Julio es un rapista. He stitches clothes – Part 2

If you have not read part-1, please read it first.

Here are the meanings:

1. Estoy embrazada

Suggested meaning: I am embarrassed

The real meaning: I am pregnant.

2. Revolver por favor

Suggested meaning: Please give me the revolver

Real meaning of the word revolver is to revolve or to cause disorder. The word for the other revolver is not too different. It is revólver

3. No molestar me

Suggested meaning: Don’t molest me

Real meaning: By now most of you know the meaning. It means ‘to disturb’ and not to molest. Abusar (sexualmente) is the word for ‘molest’

4. Yo éxito el jugar

Suggested meaning: I quit the game

Real meaning: This is quite an irony, because exito in Spanish does not mean ‘to quit’, it means ‘success.’ And the word for quit in Spanish is dejar.

5. es un rapista

Suggested meaning: He is a rapist

Real meaning: Rapista is a lesser known word for a barber. A barber can also be called a barbero

Why give this list?

The list is a representative of words that are called ‘false friends.’ False friends are words which are so similar to a word in our own language that we assume that it has the same meaning in the language that we are learning. And this can cause a lot of confusion, and at times embarrassment (Definitely so if you confuse the word embrazada).

For this reason, it is good to take a look at some important false friends in Spanish, and here is the link to such a list.

http://spanish.about.com/cs/vocabulary/a/obviouswrong.htm

I wish you all luck in not making false friends (Pun truly intended) :-)

Adios.

Shahir

Julio es un rapista. He has a lot of customers – Part 1

Find the meanings for these expressions. I will explain my reasons in the next post.

1. Estoy embrazada
Suggested meaning: I am embarassed

2. Revolver por favor
Suggested meaning: Please give me the revolver
3. No molestarme
Suggested meaning: Dont molest me

4. Yo éxito el jugar
Suggested meaning: I quit the game

5. Julio es un rapista
Suggested meaning: Julio is a rapist

Adios. Hasta luego.
Shahir

A beautiful Spanish song - Quiero Ser (I want to be)

I love A.R.Rahman's music, and the side effect was that in three years after getting in contact with the language, I was speaking Tamil as fluently as a native speaker. Do you get the hint? I hope so.

Here is a Spanish song which I picked up from the los principales list (It is the Spanish equivalent of top 40 billboard of the US or UK). I love the song (I have already learned quite a few words from the song), and I hope you like it too.

Here is the video of the song from You tube, and the translated lyrics. (You will never forget the word quiero after listening to this song)



Lyrics

Quiero ser, una palabra serena y clara
I want to be a word calm and clear

Quiero ser, un alma libre, de madrugada
I want to be a free soul, at dawn

Quiero ser una emigrante, de tu boca delirante,
I want to be an emigrant, delirious for your mouth

de deseos que una noche convertiste en mi dolor.
of desires that one night you turned into my pain

Estribillo 1 (refrain)
Quiero creer, quiero saber,
I want to believe, I want to know

que dormiré a la verita tuya (1)
that I will sleep by your side

Quiero esconderme de miedo y mirar de una vez
I want to hide because of fear and to look at last

los ojos que tiene la luna.
the eyes that the moon has

Estribillo 2
Quiero cantar a la libertad,
I want to sing to freedom

y caminar cerca del mar, amarradita siempre a tu cintura (2)
and to walk close the sea, tied always to your waist

que esta locura de amarte no puede acabar
that this crazyness of loving you cannot end

por mucho que te entren las dudas
just because you doubt

de si eres tú el que me hace tan feliz
whether is you who makes me so happy

Quiero ser, la que te jure amor eterno.
I want to be the one who swears to you eternal love

Quiero ser, una parada en la estación
I want to be a stop in the station

que lleva tu nombre.
that has your name

Quiero ser el verbo "puedo",
I want to be the verb "can"

quiero andarme sin rodeos (3), confesarte
I want not to beat around the bush, to confess to you

que una tarde empecé a morir por ti
that one afternoon I started dying for you

Lyrics courtesy:

http://learningbysingingspanish.blogspot.com/2009/01/quiero-ser-i-want-to-be-by-amaia.html


NB: Please take a look at the previous post's comments, you will find a long list of Spanish learning websites, courtesy Umashankar. Thanks Umashankar, that is a very useful list.

NB2: Do let me know if you have any other Spanish song which we can post here.

Self introduction - Learn it from a video

¿ Vosotros recordáis? Yo escribo una post sobre un site que hosts Español videos. Aquí es un video de linguas. tv. Habla sobre introducciones. Miralo.

Btw, do let me know if you find any good resources to learn Spanish.

Gracias and Adios

Shahir

Nb: You can find more such videos here

Volver - My favorite Spanish movie

Volver is the best Spanish movie that I have ever watched. (Not that I have watched too many. I tried finishing off a list of top ten Spanish movies. Couldn't). Volver is the word for 'to return' in Spanish, and the theme of the movie is return. If you have heard of Pedro Almodóvar, (arguably the most successful and internationally acclaimed Spanish film maker of his generation), I can say that critics rate this as one of Almodóvar's best works.


Here is a trailer from youtube - Enjoy.




Do watch the movie if you get a chance.

I guess in 2007, for this movie, Penelope cruz was nominated for the best actress category in the oscars. I am not sure though. You can check that out and let me know.

Adios.

Shahir

I have a billon dollars – Try telling this to your Spanish novia/o

If you are a billionaire (I can hear you say ‘I wish’) and you want to tell your Spanish novia/o about it, be a little careful about what you say. (cuidado)

Are you are about to say “Tengo unos billones de dólares,”?

Think again. You might be saying that you are richer than Bill gates (Whose net worth is 40 billion US dollars.)

How does that work?



This is because Spanish uses the old British system, where one billion is not 1,000,000,000, but 1,000,000,000,000, which is about a million million in the US system.

The French invented both the systems (btw, they use the word millard for this), but the American system trumped due to the convenience factor when the business world started using the term ‘thousand million’ too often.

So, if you are really a billionaire (Don’t say ‘I wish’ again), what exactly would you tell your novia/o?

I am not going to tell you that. Google is wide open for the search. But yes I (along with the readers) would definitely like to know what you found out. So please hit google, and come back to post the result in the comments.

Adios Amigos, Hasta luego

Shahir

Nb: How many of you noticed that on the title it says billon and not billion? The theory proves itself. Once again.

Ñ - Born and brought up in Spanish

Look at this article from about.com

Question: Where did the Ñ come from?
Answer: As you could probably guess, the ñ came originally from the letter n. The ñ does not exist in Latin and is the only Spanish letter of Spanish origins.

Beginning in about the 12th century, Spanish scribes (whose job it was to copy documents by hand) used the tilde placed over letters to indicate that a letter was doubled (so that, for example, nn became ñ and aa became ã). I'm not sure why they used the tilde, except perhaps that it was quick to write, although it may be no coincidence that it is shaped vaguely like an N. The tilde was used not only with the n but with other letters as well.

The popularity of the tilde for other letters eventually waned, and by the 14th century, the ñ was the only place it was used. Its origins can be seen in a word such as año (which means "year"), as it comes from the Latin word annus with a double n. As the phonetic nature of Spanish became solidified, the ñ came to be used for its sound, not just for words with an nn. A number of Spanish words, such as señal and campaña, that are English cognates use the ñ where English uses "gn," such as in "signal" and "campaign," respectively.

The Spanish ñ has been copied by two other languages that are spoken by minorities in Spain. It is used in Euskara, the Basque language that is unrelated to Spanish, to represent approximately the same sound as it has in Spanish. It is also used in Galician, a language similar to Portuguese. (Portuguese uses nh to represent the same sound.)

Additionally, three centuries of Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines led to the adoption of many Spanish words in the national language, Tagalog (also known as Pilipino or Filipino). The ñ is among the letters that have been added to the traditional 20 letters of the language.

And while the ñ isn't part of the English alphabet, it frequently is used by careful writers when using adopted words such as jalapeño, piña colada or piñata and in the spelling of various personal and place names.

In Portuguese, the tilde is placed over vowels to indicate that the sound is nasalized. That use of the tilde has no apparent direct connection with the use of the tilde in Spanish.

Fuente: http://spanish.about.com/cs/historyofspanish/f/tilde_origins.htm

Learn Spanish through videos

Here is an amazingly brilliant concept. Learn Spanish through short videos. These guys have a range of videos to teach basic, advanced, and intermediate Spanish.

Some of their videos include examples of how to make introductions, talk about your likes and dislikes etc. Check them out for yourself.

http://www.lingus.tv/Beginner/spanish-course/