Spanish Word of the Day

Quote: Wizard

Lacking any other options, I turned to google translate, which said, Mary ann tomó un descanso de lavar la ropa.

In Spanish you do not take a break from something, but rather of something. For once Google hit the mark, though the phrasing seems stitled and awkward.

Quote:

Regarding the meaningless do, can someone give me an example?

Just about any phrase with do/did/does in it where the do/did/does does not indicate an action.

Granted English sounds odd or uncultured if you were to say "How you do?" rather than "How do you do?" But the plain fact is all other living languages lack this peculiarity. They each have, naturally, some other peculiarities. I had a grat dela of trouble with the maningless do myself, and so did other people I know. Some other people I know just never got it, and speak English in an odd and uncultured way <w>. But I prefer that to the plethora of accents in French, say, or some other oddities I've heard about.

Sometimes I wish there was another useful language besides English I could learn.

Quote: Nareed

Granted English sounds odd or uncultured if you were to say "How you do?" rather than "How do you do?"

Sometimes I wish there was another useful language besides English I could learn.

You tend to think about your native language's peculiarities when you study another.

For instance "I am eating breakfast." is a complete sentence, but "I eat breakfast ..." is an incomplete sentence. It seems peculiar to me now that an English sentence consisting of a subject, a verb in simple present tense, and a direct object is not a complete sentence.

Have you considered Portuguese? While Brazil's PPP/capita is still well below that of Mexico, most people think that Brazil's economic importance will continue to rise.

World Bank Purchasing Power Parity per capita
#7 United States $49,965
#14 Canada $42,533
#58 Mexico $16,731
#74 Brazil $11,909

Quote: Pacomartin

Have you considered Portuguese? While Brazil's PPP/capita is still well below that of Mexico, most people think that Brazil's economic importance will continue to rise.

The only other languages I've considered are Italian and Latin (which is to say Latin and Modern Vulgar Latin<w>) But the point is "what would I use them for?" And the answer is "not much." I might travel to Italy someday, but likely not more than once or twice (and alas not next year for sure). It's not precisely efficient to learn a langauge for a few trips.

Consider English, on the other hand. Just about 99.99% of al the movies and TV shows I'm interested in are in English, and so are 99.99% of the books I'm interested in readnig (mainly science fiction). It made sense, then, to learn English. Not to mention I do travel often to the US. When the itnernet came around, the vast majority of it was in english, too (a great deal still is).

BTW I can understand some written Portuguese, and I know from experience I can understand about half of it spoken if the speaker goes slow and I take some time to think. I do less well with Italian. French I don't get at all.

Lupe says a washing machine is a lavadero, and a fregadero is what we would call a washing board in English.

Quote: Wizard

Lupe says a washing machine is a lavadero, and a fregadero is what we would call a washing board in English.

Still some disconnect with the use of the word on the internet (see Wikipedia article on "La tabla de lavar")
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabla_de_lavar

Quote: Pacomartin

Both urls have "Fregadero" in them, and one is from Spain and the other from Mexico
http://img.archiexpo.es/images_ae/photo-g/fregadero-ceramica-2-senos-3570-4332405.jpg
http://safe-img04.olx.com.mx/ui/11/01/20/1313686350_171770120_1-Fotos-de--Fregadero-Para-Bar-Dos-Tarjas.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbOdgZyAEv4&list=TLxiSl8TeeqSMK09O7-zQwPDcmYXhmBT2E

Quote: Pacomartin

Still some disconnect with the use of the word on the internet

Unlikely as it seems, I would suggest you found something wrong on the internet.

Quote: Nareed

Unlikely as it seems, I would suggest you found something wrong on the internet.

I suppose so, but it is repeated in multiple places. Once again I assume that this word has a different meaning in Europe.

http://www.wordreference.com/es/en/translation.asp?spen=fregadero
http://translation.babylon.com/spanish/to-english/fregadero/
http://www.blanco-germany.com/es/es/fregaderos/guia_de_fregaderos/consejos_fregaderos/Consejos_para_la_compra_de_un_fregadero.html

Fecha: 19-10-13
Palabra: Canjear

Today's SWD means to exchange.

The assignment for the advanced readers is to compare and contrast canjear y cambiar.

Ejemplo time.

Estaba engañado en la tasa de cambio cuando canjeé dólares a pesos Mexicanos. = I was jipped on the exchange rate when I exchanged dollars to Mexican pesos.

Quote: Wizard

The assignment for the advanced readers is to compare and contrast canjear y cambiar.

The words are cognates, but the first one is a Spanish word borrowed from Italian, and the second is the much more common word directly from Latin. I don't know how common the first word is, but it is used more in diplomacy or military operations.

It may be more of a loan word, like fiat is considered an English word, even though it was borrowed directly from Latin with the same meaning and spelling.

Quote: Wizard

The assignment for the advanced readers is to compare and contrast canjear y cambiar.

It's the same as exchange and change.

Quote:

Estaba engañado en la tasa de cambio cuando canjeé dólares a pesos Mexicanos. = I was jipped on the exchange rate when I exchanged dollars to Mexican pesos.

In your example you're saying either "I was being cheated," or "I was cheating."

Try again.