Today’s Spanish word of the day is “oficial”. It can be an adjective meaning “official”, or a noun meaning “officer”. As a noun, it can also refer to craftspeople who have completed an apprenticeship but haven’t yet reached the level of “maestro”. The word “oficial” comes from Late Latin officialis meaning “pertaining to duty”, which […]
Today’s Spanish word of the day is “pequeño” in the masculine form, or “pequeña” in the feminine form. It’s an adjective that can mean “small”, “little” or “young” depending on context. Like in English, you can refer to younger siblings by referring to them as “little”, for example: While the word “pequeño” is the most
Today’s Spanish word of the day is “tal”. It can be used as an adjective or pronoun, and usually translates as “such”, though it can also mean “that kind of”, “so” or “a certain”. It’s usually used to say that something is a particular kind of thing, for example: You’ll also hear the word “tal”
Today’s Spanish word of the day is “bastante”. It can be used as an adjective, adverb or pronoun that can be translated as “enough”, “quite a lot [of]” or “quite”. In some countries such as Colombia, Argentina and Chile, the word “bastante” is often used to mean something more like “a lot” or “too much”
Today’s Spanish word of the day is “cercar”. It’s a verb meaning “to fence in”, “to enclose”, or “to surround”. It can also be used in military contexts to mean “to besiege”. The word “cercar” comes from Latin circare, meaning “to circle”, which is also the root of the English words “search” and “research”, with
Today’s Spanish word of the day is “problema”. As you might have guessed, it means “problem”. Although it ends in -a, “problema” is a masculine noun. That’s because it comes from the Greek word problema, which was treated as a neuter noun in Latin and absorbed as masculine in Spanish, along with other Greek-origin nouns
Today’s Spanish word of the day is “silencio”. It’s a masculine noun meaning “silence”. The word comes from Latin silentium, which in turn came from the Latin verb silere, meaning “to be quiet” or “to be still”. This is also the root of several English words including “silence” and “silent”. Example sentences El silencio en
Today’s Spanish word of the day is a two for one: “tío” and “tía”. “Tío” means “uncle”, and “tía” means “aunt”. The plural “tíos” would normally translate as “aunts and uncles”, unless you’ve specified previously that you’re only talking about uncles. While they literally mean “uncle” and “aunt”, in Spain the words “tío” and “tía”
Today’s Spanish word of the day is “hasta”. It’s a preposition that can translate as “until”, “up to” or “as far as” depending on the context. You’ve probably heard the word “hasta luego” (“see you later”), “hasta mañana” (“see you tomorrow”) and “hasta la vista” (“see you”). Interestingly, the phrase “hasta la vista” is very
Today’s Spanish word of the day is “mes”. It’s a masculine noun meaning “month”. The word “mes” comes from Latin mensis, which also meant “month” and is etymologically related to words such as “menstrual” and “menstruation”. Despite coming from Anglo Saxon, the English word “moon” ultimately derives from the same Proto Indo-European root as Spanish
