With regards to adjective placement, I know I linked that bigger post I made about what the placement of adjectives generally mean but I'll give a very brief overview and if anyone has any specific questions please let me know.
IN GENERAL for like 70-ish percent of the time, adjectives go behind the noun in Spanish. These are your basic everyday adjectives that just describe nouns; el gato negro "the black cat", la mujer alta "the tall woman", los datos importantes "the important data", las tormentas peligrosas "the dangerous storms"
And again, IN GENERAL, if an adjective precedes the noun it is as if you bolded or italicized the adjective. It makes the adjective really stand out because of how out of the ordinary it is. It's very commonly used in poetry, writing, or for hyperbole:
If you were looking at it more poetically you could think of "blue sky"... el cielo azul "the blue sky" is everyday Spanish, very typical. Saying el azul cielo "the blue sky" draws the eye to azul making it seem like "blue" is the most important or noteworthy thing about it
You typically see this kind of construction in everyday Spanish with expressions of gratitude, grief, horror, deep love, or any very strong emotions or when you're trying to make an impact
(More below)
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Note: This will impact certain aspects of grammar, such as the nouns that are actually feminine but take a general masculine article such as el agua, el arma, el hada, el hambre, el Ɣguila etc.
As an example:
El hada madrina = Fairy Godmother
La buena hada = The good fairy
To further explain this rule - el hada is written with a masculine article. This is because it has its vocal stress on the first syllable and begins with A- or HA- [where H is silent]; and treating it as feminine would cause the sounds to run together, so the el adds a kind of phonetic break to preserve the sound; but in plural it will be las hadas "fairies/fey"
A word like this would still retain its normal functions as a feminine word, thus el agua bendita "holy water", el Ɣguila calva "bald eagle", el ave rapaz "bird of prey", and then in this case el hada madrina "fairy godmother"
By adding a separate word in front, you interrupt that la + A/HA construction and create a hiatus in the sounds already... so you can then treat it like a normal feminine noun, la buena hada "the good fairy"
You might also see this with grande "big" and its other form gran "great/large", el Ɣguila grande "the big eagle" vs. la gran Ɣguila "the great eagle"
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Moving aside from the normal grammar, we now enter the exceptions. First - determiners.
There are a handful of adjectives that are known as determiners which come before the noun and they provide an important function in communicating things like number, possession, and location
There are also a few determiners of quantity such as mucho/a "a lot/many/much", todo/a "all/every", cada "each", vario/a "various/many", poco/a "few/less", tal "such", tan "so much" / tanto/a "so many", algĆŗn/alguna and ningĆŗn/ninguna etc.
And it will generally apply to mƔs and menos "more" and "less", and sometimes mejor/peor "better/worse"
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Note: With possessives is that there are two forms depending on adjective placement:
mi amigo/a = my friend
mis amigos / amigas = my friends
un amigo mĆo = a friend of mine
una amiga mĆa = a friend of mine [f]
unos amigos mĆos = a few friends of mine
unas amigas mĆas = a few friends [f] of mine
All the pronouns have their own version of this possessive pattern
mi(s) and mĆo/a, tu(s) and tuyo/a, su(s) and suyo/a, and then nuestro/a and vuestro/a are the same but the adjective placement is different
As an example - nuestro paĆs "our country" vs. el paĆs nuestro "the country of ours", or nuestros familiares "our family members" vs. unos familiares nuestros "some family members of ours"
A common religious example - Nuestra SeƱora "Our Lady" and then el padrenuestro "the Our Father prayer"
The possessives that come after the noun are usually translated as "of mine/yours/his/hers/ours" etc.
You can also see a few determiners/adjectives in different places in a phrase like - un viejo amigo mĆo "an old friend of mine" vs. mi viejo amigo "my old friend"
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As mentioned in the very beginning there are a handful of exceptions
Most notably:
viejo/a = old / elderly
antiguo/a = ancient, old / antique, old
mismo/a = same / self
gran = great, grand
grande = large
And includes propio/a "own / appropriate", as well as bueno/a "good" or malo/a "bad". I discussed a lot of these in more depth in the previous posts and in the one linked above
In many cases the exact meaning is different, even if it's slight - such as el hotel grande "the big hotel" vs. el Gran Hotel "the Grand Hotel"
bueno/a and malo/a are generally either "good" and "kind", or "bad" and "unkind", though the meanings can kind of blur together... as something like la buena hada "the good fairy" isn't so far off from el hada buena "the nice fairy"
When places before though bueno/a turns to buen + masculine, and malo/a turns to mal + masculine
As an example - un buen augurio "good omen", un mal presagio "a bad omen/portent"
.....but in feminine it looks like you'd expect: buena suerte "good luck" vs. mala suerte
Similarly, and one I didn't include the first time is cualquier/cualquiera
cualquier persona = any person
una persona cualquiera = an ordinary person
cualquier in front - regardless of gender - means "any", literally "whichever"
cualquiera in back comes out as "ordinary" or colloquially "any old" [such as un beso cualquiera "an ordinary kiss" / "any old kiss"], or in the case of people it could be like "a person of dubious/unknown background" sort of like "they could be anyone"...
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And then you run into what I would consider "collocations" which is another word for a set noun or expression
There are some words/expressions that have the adjective in a specific place and you can't really change it or it sounds weird, so you sort of have to learn them as specific units to remember:
las bellas artes = fine arts [lit. "beautiful arts"]
(de) mala muerte = "backwater", "poor / middle of nowhere", a place of ill repute or somewhere very remote or inconsequential [lit. "of a bad death"]
a corto plazo = short-term
a largo plazo = long-term
(en) alta mar = (on) the high seas
alta calidad = high quality
baja calidad = low quality
Blancanieves = Snow White (the character/fairlytale)
la mala hierba, las malas hierbas = weeds [lit. "bad grasses"; plants that grow without you wanting them to or that grow in bad places etc]
los bajos fondos = criminal underworld [lit. "the low depths"]
el mƔs allƔ = "the great beyond", "the afterlife" [lit. "the more over there/beyond"]
buen/mal augurio = good/bad omen
buen/mal presagio = good/bad omen
buena/mala suerte = good/bad luck
...Also includes all the greetings like buen dĆa / buenos dĆas or buenas noches etc. they're all considered set phrases
There are also many collocations that use adjectives in their normal place that also can't be separated such as los frutos secos "nuts", or el vino tinto/banco "red/white wine" etc.
A collocation just means that they are treating multiple words as set phrases or a singular unit
And again, some history/geographical terms will have these as well:
la Gran Muralla China = Great Wall of China
la Primera Guerra Mundial = First World War
la Segunda Guerra Mundial = Second World War
el Sacro Imperio Romano = Holy Roman Empire
la Antigua Grecia = Ancient Greece
el Antiguo Egipto = Ancient Egypt
(el) Alto Egipto = Upper Egypt
(el) Bajo Egipto = Lower Egypt
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The final of my āwrongā gender nouns series (ie. masculine nouns that sound feminine and vice versa) includes words that change meaning depending on the gender you chose.Ā
For example:
el frente - front BUT la frente - forehead
el coma - coma BUT la coma - comma
el cĆ³lera - cholera BUT la cĆ³lera - anger
el cometa - comet BUT la cometa - kite
el guĆa - male guide BUT la guĆa - guidebook
el papa - pope BUT la papa - potato
el capital - investment BUT la capital -capital city/letter
Quiero (culear/cachar) tu madre ā I want to fuck your mom
Necesitas ser castrad(o/a) ā You need to be castrated
Traga leche ā Cum swallower
*Iām pretty focused on learning South American (particularly Peruvian/Ecuadorian) vocabulary, so this list does not include Caribbean, Central American, or Peninsular Spanish
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Just discovered while talking to someone in Spanish that "AdiĆ³s" is more of a permanent goodbye, something you might say to someone you expect to never meet again, like a stranger. Instead, he said I should use "nos vemos" when speaking with people I know, which makes sense. I was wondering what other goodbyes I could use that aren't permanent? Obviously there's "hasta luego" and "hasta maƱana."
I wouldn't go that far necessarily, but yes adiĆ³s can be used for people you don't expect to see for a long time (possibly never again like sayonara means in Japanese)
Literally, adiĆ³s is "go with God" which would have been a lot more impactful in the time of needing to journey days/weeks/months to meet some relatives, and possibly having to deal with war, disease, wild animals etc
A lot of Western langauges have something similar, even "goodbye" is "God be with you/ye"
Some people do use it for a permanent goodbye. Others use it for an indefinite but probably long period of goodbye
And some people just say adiĆ³s as a standard goodbye with no deeper meaning other than "bye"
Note: You can also say adiosito which I wouldn't necessarily recommend outside of friendly conversation since it can sound sarcastic; it's like "toodle-oo" but it's literally a little goodbye
Note 2: If you vehemently hate someone and you hope to never see them again, you can say hasta nunca which is like "see you never" and I think that's beautiful
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Today people do use adiĆ³s just as "goodbye" though it can read as "we won't see each other for a while"
The more short-term is nos vemos "we will see each other"
Another variation is a direct object version rather than reflexive. You can say te veo pronto "I'll see you soon" for example, instead of nos vemos pronto "we will see each other soon", that sort of thing
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There's also hasta pronto "see you soon", hasta la prĆ³xima "see you next time"
And a lot of people have adapted certain words into Spanish like bye/bai or chau/chao for goodbyes
chau/chao in particular comes from ciao and is super common especially in South America
Another common one I say is cuĆdate "take care of yourself" / cuĆdese for polite, cuĆdense for plural
Depending on context you can also say Ā”Suerte! "Good luck!" (or Ā”Buena suerte! or Ā”Que tengas mucha suerte! "Hope you have lots of luck" or te deseo mucha suerte etc)....
Another common one I say is Ā”Ćnimo! which means something like "Chin up!" but literally it's "energy" or "cheer"; if you're saying Ć”nimo with someone you're essentially saying Ā”Aguanta! or Ā”Resiste! which is like "Hang in there!" or trying to pep someone up, where animar is "to cheer someone on" so it's all related there
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Also I know you said spoken but just in case, if you're signing off on a letter/email there are some basic phrases you can use:
saludos = (a generic kind of goodbye) [lit. "salutations" or "regards"]
un cordial saludo = (something like "kind regards")
estamos en contacto / estaremos en contacto = "we'll be in touch"
And if you're writing a friendly letter you can say abrazos or besos for "hugs" and "kisses" respectively; it's very common to say something like te mando un abrazo "I'm sending you a hug" or something like that
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Also, if you're at a party or something, you can say something like ya me voy or me largo or something like "I'm heading out"
I tend to say something like hora de irme "time for me to go" because in my English-speaking brain saying me largo feels awkward like I'm storming out but I know that's not what that always means
Additionally you can say debo irme "I should go", something along those lines is pretty standard
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If you're being funny, I think me piro vampiro is somewhat used in Spain (but maybe not so much now)... it's just there for the rhyme. Literally "I'm out, vampire" or "I'm leaving, vampire" [pirarse is an idiomatic way of saying "to leave"]
For Latin America, more common would be chao/chau pescao which is literally "goodbye seafood/fish" since pescao is an informal spelling of pescado where the D can kind of be aspirated
You may also see/hear chao/chau bacalao "goodbye cod"
Again, all for the rhyme. The equivalent of "see you later alligator" in English. Everyone loves a rhyme
But obviously only do this among friends because it's informal and a bit childish
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Not to hijack a post but it's a slight bit different than the way the English makes it seem
It is daydreaming, but it's often interpreted like you're not being mindful or you weren't paying attention. If someone accuses you of this, they're telling you to pay attention because you weren't listening or aren't aware of your surroundings
It's usually something more like "zoning out" / "spacing out" - somewhere between "head in the clouds" or maybe "navel gazing" in English, it's like distracted by your own thoughts in a way that makes you seem out of it
I think Iām doing so good in Korean because Iām constantly watching things in Korean and exposing myself to the language.
1. K-pop
Iām such a big K-pop fan and it really helps my learning process. If I didnāt enjoy K-pop I donāt think Id be able to comprehend half of what I can today.
I watch a lot of āvlogsā from my favorite idols. (My fav to watch are LE SSERAFIMās vlogs, theyāre just really easy for me to understand and entertaining at the same time).
ATEEZ is always doing something and theyāre my ult group so Iām just constantly watching them. Recently though I havenāt been watching their stuff so I have a lot to catch up on š
The music makes no sense to me because obviously song lyrics arenāt written in conversational everyday Korean so I donāt even really count that as listening comprehension. Every now and then Iāll catch a word I know and get shocked though š
I used to watch V-lives or whatever theyāre called now a lot but I canāt focus for that long anymore. (ė°ģ±ķ has the best lego lives)
2. K-Dramas
I donāt watch as many dramas as some people but I feel like theyāve definitely helped me get used to listening to Korean.
I try not to take any phrases or vocab from dramas because itās a dramaā¦ and theyāre dramatic š
I started watching Business Proposal like a month ago but I got distracted with exams and I stopped watching it with 2 episodes leftā¦ (SPOILERS: istg if ķė¦¬ and ķė¬“ donāt stay together Iām giving up on everything)
3. Korean Cartoons
I LOVE Learn Korean with Jadoo. I barely understand any of it but itās helped me a lot with understanding how certain grammar points are used and how certain words are used.
I also like watching Peppa Pig in Korean because the episodes are short and sweet and theyāre relatively easy to understand.
I used to watch We Bare Bears in Korean but I watched like every episode they had on YouTube so now Iām rewatching in Spanish. (I genuinely love We Bare Bears, itās always been the best cartoon out there)
4. Korean News
I like to read a lot of Korean news to help with pronunciation and reading comprehension. It also allows me to find some more specific vocabulary that I would use in describing what I do, what I like, and what I want to do in my future because I can find real stories that are specific to my interests.
5. ASMR
Soy ASMR and Seonghwas ASMR videos have been single-handedly holding my life up. Judy ASMR is also a really good creator. I like to watch like roleplay ASMR like āfriend does your makeup for a partyā or whatever because it exposes me to more casual vocabulary.
EspaƱol (Spanish)
1. Classes
I do take Spanish classes at school so I get over and hour of Spanish immersion in while at school everyday. We mainly use Spanish in the classroom.
2. Spanish Documentaries
Iām a bit more advanced in Spanish than I am in Korean so I prefer to watch Documentaries as to cartoons.
Documentaries also interest me more than cartoons in some aspects like learning more about different latin cultures, hearing different accents and dialects, and learning about how other people live.
3. Cartoons
I only really watch We Bare Bears in Spanish because I just like the show, but sometimes Spanish feels like a chore to me or like Iām just learning it to pass a class at this point, so cartoons are a good way to just casually comprehend the language.
4. Spanish News
I found this really good Spanish news for kids website and itās so incredibly helpful. Iām in the process of making a āSpanish Resourcesā blog post like I did with Korean so Iāll definitely link that there.
I read the articles out loud to help get more comfortable with speaking, reading and my pronunciation.
They also have a podcast thatās just like a read aloud of the article so after I read the article, I go and listen to the podcast.
The topics are really interesting, too. Like one of them was about this lady bringing her pet pig to the airport to help calm people down??? I wanna go pet a pig wdym????
6. Spanish music
There are no words in the English language to express how much I love Spanish music.
Itās literally just so beautiful.
In class we have broken down various songs, so I can understand music very easily unlike in Korean even if I have to think about the lyrics for a bit.
7. Spanish YouTube videos/ASMR
I watch a lot of āun dĆa en mi vidaā type videos and I love ASMR so I watch a lot of those. š
this might be a dumb question but I just realized I can't think of the answer, so how would you say "the ____ one" (like "the apple one" or "the pink one" like picking something at a shop) <3
For that you use el/la plus an adjective. In general it requires you to know the gender of the thing you're pointing at, but there are ways around that
So say you're looking at a bunch of apples [la manzana, las manzanas]:
Quiero la roja. = I want the red one.
Quiero la verde. = I want the green one.
Quiero la rosa. / Quiero la rosada. = I want the pink one.
Now say you're looking at tomatoes [el tomate, los tomates]:
Quiero el rojo. = I want the red one.
Quiero el verde. = I want the green one.
Quiero el rosa. / Quiero el rosado. = I want the pink one.
Quiero el naranja. / Quiero el anaranjado. = I want the orange one.
Also very common in clothing. So, say you're talking about shoes:
Quiero los blancos. = I want the white ones.
Quiero los negros. = I want the black ones.
Quiero los marrones. = I want the brown ones.
Quiero los azules. = I want the blue ones.
Quiero los rosas. = I want the pink ones.
Or dresses:
Quiero el morado. = I want the dark purple one.
Quiero el lila. = I want the light purple one.
Quiero el verde. = I want the green one.
Quiero el amaraillo. = I want the yellow one.
Quiero el rosa. = I want the pink one.
Quiero el rojo. = I want the red one.
Quiero el negro. = I want the black one.
At a store someone might say ĀæCuĆ”l quiere(s)? "Which one do you want?" and you can say El verde "The green one" for example.
Or you can describe something like... Quiero un vestido. Uno verde, largo, sin mangas "I would like a dress. A green one, long, and sleeveless"
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Two little caveats.
First, like I said you generally have to know the gender of the thing you're talking about. There are ways to say like "this one/that one" using este/esta or ese/esa as sort of neutral if you don't know the gender of the thing.
You can also say things like la cosa "the thing", or just general things like la fruta "fruit" or other basic umbrella terms.
~
Second, especially with colors you're going to notice that some adjectives are derived from nouns themselves and don't change the endings for gendered things.
Up above la rosa is "a rose", but el rosa or el color rosa is "the color pink", and rosa as a color is considered unisex... so you'll see la camisa rosa "the pink shirt", el guante rosa "the pink glove", or los zapatos rosas "the pink shoes"
The other classic example of this is naranja "orange", where it comes from la naranja "orange (fruit)" but as a color is naranja with no changes.
Some common ones you'll come across in terms of color are often taken from fruit/food, flowers, wood, or metal:
If you're a beginner you've probably seen rosado/a and anaranjado/a in your list of colors. They're a little less common than just plain rosa and naranja but I think they include it so you don't get confused
(Also in theory la manzana naranja "the orange apple" is viable but I think it might be a bit funny/confusing to say quiero la naranja if you're looking at apples, so maybe la anaranjada makes more sense? Though idk apples aren't usually orange so this is hypothetical)
*Side Note: For hair and eye color, you typically see castaƱo used for "brown". It's not considered right to be using marrĆ³n in this case. So you'd see el cabello castaƱo "brown hair" or los ojos castaƱos "brown eyes"... though you may also see moreno/a which is used for hair, skin, and eyes but just in general means "darker"
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You also occasionally see other words created like this - a word that uses another noun as an adjective. As in la palabra clave "a key word", where la palabra is "word", and la clave as a noun itself is like "very important/basic" or "crucial information"
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would you perhaps being willing to post some vocab related to everyday things like using a credit card, atm, getting gas for your car, etc? I had an encounter at a gas station with a guy who didn't speak English and needed help figuring out why his card wasn't working, but I realized that I don't know any relevant vocab to say like "swipe it again" or "your card is fine" or "put in your PIN" etc
This is my general car vocab list which includes some gas related words
el cajero automƔtico = ATM [lit. "automatic cashier"]
pasar la tarjeta = to swipe a card
marcar el PIN = to enter a PIN
el lector de tarjetas = card reader
In general marcar is often the word for "to press a button" or "to enter a number"
If you're asking a customer to enter their PIN you usually say marque su PIN "enter your PIN" which is an usted command... otherwise marca tu PIN "enter your PIN"
Sometimes a screen prompt says marque su cĆ³digo secreto "input your secret code", so el cĆ³digo might also be useful if people don't recognize the idea of a "PIN" automatically
Other words that might help:
la pantalla = screen
la cantidad = quantity, amount
el billete = bill, paper money
la moneda = coin
el chip = chip [microchip]
el saldo de cuenta = account balance
la cuenta = account
la multa = fine [as in "receive a fine"]
el recibo = receipt
la factura = receipt, invoice / bill
el fondo = fund
no hay fondos suficientes = insufficient funds / there aren't enough funds
el efectivo = cash
en efectivo = in cash
el retiro = withdrawal
el retiro de efectivo = cash withdrawal
retirar dinero = to withdraw money
ingresar = to enter, to punch in [on a screen] / to deposit
ingresar dinero = to deposit money
borrar = to erase
I've also seen ingresar or introducir for "to add" in a tech situation like putting in numbers; if you're filling out a form it's often ingresar or rellenar
...
So to answer your questions on how to say things it would be like...
hay un cajero automƔtico = there's an ATM / we have an ATM
el cajero automƔtico estƔ... = the ATM is... [location]
Marca tu PIN / Marca tu cĆ³digo = Enter your PIN (informal)
Marque su PIN / Marque su cĆ³digo = Enter your PIN (formal)
Inserta / InserteĀ elĀ extremo delĀ chip de la tarjeta con el ladoĀ delĀ chipĀ hacia arriba = Insert the chip end of the card with the chip side facing up
[this is 100% something you'd read on an FAQ or for people who don't really understand credit cards... it reads like "make sure you're inserting your card from the side that has the chip, and make sure the chip is face up]
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If anyone has any additions or corrections please let me know!
