I have seen the word abarrotes on many stores. These are typically smaller stores that sell just basic food items. Mostly small neighborhood stores. I thought it meant something like “quick in and out store” but my friend told me the other day she always thought it meant groceries. I looked up the word and [...]

Manejar is to manage. I don’t know why I had not seen this before, but this evening I made the connection that the two words manejar and manage have the same root. Literally the word means to handle. We use it to mean to contol both in Spanish and in English.

I had to go to the bicycle store today to get a patch for my tire. I asked the guy for a parche, unsure of the word. He looked at me as if to say “what else would you call it.” I just was not sure if parche was a patch. It is. That is [...]

Tonight at church the preacher read a verse that contained the word engendrar. I knew it meant to give birth to, to father, or to breed, but I suspected that it had a deeper meaning. It seems to mean the impetus or the starting point of something. Without talking about human or animal reproduction it [...]

Admirar can mean admire, but it also has a surprising meaning. It is to astonish or amaze. But it is with the idea of to startle.

Tocar means to touch. One would say tocar la puerta to indicate knock on the door. Also when you play an instrument you tocar el instrumento.

Today when my son and I were playing in the rain he told me that he has heard several parents telling their kids “vas a encoger” when they are in the rain. He laughed and said that was just silly. I would have laughed too, but I did not know what it meant. He had [...]

Morar is not a commonly used word but it is found often in the Spanish Bible. Morar is to live or reside in a place.

Vencer has two main meanings that don’t seem at all connected. One is to defeat or conquer and the other is to expire. When vencer is used to mean defeat or overcome it is used in a straight forward manner. “Bill overcame the temptation” would become “Bill venció la tentación.” It is a transitive verb [...]

As opposed to diving into a swimming pool, clavar, bucear is scuba diving. It is not just scuba diving, but any swimming under water. When you dive while snorkeling it is also called bucear. The sport is called buceo.