We are going to delve into some very useful adverbial forms. Además, demás, de más, demasiado: -además: it is used to add more information, translated as “besides, additionally, furthermore”: “Bebimos una limonada y además, comimos pastel de fresas” (we drank a lemonade and additionally, we ate strawberry cake”. -demasiado: it is an adverb to express...Read More

Seguramente todos ustedes cometen alguno de estos errores, así que vamos a repasar algunos conceptos básicos. Un poco vs pequeño: “un poco” es lo opuesto a “mucho” y tiene valor adverbial. Recuerden: un adverbio modifica a un verbo (por eso se llama adverbio, que significa “cerca del verbo o en relación con el verbo”): comí...Read More

This tense works in the same way in English and Spanish. Basically, we use it when one thing happened before the other, and both are in the past tense. For example: When she arrived, I had already finished the job. Cuando ella llegó, yo ya había terminado el trabajo. She arrived in the past and...Read More

Let’s see today two adverbs of time. In the first place, we have “todavía”, which has a clear meaning. In the second place, we have “ya”, which is a little more complicated. TODAVÍA: It is translated as “still, yet”. It is an adverb of time which means “up to this moment”, so we talk about...Read More

Este es el primero de una serie de blogs donde vamos a ver los falsos cognados, popularmente conocidos como falsos amigos. Es un tema de alta relevancia, porque confundirlos puede generar verdaderos desastres a nivel de la comunicación. El ejemplo clásico es “embarazada” que significa “pregnant” y no “embarrassed”. Curiosamente, en español antiguo tenía ese...Read More

Cuando hablas una nueva lengua, puedes conocer el significado de cada palabra, pero no entender una expresión idiomática. Por ejemplo: “to turn a blind eye”, no tiene ningún sentido si es traducida literalmente, pero todos comprendemos qué quiere decir. Esta misma expresión en español es “hacer la vista gorda”. Si alguien comete un error y...Read More

For many professions, we have a specific ending. 1. In many cases, this ending is -ero/-era (example: panadero-panadera for baker, or carnicero-carnicera for butcher). When we talk about the shop, the ending is -ería (example: panadería for bakery, carnicería for butcher’s). Un relojero trabaja en una relojería. Relojero: watchmaker Un panadero trabaja en una panadería. Panadero:...Read More

We have a short but interesting blog today. Four different forms, all of them perfectly correct, provided that you know when to use one or the other. Actually, many native speakers are totally confused and commit mistakes all the time. It is very frequent to see videos on the YouTube made by people who say...Read More

The grammatical gender is a hard bone to chew for English speakers, for two main reasons. First, because we don’t have it in English, and second, because there is no logic to decide if a word is feminine or masculine. Actually, if you compare, for example, Spanish, English and German, you find this: English: the...Read More

Modal Verbs are a group of auxiliary verbs, i.e., can, should, must, which express conditions such as possibility, ability, necessity, obligation, and permission. They are usually followed by the main verb: I can do this. Puedo hacer esto. I must study for the exam. Debo estudiar para el examen. Here they are: In general, they...Read More