What are YOUR Favourite Spanish Words?

rappahannock_rev said:

I grew up, a "Norteamericano", in Mexico City in the 1960s -- and there I encountered two flavors of "Spanish".

On the streets I learned a kind of Mexican gutter Spanish, and that largely dictates how I speak even now, in my dotage. I still have the Mexico City slang, the cadences, the accents, down pat..... When I first visted SdeC in 1977 I was amused when I was asked several times if I was Puerto Rican -- and I'm about as "Anglo" as a man can be! ...

But in the classroom my instructor (who bragged that she had been born in Cartagena, Spain) insisted that we were studying not "Spanish" but, rather, "Castilian." And through her I engrained a reluctance to use the term "Spanish." ... And so, on the Camino, I take pains to say to the locals, whenever circumstances require it, that
Entiendo un poco de Castellano." Their appreciation is immediate, and visible!

(Still can't do the lisp....)


It is very interesting that you were compared to a Puerto Rican when the entonations of the words are different. Don’t take me wrong, please; I’m Cuban born and raised in Puerto Rico. Here in South Florida, I’m mistaken as a Venezuelan or Colombian because can’t decifer my accent Even, when talking in English, one day a gentleman asked if I was a French Canadian
In Puerto Rico, if listen closely, you can notice the use of words that contains the letter “s” to be kind of absent.
I know it very well this fact because I have to do it as well. So have to be very aware of to whom I’m talking tooso not to create confusion.

So, is very interesting the multiple variations that the Castellano (aka Spanish) has.

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Robo said:

Prior to our last Camino, I thought it might be useful to learn some more Spanish.

The aim was to build on my already impressive vocabulary of about 20 words, that dealt mainly with food and drink!

The big goal this time, would be to achieve the ultimate in flexibility and independence…

To be able to book a room over the phone!

So I enlisted the help of Jose who lives in our hometown, and who originally hails from Ponferrada.

Whilst we started with the aim of telephone room booking we soon progressed onto other essentials, such as calling the police, or an ambulance. As well of course as understanding pilgrim menus…

Now my better half came to the first lesson and promptly decided that I should be the linguist for this trip. European languages not being her strong suit. She would merely take on the role of trip ‘ supervisor’…

So the language training amounted to about 6 one hour lessons all up. Much of it taken up with revision. Homework not being My strong suit….

So let’s just say that progress was minimal. A term my school teachers would find very familiar…

So all was going well. I was coping with basic pilgrim menus. Asking for extra pillows and even making hotel bookings on the phone!

And then the cracks started to appear…

I think it was a visit to a rather upmarket restaurant. No pilgrim menus here! The menu was a struggle to say the least…

I could see it coming. “How much did we spend on Spanish lessons”? Thankfully the waiter helped out.

The next major obstacle was a visit to the medical centre in carrion. This whole episode warrants a post of its own! But let’s just say, for now, Jose’s excellent teaching did not stretch to the more intimate parts of a ladies anatomy!

“We should get a refund on those lessons,” exclaimed the patient!


But I digress. My favourite words.

Vale. Pronounced like Barlay. Often repeated in quick succession. Means OK. I love the way it rolls off the tongue.

Huevos y bacon. I made sure Jose taught me this. And soon realised my previous attempts to order eggs and bacon amounted to asking for a plate of Thursdays… No wonder I never got any!

Because huevos (eggs) is, of course, pronounced Webos. Who would have thought! One of my all-time favourite Spanish words. Designed no doubt, to confuse the hell out of foreigners.

SOS. Now this one I started hearing from hotel staff. I thought it must be some type of slang or code… So I plucked up the courage to ask what it meant… “That’s it.”

Then the penny dropped….

Eso es. Not SOS!

So what are your favourite Spanish words, or words that you later found out you were using in completely the wrong way ?

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David Tallan said:

Absolutely. But 11th to 14th are all post Norman conquest. Before the Norman conquest English had full grammatical gender, a case system, full declension in the various tenses (as opposed to one form for first, second and third person, singular and plural, in the past, for example), adjectives agreed with nouns in terms of gender and number, etc.

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november_moon said:

I know this thread is a few months old, but I just saw it, and I really enjoyed the discussions about pronunciation. I am a Spanish speaker from California, and I learned most of my Spanish from Mexicans. I am not fluent, but I do pretty well. When I speak Spanish in Mexico, pretty much everybody knows I am from California by my pronunciation and the words I use - or at least the US if they can't pinpoint the state. When I speak Spanish in other Spanish-speaking countries, people think I live in Mexico. BUT, when I come home from being in Spain, my family can tell where I have been because my pronunciation changes. Once I didn't even tell my grandma that I had been to Spain, but when I went to visit her after I got back, she knew

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David Tallan said:

Yep. That's the way pidginization works. Old English had this grammar. Old French had it, too. Smush them together and it gets lost and simplified. It takes a bit of time which is why I originally said 12th century plus as the process wasn't complete in the earliest Anglo-Norman. Admittedly, this is all based on my memory of university undergrad courses (I majored in English and Linguistics, with a focus on the history of English) that were, let's just say, a number of decades ago. And my memory has never been the same since my early days of parenting and sleepless nights.

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