By the way, a few years ago my husband and I spent six months in Costa Rica attending language school. The following are just five examples of how English and Spanish differ:
1) There is no word in Spanish that adequately translates our English word “cute”.
2) Spanish has no exact word for our English word “earn”. They use instead the word “ganar” which also means “to win”.
3) In Spanish there are two words for “know”. “Conocer” means have personal experience with something. “Saber” means to know about but not have had personal experience with it.
4) Also, the Spanish use of the subjunctive allows more precise description of uncertainty that English, which has very limited use of the subjunctive tense.
5) In Spanish the word “hacer” can mean either “make”, “become”, or “do” in English, so, Hispanics trying to learn English will often confuse these words “make”, “become”, and “do” and use them inappropriately.
It’s like those Spanish have a different word for everything.
(With apologies to Steve Martin)
The Spanish also have the same word for borrow/lend
and why/because and alone/lonely
There is no word for “compromise” in Spanish —
which should tell you something.
But language is more than vocabulary words — it’s sage.
There are phrases I use in Spanish that would sound very corny in English, and I find over and over and over again that’s it’s sooo easy to offend Spanish speakers by asking a direct question of giving a straightforward, unembellished answer — they find that rude.
Regarding the subjunctive, a very important part of the Spanish language. We use it about 2% of the time, the Spanish use it about 45% of the time. English usage for example: If I WERE king, I would do... Obviously you are not king, so it is an expression of wishful thinking.
The Spanish use the subjunctive form of the verb in expressions like: You need to do so and so. I hope you get it done today. Bring me a beer. In other words any situation that involves the actions of another, might or might not happen. Thus we see the operative difference between Germanic certainty and Latino uncertainty, lack of decisive action. It probably explains the lack of progress in most Hispanic countries.
This reminds me of one of my mother’s (Prussian ancestry) favorite expressions. “Do it now, and that’s an order!” It also is reflected in the manana (tomorrow) attitude of Latinos, although that may be partly due to tropical heat. With temperature 98 degrees at 2:30 pm, I feel a little manana myself.
Regarding the subjunctive, a very important part of the Spanish language. We use it about 2% of the time, the Spanish use it about 45% of the time. English usage for example: If I WERE king, I would do... Obviously you are not king, so it is an expression of wishful thinking.
The Spanish use the subjunctive form of the verb in expressions like: You need to do so and so. I hope you get it done today. Bring me a beer. In other words any situation that involves the actions of another, might or might not happen. Thus we see the operative difference between Germanic certainty and Latino uncertainty, lack of decisive action. It probably explains the lack of progress in most Hispanic countries.
This reminds me of one of my mother’s (Prussian ancestry) favorite expressions. “Do it now, and that’s an order!” It also is reflected in the manana (tomorrow) attitude of Latinos, although that may be partly due to tropical heat. With temperature 98 degrees at 2:30 pm, I feel a little manana myself.