Modismo del día: 'POR LAS NUBES'

IDIOM OF THE DAY


Today it's the turn of "POR LAS NUBES". You might now the meaning already or maybe you can guess it!

Where are the clouds? how high? ... these can be easy clues to get to the meaning.

If we say:
'Tengo el colesterol por las nubes' 
                                           or  
'El precio de la gasolina está por las nubes'

...how high is the level or the price of these two things???

SKYHIGH, of course :P As easy as this. Write it down in your brain's notebook.


I add this image because it is how Chris got to know this expression and I believe and hope it is useful! :)

* Notice the double meaning of 'chorizo' in this case :D If you don't know it, check it! you will find it funny and I don't even know the origin. If you found it out and you could share it here it would be great!


Espero que os guste.
Un besazo.



Macu.

La doble negación: NO + NO = NO

Two 'NOES' in Spanish are not a yes, but a NO :P
As simple as that. 
We DO like to repeat things: it happens with 'no', it happens with personal pronouns, etc. We can't help it it seems ;)

If you want to say 'I have done nothing today!' we would say '¡No he hecho nada!'

There are a few options among this weird realtionship with negation:


Ej. I don't want any chair in here = No quiero ninguna silla aquí. *(alguna vs. ninguna)

Ej. I don't want to see anyone today = No quiero ver a nadie hoy.  *(alguien vs. nadie)

Ej. I don't want to see you ever/anymore = No quiero verte nunca/más/nunca más.

Any doubts? ¿Alguna duda? Any requests? ¿Alguna petición? 


Un beso de queso :D



Macu.

Our beloved friends TODAVÍA/AÚN y YA.

STILL, YET, ALREADY... they are friends you are already familiar with in English, so... no problem at all! :D

STILL and YET in Spanish are equal to TODAVÍA or AÚN (that are complete synonyms). They are the same, as we are about to see in the following examples (as everything, they have more than one use and meaning):

Ej. I still have your coat at my flat. = Todavía/aún tengo tu abrigo en mi piso.

Ej. We haven't finished eating yet. = No hemos terminado de comer todavía/aún.

As we can see 'TODAVÍA' and 'AÚN' aren't bothered if the sentence is negative, affirmative or interrogative. In other words, you can use any of them in any of these cases.

And, on the other hand, our beloved 'ALREADY' is 'YA' in Spanish, which we shouldn't mistake with the 'YA' that means 'NOW'. 'YA', as 'TODAVÍA' and 'AÚN', has more than one use, but I'd like to work on this specific one now. 

Let's see it with an example:

Ej. I have done my homework already. = Ya he hecho los deberes.

*ATTENTION!: If you ever read 'AUN' without its accent, beware! that's why we use accents sometimes, to distinguish words that are writen in the same way: 'AUN' without an accent means the same as 'INCLUSO', check it out if you are interested ;)

I hope you find yourself using these words soon, they are completely useful and completely easy :)

Un beso muy fuerte a todos... ¡Ya os echo de menos! ;)

Y uno muy especial a mi mejor (y único :P) alumno.

Macu.

FRASES HECHAS: "Estar hasta las narices"

     Una "frase hecha" is, more or less, what we call, in English, an 'idiom'. This is a fixed phrase that has not a literal meaning and it is usually used colloquially.


"ESTAR HASTA LAS NARICES (de... )"
Try and guess what it can mean before cotinuing reading!

        I am sorry, but it doesn't mean something nice or cute, and nor it does about Eskimo kisses or something that smells good ;). This idiom is really useful to express we have had more than enough of something or someone.

In this idiom "narices", as times have changed, has been exchanged by less good-sounding words such as genitals of both men and women, that we won't name here because we are ladies and gentlemen :P Also, but less comon nowaways, you can change "narices" for "el moño" (a bun) o "la coronilla" (the crown or top part of the head).

It literally means: I am until my nose ("nariz" can be used in plural sometimes, more colloquially). So, usually, the person that is complaining is the subject of the sentence:




Ej. Marta siempre llega tarde, (yo) estoy hasta las narices de ella.
Ej. (Yo) Estoy hasta las narices de estudiar, necesito un descanso.

It can be used with the verb "tener" and the personal pronouns "me, te, le, nos, os, les", and it means exactly the same, but the subject of the sentence is not the person anymore, but the thing that makes him/her angry! So the verb will agree with that new subject as we can see in these examples:

Ej. Marta siempre llega tarde, me tiene hasta las narices.
Ej. Este examen me tiene hasta las narices, es demasiado difícil.





I hope you find it usefull! 
Un beso enorme, guapos y guapas (y GUAPO ;).


Macu.

Effeminate-Spanish-Greek-WORDS, :S AHHHH!!!!

¡Hola, pequeñajos!
I've seen you commiting this mistake that is sooo normal and so cute ;) And it happens that English speaking people have already a real problem with the gendre of words! ...

...So I am sure you'll love this LITTLE SURPRISE: Some words in Spanish, although finishing with -MA, are masculine!!! ¡¡¡FIESTAAA!!!

LET'S SEE HOW I SAY THIS WITHOUT SOUNDING AWFULLY BORING AND ARROGANT, hahaha! (although it is obvious I have googled it ;) :P 

... To simplify, this happens because these words originally come from a neuter word from ancient Greek, but during the asimilation of the words into Spanish, through Latin of course, they became masculine, as we don't have the neuter gendre. I don't know-don't ask why masculine and not femenine :P!!! We could do a research, it seems very interesting ;)

Don't worry, I won't give you a long list, so don't be scared ;). Also you have these same words in many occidental languages, even in English, so you won't find them odd at all:

EL PROBLEMA
EL TEMA
EL POEMA / EL POETA
EL ESQUEMA
EL PANORAMA
EL DRAMA
EL ENIGMA
EL DILEMA
...

I really hope you have the opportunity to use them! 
Hoping you find this interesting enough to read... I must say goodbye and until the next post!

¡Un besote!

Inma.

"MISMO", that strange man...

¿Qué crees que significa"mismo"? (What do you think 'mismo' means?)

"Mismo" is an adjective that means "the same thing" or "exactly like something, identical".
As you will see, "mismo" can be accompanied by the pronoun "LO" and the articles "EL", "LA", "LOS" or "LAS".









EXAMPLES: 

The same kind of women 
El mismo tipo de mujeres         

The same tastes              
Los mismos gustos  

The same people                 
La misma gente          
                                                                                                            
The same options
Las mismas opciones

We can remove the noun we are talking about so we don't have to repeat it the following times: 
A: -¿Estás en el mismo piso? (Are you in the same flat?)
B: - Sí, en el mismo. (Yes, in the same one)               
We just need to remove the noun and you'll have it!

But what about "LO MISMO"?
When we are not talking about a concrete thing, like above, but about situations, problems, meanings, abstract things, generic things, a group of varied things, etc. we use: 
LO MISMO (Lo = pronoun that replaces a "thing" --> la misma COSA)

- Quiero una hamburguesa con patatas fritas 
- Yo quiero lo mismo, por favor.                        

- No me gusta Juan, es demasiado arrogante.

- Sí, yo pienso exactamente lo mismo.

- Inma, ¿qué significan "empezar" y "comenzar"?
- Los dos significan lo mismo: to start.

SO...

The same one = EL/LA/LOS/LAS  MISMO/A/OS/AS

 vs.

The same thing/ the same = LO MISMO

P.S. "Mismo" can be used next to a personal pronoun and some adverbs to make its meaning stronger, to emphasize: Ej/ I will do it myself = Lo haré yo MISMA. 
                                         Ej/ In that very moment = En ese MISMO momento.
P.S.2 Remind me of talking about "IGUAL" at some point. This adverb can have some common uses with "mismo".


I hope I made that clear! if any doubts appear... 
contact me and I'll do my best!
¡Un beso y feliz día!


Inma.

A VERB FOR TODAY!

Let's start with............ PREFERIR!
You must be happy because it is really similar to English: to PREFER!!! 
So you have no excuse ;)


Subject + PREFERIR + NOUN (with people, as usual: a + person* /name of a person)
Subject + PREFERIR + VERB in INFINITIVE

Ej. Prefiero la falda blanca / Prefiero a los chicos rubios /Prefiero a Carmen / Te prefiero (a ti) .
Ej. Prefiero ir al cine / Prefiero comer lentejas.

But PAY ATTENTION! Have you noticed that in quite many verbs a vowel changes into a diptong in the present tense, to make it even more difficult?? =P   

Like that "e" in: QUERER --> Yo quiero / EMPEZAR --> Yo empiezo (*except with NOSOTROS and VOSOTROS, that are regular).

So then we have:

Yo PREFIERO
Tú PREFIERES
Él/Ella PREFIERE
Nosotros PREFERIMOS
Vosotros PREFERÍS
Ellos PREFIEREN

I hope you liked it and that you are able to use it from now on.

¡¡Un besazo!! ;)

x

Inma.