24
votes
Accepted
When does "poco" mean "a lot" instead of "few"?
The expression:
"Poca gente hoy, ¿sí?"
to indicate that there are a lot of people is simply ironic.
There are other similar expressions indicating a low amount or number when the meaning is ...
- 28.9k
19
votes
¿Por qué se dice verde "botella"?
Actualmente hay botellas de cualquier color, sin embargo, hace unas décadas las botellas de vidrio eran mayoritariamente de color verde o transparentes (al menos en España). Verde botella se usa para ...
- 1,039
18
votes
Accepted
¿De dónde viene la expresión "me cago en la puta"?
Las expresiones insultantes empiezan muchas veces por me cago en...,
siendo típica la referencia a la madre (en la madre que te parió, en
tu puta madre, en la puta de oros, en la puta de bastos, ...
- 2,407
18
votes
Are there any more informal ways of saying "thanks" than "gracias"?
I think that gracias is the most basic, standard way to say thank you in Spanish. If you want more options, you have to seek upwards:
Muchas gracias (thanks a lot).
Muchísimas gracias (thank you very ...
- 77.3k
16
votes
Accepted
What is roughly equivalent to aka?
At least in Argentina: alias, también conocido como, comúnmente nombrado and comúnmente conocido como are pretty similar.
For example, "Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock" could be "Dwayne Johnson, alias ...
- 308
15
votes
Is “cabecera” commonly used in Spanish for "capital"?
I'm from Spain and that term is not commonly used here in the sense that you point.
Capital is the preferred word to mark a city as the principal in a country, a province or a district, where the ...
- 7,401
15
votes
Accepted
Why do "beer" and "cherry" have similar words in Spanish and Portuguese? What is the historical origin of this coincidence?
It's coincidence - both these words were similar in Latin (and hence maintained their similarity through to Spanish), but ultimately come from unrelated origins:
cereza esp ← ceresia vulg lat ← ...
- 19.3k
14
votes
Correct terminology for male/female animals
Rata means rat and is always feminine, while ratón means mouse and is always masculine.
The word macho and hembra are actually nouns (not adjectives) that are used in juxtaposition with the base ...
- 29.9k
14
votes
Accepted
Cuidarse in Spanish
You have understood the text perfectly and I can see why you find it a bit difficult.
When in doubt, you should check the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española de la Lengua, the DRAE. There you'll ...
- 7,401
13
votes
Accepted
¿Cómo expresar "sympathy" o "condolence" en español?
La expresión más frecuente es dar el pésame, para expresar esta acción de comunicarle a alguien que lamentas el fallecimiento de su pariente:
Me acerqué a Luis en el funeral para darle el pésame por ...
- 47.9k
13
votes
Accepted
¿Cuál es la palabra para algo que no se sabe cómo decir?
Hay frases como lo que sea/fuera/fuese/fuere o no sé qué no sé cuánto, cómo se dice/cómo se llama. A veces estas se escriben escritas, sobre todo cuando se sustantivan, en una palabra, a pesar de la ...
- 29.9k
12
votes
Accepted
Is there more concise way to say "tomorrow morning" than "mañana por la mañana"?
If abbreviating (to mañ.) is something unwanted, then instead of what you have
Mañana por la mañana
You'll gain 2 spaces with
Mañana a la mañana
Or even a 4 char gain, writing
Mañana temprano
...
- 4,828
12
votes
Accepted
Meaning of "todito"
38.2.2 Uses of the diminutive suffix -ito
The main effects of this suffix are:
(a) To give a friendly tone to a statement...
(b) To modify the meaning of adjectives and adverbs by adding a warm tone, ...
- 19.3k
11
votes
¿Quién usa la palabra "corvo" para referir a un machete?
En El Salvador (en todo el país) se le conoce como corvo a una especie de machete con curvatura en forma de media luna, a diferencia del machete tradicional, que no posee esta característica.
El ...
- 111
10
votes
Are there other "feminine only" adjectives in Spanish besides "embarazada"?
It is perfectly grammatical to use embarazado to refer to female (sex) beings with words of masculine (grammatical) gender:
”Mi personaje ahora mismo no está embarazado así que debo vigilar de no ...
- 19.3k
10
votes
Age range of niño, chico, muchacho, joven, etc
This answer is primarily Spain based, particularly south Spain (Andalucía), although there are a few words included here that i don't usually hear in my surroundings.
Diego mijelshon's answer is ...
- 820
10
votes
Accepted
¿Qué nombre recibe este sonido (o la acción de producirlo)?
Francamente no creo que exista una palabra para decir eso. Pero te puedo dar alguna sugerencia, aunque probablemente ya pensaste en algo como esto.
Primero que nada, el grito original de los indígenas ...
- 16.5k
10
votes
Accepted
Why is "Dawn" translated "Mediodía"?
Indeed, dawn should be translated as "amanecer" or "alba"
... esperó al amanecer.
... esperó a las primeras luces del alba
Seeing that you already found a really blatant example ...
- 47.9k
10
votes
Accepted
Pensarlo vs. pienso?
Pienso is to think as you correctly said.
Yo pienso = I think
But Pensarlo is to think about it
Déjame pensarlo = let me think about it
Yo voy a pensarlo antes de tomar una decisión = I'll think ...
- 10.6k
10
votes
"Se" and "le" with "usted", but always "te" with "tú"
First, let's make a brief clarification: usted, in Spanish, is always gramatically treated as a third person (the same as él, ella, ellos, ellas).
Now, to your question. Indeed, te, se, and le are ...
- 1,638
10
votes
Accepted
What’s the difference between “pelo” and “pierna”?
I note that Pelo is defined as hair. So in Spanish, is the idiom actually "You are pulling my hair?" but it's translated as leg to make more sense in English?
This is exactly the case. Pelo means ...
- 19.3k
9
votes
Accepted
Armpit: sobaco vs. axila
I am adding this summary following what was discussed in Juntemos en respuestas wiki las respuestas cortas específicas de regiones / Let's use community wiki to summarize set of short region specific ...
9
votes
"Plátano" and "banana", geographical differences?
Form left to right as we call them in Colombia:
Plátano maduro: Can be eaten raw but is usually cooked to make tajadas. The tajadas are usually cut long and after fried they look dark red/orange and ...
- 10.6k
9
votes
Is "síguenos" a real Spanish word?
Síguenos is a standard Spanish word. The verb seguir means “to follow.” Sigue is the affirmative tú command (second-person singular informal imperative) of seguir. Nos is a direct object pronoun that ...
- 552
9
votes
Accepted
How to choose between "cantidad" and "importe" for an amount of money/ currency?
While "Cantidad" is referring to any quantity, not just money, "Importe" is the amount of money a thing is worth.
So for your translation Importe is the more correct, being that you are talking about ...
- 484
9
votes
Are there any more informal ways of saying "thanks" than "gracias"?
In Chile we also say "te pasaste" to thank and congratulate. But beware, because in other countries it probably means the opposite ("you have exceeded negatively").
- 16.5k
9
votes
Accepted
De ladrar, ladrido; de maullar, maullido. ¿Y de piar?
Según el diccionario:
piada
f. Acción o modo de piar.
A mí no me suena nada bonito decir "la piada de las aves", preferiría decir "el piar de las aves", pero el diccionario no acepta "...
- 16.5k
9
votes
Accepted
¿Qué es un vintén?
En el blog Diccionario Popular Uruguayo, hay una entrada para específica para el término "vintén":
Moneda de cobre equivalente a dos céntimos de peso. Llamada así desde 1920, sucesivos cambios de ...
- 364
9
votes
Me puse [adj] vs Me puso [adj]
The difference is the subject of the sentence. Check that different endings correspond to different subjects. If you conjugate the verb poner in past simple, you have
yo puse
tú pusiste
él/ella/...
- 4,814
9
votes
How does "sí existe" mean "does exist"?
Sí is the affirmative adverb, just as no is the negative adverb. So where we can say algo *no existe* to deny that it exists, we can also say algo *sí existe* to confirm, somewhat emphatically, that ...
- 29.9k
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