A few rules

We all love a good mullet. And I’m guessing every country has its name for it. A mullet is the haircut pictured here on Pedro El Escamoso. What country are you from and what is it called where you live?

My friends name is MARICA and she's from Italy. She said she's quite scared to move to Spain because of her name. Both of us didn't know it was a slur in Spanish. Curious what do people think when you hear that word as a name? If some of you guys know, does it have the same meaning for Latin countries?

Disclaimer: I am not using AI to write these posts.

Hi everyone! It's been a couple of months since I've been sharing little nuggets de español and you might have noticed I like versatile verbs :D For this week's nugget I offer you the verb sacar, which means to take out.

Some of its more predictable uses would be sacar la basura (take out the trash) and sacar al perro (take the dog out). But language learning wouldn't be fun without verbs going astray, right? So let's have a look at more ways to use this verb:

1. to score

- Saqué un 10 en el examen. - I got a 10 on the exam.

2. to withdraw

- Voy al cajero a sacar algo de dinero. - I'm going to the ATM to withdraw some money.

3. to take

- Perdona, ¿nos puedes sacar una foto? - Sorry, can you take a photo for us?

4. to find

- No consigo sacar tiempo para ir al gimnasio. - I can't find the time to go to the gym.

5. to release

- Mi mejor amiga acaba de sacar su primera canción. - My best friend has just released her first song.

6. to draw

- Que cada uno saque sus conclusiones. - Everyone can draw their own conclusions.

7. to pull out

- Manolito le saca la cama a su abuelo todas las noches. - Manolito pulls out the bed for his grandpa every night.

8. to bring up

- Nadie se atreve a sacar el tema. - Nobody dares to bring up the topic.

9. to drive mad

- Ese niño me saca de quicio. - That child drives me mad.

10. to carry through

- Me ayudó a sacar adelante el nuevo proyecto. - She helped me carry through the new project.

I'm stopping here because I have to stop somewhere, but if you're curious about uses of the verb sacar, you can check out these ones:

- sacar los trapos sucios

- sacar pecho

- sacar la cara por alguien

- sacar provecho

- sacar de la manga

- sacar las castañas del fuego

I hope you found this interesting or useful ^_^

Are there different ways to say it depending on the region or is there a standard way?

Hey everyone,

I am flying to cdmx and i want to learn some spanisch. (I have B1, but some years passed without me speaking). Looking for an App with a dictionary and different grammar and conjugation. Do you have any recommandation?

¡Pasarlo bien!

Whenever I see Spanish-language ads in stores and restaurants for meseros or lavaplatos, the SE SOLICITA or BUSCANDO is usually in quotes. I'm curious about this because in English, adding quotes is not a means of adding emphasis. You might underline, or put something in bold or all-caps but not quotes. Quotation marks usually seem to in fact add some doubt to a statement, like this is really helping out vs. this is really "helping" out.

Can someone give me an idea of how widespread this function of quotes is in Spanish signage, and how it came to be common as a means of emphasis in ads etc.?

I just got accepted to study abroad in Argentina next fall so I want to brush up on my Spanish for the next year before I go. I’m currently reading The Giver/El Dador in Spanish and it’s of a pretty good difficulty for me where it’s challenging but still comprehensible. What other books would you guys recommend?

What I mean by “regularized” is that they are conjugated as if they are regular verbs specifically with nosotros.

Examples:

- querer -> queremos
- estar -> estamos
- preferir -> preferimos
- tener -> tenemos
- poder -> podemos
- venir -> venimos

As far as I know this isn’t true for all irregular verbs, but it seems to be true for a lot of them. Does anyone know why? I find it very interesting.

The most I have learned have weirdly been from coworkers from Venezuela and thrift stores in a smaller part of my state. I heard that watching shows with the English subtitles on is a great way to learn but I’m a nerd and I don’t really like romcoms or Sicoms, I just like cartoons and anime. With anime though, I know how dodgy subtitles can be even with English ones…so maybe it’s not the best?

Are there any anime that people have already watched with a good Spanish dub?

Teresa de Avila's famous poem begins "Nada te turbe, nada te espante". The English translations I've seen are "Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing frighten you"

Is that entirely accurate? Is it more than can be described in English, also having a sense of "nothing may disturb you?"

What do you think?

What do y'all talk about with your teachers? Just what you did during the week? Do you tell them "Pretend you're a waiter and I need to order breakfast"? Do you try to come up with interesting philosophical discussion to have? I'm finding myself dreading class day because I don't want to bore the guy to death but I don't know enough vocabulary to talk about anything fun. Let me know what you do!

So I’ve just started to unlock the podcast No Hay Tos, which has been a big goal of mine since I started Español Al Vuelo 5 months ago. The hosts say guey a LOT. I understand that it means something like bro/dude, but they inject it in sentences almost like a filler word. How normal and appropriate is it in casual every day conversations? Does everyone use this word with no problem, or is it indicative of a certain age group or “genre” of person so to speak? Is it cringey or tryhard for a learner to try to use it, or would it sound natural enough?

I follow a Colombian tik toker and he refers to his baby hands as LA manito , it sounds strange for me since El pie = el piecito . La Mano = la manita , but is correct to say La manito?

Several Mexican music bands are called "Los Austeros de ________" but I'm not sure what un austero is in this context and Google is unhelpful. Please enlighten me, thank you!

I am trying to improve my Spanish reading comprehension (currently B1), and have been thinking about reading books in Spanish translation that were originally written in English (my mother tongue). Has anyone else done this?

I love the Hispanophone literature that I have read (particularly magical realism), but I also have a long list of books originally published in English that I want to read, and I am trying to spend all of the time that I have for novels reading in Spanish. I will be doing this for the foreseeable future, to advance my mastery of the language (I find reading harder than speaking and listening).

This may be a silly question, particularly since I have read so many books and essays in English translation without much guilt. However, I just can’t help but think that there would be something lost in reading Vonnegut, Morrison, Faulkner, Woolf, Steinbeck, Hemingway, Baldwin, etc. in translation.

What are folks’ thoughts about this?

Got a "how do I learn Spanish" question, curious about apps, or just want to say hi and talk about where you're at? This is the place.

The short answer to most of it: there's no single best way to learn Spanish and no app that works for everyone. What actually matters is showing up consistently. A few things people here keep coming back to:

• Our wiki -- apps, YouTube channels, podcasts, textbooks, all in one spot
• r/languagelearning's resource wiki -- broader method and tool breakdown
• Anki -- flashcards, good for vocab
• Language Transfer -- free audio course, common starting point
• italki / Preply -- tutors and conversation partners
• Pimsleur -- audio based, strong on pronunciation

Also fair game here:

• Just started and want to introduce yourself
• Wondering if Spanish is worth learning or how long it takes
• General chat about your progress, whatever's on your mind

Standalone posts on this stuff get redirected here, so if that's you, drop it below.

Yo recuerdo mi última presentación con el coro. Tuve un solo, y además era un solo importante. Me salió bastante bien, pero fue una experiencia agridulce porque, tres días después, me gradué de la preparatoria. ¿Alguien más ha vivido un momento agridulce como este?

...

Una muy importante momento es cuando yo recibí mi primero dos baloncesto zapatos. Zapatos son rojas. Yo recibí el zapatos cuando yo estabas diez años. Yo estaba muy feliz y mostrar mi amigos. Yo todas mi madre gracias para mi baloncesto zapatos. que es tu importante momento y qual es tu tipo emocionada.

Hey guys!

I'm a student in Spain and I've been here for a month. Before coming here, I learned Spanish for ~3 months but obviously it's not enough. I love reading thriller/crime books so I figured I could give it a try to improve my Spanish.

I'm currently at A2 and my program is in Spanish as well so the input is there (tho very inconsistent with the dialects and speed, but ig it's better that way), but there's not much output. I try to talk to people around me (and to myself, just narrating my day and trying to think and have thoughts in Spanish) but still. I feel like trying to read a book out loud and trying to understand the plot might help, if someone can attest to it, you're more than welcome to:)

But anw, I'd like some recs regarding books that are preferably not too long and don't have very complex vocab, preferably also in the thriller/crime/action genre. Thank you so much!!

I feel like half the time when I stumble on a youtube channel or see a tweet in Spanish, it turns out the creator is from Spain. I’ve stumbled more big Spanish account than South American countries combined (excluding Argentina which also seems to have a disproportionately large presence). Is this just due to Spain’s relative wealth?

Edit: I should also add that what inspired this was realizing that searching for informational content, whether math, science, film, or history, almost always showed videos by Spanish channels having the most views.

- I saw “un muerto de hambre” could mean like “poor” essentially
- I also saw but not from a native speaker that it could mean to be literally very hungry

Someone (from Honduras - incase there’s any difference) said “soy un muerto de hambre”
My question is: are both meanings used by native speakers based on context or is it really only used for one meaning

Thanks in advanced, hope I explained well enough