Words

Libre

Libre

Today’s Spanish word of the day is “libre”. It’s an adjective meaning “free” in the sense of “at liberty” or “vacant”. When talking about things that are “free” in the sense of “without cost”, it would be more common to use the word “gratis” rather than “libre”. The word “libre” comes from Latin liber which […]

Libre Read More »

Maldito

Maldito

Today’s Spanish word of the day is “maldito”. It’s an adjective translating as “darn”, “damn”, “damned” or “cursed”. The word “maldito” comes from the Latin verb maledicere, meaning “to speak badly of”, which is also the source of the Spanish verb “maldecir” meaning “to curse”. Since “mal” means “bad” and “decir” means “to say”, the

Maldito Read More »

Bastar

Bastar

Today’s Spanish word of the day is “bastar”. It’s a verb meaning “to be enough” or “to suffice”. It’s commonly used in the refrain “¡Ya basta!”, translating as “That’s enough!” or “Enough already!” It’s related to the adjective “bastante”, meaning “enough” or “quite a lot”. The word “bastar” derives from the Greek word bastazein, meaning

Bastar Read More »

Sobre

Today’s Spanish word of the day is “sobre”. It’s a preposition meaning “on”, “about” or “over”. It can be used in lots of different contexts, as you will see in the example sentences below. The word “sobre” can also be used as a noun meaning “envelope”. It acquired this additional meaning since an envelope is

Sobre Read More »

Ver

Ver

Today’s Spanish word of the day is “ver”. It’s a verb meaning “to see” or “to watch”. The word “ver” comes from Latin videre, which also meant “to see” and is the source of the English word “video”. “Ver” is technically an irregular verb, but the conjugation is quite simple in the tense: Another common

Ver Read More »

Extrañar

Extrañar

Today’s Spanish word of the day is “extrañar”. It’s a verb meaning “to miss”, in the sense of missing someone or something. In some contexts, it can also mean “to be surprised”. The word comes from Latin extraneus meaning “foreign” or “external”. This Latin word is also the root of several English words such as

Extrañar Read More »

Pelear

Today’s Spanish word of the day is “pelear”. It’s a verb meaning “to fight” or “to argue”. It comes from the word “pelo” (“hair”), presumably since if you get into a fight you might end up grabbing someone’s hair! “Pelear” is a regular verb that has the same conjugation pattern as other regular -ar verbs.

Pelear Read More »

Gente

Gente

Today’s Spanish word of the day is “gente”. It’s a feminine noun meaning “people”. The word “gente” is always feminine, regardless of the gender of the people you are talking about. The word comes from the Latin word gens meaning “tribe”, “nation” or “family”, which came from earlier words related to giving birth and bringing

Gente Read More »

Capitán

Capitán

Today’s Spanish word of the day is “capitán” in the masculine form, or “capitana” in the feminine form. It’s a noun meaning “captain”. It can be used to refer to captains in the army, the navy or in sports teams. Like the English word “captain”, it comes from late Latin capitaneus, which referred to a

Capitán Read More »

Cuánto

Cuánto

Today’s Spanish word of the day is “cuánto”. It can be used as an adverb, adjective or pronoun usually translating as “how much”. The plural, “cuántos”, translates as “how many”. It’s often one of the first words you learn in Spanish, since it’s used in phrases such as “¿Cuántos años tienes?” (“How old are you?”)

Cuánto Read More »