pero lo puedo arreglar, amor

Which means:

I know I haven’t been a saint
But I can fix it, love

“Sé” is just the regular present “yo” form of “saber” (“to know”), then “no he sido” uses the participle of “ser” which is “sido” along with the yo form of “haber” to create “I haven’t been”. “Santo” means saint, and that’s pretty much it.

Next stanza:

[Shakira:]

No sólo de pan vive el hombre
Y no de excusas vivo yo

Ah…ha ha, now she’s starting to call him on his bullshit, I love this line, it’s very witty and to the point:

Not only on bread does man live
And I don’t live on excuses

In this case “man” is presented as “el hombre” which literally translates as “the man”, which makes it extremely clear that she’s using the universal “Man”, as in all humanity, all people, not just those of the male sex, just to be clear.

Next stanza:

[Sanz:]

Sólo de errores se aprende
Y hoy sé que es tuyo mi corazón

Which translates to:

Only from errors do we learn
And today I know my heart is yours

In this case you’re seeing “se apprende” used in a general manner not referring to anyone in particular, which you’ll see a lot, it just means “one [does this action]” or “[this action] is done”, as in “se habla español” means “Spanish spoken here” or “no se hace eso” means “one does not do that” or “that’s not done”. Here “se apprende” means “it is learned” or “one learns”, does that make sense? Literally it would translate as “Only from errors does one learn”, but that…doesn’t sound as good and doesn’t make as much sense – remember, translations are contextual, they convey meaning, as opposed to the literal definition of each word.

Also, for clarification, I was a bit confused by these lyrics initially and thought that when he said “hoy sé que es tuyo mi corazón”, he was saying “today I know it’s yours, my love” but he was actually saying “today I know my heart is yours” – the confusion comes from a combination of the fact that the word order is a little screwy with the object of the sentence being at the very end along with the fact that “corazón” can mean either “love” or “heart” depending on the context (and if you see “mi corazón” you would immediately think it means “my love”), and either would appear to work there depending on how you do the word order.

Next one:

[Shakira:]
Mejor te guardas todo eso
A otro perro con ese hueso
Y nos decimos adios

This one she says very fast and you’re going to have to really concentrate and probably replay it a few times to catch it; what it means is:

Better save all that for yourself
To another dog with that bone [Take that bone to some other dog]
And let’s say goodbye

Because she uses “te guardas” instead of just “guardas” that makes it reflexive, which means that the verb in question (guardar) applies to the preceding reflexive pronoun (“te” in this case), so in saying “te guardas” she’s saying he should keep it to himself (because “guardas” is being applied to “te”, which means “you”). You see the same thing at the end with “nos decimos adios”, in that case “decimos” is being applied to “nos”, themselves–that’s who they’re saying goodbye to.

Next stanza:

[Shakira:]
No puedo pedir que el invierno perdone a un rosal
No puedo pedir a los olmos que entreguen peras
No puedo pedirle lo eterno a un simple mortal
Y andar arrojando a los cerdos miles de perlas

Which translates into:

I can’t ask winter to spare a rose bush
I can’t ask an elm tree to produce pears
I can’t ask that which is eternal from a mere mortal
And go casting thousands of pearls before swine

“Perdonar” simply means to pardon or excuse (“Perdone” is the most common way of saying “excuse me”) so it makes perfect sense that in this context it translates to “spare”. “Entreguen” is the present form of “entregar”, which literally means “to hand over, deliver, or turn in” and is how you would express a plant producing or bearing fruit in Spanish, you say that the plant “turns over” its fruit, make sense?

Now, we get to “lo eterno a un simple mortal”…ok, what’s happening here is that “lo” is a neuter article used in a way in Spanish that’s kind of hard to explain, but it’s sort of like how we use “that” in a very specific context: “that which is”. That’s the best possible translation I can make out of the use of “lo _____”, it means “that which is ______”, so “lo eterno” (“eterno” is an adjective that means “eternal”) means “that which is eternal”. Also, “simple” literally translates to, as you might have already guessed, “simple” but can also mean “mere” (see here and look at the 4th definition) and that’s precisely what it does in this context.

“Andar” has a primary definition that means “to walk”, but can also be used in all sorts of other different ways. In this case it simply means “to go about”, as in “to go about doing something”. A better primary definition instead of “to walk” might be “to go”, as you can say “Ando a la casa” means “I’m going to the house” but you can also say “Las cosa andan mal” which means “Things are going badly”–see? Now, the next word you see after “andar” is “arrojando”, which is the “-ing” form (properly called the “gerund”) of “arrojar” which means “to throw or hurl”. “miles” is the plural of “mil” which means “thousand”, “cerdo” means “pig”, and “perlas” is “pearls”.

Right, next!

[Sanz:]
Ay amor me duele tanto, me duele tanto
Que no creas más en mis promesas

Translates to:

Ay my love it hurts so much, it hurts so much
That you no longer trust my promises

Pretty straightforward: we’ve already covered “doler” and “me duele tanto”, “creas” is the present “tu” form of “crear” which means “to believe”, and “promesas” is “promises”. Done.

[Shakira:]
Ay amor

[Sanz:]
Es una tortura

[Shakira:]
Perderte

Already covered this, shouldn’t be any confusion here. Next:

[Sanz:]
Yo sé que no he sido un santo
Pero lo puedo arreglar, amor

[Shakira:]
No sólo de pan vive el hombre
Y no de excusas vivo yo

[Sanz:]
Sólo de errores se aprende
Y hoy sé que es tuyo mi corazón

[Shakira:]
Mejor te guardas todo eso
A otro perro con ese hueso
Y nos decimos adios

Again, this is just a repeat of a previous verse. Next.

[Sanz:]
No te vayas, no te vayas
Oye negrita mira, no te rajes
De lunes a viernes tienes mi amor
Déjame el sábado a mi que es mejor
Oye mi negra no me castigues más
Porque allá afuera sin ti no tengo paz
Yo solo soy un hombre muy arrepentido
Soy como la ave que vuelve a su nido

Yo se que no he sido un santo
Es que no estoy echo de carton

Holy crap. This one’s going to take a while. Ok. First, here’s the translation and then we’ll go back and analyze it bit-by-bit:

Don’t go, don’t go
Listen, baby, don’t run away
From Monday to Friday you have my love
Leave Saturday to me, it’s better that way
Listen baby, don’t punish me anymore
Because, out there, without you I have no peace
I’m just a very repentant man
I’m like the bird that returns to its nest

I know I haven’t been a saint
It’s that I’m not made of cardboard

The first thing that might confuse you is the word “negrita” and…oh boy, this word. This is one of the funniest and most difficult words in the Spanish language to explain to English speakers. Let me just first say that it’s a very common term of endearment that’s roughly equivalent to our “baby” or “sweetie”–that’s what it means and that’s all it means. It does not have any kind of racial connotation. That said, the word for “black” in Spanish is “negro”, which is what this word is derived from, and means something sort of like “my little blackie” (but minus the racial connotation that would obviously have in English) and what it literally translates to is…brace yourself …”my little negro”. I swear I’m not jerking your chain. Here, straight from Wikipedia:

However, in Spanish-speaking countries such as Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay where there are few people of African origin and appearance, negro (negra for females) is commonly used to refer to partners, close friends^[9] or people in general independent of skin color…Negrito has come to be used to refer to a person of any ethnicity or color, and also can have a sentimental or romantic connotation similar to “sweetheart,” or “dear” in English…

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negro#In_other_languages

It’s just a term of endearment, and despite what it literally means, it doesn’t have any kind of racial connotation–you could very well see a couple in Colombia or Argentina with white skin and blond hair referring to each other as “mi negrito” and “mi negrita”, no big deal. Ok, moving on…

The next thing he says is “no te rajes”. “Rajar” is a verb that literally means “to crack or slice”, however it’s also used as a slang word meaning many different things, one of which is “to fail, give up, or run away”, which is what it means here. After that he says,

De lunes a viernes tienes mi amor
Déjame el sábado a mi que es mejor

This is such a fun song, you get a bit of insight into the Latin American culture as well as learning the language. He says that she has his love from Monday to Friday, but that it would be best if she let him have Saturday as “his day”, or as a sort of day off–meaning that he’s faithful to her 6 out of 7 days a week and that ought to be enough for her, she should let him go screw around on Saturday because it’ll be good for their relationship. This is a very common aspect of their culture: in many places the men are expected to cheat, to sleep around, they’re not considered “men” if they don’t, and the women are expected to tolerate it. It’s part of the “machismo” culture. The general feeling seems to be that as long as he’s a good boyfriend/husband the rest of the time and takes care of his woman/family, and he’s discreet about it, then there’s nothing wrong with him having a mistress or two and occasionally taking some time off to go mess around with them. That’s just how men are, and that’s that. So it’s not surprising at all, to me, to see these sort of lyrics in a Spanish song.

After that we encounter the words “castigues”, which is the imperative (command) form of “castigar” which means “to punish”, and “arrepentido”, which is an adjective that means “repentant”.

And in the next line we encounter more of the same as above:

Soy como la ave que vuelve a su nido

“Ave” means “bird”, “vuelve” is from the verb “voler” which means “to return”, and “nido” is “nest”. He’s like the bird that returns to its nest: she’s his nest, and although he may occasionally stray, he’ll always come back to his home, lol

Now, after that you’ll see, in the last line, “no estoy echo de carton” which literally translates to “I’m not made of cardboard”, but this is not the contextual translation, this is how Spanish-speakers say “I’m not made of stone”, it’s their equivalent expression that simply means “I’m not emotionless”, it means the same thing, even though the word they use is “carton” which means “cardboard” instead of “stone”.

Alright, finally, we’re almost done, here’s the very last part:

[Shakira:]
No solo de pan vive el hombre
Y no de excusas vivo yo.

[Sanz:]
Solo de errores se aprende
Y hoy se que es tuyo mi corazón

[Shakira:]
AAaaay… AAaaay… AAaaay… Ay Ay
Ay todo lo que he hecho por tí
Fue una tortura perderte
Me duele tanto que sea así

Sigue llorando perdón
Yo ya no voy a llorar… por tí

Which translates to:

Not only on bread does Man live
And I don’t live on excuses

Only from errors do we learn
And today I know my heart is yours

Ay, all that I’ve done for you
It was a torture to lose you
It hurts me so that it’s like this
Keep on crying sorry
I…
I’m not going cry for you anymore

Alright, so we’ve got some previous verses repeated and then we get to: “todo lo que he hecho por tí”, which means “all that I’ve done for you”. Here you’re seeing, again, the use of the neuter term “lo” in the form of “lo que” which, as we’ve already learned, means “that which” or “that which is”. In this case in functions, with the “yo” form of haber (“he”), to mean “that which I have”. Then you’ve got “hecho” which is the past participle of “hacer” (“to do”), so you get “that which I’ve done”.

Also, you’ll see some stuff you’ve already seen (“me duele tanto perderte”, which you know means “it hurt so much to lose you”), and then you see “sea así”. “Sea” is the subjunctive of “ser” and is used in this case because it’s an expression of emotion. “Así” means “so” or “this way” or “in this manner”. “Sigue” is the imperative of “seguir” which means “to continue”, “llorando” is the gerund of “llorar”, so she’s saying “continue crying ‘sorry’”. “ya” is a funny word and literally translates to “already” or “still” and you’ll see it used a LOT in Spanish, many times where we wouldn’t used the words “already” or “still”, and if you’ll click that link that goes to the dictionary definition of it and scroll down to the 4th definition of the word, you’ll see “any more” listed as one of contexts in which “ya” can be used.

Well that’s that. We’re done. I sincerely congratulate you if you’ve managed to stay with me this long, if you needed to break up this post into a few separate learning sessions I don’t blame you, in fact I’d be shocked if you didn’t. I highly recommend you note all new words that you’ve learned for review, my personally preferred method of this is a program called Anki (it’s an SRS: Spaced Repetition Software). I’d really like to hear your opinion about this sort of thing, most importantly: did you learn a lot from it? I’ve found that doing this sort of thing, for me, is fantastic; I love doing this with music videos, TV shows, movies, etc. (for more information on that check out my post on “The Telenovela Method”), you learn an enormous amount of the language just from a few minutes of one of those. Any suggestions for how to go forth with this? Modifications? Improvements? I plan on doing Shakira’s “Suerte” next (though there will likely be a post about something else in between). Let me know what you think in the comments.

The secrets of how to use free online resources to teach yourself Spanish, from home, in just a few months - Also: Here are the internet's Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources

I run a newsletter entirely about how to learn Spanish online for free where I send out every cool new tip and technique that I learn to my subscribers and not only do they get it before anyone else but frequently they get things that no one else ever does. Additionally, I've spent a great deal of time putting together a 3-part series of articles for you on the internet's best free resources for the Spanish-learner that you'll get when you sign up for my newsletter--in addition to all of what you get below, I'll be sure to send you any updates about cool new sites, resources, and learning tips and techniques that I come up with:

Part 1: An article called “Spanish Learning Systems: Should you bother?” about whether or not you should even bother with a pre-packaged Spanish-learning system (e.g. Rosetta Stone or Pimsleur) and, if you do decide you want to, where you can go online to find programs that are literally 1/10th the price of older, more common systems like Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur but actually work even better. Also, at the same time, you’ll get a separate e-mail with a very long list of my favorite Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources (tools, references, sites with free lessons, articles, blogs, forums, etc.) that's far to long to include here, especially with all the other stuff I've got below that's just on this site alone, and I'd like to offer it to you (completely free, you don't have to do anything other than sign up) right now.

Part 2: I explain what language exchanges are (essentially they allow you free access to an unlimited number of native speakers to practice your Spanish with), why they're absolutely essential if you're teaching yourself (I'm serious when I say this: it's impossible to get fluent without them if you're learning a foreign language on your own), how to use them, and which ones are the best.

Part 3: I cover chat rooms which are specifically devoted to connecting you with native Spanish speakers who want to learn English so you can chat with them in Spanish (and they'll help and correct you) and then you do the same for them with their English (these are completely free to use, but rather hard to find, but I'll tell you where the best ones are!). Sign up below!

Also, if you like what you see here PLEASE SUBSCRIBE to my Twitter feed and/or RSS feed so you can be updated any time there’s a new post.

Cheers,

Andrew

Let’s take this a little further and improve on this method…

Now, this actually dovetails nicely with a method that I have actually used before that’s very similar, which I did before I ever heard about my friend’s ‘Telenovela Method’. I like to get Spanish-language movies, turn on the Spanish subtitles (NOT the English ones!), and then watch it, pausing whenever I hear something I don’t understand–then, I just look at the bottom of the screen where I can see whatever word or phrase it was that threw me, look it up, learn it, and note it for later review…then just press play and wash, rinse, repeat until I’m through with the movie (which may very well take a few weeks)!

Oh, and always remember to pause and repeat after the speaker if your Spanish isn’t already excellent or you see a new word. Rewind, replay, and repeat until you’ve got it down cold.

An even better way to do this can be done if you can obtain the English translation of the script–this is not very often, but it does happen. What you do is watch the movie with the Spanish subtitles on and the English translation of the script so that you can follow along and, of course, pause at anything you don’t know and immediately learn it, just like above (the script just makes it a lot easier and allows you to learn things you wouldn’t be able to otherwise). My all-time favorite movie where I managed to pull this off is Maria Full of Grace (María llena eres de gracia), which is an absolutely wonderful movie, especially if you’re interested in Colombia and/or want to learn to speak with a Colombian accent (considered to be the cleanest, easiest to understand, and most neutral Spanish accent in the world). You can get the English translation of the script for it here on Scribd (download, print, whatever you want), and what’s so awesome about this is that now instead of looking up individual words and phrases as you go along, you’ve got an actual translation so you can understand the meaning of what’s being said in-context, which is faaaar more valuable than having a dictionary definition of a single word. This will make it much easier to understand what’s being said, what expressions and idioms mean, what certain words mean when they’re used in certain contexts, what a certain intonation or bit of body language means when coupled with a certain phrase, etc., etc., etc. See how awesome this is?

Of course, this presumes you can get the English translation of the script, which you often can’t, but you can often enough that it’s always worth the trouble to find out if a Spanish language movie has one available on the internet–easiest way to find out is to just Google “[movie title] english script” and “[movie title] script” and see what comes up. If that doesn’t immediately turn it up, three great sites to check with are The Internet Movie Script Database, Drew’s Script-O-Rama (go to the menu at the bottom under the picture–yes, I know, his site design does suck), and Simply Scripts. Not only can you find movie scripts, but you can often find scripts for TV shows as well.

A quick note…

You may want to check out my List of Best Free Sites to Watch Spanish-Language TV Online where I put together THE most comprehensive list of such sites you’ll find – I checked every other available list on the internet in the process of putting this together and, as such, mine not only includes more sites but ALL of them are guaranteed to work because I personally hand-checked each and every one to make sure you could use them and that it didn’t cost anything. Every other list I checked had dead links in it (links to sites that no longer worked).

Alright, well I think that’s it, if you’ve got any additional tips or resources (or questions), please please please post them in the comments, they’re more than welcome!!

The secrets of how to use free online resources to teach yourself Spanish, from home, in just a few months - Also: Here are the internet's Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources

I run a newsletter entirely about how to learn Spanish online for free where I send out every cool new tip and technique that I learn to my subscribers and not only do they get it before anyone else but frequently they get things that no one else ever does. Additionally, I've spent a great deal of time putting together a 3-part series of articles for you on the internet's best free resources for the Spanish-learner that you'll get when you sign up for my newsletter--in addition to all of what you get below, I'll be sure to send you any updates about cool new sites, resources, and learning tips and techniques that I come up with:

Part 1: An article called “Spanish Learning Systems: Should you bother?” about whether or not you should even bother with a pre-packaged Spanish-learning system (e.g. Rosetta Stone or Pimsleur) and, if you do decide you want to, where you can go online to find programs that are literally 1/10th the price of older, more common systems like Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur but actually work even better. Also, at the same time, you’ll get a separate e-mail with a very long list of my favorite Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources (tools, references, sites with free lessons, articles, blogs, forums, etc.) that's far to long to include here, especially with all the other stuff I've got below that's just on this site alone, and I'd like to offer it to you (completely free, you don't have to do anything other than sign up) right now.

Part 2: I explain what language exchanges are (essentially they allow you free access to an unlimited number of native speakers to practice your Spanish with), why they're absolutely essential if you're teaching yourself (I'm serious when I say this: it's impossible to get fluent without them if you're learning a foreign language on your own), how to use them, and which ones are the best.

Part 3: I cover chat rooms which are specifically devoted to connecting you with native Spanish speakers who want to learn English so you can chat with them in Spanish (and they'll help and correct you) and then you do the same for them with their English (these are completely free to use, but rather hard to find, but I'll tell you where the best ones are!). Sign up below!

Also, if you like what you see here PLEASE SUBSCRIBE to my Twitter feed and/or RSS feed so you can be updated any time there’s a new post.

Cheers,

Andrew

Es Un Decir

¿No Qué No?

Conste

¿Y Qué?

¿Y?

Da Igual / Da Lo Mismo

O Sea

Claro/Claro que Sí

Para Nada

En Absoluto

¡Imagínese!

En Tus Sueños

Estás Loco

¿Verdad?

Ni Loco

Ya Basta

¿En Serio?

¡Qué Barbaridad!

¿Cómo no?

Es El Colmo

No Puede Ser

No Me Diga

Está Bien

De Acuerdo

Déjese De Cuentos

¿Cómo?

Seguro

No Me Importa

¡Qué Esperanzas!

Ni Modo

No Es Para Tanto

The End

Sources/Credit:

The secrets of how to use free online resources to teach yourself Spanish, from home, in just a few months - Also: Here are the internet's Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources

Related Posts:

What’s a ‘Juanes’?

Yerbatero

The Video

The secrets of how to use free online resources to teach yourself Spanish, from home, in just a few months - Also: Here are the internet's Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources

Related Posts:

Bueno

Mira

Haz De Cuenta Que

Pues

La Verdad Es Que

Entonces

O Sea

Es Decir

Luego

Actualmente

A Propóstito / Por Cierto

Por Lo Menos

Por Fin

Es Que

Che

Lo Que Pasa Es Que

Quizás / Tal Vez

Resulta Que

Así Que

Aunque

Además

Ni Modo Que

Sin Embargo

Menos Mal Que

Fíjate Que

Lo Bueno / Lo Malo

A Ver

Con Razón

Por Eso

En Fin

Total

Vale

Ya

Sources

The secrets of how to use free online resources to teach yourself Spanish, from home, in just a few months - Also: Here are the internet's Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources

Related Posts:

About This Song

The Video

The secrets of how to use free online resources to teach yourself Spanish, from home, in just a few months - Also: Here are the internet's Top 33 free online Spanish-learning resources

Related Posts: