No veo la hora de volver a verte

In Spanish, when you want to talk about doing something again, your Spanish textbook will mention these two options, "otra vez" and "de nuevo".  

There's absolutely nothing wrong with either of those two options, and you shouldn't hesitate to use them. 

Here's an example:

No te voy a molestar de nuevo
I'm not going to bother you again

Nunca voy a hacer eso otra vez
I'm never going to do that again

This is where things get interesting.   There's a very good chance that you'll never hear a native speaker say either of those.

I wish I could see the deer in headlights look that I'm sure some of you have right now.  I bet it looks exactly like the one I had.  But getting back to the subject at hand, if a native speaker might not say "de nuevo" or "otra vez", then what would they say?

No te vuelvo a molestar
I'm not going to bother you again

Nunca vuelvo a hacer eso
I'm never going to do that again

It's extremely common to use "volver a" talk about doing something again.  Let's look at a some more examples to help you get the hang of it.

Rápidamente lo volví a llamar
I quickly called him back

Por favor, vuelve a introducir tu contraseña
Please enter your password again

No me digas que fuiste por el hielo, las cocas, mas ron y se te volvio a olvidar el limon
Don't tell me you went for the ice, the cokes, more rum and you forgot the lime again?

Cultural tip:  Notice I translated limon as lime.  That's because if you go to any Spanish speaking country and ask for a "limon" you'll get what we call a lime.  I touched on this in another post, which you can read about here.  You'll also learn how to order one of my favorite cocktails in Spanish.

If you don't want to see someone again, loan them money

Decidí volver a llamar
I decided to call again

Nunca más volveré a enamorarme
I will never fall in love again

And at this point I'm guessing you can easily translate the title of this post.  Or at least half of it.

No veo la hora de volver a verte
I can't wait to see you again

"No veo la hora"  might have thrown you for a loop, but if you got it right, you just earned yourself some extra credit.

¡Ya¡  Our work is done for today. 

Hasta pronto.

Ya llovió

I remember being an adolescente (teenager) living in Puerto Rico taking Spanish I & II. 

Ya llovió.

Despite having taken classes, I didn't really learn how to speak Spanish.  Fast forward 22 years later to 2005 and I started studying Spanish again.   

Ya llovió.

I also remember when I started this blog.  I had no idea what I was really going to blog about, nor how long I would keep it up. That was back in July of 2008.  

Ya llovió.

Despite how it sounds, this post isn't about the fact it took me forever to learn Spanish, so let me get down to business.

Ya llovió
It already rained.

While the literal translation is accurate, it doesn't apply here.  Ya llovió is also a colloquial expression that has another meaning. 

Ya llovió
That was a long time ago

This phrase is actually a shortened version of:

Ya llovió mucho desde entonces

"Desde entonces" means "since then".  Here's an example of how to use it:

Han pasado cuatro años desde entonces
It's been four years since then

Let's get back on track.

Ya llovió mucho desde entonces
It's rained a lot since then

I'm not sure what the connection is with rain and the passage of time, but this a colloquial way of saying:

Ya pasó bastante (mucho) tiempo

You may also see this phrase as:

Ya ha llovido desde entonces

That's it!  Whether you choose to say Ya llovió mucho desde entonces or simply Ya llovió, you'll sound like a native.


¡Hasta luego!

¿Te regalo este plato?

You may already know that in Spanish you use the verb Regalar to talk about both giving and receiving gifts.  Here's an example:

Me regaló una falda
He gave me this skirt (as a present)

What you may not know is that you can use regalar in other ways.  Let's take a look at our phrase:

¿Te regalo este plato?

Meseros and meseras will commonly hear this, and contrary to our previous definition of regalar, they aren't being offered an actual gift.  Let's revist out translation.

¿Te regalo este plato?
Can I give you this plate?

Actually, in English we'd say "can you take this plate?", but you get the picture.  Another way to say this is:

¿Puede retirar el plato?

It's nice to have options.

And as you can see, regalar can also mean "to give", like the verb dar in Spanish.  So let's look at a few more examples. 

¿Me regala una caja para llever?
Can you give me a to-go box?

¿Me regalas un besito?
Can you give me a little kiss?

On an unlrelated note, if you'd like a great big kiss, then you can ask for besotote.  Ok, now let's get back to business.

¿Me regalas un hojo (de papel)?

Can you give me a sheet a paper?

That's it! Facilisimo, ¿verdad?

Hasta la próxima.