Leña is firewood. It would be used for wood that you would use for a fireplace or for cooking. Just like we would use the word firewood. It can be large or small wood, but typically smaller wood that would be used for cooking.
Interesting leño is log or block of wood.

Gatear is to move like a cat (gato). It does not refer to grace or agility as we use it in English but to walking on all four legs. Gatear means to crawl.

I remember when I first became aware of the word digno. I was in a church service on a Thursday night across the border from Texas. My friend and I had gone across to play some soccer and see if we could find a church to attend that evening to experience a Mexican church service.
In […]

Terco is stubborn. I learned this word some time back when I was teaching a class on manners. I don’t really remember why the word was important to the class, but I did hear something recently that struck me as funny which helps me remember the word even better.
We live in the state of Yucatan […]

Tonight while walking through a shopping plaza I saw the word ternura. Based on the way it was used, I gathered it meant something like loving or affectionate, which is the word tierno. Ternura turns out to be tenderness. They are indeed related. Tierno is the adjective form of the noun ternura.

I saw te obsequia on an advertisement tonight and thought it was interesting.
The verb is obsequiar and its meaning is similar to the English word obsequious which means to fawn over someone or be ingratiating. Obsequiar means to shower someone with attention or gifts.
Te obsequia can be used idiomatically to mean it flatters you.
More common […]

The Christmas story in Luke 2 starts off in the Spanish Bible with, “Aconteció en aquellos días.” The verb acontecer simply means happen. The past tense as it is used here is it happened. The wording found in the English King James Bible says “And it came to pass.” Both “aconteció” and “it came to […]

Antes is a simple basic word which means before. I was reminded this last week about an interesting complexity in the word for English speakers. Because it starts with an ‘a’ newer speakers of Spanish connect it with after.
I struggled with this when I was learning. I have heard two other non-native Spanish speakers make […]

Distinto means exactly what it sounds like, distinct. It is very often used in the way we use the word different. In Spanish there is the word diferente too, but it seems distinto is the preferred word.
I am sure there are some fine points as to when one would use diferente over distinto, but I […]

Demás is usually seen in the phrase lo demás or los demás which means the others or the rest.
It is however also used as por demás to mean something useless.
And also as por lo demás meaning otherwise.