Saturday, October 31, 2009

No te metas

This is a very common expression that you're bound to hear. It's the short form of No te metas tu cuchara en esto - Literally it means "Don't stick your spoon in this". Or as we would say in English, "Mind your own business". But that's not the only way you can use this expression. Let's look at some examples:

No te metas en mi vida - Stay out of my life

No te metas con mi amigo - Don't mess with my friend.

No te metas con Zohan - Don't mess with the Zohan

No te metas conmigo - Don't mess with me

No te metas en mis asuntos - Stay out of my business, mind your own business

No te metas donde no te llaman - Don't intefere when nobody asked you

Ask you can see, the meaning changes slightly based on the context, but I think (hope) the examples give you a good understanding of both how to interpret and use this very common phrase.

It's also very common to see and hear the short verstion. If someone is getting a little to interested in your asuntos (affairs, or business), you can tell them "no es asunto tuyo" or simply, "no te metas". And if you happen to be the recipient of this message, well, you've probably overstepped your boundries.

And like most things in language, your tone of voice can change this from a very strong statement to something fun and playful in the right situation.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

De mi cuenta corre que

I had no idea what this meant when I saw it, but now that I know what it means, I happen to like it.

So what does it mean?

Essentially this means "I'll make sure...". Here are some examples:

De mi cuenta corre que hables más como un nativo
I'll make sure you speak more like a native

De mi cuenta corre que seas muy feliz
I'll make sure you're very happy

This can also be expressed with....

Yo me encargo de que

Yo me encargo de que consigas un lugar donde quedarte
I'll make sure you have a place to stay

I think is a great piece of Spanish, I can't wait to use it.

¡Espero que disfrutes!

Escuelas en México

Today my tutor and I had a discussion about schools in México. Now, my school days are long gone, but I thought it would be interesting to learn a little about how things work in México.

Let's start with the types different schools there are. Their system isn't really that much different than ours:

Kindergarten - Jardin de niños (also called Kinder)

Elementary - Primaría

Middle School - Secondarìa

High School - Prepatoría (commonly refered to as Prepa), also known as Colegio and Bachillerato

Now, there are differences in the names of the various grade levels then schools here in the US.

Kinder starts at age 3.

Primaría runs from 1st to 6th.

Secundarìa starts over with 1st - 3rd

Preparatoría starts over yet again with 1st - 3rd

Speaking of grade levels (grados), here's how to talk about them in Spanish...

1st Grade - Primer grado (1ro)
2nd Grade - Segundo grado (2to)
3rd Grade - Tercer grado (3er)
4th Grade - Cuatro grado (4to)
5th Grade - Quinto grado (5t0)
6th Grade - Sexto grado (6to)

I'm sure you noticed that Primaría, Secondarìa and Prepatoría all have 1st - 3rd grades, so to distinguish them, you say:

Primer grado de Primaría [or Secondarìa, Preparatoría]u
Tercero grado de Secundarìa

Sexto grado de Primaría

I think you get the picture.

If you want to ask your friends what grade their kids are in, you can ask:

¿En que grado está tu hijo? Está en primer grado (de secundaría)

¿En que grado va tu hijo? Va en primero.

If you want to ask if they graduated to the next school year, you can ask:

¿Pasó de año? Pasó con 9.1

If you're curious about the 9.1, then let me explain.

First of all, grades are called calificaciones.

Apparently the grading scale in México goes from 1 - 10.

A 5 is an F. Nothing below a 5 is awarded. 6 is a D, and 10 is an A (100%).

To talk about what kind of grades someone is getting in school, you use the verb sacar.

¿Cuándo eras niño sacabas buenas calificaciones en la escuela?
When you were child did you get good grades in school?

No saqué buenas calificaciones hasta el segundo año de prepa.
I didn't get good grades until my second year of high school.

Mi hija saca buenas calificaciones
My daughter gets good grades

That's it, or perhaps you're thinking that's enough. Even though this post is about how schools work in México, you can use much of the same vocabulary to talk about schools and grades here in the US with your Spanish speaking friends.

¡Espero que te sirve!

Gustar - Part 2

In my last post about Gustar, I covered some of the basics that you need to know. In this post we're going to put the finishing touches on our look at gustar.

We now know that gustar changes it's meaning to one of physical attraction when you use it in reference to people. But there is an exception to this. If you're talking about people you don't personally know, like public or celebrity figures, authors, atheletes and the like, it reverts back to it's meaning of "to please". 

Me gusta Angelina Jolie - I like Angelia Jolie

¿Te gusta Micheal Jackson? - Do you like Micheal Jackson?

¿Le gusta George Lopez? - Does he/she like George Lopez?

Easy enough right?

Now let's look at one last quirk with gustar. It's conjugated a little differently when you talk about more than one thing or person. I touched on this just a little in my last post with the example:

Me gustan a ellas - I find them attractive.

Now let's look at this in more detail. Remember the example "Me gusta el libro"? We're only talking about one book, so we use "gusta". But if you need to talk about more than one book, we need to make a minor change to our example:

Me gustan los libros - The books are pleasing to me, or I like the books

Notice the "n" - gustaN instead of gusta. Anytime you want to talk about more than one of something, you need to use gustan. Let's look at some contrasting examples:

Me gusta el carro - I like the car

Me gustan los carros - I like the cars

Me gusta la camisa - I like the shirt

Me gustan las camisas - I like the shirts

Pretty simple eh? Just remember that whatever it is you like also has to be in the plural form.

That's pretty much it!

Now, I haven't covered every single detail of the verb gustar, but I've covered all of the "big ticket" items you need to help you start using this sometimes tricky but very necessary Spanish verb.

If you find yourself confused by any of the grammar surrounding gustar, don't worry about it. Just remember that gusta is for one of something, and gustan for more than one. Of course gustar has the same conjugations as other verbs, but I imagine you will find yourself using the forms gusta and gustan far more than the others. With that in mind, memorize these two forms, use them as much as possible, and sooner or later it's all going to make sense, including the grammar, ¡Les prometo! (I promise)

I mentioned this in my first post, but it's worth repeating.  If you want to really master the verb Gustar, then take a look at a course called Learning Spanish Like Crazy 2.  The course has over 30 lessons with 3 of them dedicated to the verb Gustar and other verbs that work in the same fashion.   If you're learning Spanish on your own, then you definitely want to take a look at it. 

¡Nos vemos!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Gustar - Part 1

Gustar is one of those verbs that frustrated me for a very long time. I'd be fooling myself (and lying to you) if I said I've now mastered it 100%. But I have learned quite a bit and I want to share a little of that knowledge with you.

First things first, what does gustar mean to begin with? Well, typically it's defined as "to like". This is a pretty accurate and fair translation. Most of the time. Yes, I can imagine many of you are arching your eyebrows right now, thinking "what do you mean, most of the time?". As always, let's look at some examples.

Me gusta el libro - I like the book

Me gusta el cuarto - I like the room

Te gusto - I like you.

Simple enough, what's the big deal you ask? Well, this is where things start to get sticky, because our third example has been translated completely wrong.

Despite the fact we've been taught gustar means "to like", you will eventually be led astray with that definition. Instead think of gustar to mean "to be pleasing". Once you do that, you'll never be led astray.

Let's look at our third example again, this time with our new translation.

Te gusto - "I please you", or more accurately said in English, "you like me".

Much better, and this translation works for our other examples as well...

Me gusta el libro - The book is pleasing to me, or I like the book

Me gusta el cuarto - The room is pleasing to me, or I like the room.

But we're not quite out of the woods yet. Let's take another look at our third (Te gusto) example, right after I clue you in on a small, but very important detail.

If you're talking about objects or thing like books, movies, clothes, etc., the translation "to please" works quite well. But once you start talking about people, everything changes. Gustar then takes on an entirely new meaning - physical attraction. A detail some explanations of Gustar omit.

With that little detail in mind, let's revisit our third example.

Te gusto - Do you find me attractive?

Let's look at a few more...

Me gustas (mucho) - You are (very) pleasing to me, or I think you're (very) attractive.

Me gustan ellas - They are pleasing to me, or They're attractive to me. And remember, we're talking about a group of ladies, as indicated by the use of ellas.

Well, I think that's enough for one post. Wait...I almost forgot. If you want to tell someone you like them in the plutonic sense, then you need to use caer bien, which I'll talk about another day.

Hopefully this post gave you a little more insight into understaning and using the verb gustar. Of course there's always more to say, but Rome wasn't built in a day, so just take this in and meditate on it for a while.

¡Cuídense!

***Note: Be sure to read Gustar Part 2.  Also, if you really want to really master the verb Gustar, then take a look at a course called Learning Spanish Like Crazy 2.  The course has over 30 lessons with 3 of them dedicated to the verb Gustar and other verbs that work in the same fashion.   If you're learning Spanish on your own, then you definitely want to take a look at it.


Sunday, October 11, 2009

Tener la maña de

Bad habits...we all have them, and at some point we're going to have to fess up to them.

That's where the phrase "tener la maña de..." comes in.

A maña is a bad habit. A person with a lot of bad habits is a mañoso or mañosa.

OK, time to learn how to make those confessions...

Tengo la maña de morderme las uñas - I have a bad habit of biting my nails.

Tengo la maña de moverla pierna - I have a bad habit of shaking my leg.

There you go! Turns out talking about bad habits in Spanish is just as easy as picking them up.

¡Hasta la próxima!

Además de mal

This is a simple, great piece of Spanish that you can use in your day-to-day conversation. But I'm not going to tell you what it means.

Instead, I'm going to let my friend Mexico Bob explain it to you. I figure it's only fair, since I learned it from him in the first place. You can read about "Además de mal" here. Now let me tell you a little about Mexico Bob.

Mexico Bob is a great guy currently living in Mexico, and has a fantastic blog, which you have to see for yourself. His posts go well beyond the Spanish language, providing great insight into Mexican culture and daily life there.

I know that some of you found my site through Mexico Bob, but for those of you who haven't been to his blog, I think you'll enjoy his site, especially if you have an interest in Mexican life and culture.

¡Que disfrutes!

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Andar vs Estar

In a previous post, I talked about some common usages of Andar.

Well, I came across a site called ReVerb Spanish, which is actually quite an interesting site, but what caught my eye was this post about Andar vs Estar. It's a good post that not only gives you more advice on using Andar, but shows you how Andar and Estar can be used as synonyms in certain situations.

Also, be sure not to miss the downloadble podcast at the bottom of the page, good stuff.


If you haven't read my post on Andar, you can read it here. You don't have to read it first, but I think it's worth reading in conjunction with the Reverb Spanish post.


¡Hasta la próxima!