holavocab

Suceder

Suceder

Today’s Spanish word of the day is “suceder”. It’s a verb meaning “to happen”. It can also mean “to succeed” in the sense of “to follow”. If you want to talk about “succeeding” as in achieving, you wouldn’t use the verb “suceder”. You could instead use the verb “lograr” (“to manage/achieve”), or an expression such […]

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Sonar

Sonar

Today’s Spanish word of the day is “sonar”. It’s a verb meaning “to sound”. It can also translate as “to ring”, “to beep”, or “to rumble”, depending on the type of sound you’re referring to! The verb “sonar” can also mean “to look/sound familiar”, for example in phrases such as “su cara me suena” (“his/her

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Bebé

Bebé

Today’s Spanish word of the day is “bebé”. It’s a masculine noun meaning “baby”. Although it’s a masculine noun, it can refer to either male or female babies. However, in Latin America it’s quite common to use a feminine pronoun when referring to baby girls, for example “la bebé” or “una bebé”. It’s thought that

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Entender

Entender

Today’s Spanish word of the day is “entender”. It’s a verb that means “to understand”. The reflexive form “entenderse” can mean “to understand one another” or “to get along with”. The word “entender” comes from Latin intendere, which meant “to turn one’s attention”, and is also the root of the English word “intend”. “Entender” is

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Navidad

Navidad

Today’s Spanish word of the day is “Navidad”. It’s a feminine noun meaning “Christmas”. It can refer specifically to the 25th of December, or the whole festive season. In Spanish-speaking countries, the 24th of December is a bigger event than the 25th, with a shared meal and the exchanging of presents taking place on Christmas

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Parecer

Parecer

Today’s Spanish word of the day is “parecer”. It’s a verb meaning “to seem” or “to look like”. It shouldn’t be confused with the verb “aparecer”, which means “to appear” or “to turn up”. Both “parecer” and “aparecer” derive from Latin parere, meaning “to beget” or “to bring forth”, which is also the root of

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Grande

Grande

Today’s Spanish word of the day is “grande”. It’s an adjective meaning “big” or “large”. As you probably know, the standard way to use adjectives in Spanish is after the noun, for example “una casa grande” means “a big house”. However, it’s often also possible to use an adjective before a noun, though this can

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Ganar

Ganar

Today’s Spanish word of the day is “ganar”. It’s a verb that can have several meanings, including “to earn”, “to gain” and “to win”. Like the English word “gain”, it’s thought to ultimately derive from a Germanic word related to hunting or fishing. Unlike in English, Spanish doesn’t always distinguish between “earning” and “winning”, so

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Papá

Papá

Today’s Spanish word of the day is “papá”. It’s a masculine noun meaning “dad”, or “daddy”. Like the English word “dad”, “papá” is informal. The more formal way to refer to your father is “padre” (“father”). The plural, “los papás”, translates as “parents”, so “mis papás” would translate as “my parents” or “my mom and

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Probablemente

Probablemente

Today’s Spanish word of the day is “probablemente”. It’s an adverb meaning “probably”. You may have noticed that while many English adverbs end in -ly, many Spanish adverbs end in -mente. Here are just a few examples: This doesn’t mean that all Spanish adverbs end in -mente, but it’s a common pattern. The Spanish word

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