El canal de aire debe tener un tope.
The air channel should have a cap.
Caption 27, Instrumentos musicales - Ocarinas
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...quiere decir que está a tope, lleno.
...means that it's to the top, full.
Caption 27, Burgos - Chistes y un dicho chistoso
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Toparás con un par de secretarias pendejas
You'll bump into a couple of stupid secretaries
Caption 30, Molotov - Hit Me
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Topar also appears in the expression toparse con algo (to bump into something), as we see here used by our buddies in Mexico City discussing pedestrian etiquette:
Aquí les va un ejemplo de lo que pueden hacer si se
Here goes an example of what you can do if you
topan con ciertas circunstancias.
bumped into certain circumstances.
Captions 10-11, Amigos D.F. - Consejos para la calle
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Es una canción dura pero... pero a la vez gratificante, ¿no?
It is a tough song but... but at the same time rewarding, right?
Caption 32, David Bisbal - Haciendo Premonición Live
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Don’t mix up this word with a veces, which means “at times,” “occasionally”, or “sometimes.” Dany, our Venezuelan chef, demonstrates perfectly:
Entonces a veces habrá que voltearla
So, sometimes it would be necessary to flip it
un par de veces más antes de terminarla.
a couple of times more before finishing it.
Caption 44, Dany - Arepas
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Quieras o no, era un sueldito
Like it or not, it was a little wage
que de vez en cuando venía bien.
that from time to time came in handy.
Captions 55-56, Biografía - Natalia Oreiro
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Miénteme una vez
Lie to me once
Caption 13, Bárbara Muñoz - Miénteme
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¿Por qué no te acostás de una vez y apagás la luz?
Why don't you get in bed at once and turn off the light?
Caption 35, Muñeca Brava - 18 - La Apuesta
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No, uh, no, no, este, quiero a ver si me entendés de una vez por todas.
No, oh, no, no, um, I want to see if you understand me once and for all.
Caption 51, Yago - 2 El puma
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Cillar de Silos. Muy bueno.
Cillar de Silos. Very good.
-¿Cuánto vale?
-How much is it?
Captions 65-66, Casa Pancho - vinos y pinchos
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Todo lo hicieron por debajo del agua, ¿eh?
They did everything under the table, eh?
Y eso no está bien. No se vale eso.
And that's not right. That's not fair.
Captions 23-24, ¡Tierra, Sí! Atenco
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Haz de cuenta de que ya yo no existo, no te resisto.
Pretend I no longer exist, I can't stand you any longer.
Caption 48, Dante Spinetta - Donde
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The verb sumar means “to add.” The adjective sumo means “high” or “great”, for example sumo sacerdote gives us “high priest.” A lo sumo is a common saying that means “at most.” You may have heard it in our popular telenovela Muñeca Brava, uttered by Rocky, the chauffeur, when he explains that he's done his best not to gossip.
A lo sumo se me escapó lo de la hija de Ramón.
What I disclosed, at most, was the issue about Ramon's daughter.
Caption 59, Muñeca Brava - 44 El encuentro
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Oh, sumamente inteligente, ¿verdad? -Lo sé. Lo sé.
Oh, extremely intelligent, right? -I know. I know.
Captions 28-30, Muñeca Brava - 43 La reunión
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Pena frequently refers to "sorrow" or "grief," as you may have discovered when listening to the melancholic lyrics of "Frente a Frente" by Enrique Bunbury:
Y así ahogar las penas
And like that drown our sorrows
Caption 15, Bunbury - Frente a frente
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Pena also can refer to "shame" or "pity," as used by Spanish soccer star Iker Casillas when discussing catastrophes, such as the earthquake in Haiti.
La... la pena es que siempre suceden en...
The... the shame is that they always go on in...
en los sitios más desfavorecidos.
in the most disadvantaged places.
Caption 27, Iker Casillas - apoya el trabajo de Plan
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It’s no surprise, then, that the common expression ¡Qué pena! is used to express "What a shame!" or "What a pity!"
Pena is often preceded by a form of the verb dar (to give), giving us the expression "dar pena." It can be used to express sorrow or sadness.
Me da pena verlos sufrir así.
It makes me sad to see them suffer like that.
In much of Latin America, dar pena is also commonly used to express a sense of feeling ashamed or embarrassed. We hear this in the worldwide hit Fuego from Colombia’s Bomba Estéreo.
Vamos hasta abajo, a mí no me da pena
Let's get down, I don't feel ashamed
Caption 25, Bomba Estéreo - Fuego
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Along the same lines, many Latin Americans also use dar pena to express feeling shy. When we visit Fonda Mi Lupita for lunch in Mexico City, the manager, José, tells us why Carmen, the cook, is doing her best to hide from the camera:
Ella se llama Carmen, que le da un poquito de pena.
That's Carmen, who is a little shy. [She feels a little embarrassed.]
Caption 31, Fonda Mi Lupita - Encargado
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Dar, in the case of dar pena, falls into the category of "verbs like gustar." The construction is not parallel with the way we usually express the same sentiment in English; a mí no me da pena literally translates to "[it] does not give me shame." This sounds rather awkward, of course, in English, where "I’m not embarrassed" is the common way to express the same sentiment. (In line with typical "verbs like gustar" construction, our Spanish natives agree that José would have been more grammatically correct if he had said a quien le da un poquito de pena.)
Pena can also commonly refer to "punishment," so it’s not unusual to see it used in phrases like con la pena de muerte (under the punishment of death) or la pena máxima permitida por la ley (the maximum punishment permitted by law).
Vale la pena ("it’s worth it") to keep an eye out for these and other interesting uses of the word pena!
Related lessons from our archives:
Merecer la pena
Le in "verbs like gustar"; Le in leísmo
Gustar: To like, to please, to taste
The Spanish verb caer means "to fall." Listen to what our artist friend Francisco tells us about a big coastal flood that took place in Venezuela a few years back:
Mucha madera cayó al mar.
A lot of wood fell into the sea.
Caption 13, Playa Adícora - Francisco
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When describing the tumble-down of a person, caer is very commonly used in the reflexive, caerse. Notice it when Venezuelan pop band Sondulo sings this line:
Si me caigo, me vuelvo a parar
If I fall, I stand up again
Caption 8, Sondulo - Que te vaya mal
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On the other hand, it is also possible to use caer when someone drops something.
¿Y en un momento se te cayó una birome al piso?
And at a certain moment you dropped a pen on the floor?
Caption 71, Cuatro Amigas - Piloto
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This is the same sort of “impersonal” (passive voice) construction that we saw in our lesson on olvidar. Literally, what the Spanish phrase is saying is that the pen fell and that this happened to “you.” (Spanish speakers will understand that you unintentionally dropped it.)
The reflexive verb caerse is conjugated in relation to the object dropped, the pen, not to the person who (unintentionally) dropped it. It is only thanks to the indirect object pronoun te that we know that it was “you” (tú) who dropped it. As a consequence, if we remove the pronoun “te” the meaning of the sentence will change:
¿Y en un momento se cayó una birome al piso? -Sí.
And at a certain moment a pen fell on the floor? -Yes.
We find the same construction when Mexican first lady Margarita Zavala talks about her husband, Felipe:
Felipe es un... muy buen papá.
Felipe is a... very good father.
Pues se le cae la baba por sus hijos, les toma fotos...
Well, he drolls over his children, he takes pictures of them...
Captions 16-17, Felipe Calderón - Publicidad
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Caérsele (a uno) la baba is an expression used to express deep fondness for someone or something. Literally, la baba means “the drool.” So the idea is that you like something so much it makes you drool (or “the drool falls”/”you drool”). Of course it’s an expression and native speakers do not think about it in literal terms.
Note that this “impersonal” construction is not used if someone drops something intentionally, in that case we look to the verb tirar:
Cuando vio la pistola, tiró el cuchillo.
When he saw the gun, he dropped the knife.
Keep your eye out for these and other interesting uses of caer when you tune into Yabla Spanish for your daily dose of authentic Spanish.
We really hope that you never find yourself hanging upside down in a hunter's trap in the middle of the jungle. However, since a problem might aways be a la vuelta de la esquina (around the corner), words such as iayuda!, ¡auxilio! and ¡socorro! (all of them equivalent to “help!”) merit inclusion in every Spanish learner’s basic kit. With the appropriate intonation and volume, these words can make the difference for you in a difficult situation just like they did for Morena:
¡Socorro! ¡Socorro! ¡Sáquenme!
Help! Help! Get me out!
Captions 8-10, Yago - 2 El puma
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By the way, note that the word Socorro is also used as a female name in Spanish:
¿Usted por qué me dijo que Socorro estaba embarazada?
Why did you tell me that Socorro was pregnant?
-Porque está embarazada.
-Because she is pregnant.
Captions 78-79, Muñeca Brava - 44 El encuentro
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So, if you decide to use socorro to ask for help, just be sure to use the proper intonation… You don’t want people to believe that you are simply looking for your dear friend, Socorro.
We all have routines and actions that we "usually" carry out. Meet Silvia from the El Aula Azul Language School in San Sebastian, Spain, who typically does the same things every day.
Yo normalmente me levanto a las siete de la mañana.
I normally get up at seven in the morning.
Caption 1, El Aula Azul - Actividades Diarias
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Silvia "normally" gets up at seven, expressed in Spanish much the same as we would in English. However, where we English speakers tend to use the adverb "usually," Spanish speakers opt for the present tense of soler—a verb that means "to be accustomed to."
Silvia tells us:
Ehm... Suelo ducharme con agua caliente.
Um... I usually take a hot shower.
Caption 2, El Aula Azul - Actividades Diarias
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She "is accustomed to" showering with hot water; it is what she usually does.
Después, ehm... suelo lavarme los dientes en el baño,
After that, um... I usually brush my teeth in the bathroom,
Caption 3, El Aula Azul - Actividades Diarias
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Then, she usually brushes her teeth in the bathroom, it's what she is accustomed to doing. Notice that in Spanish people "wash" (lavarse) their teeth. It's possible to use cepillarse (to brush), which is closer to the English, but lavarse is the more common way to express this activity.
This is also a good time to remind ourselves that Spanish tends not to use possessive pronouns when talking about body parts. Notice that Silvia says that she brushes "los dientes," not "mis dientes." We discussed this before in the lesson "Ojo - Keep an Eye on This Lesson."
Speaking of past lessons, we also took a look at soler before, but focusing on the imperfect tense, solía—which indicates that someone "was accustomed to" doing something, typically expressed in English as "used to."
Did you see the beautiful deck of playing cards drawn by Antonio Vargas, depicting the conquistadors as well as the four big historical tribes of Mexico (Maya, Olmec, Toltec, and Aztec)? He explains to us that, although very scholarly, the Mayans were no slouches on the battlefield:
Y también se ponían sus buenos catorrazos,
And they also gave good blows,
pero eran un pueblo de mucho conocimiento...
but they were a people of much knowledge...
Captions 39-40, Antonio Vargas - Artista - ilustración
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Have a look at one of our previous lessons, —azo: a painful suffix, and you will learn that the suffix "-azo" gives the meaning "a blow/hit from." For example un palazo is a hit with a stick (palo) or a shovel (pala), and a tortazo is what you receive when you get in the way of a moving torta (cake)!
So what about these catorrazos that Antonio refers to, and that we translated simply as "blows"? Sources tell us that the root word is cate, a rather obscure Spanish word synonymous with golpe, and which itself means "hit" or "blow,"—which would give us a "blow" by way of a "hit" (or a hit by way of a blow). Obviously a bit redundant!
Catorrazo is very colloquial, and is primarily heard in Mexico. In actuality, bilingual dictionaries define it as simply a "punch," a "blow," or even "a hit with a stick or billy club."
Here's an interesting tidbit: Since the word for "fist" is puño, we might be tempted to also try puñazo for "punch." However, the word you are most likely to hear (and what you will find in the dictionary) is slightly different, "puñetazo." However, puñazo is also seen occasionally, and, in Latin America, the word puño itself doubles for "punch" as well.
Carambola: more than tricky pool
We already know Chayanne from the tv series Provócame, where he portrays a shy stable hand who also sings the show's sanguine theme song. Now we encounter his wilder side, singing about Lola, a jet-set party-loving socialite who might even be a bit dangerous:
Como disfrutas la carambola, Lola
How you enjoy deceit, Lola
Caption 15, Chayanne - Lola
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But how does carambola translate as "deceit?"
The usage evolves from a billiards shot (known in English as a cannon), whereby the cue ball ricochets off its target and hits a third ball, seemingly by chance, in a way that's beneficial to the player. The word comes from a pocket-less type of billiards known in English as carom billiards, and in Spanish as billar de carambolas (or just carambolas) where these types of rebounding shots are standard and can be amazing to watch.
So when someone (like Chayanne's Lola) plays her hand to achieve some benefit and makes it look like an accident, she is doing una carambola. A skillful billiards player bounces off one ball to hit another, and a skillful conman sets a trap that does not directly point back to him.
Estoy seguro que los políticos están haciendo carambola.
I'm sure that the politicians are doing something illicit.
However, not all uses of the term have negative overtones. Because the carambola shot appears to be fortuitous by happenstance, de carambola can also simply refer to chance, good luck, or "dumb luck."
Vine a recoger unos papeles y me encontré con Camilo de carambola.
I came to pick up some papers and I found Camilo by chance.
Pateó al arco, el balón golpeó en un defensor y entró de carambola.
He kicked toward the goal; the ball hit a defender and went in by luck.
¿Hombres? Pero mirá que sos cínica, Martita, ¿eh?
Men? But you're quite shameless Martita, aren't you?
Captions 15-16, Muñeca Brava - 18 - La Apuesta
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Pero no lo hace de mala, eh.
But she doesn't do it because she's mean.
De bruta que es, lo hace.
She does it because she's just stupid.
Captions 22-23, Muñeca Brava - 18 - La Apuesta
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Mili is having it out with her fellow domestica, Marta, in La Muñeca brava, La apuesta, part 12. Mili calls Marta cínica and bruta. But Marta doesn’t look like a "brute" and we really don’t know her philosophical affiliations. So, what gives?
The words bruto and cínico share Latin roots with their English cousins “brute” and “cynical,” but they don’t mean exactly the same thing. As a matter of fact, they usually mean something else when used in Spanish. If you look at how we translated these words, you will find “stupid” for bruta, and “shameless” for cínica.
Both are adjectives that, when applied to human beings, can also be nouns. No seas bruta or bruto translates into English as “Don’t be stupid” or “[…] dense,” the idea being “as stupid or dense as an animal, a ‘brute.’ ” In Spanish, on the other hand, if you want to call someone a “brute,” you’d say he's an animal (“animal”) or bestia (“beast”): Ese animal quiso propasarse con mi prima. (“That brute tried to go too far with my cousin.”)
In English, “cynical” usually refers to a person who believes in nothing or is generally distrustful of people. “That critic is a real cynic. He never likes anything!” But for this critic to be cínico in Spanish, he would have another quality entirely: Ese critico es un verdadero cínico. Escribió una buena reseña de la obra sólo porque la actriz principal es su amante. “That critic has no shame. He wrote a good review of the play only because the leading lady is his lover.”
There is a Yiddish word, frequently used in English, that nails cínico right on the head: chutzpah. In Spanish it only has the negative sense, though, which according to Leo Rosten is “gall, brazen nerve, effrontery”. That’s the Spanish cínico in a nutshell. “Talk about chutzpah, the nerve of that guy!” ¡Qué cínico!
Notes:
Bruto and "brute" both have a shared root in the Latin "brutus" ("heavy, dull, stupid," later came to mean "associated with lower animals/beasts"). The English "brute" tends to associate more with the physicality aspect (strong yet not graceful) while the Spanish bruto tends to associate more with the mentality aspect (simple minded, ignorant, stupid), but there does exist some crossover in both languages.
Similarly, the Spanish cínico does at times take on a meaning very similar to the meaning we usually ascribe to "cynical" in English, and the reverse is also true. Their shared ancestry goes even deeper than the Latin "cynic," all the way back to the Greek "Kunikas."
For further reading on cínico:
An excellent and very interesting deeper look at cínico and cynical:
https://life-in-translation.blogspot.com/2004/12/cynical-about-dictionaries.html
An expat in Chile discovers the cínico / cynical difference the hard way:
https://cachandochile.wordpress.com/2009/04/25/cynical-or-cinico/
Sí, pero mi poeta interno está completamente agotado.
Yes, but my internal poet is completely exhausted.
Caption 34, Romeo y Julieta - Episodio 59
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Romeo's school chum Dante has an acute problem with his inner poet. Listen to what he says: Sí, pero mi poeta interno está completamente agotado. “Yes, but my inner poet is all used up.” If you check the English subtitle, it says “exhausted,” which means the same thing, although it is a bit more literary.
Agotado ("used up," "tired out," "exhausted," or even “out of print,” when referring to a book) is the past participle of the verb agotar, which you may recall we discussed when Belinda "ran out of" hope in her song "Bella Traición." Agotar, literally, means “to extract all the liquid contained in a recipient,” or, in other words, "to squeeze to the very last drop."
The root of agotar is the noun gota, which means “drop,” as in una gota de agua (a drop of water). Perhaps you remember our friend David, a.k.a. Doctor Guacuco, when he prepared fresh clams for us?
Le echamos una gota de limón. Una gota de picante...
We add a drop of lemon. A drop of hot sauce...
Captions 11-12, Doctor Guacuco - Uno
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Agotar, the verb, when not discussing things like lemons and limes, is commonly employed in a figurative way, like when a mother scolds her child:
No me agotes la paciencia.
Don’t try my patience. [Don't make my patience run out.]
Or when something is no longer available:
Se agotaron las existencias de Tamiflu.
The supplies of Tamiflu ran out.
Los boletos para el concierto de Luis Miguel se agotaron en menos de una hora.
The tickets to the Luis Miguel concert sold out in less than an hour.
Ese libro está agotado.
That book is out of print.
Or when there are no more ideas:
Hemos agotado todas las posibilidades.
We have exhausted all the possibilities.
Or even when a person has run out of energy:
¡Estoy agotado!
“I’m exhausted!” in the sense of “I’m bushed” or “I’m tired out.”
So Dante's inner poet is exhausted, it's all used up: se agotó. Too bad. The good thing is that what can be emptied can always be refilled. For that, he needs only inspiración, and from the looks of the young ladies that he surrounds himself with, that won’t be hard to get: No se le agotarán las oportunidades. (“His opportunities will never dry up.”)
Aleks Syntek has a real problem. He sings:
Yo no sé qué sucedió
I don't know what happened
Caption 1, Aleks Syntek - Intocable
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There are various words and phrases one can use in Spanish to say that something “happens.” The most common verb is pasar. Aleks could have sung Yo no sé qué pasó, and nobody would have blinked. If you saw a friend’s dog lying motionless with his tongue hanging out, you would probably ask:
¿Qué le pasó a tu perro?
What happened to your dog?
If you said:
¿Qué le sucedió a tu perro?, it would mean the same thing but it would sound a tad literary. They are both great words, but it’s always a good idea to use the most common word first (pasar) and save the less-used word as a synonym (suceder).
Be careful, though. Suceder does not only mean “to happen.” The same goes for pasar. Take this sentence, for example:
Benedicto sucedió a Juan Pablo en el trono papal.
Benedicto succeeded John Paul on the papal throne.
Here sucedió means “succeeded” in the sense of “to come next after” or “to replace”. But it does not mean “to be successful”. To say this in Spanish, you would use the phrase tener éxito:
¡Yo nunca tengo éxito!
I never succeed.
Remember that éxito has nothing to do with an "exit." “Exit” is salida.
Pasar can mean several things as well. In the imperative, it means “Go ahead!”
¡Pase por aquí, por favor!
Come [or Go] this way, please!
And when you can’t tolerate or put up with something or someone, when you can’t “suffer” him or her, the verb pasar is also a good choice:
A ese tonto no lo paso.
I don't stand that fool.
The verb pasar has dozens of meanings but let’s wrap this up: it can also mean “to swallow.” In this sense one usually uses it reflexively. If a child procrastinates at the table, with food in his mouth, his mother might raise her voice, saying:
¡Ya pásatelo!
Swallow it already!
Without the reflexive particle te, it would mean “Pass it over!” or “Pass it on!”, which is not the same thing.
So, now you know what happened, lo que pasó or lo que sucedió. But Aleks Syntek is still out of the loop… Poor guy!
To tell the tale of Speedy, A.B. Quintanilla starts, "Érase una vez" -- which means "Once upon a time." Hearing these words, listeners instantly know we are entering fairy-tale territory. "Érase una vez" or "érase que se era" or "había una vez" are all ways to set up a fictional tale in Spanish, just like "once upon a time" in English. It's a fairy-tale convention.
Érase una vez, en un "little tiny" pueblito,
Once upon a time, in a little tiny town,
Caption 2, A. B. Quintanilla - Speedy Gonzalez
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Another convention we're all familiar with is the ending "And they lived happily ever after." In Spanish, you may hear: "Vivieron felices y comieron perdices" -- which a more literal translation would render "they lived happily and ate partridges." You see, partridges (perdices) are considered delicacies, so eating them signifies the good life. Plus, it rhymes.
Let's end on another rhyming note:
"Colorín, colorado... este cuento se ha acabado".
"Snip, snap, snout... this tale's told out" [Literally: Red, red-colored... this tale has ended"].
Caption 62, Cleer - El patito feo
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So to sign off this lesson, let's just say:
Y colorín colorado
esta lección se ha acabado.
Celebrating women of a certain age, Mujer Cuarenta is an invitation to party, dance, fool around and enjoy life, Caribbean style. Listen in:
Baila y canta y vive sin pena, si te enamoras, en hora buena
Dance and sing and live without worries, if you fall in love, congratulations
Caption 11, Landa Henríquez - Mujer Cuarenta
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"En hora buena" literally means "at a good hour," but it's understood as a congratulations -- as in, "Good for you!" or "Congrats!" You hear this in Spain and throughout Latin America -- from the Caribbean coasts down to the Southern Cone.
When it's used as a noun, "enhorabuena" is usually written as one word. For example:
Todo el mundo quería darle la enhorabuena después del partido.
Everybody wanted to offer congratulations to him after the match.
But as an interjection, you'll see both "en hora buena" and "enhorabuena" (both are correct). Here are a few more examples:
Estamos, estamos... -Enhorabuena.
It's a deal, it's a deal... -Congratulations.
Caption 46, 75 minutos - Gangas para ricos
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En hora buena, Elena, tu hija es hermosa.
Congratulations, Elena, your daughter is beautiful.
¡Llegaste! ¡Enhorabuena!
You arrived! Congratulations / At last!
Queremos que Julio venga enhorabuena, porque ya han pasado dos semanas.
We want Julio to finally come back, because it's already been two weeks.
Note that in the last example above, "enhorabuena" is an adverb, modifying the verb "venir." In this usage, "enhorabuena" comes closer to its literal meaning of "at a good hour."
Meanwhile, Spanish has two other congratulatory interjections: "Felicidades" and "Felicitaciones." There's some overlap between the three words, but "enhorabuena" and "felicitaciones" tend to congratulate accomplishments or achievements while "felicidades" might celebrate an occasion like a birthday.
There's a bit of lunfardo
-- that is, slang particular to Argentina and Uruguay -- that slips into the Biography of our Uruguayan-born, Argentinean-raised Natalia. For example, listen to this line:
Yo creo que tuvieron una relación muy linda, muy intensa, muy... muy copada.
I think that they had a very nice relationship, very intense, very... very cool.
Captions 34-35, Biografía - Natalia Oreiro - Part 10
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Podemos sacar algo copado esta noche y lo estrenamos en la bailanta.
We can get something cool tonight and wear it at the disco.
Captions 87-88, Muñeca Brava - 7 El poema - Part 3
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The adjective copado / copada is translated as cool, but what does it mean exactly? As in English slang, cool can be hard to capture. "Cool!" can mean "great!" (or "chévere," "guay" or even "chido" in Mexico). A cool kid could be laid-back or up on the latest trends (or "en la onda"). He or she could also be someone who helps his friends ("genial" or "macanudo" in Latin America). So, what is "una relación copada" trying to convey? Well, the relationship wasn't cool in the sense of temperature, obviously. It wasn't laid-back if it was also "very intense" ("muy intensa"). That leaves us with the kind of cool that's great ("genial"). There are a number of lunfardo dictionaries online with different shades of the meanings of copado. Cool?
In the latest installment of Natalia Oreiro's Biography, we learn more about the young actress and singer's accomplishments. For a vocabulary boost, let's listen to some of those sweet words of success.
In the very first line, we hear:
En muy pocos años, Natalia Oreiro logró convertirse en una auténtica diva de la televisión y de la música pop.
In just a few years, Natalia Oreiro managed to become a true television and pop music diva.
Captions 1-2, Biografía - Natalia Oreiro - Part 10
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"Logró," past tense of the verb "lograr," should sound familiar to our devoted subscribers: In videos Yabla posted during the campaign of one of the former Presidents of Mexico, Felipe Calderón, we heard the verb "lograr," oh, six or seven times in less than five minutes of the tape.
The verb means "to achieve," to obtain," "to manage" or "to succeed in." As with the English words "achieve" or "succeed in," the Spanish "lograr" implies that there was a purpose or goal in mind and, further, it also implies effort. So, note that Natalia Oreiro quickly succeeded in becoming a big star -- which was not only her aim all along, but something she put a lot of work into.
[Usage note: If you're wondering what to say at a graduation ceremony or at the end of a marathon in the Spanish-speaking world: "¡Felicidades! ¡Lo lograste!" ("Congratulations! You did it!") usually does the trick.]
An approximate synonym for "lograr" is "ganar," which has several shades of meaning -- including "to win," "to gain" or "to earn." In our new Natalia Oreiro video, a few lines later, we hear that her show was a winner (un ganador):
"Muñeca Brava" ganó en dos ocasiones consecutivas el Martín Fierro a mejor novela.
"Muñeca Brava" won two consecutive times the Martín Fierro award for best soap opera.
Captions 19-20, Biografía - Natalia Oreiro - Part 10
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Note that one may, for example, win a prize (ganar un premio) with hard work and talent, win the election (ganar las elecciones) with popular ideas or win the lottery (ganar la lotería) by pure chance. To clarify that something was won with intention, you may hear "logró ganar" which means "managed to win" or "succeeded in winning." For some context, check the sports pages for a story of a deserving team that managed to win (logró ganar) an important game or match.
Keeping following the beautiful Ms. Oreiro and you'll encounter more sweet words of success. For now, we'll leave you with two more lines from Part 10 of our Biography video:
Natalia había superado sus sueños.
Natalia had surpassed her dreams.
Caption 23, Biografía - Natalia Oreiro - Part 10
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Con su música, Natalia había conquistado mercados alrededor del mundo.
With her music, Natalia had conquered markets around the world.
Caption 39, Biografía - Natalia Oreiro - Part 10
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Over in Salamanca, Spain, we hear some poetry as we contemplate the statue of Fray Luis de León. Maybe we were thirsty at the time, but in one line, we were interested to hear:
A exprimir aquellos años, quiere guardarlo, ¡atención!
To squeeze those years, he wants to keep it, attention!
Caption 29, Francisco Pérez - Fray Luis de León
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What would thirst have to do with our snippet above? Well, asking for "exprimido" -- which means "squeezed" -- is the best way to order fresh-squeezed orange juice. The verb "exprimir" has three main meanings in Spanish: 1) To squeeze, 2) To wring (as in wringing out clothing), and 3) To exploit (as in squeezing or wringing all that's possible out of workers, for example).
Related to "exprimir" at the root is "imprimir," which means, 1) To print (as in printing out pages of a document), 2) to stamp or to impress, and 3) To give (as in to transmit or pass on to). Here are two examples.
Bueno, hay que imprimir copias, hay que hacer opciones.
Well, it's necessary to print copies, it's necessary to depict options.
Caption 75, Leif - El Arquitecto Español y su Arte
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Y tenemos como toda la otra parte que es de impresos.
And we have, like, the whole other area that is for printing.
Caption 77, Lo que no sabías - Arte electrónico
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Colombia is famous for growing and exporting a product that some people around the world are hopelessly addicted to. Yes, rich Colombian coffee is what we're talking about. In the first installment of this series of videos on Colombia's coffee industry, we get a guided tour of a storehouse for the coffee beans.
"La Bodega," is the title of this video tour, because "bodega" is the word for the coffee beans' "warehouse." It's interesting that "bodega" has its own entry in English dictionaries as a wine shop, a barroom, a storehouse for maturing wine and a small grocery store in an urban area. Well, "bodega" means all of those things in its native Spanish as well, and on top of that it's a place to store coffee beans. The etymology of the word goes all the way back to the Latin "apotheca," storehouse, which itself is descended from the Greek "apotheke" (αποθήκη), which also means storehouse. The more modern definitions concerning wine and groceries evolved from the places where wine or supplies were stored to be sold. And now you know.
Bueno, ésta es la bodega de Almacafé.
Well, this is Almacafé's warehouse.
Caption 6, Una Historia de Café - La Bodega
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Ok. So what do we find in La Bodega? Each section of this bodega holds up to 20,000 sacks ("sacos") of coffee beans, each from a particular region ("departamento") of Colombia. We learn that the entire bodega holds approximately 200,000 sacks of coffee beans collected from the harvest ("la cosecha"). Impressed? That's quite a coffee buzz.
Cada, cada nave de la bodega tiene una capacidad de aproximadamente veinte mil sacos de café.
Each, each section of the warehouse has a capacity of approximately twenty thousand coffee sacks.
Caption 19, Una Historia de Café - La Bodega
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Soon, we'll post the videos that bring you into the laboratory where the Colombian coffee beans become cups of Joe.