Desafío is a challenge. I saw desafío this weekend on a girl’s shirt and wondered what it could mean. Now knowing it means a challenge it makes sense that she was wearing that shirt at a 10 kilometer race. The shirt must have been promoting some athletic challenge.

Coraje has two distinct meanings. One is the immediately obvious one, courage or bravery. Apparently this is the original meaning of the word from what I have read. More commonly I hear it used to mean anger or wrath. This is a case of where context would have to guide you in what the word […]

Vegetales and verduras are the things your mother is always telling you to eat, your vegetables.
Seems like I hear verduras used more with cooked vegetables and vegetales with fresh vegetables.

On Wednesday I was teaching Galatians 3:24 which mentions the word ayo. I explained that it meant a tutor. Even the educated people in the group were not familiar with ayo.
Ayo appears in two of my dictionaries but not another one. I don’t think it is a very common word. But, a word I needed […]

Apparently the word relicario is not often used, but I did see it on a TV show tonight. The way relicario was used was as a locket. Something that you would store a relic in. The other word that is commonly translated for locket is medallón.
I have a dictionary that is unique in that it […]

Zarpar is one of the strangest words I think I have seen or heard used in Spanish. It just sounds funny.
Zarpar means to set sail or to embark.

We had the sink fall off our wall in the bathroom the other day. When talking to a plumber today I had to remember the word for sink is lavabo. Lavabo is not a word I use regularly.
This seems like a word that can be very different from one country to another. What other words […]

We noticed something recently with our daughter. She watches Dora the Explorer in both English and Spanish. She occasionally will play out one of the adventures. If she is playing out a Spanish adventure she will insist on the English words be spoken in English. But, it is like she does not know the difference […]

Encuesta is a survey or poll. This is a word that is hard to forget when you learn it. It sounds like an inquest.

Aislar is to isolate oneself. The way I remember this word is it sounds like to make an island.
I first heard the word aislar applied to a 16 year old boy who was upset with his girlfriend. His mother told me that he was disconnected from his friends at that time, él se aisló.