Rendirse means to surrender, tire out or give up. This is a reflexive verb that actually makes sense to me. Rendir (without the se) means to conquer, overcome, tire out (them not me) or to produce. If one is doing it to themselves they are surrendering or giving up. If one is doing it to […]

Hacer has a multitude of meanings. When tied together with time, such as, hace tres años, it means since or ago. I must have missed this lesson in school because I don’t ever remember learning any rules for how hacer is used in this way. It is something you hear often though. It does not […]

If you have ever watched Speedy Gonzales on TV you have heard him say “¡ándale!” From what I have read, this usage of the verb andar is pretty unique to Mexico. It has several meanings. It can mean “come on, hurry up!” Or, “That’s it! You got it.” If used in a whining way while […]

Fijar is to stick or affix one thing to another. It would be used with cola when you want to stick an item to something else, i.e.: use la cola para fijar el papel en la pared. An interesting usage of the word though is to pay attention. Literally you tell someone to fix themselves […]

Sentido is a word that has multiple meanings. It is the participle for sentir, to feel. It can be used in just about any way we use feel in English. It can mean a physical touch type feel, or a feeling you get when you know something is right or wrong. Such as a perception. […]

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.

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 […]