daily-spanish-word

[daily-spanish-word]

to clean limpiar

How I clean my room? I just stick a rag to my leg and limp around.

Have you finished cleaning your room yet? ¿Ya has terminado de limpiar tu habitación?

Pictured: a graffiti by Banksy (Chalk Farm, London)

Picture by Dan Brady on Flickr

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juice el zumo

Imagine a sumo wrestler drinking a barrel of juice.

❗️Only in Spain! In South America they say ‘el jugo’.

An orange juice, please. Un zumo de naranja, por favor.

Picture by davidgsteadman on Flickr

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to live vivir

Remember:

vivacious, vivid : lively

vivacity : liveliness

I can’t live without TV. No puedo vivir sin tele.

In the picture: “¡Apaga la tele, vive tu vida!” : “Turn off the TV, live your life!”, a piece of street art in Valparaíso, Chile, that’s becoming world famous.

Picture by 1.61803399 on Flickr

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to teach, show enseñar

Imagine el señor teacher incinerating the papers and books on his desk; he’s acting insane.

I am teaching English. Estoy enseñando inglés.

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four cuatro

Think of four bottles of Cointreau. 4 because those square bottles fit so nicely 2 by 2.

Think of four cats.

Remember: quarter

We want a room for four nights. Queremos un cuarto para cuatro noches.

Picture by Ikokujin on Wikipedia

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to run correr

Imagine your mail carrier or courier delivering the mail running because his bike (van, motorcycle…) broke down. That’s actually the Latin origin of the word courier : ‘runner’.

Corridors are perfect for indoor running. (Because you can’t run in the rooms, can you?)

We run a few kilometers every day. Todos los días corremos unos kilómetros.

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to travel viajar

It must be cost-effective to travel via jar: You buy an enormous jar, make some holes in the lid so you can breathe, get in, and let a courier service pick you up.

My grandparents are traveling. Mis abuelos están viajando.

Picture by revedavion.com on Flickr

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roof, ceiling el techo

Imagine a rooftop bar on the roof of your house with techno music, so loud that it makes you tetchy.

Can you jump high enough to touch the ceiling?

Where’s Waldo? He’s on the roof. ¿Dónde está Wally? Él está en el techo.

’Waldo’ on a rooftop? It’s a project by Canadian artist Melanie Coles. She built a large image of the iconic "Waldo" onto a rooftop in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. There’s a set on Flickr that shows how they made the painting.

Picture by Carolyn Coles on Flickr

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to greet, say hello saludar

Remember: a (military) salute, or salutation.

He greeted me with a smile. Me saludó con una sonrisa.

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to know, be acquainted with conocer

Remember: connoisseur, an expert who knows all there is to know in a certain field.

(simply ’to know’ = ’saber’)

Do you know this wine? ¿Conoces este vino?

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river el río

Remember: Rio Grande = ‘Big river’

Think of Rio de Janeiro, the city on the ‘January River’ (in Portuguese).

Rio de Janeiro is not really on a river: it’s a bay (Guanabara Bay), the Portuguese who named the ‘river‘ at the time just didn’t realize it.

The river flows slowly to the sea. El río fluye lentamente hacia el mar.

Picture by Kirilos on Flickr

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cheese el queso

case (briefcase) : Imagine a businessman walking down the street on a hot day. Smelly blue cheese oozes out of his briefcase. He’s probably a cheese salesman.

There were nine pieces of cheese on the table. Habían nueve trozos de queso sobre la mesa.

Picture by Chris Buecheler on Flickr

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bracelet la pulsera

It goes around your wrist, where you take your pulse.

Think about how those fitness bracelets (that track your activity) have pulsating lights.

He gave her a wooden bracelet. Le regaló una pulsera de madera.

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to test, try, taste probar

to probe: Imagine NASA sending out a very serious space probe to examine the exact taste of the Moon (must be cheese), Mars (strawberries?) and Venus (mango + coconut).

Imagine trying out a second hand Ford Probe.

I’ve never tasted anything as strong as this. Nunca probé algo tan fuerte como esto.

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plate, dish el plato

The final O is shaped like a dish.

Imagine the philosopher Plato (who has never seen a plate) finding one and staring at it thinking: “But what is its purpose?”

Can you recommend any vegetarian dishes? ¿Puede recomendar algún plato vegetariano?

Picture by Gideon on Flickr

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father el padre

Imagine your father as a pious padre preaching to his congregation.

Luke, I am your father. Lucas, yo soy tu padre.

Picture by Mike Baird on Flickr

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eye el ojo

Imagine the two O’s being eyes, and J is the nose between them.

What beautiful green eyes! ¡Qué hermosos ojos verdes!

Picture by Alyssa L. Miller on Flickr