Spanish Word of the Day Index

[Sam Wilson]

Spanish rules:

1. special feminine nouns - why agua is a feminine noun
   
2. masculine/feminine rules - for inanimate objects
3. to tilde or not to tilde -- that is the question

Spanish song & poetry:

1. Misa Negra - by José Juan Tablada
2. La Camisa Negra - by Juanes
3. Mentimos - by Debi Nova (Tica)

Spanish phrases:

1. thank you - many ways to say it
2. you're welcome - many ways to say it
3. dichos con doble sentidos - sayings with double-meanings
   
4. to put pressure on someone - like "twisting their arm"

Spanish dictionaries/translators:

1. RAE - Diccionario de la lengua española - la obra lexicográfica académica por excelencia
   
2. SpanishDict - the world's most popular Spanish-English dictionary, translation, and learning website
   
3. WordReference.com - two dictionaries, a Spanish verb conjugator and some very active forums
4. Collins Spanish Dictionary -  the world’s most trusted unabridged Spanish to English dictionary
   
5. Cambridge Spanish-English Dictionary - from the oldest publishing house in the world
   
6. Google Translate - multilingual statistical and neural machine translation service
   
7. The Free Dictionary - the world's most comprehensive online database of reference information

Index to the Spanish Word of the Day posts:

aderezo - salad dressing	fúnebre - related to the dead or funeral
agujero negro - black hole	gorjeo - chirping of a bird
amanecer - daybreak	heladería - ice cream parlor
año bisiesto - leap year	herida - wound, injury or insult
apocado - timid	invernadero - greenhouse
apocar - to make smaller	jupa - head or noggin
atardecer - dusk or late afternoon	lanzamiento - launch
aterrizaje - landing	logro - achievement
brotar - to sprout, to break out	madrugada - early morning
brote - outbreak or rash	manada - herd or pack
carroza - a parade float	mentimos- form of mentir (to lie)
cazatesoros - treasure hunter	pletórico - plethoric, with abundance
choza - hut, shack	propuesta - proposal
cólera - anger, cholera	rebotica - back room
comejenes - termite	reposo - an instance of relaxing
derretirse - to melt	resaca - undertow, hangover
desafío - a challenge or duel	rezongar - to grumble or scold
echar - to throw or to put, etc.	sabelotodo - a know-it-all
embaucador - trickster, swindler	sandez - foolishness
embaucar - to trick	soplar - to blow
espantamoscas - fly swatter	supervivencia - survival
espantapájaros - scarecrow	titilar - to twinkle
espantar - to frighten	tobillo - ankle
espanto - a fright or ghost	vela - candle, wake, (nautical) sail
especia – spice	veragua - mildew
especie - species	zorra - vixen, loose woman

Note - please send any suggestions or additions to this stickered post index to: sliw...@gmail.com

[Sam Wilson]

LiCR,

Tomorrow we'll officially hit the 10th in a row of our Spanish Word of the Day posts.  With that in mind and as a welcome to our new members, I just posted a Sticky Post to the top of the forum that I'll try to maintain as an index to each of the Spanish Word of the Day posts and any sort of Spanish related thing (like rules to get by with, etc.)

Please let me know if you have any suggestions about words to study, topics to discuss, or how to better survive in the Costa Rica jungle we live in.

Thanks,

Sam

[Don Hickman]

Great idea, Sam.  I like it.  Now, if I could just remember new words.  🥺

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[Sam Wilson]

Don,

Practice, practice, practice...  If you don't actually try to speak the language and listen to others speaking the language, it will never stick in any significant way.  I once met an old gringo out Cahuita way that had lived in Costa Rica for 10+ years and didn't speak a lick of Spanish (according to what the locals told me.)  He never tried and never learned.  I've also known several gringos who came down and found a nice Spanish-speaking girlfriend, but with one common flaw...  those girlfriends also spoke English.  Those gringos never learned Spanish in any significant way.  I dove in like a kid into a candy jar, and by the time I came up for fresh air, I was married to a super nice Tica... who didn't speak a lick of English.  jajaja.  Immersion works.  And lack thereof as well. To this day she only knows one phrase in English: "Let's go to bed my love."  Until we started raising little ones, nobody in my house spoke English besides me.  That and partying with Ticos has forced me to practice every day, and I still am a long way from fluent. In part, I blame that on nobody wanting to be disrespectful and correct me when I mispeak -- even though I've been demanding that for years.  But everyone learns a new language like a baby, and until one gets really practiced at it, one is bound to sound foolish and be hard to understand.  That is one of the problems many Ticos have with learning English -- están demasiado avergonzados de sonar como un bebé.  Now we've got 3.5 little ones and a dog that in varying degrees understand and try to speak English.  I get to see this in action in real young learner time.  The one with the least amount of vergüenza is by far the best English speaker of our Brady bunch. 

¡La práctica hace al maestro!  ;-)

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Sam

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[Paul Wessen]