Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Los continentes

Here's a simple question...

How many continents are there? DUH, seven.

I can hear you now...where are you going with this Rodney, and what does it have to do with Spanish? And why you are asking such a silly question?

Well, in the good old US of A we count 7 continents - Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia. Apparently not everybody in the world shares this theory, including our Spanish speaking friends.

There's the 5 continent theory- África, Antártida, América, Eurasia, and Oceanía.

And then there's the 6 continent theory - Asia, África, Europa, América, Oceanía y la Antártida.

So what's different? América includes both North and South America, and depending on whether you subscribe to the 5 or 6 continent theory, Europe and Asia are counted as one continent, or two.

When I heard this, I think my jaw, pants and socks dropped all at the same time.

If you want to read more about this, check out this wikipedia link (it's in Spanish) , or click here for the English version of the page.

You can also go here for a nice color map of the 6 continents theory.

Amazing huh? Not only am I learning a new language, I'm learning geography all over again too! I'm beginning to get the picture that my adventures in Spanish are far from over.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Olvidar vs Olvidarse - Part One

Tarde o temprano (sooner or later), you're going to forget something. To make matters worse, you're going to have to fess up to it in Spanish.


You may already know there are (at least) two ways to confess your forgetfulness, both of which involve the verb olividarse.

It took me a long time to (more or less) get all this stuff straight. The simplest way to say you forgot something is...

Me olvidé - I forgot. Plain and simple isn't it?

There's also se me olvidó. So, which one do you use, and what's the difference?

My Spanish tutor tells me the differences are nothing more than geographical location and preference. Me olvidé (de) is used more in Central America while se me olvidó is used more in Mexico, South America, and Spain.

Today I'm only going to talk about me olvidé (de).

Here's some examples that will help you start confessing your forgetfulness.

Did you go to the bank? - No, me olvidé.

Me olvidé las llaves - I forgot the keys.

Me olvidé de traer las llaves - I forgot to bring the keys.

Hace mucho que me olvidé de él - I forgot about him a long ago.

Me olvidé de llamarte - I forgot to call you

Me olvidé del libro - I forgot the book.

You may have noticed some of the examples used "me olvidé" and some used "me olvidé de".
The way it's been explained to me, is that if you want to say you forgot to do something , you have to use "me olvidé (de)".

If you want to say you forgot something, you can say "me olvidé".

In a nutshell, that's it. If you're looking grammar explanations, forget it (¡olvídalo!), you'll have to look elsewhere for that.

Oh, antes de que se me olvide (before I forget), in my next post we'll continue this discussion, but focusing on se me olvidó, and then wrapping things up in third and final post, using the non-reflexive infinitive, olvidar.

***NOTE: There are 4 parts to this subject, and you can see them all by clicking here

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

¿Puedo retirar el plato?

This weekend I learned something that I had been wondering about for a long time - how to ask the waiter to pick up plates from the table.

Now, I learned a while back how the waiter will ask you if they can take away plates....

¿Puedo retirar? or ¿Puedo retirar el plato?

But it remained a mystery to me how to make that request of the waiter. Until this weekend, that is.

My amigo Mexicano asked the waiter to take his plate. Finally, opportunity was knocking, so I asked him what it was he said to the waiter.

It was "¿Me retiras el plato? "

I was thinking "Cool, problem solved". And for a brief second, it was.

Well, actually, that did answer the question, it's just that like so many things in Spanish, there's more than one way to say it:

¿Te puedes llevar este plato?

¿Te regalo este plato?

That wasn't so bad, but it's not exactly pan comido.

Since we were on the subject, we started talking about how to ask for a plate.

¿Me traes un plato?

¿Me puedes conseguir un plato?

And if you're in Mexico, or maybe speaking with someone born and raised in Mexico, you can say:

¿Me regalas un plato?

That expression is "muy mexicano", and if you use it with someone not familiar with it, they'll think you're asking if you can have the plate as a gift! So that's why I mentioned the disclaimer above.

You can also use encargar to ask for something.

¿Te encargo unos cubiertos? or ¿Me traes unos cubiertos?


Well, there you have it. Hopefully you'll find these sentences useful as you dine in your favorite Spanish restaurants.