Life Transplanet

This month’s Spanish tip is about Los Sentimientos or Feelings. The biggest difference in feelings in Spanish versus English is that in English a person is  his or her eeling, whereas in Spanish many times a person has his or her feeling or state of being. For instance:

Tengo sed =I am thirsty (literally translated it means, I have thirst)
Tengo hambre =I am hungry
Tengo sueño =I am sleepy
Tengo ganas de…=I have an urge to/want to…
Tengo anxiedad =I am anxious/have anxiety
Tengo miedo =I’m afraid/fearful

On the other hand, there are quite a few feelings that follow the same English pattern of “I am“:

Estoy contento/a =I’m content
Estoy triste =I’m sad
Estoy enojado/a =I’m angry
Estoy frustrado =I’m frustrated
Estoy asustado =I’m scared/frightened/startled
Estoy entusiasmado/animado =I’m excited

Other feelings are verbs unto themselves:

Querer =To want
Desear =To desire
Esperar =To wait AND to hope for
Preocuparse =Worry (oneself)

And of course the most important verb for feelings is:

Sentirse =To feel

For example:
Me siento mal =I feel bad
Me siento tranquilo =I feel fine/relaxed
Me siento deprimido =I feel depressed

For this month’s Spanish tip, I would like to talk about traveling. When you travel to Spanish-speaking areas, there are a few key words and phrases that can help you out.

airplane -el avión
train- el tren
bus- el autobus, el camión (in Puerto Rico I think it’s “gua-gua“)
car -el carro, el coche
ferry -la barca, la lancha
taxi- el taxi
ticket- el boleto
fare -la tarifa, el boleto
hotel- el hotel
luggage- equipaje
departure- salida, embarque
arrival- la llegada
itinerary-el itinerario
to travel -viajar
trip -el viaje
vacation- vacación, feriado
to rest- descansar
to relax- relajarse
tourism-turismo
points of interest- puntos de interes
sunglasses -gafas de sol, lentes
bathing suit -traje de baño
the ocean- el mar
the beach- la playa
the mountains -las montañas
the countryside -el campo
photograph/picture -la foto

Some phrases:
Let’s go to the beach! - ¡Vamos a la playa!
Where is the departure lounge? -¿Dónde esta la sala de embarque?
How much is the airplane ticket/air fare? ¿Cuánto cuesta el boleto de avión?
Excuse me, can you please take our picture? ¿Perdón, nos puede usted sacar una foto, por favor?
Are there any taxis available? ¿Hay algunos taxis disponibles?

Happy Trails!  ¡Buen Viaje!

Since the holidays (días feriados) are upon us, I thought some vocabulary for them would be appropriate for the Spanish Tip of the Month.

Common Holidays

New Year: Año Nuevo

Valentine’s Day: Día de San Valentín

Easter: Pascua

Independence Day: Día de Independencia

Day of the Dead: Día de los Muertos (instead of Halloween)

Thanksgiving: Día de Acción de Gracias

Christmas: Navidad

Some associated words and phrases:

Turkey: Pavo
Presents: Regalos
Tree: Arbol
Ghosts: Fantasmas
Monsters: Monstruos
Tomb/Grave: Tumba
Skeleton: Esqueleto
Pumpkins: Calabazas
Santa Claus: Papa Noel (often just Americanized as Santa Claus though)
Star: Estrella
Songs: Canciones

You scared me!: ¡Me asustaste!
What a great party! ¡Qué gran fiesta!
The food is wonderful: ¡La comida es deliciosa! or simply ¡Qué sabrosa!
I ate too much/I’m full: Comí demasiado. Estoy lleno/a.
Thanks for the present: Gracias por el regalo
Merry Christmas: Feliz Navidad
Happy New Year: Feliz Año Nuevo

This month’s tip is about body parts. I thought of this because I once heard a woman explain that the only Spanish her daughter ever learned was from the Spanish version of the song “Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes”. I thought, well, at least it is somewhat useful. If you are in pain or otherwise need to point out something on your body, it could be rather helpful to know the word for it. So here are a few of the more commonly used ones:

The Body = El Cuerpo (El coo-er poe)

The Head = La Cabeza (lah cah bay saw)
The Shoulders =Los Hombros (lohs ome bros)
The Knees = Las Rodillas (lahs roe dee yas)
The Toes =Los Dedos de Pie (lohs day does day pee ay)
The Foot = El Pie (el pee ay)
The Leg = La Pierna (la pee air nah)
The Arm = El Brazo (el bra so)

The Face = La Cara
The Eyes = Los Ojos (lohs oh hoes)
The Ears = Las Orejas (lahs or ay hahs)
The Mouth =La Boca (La Boe kah)
The Nose = La Nariz (Lah Nah dees)
The Hair = El Cabello (El cah bay yo) -this refers to hair on the head, elsewhere it is ’pelo’
The Tongue = La lengua (lah laing gwa) -this can also be a word for language which has a similar root in English.

In the song it is “Cabeza, hombro, rodilla, pie” (sometimes pierna (leg) is in place of rodilla) in order for it to fit the rhythm of the song, but that literally translates to: Head, shoulder, knee, foot.

I’ve decided to add a new feature to this blog, a Spanish tip of the month. On the first of each month I am going to try to share some useful tidbit about Spanish, a Spanish phrase, Puerto Rican or other Latin American slang, a unique Spanish word or two, or some useful tips on Spanish.

For this month, I thought I’d share a fun one about -ar verbs. AR verbs are verbs that end in AR. They are usually pretty standard and conjugate fairly easily. Some of these include:

cantar: to sing
bailar: to dance
sentarse: to sit (yourself down -the se is reflexive)
pensar: to think

There are many, many -ar verbs out there. But if you are looking for an easy way to know a few Spanish words off the bat and you are an English speaker, look to English words that end in -ate. These words transfer almost perfectly into an -ar verb in Spanish, for example (por ejemplo):

educate: educar (in Spanish educar also means to instill manners)
celebrate: celebrar
manipulate: manipular
perforate: perforar
investigate: investigar

And on and on! Which ones can you think of?

To put it together in a sentence, you could say:

I like to ________ (3 syllable ate word)
I like to decorate.

Me gusta _____________ (take off the -ate and change it to -ar for a Spanish -ar verb)
Me gusta decorar.

-Or-
I am going to _________(-ate English word)
I am going to communicate.

Voy a _________ (-ar Spanish word)
Voy a comunicar.

Generally speaking this will work for practically all 3-syllable or longer verbs, but not all. With one and two syllable verbs it may or may not work.  Do not attempt this with words that are nouns (like classmate, candidate etc) it will not work. Also, while this should be obvious, I just want to point out that the pronunciation is different! Why does this work? Because most of these English words have their etymology in Latin, and of course Spanish is a Latin (Romance) language.

Here is a list of English words that end in -ate.  Not all of them will work (some are nouns not verbs), but you can play around with them.

Let me know what you think of this Spanish tip of the month and of the feature in general!