Monday, April 19, 2010

Estoy exitado por ti

I was having a conversation with a young lady who was telling me that she was only a few months away from graduating from nursing school.   I thought that was pretty cool, it must be an exciting time in her life.  

A quick flashback reminded me of how I felt when I was on the brink of accomplishing something significant in my life, and I decided to tell her that I was excited for  her.  So I said... 

Estoy exitado por ti
I'm excited for you.

Well, while that is what I said, it doesn't quite mean that.

Excitar means to be excited.  And emocionado means the same.  According to the dictionary, that is.

There's only one problem...some dictionaries neglect to explain one subtle difference.

Emocionado is the word you want to express excitement in this context.  

Excitado expresses excitement in a very different context.  It means to be sexual excited.

Let's revisit our example:

Estoy exitado por ti
I've got the hots for you.

Well, that sort of changes things a bit doesn't it?

What I should have said was:

Estoy emocionado por ti
I'm excited for you

Lo peor es (the worst thing is), I actually knew about the difference between those two words, but somehow the wrong word slipped out anyway.  Oh well, somebody's got to make people laugh, right?

Bueno, that's all for now. 

¡Hasta la próxima!

4 comments:

  1. it's 'estoy emocionado por ti'. you spelled emocionado wrong. :)

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  2. Rodney, we used to make this joke in the office all the time.

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  3. Ha ha ...perhaps a Freudian slip and you meant "exitado" :)

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  4. Rodney... your right somebody has to make them laugh, it might as well be us.
    After 40 years of faux pas I've learned to laugh along with them. Besides they remember you better after that.
    About 35 years ago I was at a party and they served me a turkey leg smothered in mole, it was big enough to appear on the Flintstones. I told my wife, "I can't eat this, it's too large & I don't like turkey legs".
    "So tell the comadre you want something else", she said.
    So I whipped out my dictionary & trusty phrase book and thinking I was asking for turkey breast I said, "Comadre, quiero pecho".
    Many of the guests dropped their forks and stared at me aghast as what I really said was that I wanted to be breastfed. Forty years later they still remember that incident.
    Laugh & the world laughs with you.
    By the way thanks for visiting my site at mexicomystic.

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