Time Phrases

Hola a todos


On our last lesson we have learnt how to tell the hour in Spanish.  


Today, it's time to learn more expressions in Spanish that will help you to create time phrases.


Let's go:

Por Ia manana

(In the morning)

Por Ia tarde

(In the afternoon) 

Por Ia noche

(

In the evening)

A qué hora?

(

At what time?)

Desde qué hora?

(

Since what time?)

Desde las dos.

(

Since two)

Hace media hora.

(

A half-hour ago)

Un segundo

(

A second)

Un minuto

(

A minute)

Una hora

(An hour)

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Qué hora es?

Okay, so in the past lessons you've already learned your numbers in Spanish.

Now let’s learn how to use them!

One of the handy things you can do with this newfound knowledge is telling time, or more likely, understanding the answer when you ask a Spanish-speaker what time it is. Remember that you need to use the verb ser when talking about time.

So, when we need to ask for the time we say in Spanish:

QUÉ HORA ES?

(WHAT TIME IS IT?)

Qué hora es? Literally means, "What hour is it?" That means that the verb in

the answer needs to agree with the number of hours that it is:

ES LA UNA.

(IT'S ONE O'CLOCK)

SON LAS DOS

(IT'S TWO O'CLOCK)

It's also common for people to use the expression ¿Qué horas son?

This is equally correct. Note also that the hour of day is a feminine noun and so takes the feminine article la.

That’s all for today.  Try to practice with the rest of the hours

Hasta Pronto

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Recognizing Cognates Pt. IV

Hola

As I promised to you on our last lesson, today I am going to share with you a short comprehensive list of False Cognates which means, words that you may confuse with other words in English that have a similar spelling.

On the first row you’ll find the word in Spanish, on the Second row you’ll find what’s the real translation.  After that I’ll show you the False Cognate (word that is similar to another one in Spanish but that has a completely different meaning) and the real meaning of this word in Spanish.

Let’s go:

Spanish	Correct English Translation	False Cognate	Correct Spanish Translation
Asistir	To attend	To assist	Ayudar
Atender	To Serve	To attend	Asistir
Billón	Trillion	Billion	Mil Millones
Campo	Field, Countryside	Camp	Campamento, facción
Chocar	To Crash	To Choke	Ahogar, Sofocar
Colegio	School	College	Universidad
Compromiso	Obligation, Compromise	Commitment	Arreglo, Solución
Constiparse	To Catch a Cold	To be constipated	Estar extreñido
Desgracia	Misfortune	Disgrace	Deshonra
Educado	Well-mannered, polite	Educated	Culto
Embarazada	Pregnant	Embarrased	Avergonzado
Emocionante	Thrilling, moving	Emotional	Emocional
Éxito	Success	Exit	Salida
Fábrica	Factory	Fabric	Tela
Firma	Signature	Firm	Compañía
Idioma	Language	Idiom	Modismo
Largo	Long	Large	Grande
Librería	Bookstore	Library	Biblioteca
Molestar	To Bother	To Molest	Agredir Sexualmente
Pretender	To Try	To Pretend	Fingir (similar to hope to achieve)
Raro	Strange	Rare	Excepcional, poco común
Realizar	To Actualize	To Realize	Darse Cuenta
Ropa	Clothing	Rope	Cuerda
Sano	Healthy	Sane	Cuerdo, Sabio
Sensible	Sensitive	Sensible	Razonable, Sensato
Sopa	Soup	Soap	Jabón
Suceso	Event	Success	Éxito
Vaso	Drinking Glass	Vase	Jarrón

That’s all for today

Nos Vemos!

Recognizing Cognates Pt. III

Hola

Today we are going to continue study Cognates in Spanish.

In the past lessons we have learnt the meaning of Cognates and I have shown you some Spanish cognates- words that are similar in the way they are written and also have a similar meaning both in English and Spanish.

I hope you have started to create your own list of Spanish Cognates.

Some simple Spanish words have English cognates that we would consider old-fashioned words or even ''vocabulary" words. Compare the following:

Aumentar	To Augment (to increase)
Discordia	Discord (disagreement)
Escolástico	Scholastic (academic, scholarly)
Penúltimo	Penultimate (second to last)
Serpiente	Serpent (Snake)

One important benefit of learning these cognates is that you'll also improve your English vocabulary.

Although paying attention is to your advantage, it's important to keep in mind that not all cognates are true cognates-that is, not all cognates actually have a common or similar meaning in English and Spanish.

Many students of Spanish have been mortified to learn that embarazada means ''pregnant" and not "embarrassed," as may be concluded.

"Embarrassed" and embarazada are just one pair of false cognates.

In the following lesson I will share with you a comprehensive list of a few False Cognates that students regularly confuse with similar words in English but with different meaning.

Chao!

Hasta Pronto.