Important Announcement! Changing the blog's name!

As we all know, I don't post daily. So, I've decided to change the blog name to "
Your Simple Pinch of Spanish" instead of "Your Daily Pinch of Spanish".

I am also going to change the blog's layout and theme to make it more accessible and easy to use. I realize with this theme it's kind of hard to access my older posts, and so I'm going to organize everything to make it easier to use. <3

Another thing that went into my decision to change my blog's name is, as I've let you all know before, when I ended my previous website someone decided to buy the domain and keep my original content without my authorization. (I mean it's okay for them to buy the domain name, since I deleted my site, but it was NOT okay to steal my original posts.)

Because of that reason I had decided to keep my previous blog name, so that people would know it was me here, and not a copycat. But even when I had the website I had decided I wanted to change the blog name, because when I chose that name, I was home without a job and without college, so I had all the time in the world to blog, and because of that, I decided to make a daily blog to keep my mind busy and have fun sharing my native language with people who wanted to learn it.

Now I believe that, I should just ignore that person who stole my original content, and continue to create more new content, whenever I can, and just because I want to.
It still hurts to see that my content hasn't been removed from the site, and that someone else is using it with no shame (I even sent an email to an address that now appears at the top of the page, and had no reply from the shameless people.)

Eventually it will stop hurting. I know that the people who follow my content know that I am now on Blogspot. Anyway, whoever stole my content never wrote original content of themselves; they just posted some photos on my original posts, and posted "by Susan" at the bottom... So these people are just taking advantage of others since they have no talent of their own.

I expect to dedicate more to this blog soon. I'm currently working on two novels, so I haven't had much time to blog. If you want to know more about my blogs, follow me on Tumblr! In my Tumblr blog you have ALL the links to every single thing I do online.

Thank you for your support, and I will see you soon. :)

~Maria

How to say you have an itch in Spanish

Hello everyone! ¿Cómo están hoy? (How are you today?)

I haven't been posting new Spanish lesson blogs in a long time, partly because of the hurricances leaving me without electricity and internet (I live in Puerto Rico), and partly because I was a little disappointed that my website was stolen and is still being used by someone else (someone names Susan, apparently?) after I deleted it to pass all the content to this blog, which is free and easier to use. But not I hope I can make it work here. I don't know how many people follow the blog, but I like posting Spanish lessons. (I just wish I hadn't chosen the word "daily" since we all know how good I am at "daily" lol).

Ok, without further ado, here's today's short Spanish lesson! :)

I chose to make it about itch, because I've been crazy with allergies these days, and my eyes just won't stop itching. haha

Vocabulary:

Itch - Picor (pee-cohr)

To be itchy/ To have an itch - Tener un picor (teh-nehr oon pee-cohr)

(Something) is itchy - Da picor (dah pee-cohr)


Additional vocabulary (for the examples):

Camisa - Shirt (kah-me-sah)

Ojo - Eye (oh-hoh)

Todo - Everything (toh-doh)

Tener - To have (Teh-nehr) (Tengo - I have) (Ten-goh)


Examples:

Tengo picor - I have an itch

Esa camisa da picor - That shirt is itchy

Me pica el ojo - My eye is itchy

Eso da picor - That (thing) is itchy

Me pica todo - Everything is itchy


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I hope this short lesson was easy to understand. I hope I can come back with more lessons soon. Thank you for your support! I hope I can be at least of a little help for your Spanish learning journey. :)

~Maria

How to say you hate something in Spanish

Hello! And welcome to your daily pinch of Spanish :)

Everyone knows that everything is not perfect all the time. Sometimes we really don't like something, or even hate it! So, if you need to say it in Spanish, how do you go about it?

I'll give you several phrases.

(Remember I have pronunciation tables here if you need them.) (*Update: my pronunciation page is currently unavailable, until I rebuild my blog here. I had to delete my old website, so a lot of my links won't work until I reestablish them. Sorry!)

First, words for dislike:

1- Odio (oh-dee-oh) - Hate

2 - Repudio (reh-poo-dee-oh) - Repudiation, rejection

3- Asco (ahs-koh) - Revulsion

4- Disgusto (dees-goos-toh) - Disgust

5- Desagrado (deh-sah-grah-doh) - Dislike, displeasure

Now to the phrases:

1. No me gusta - I don't like it/I hate it

*Past tense: No me gustó

2. Lo odio - I hate it (stronger than saying 'no me gusta')

*Related:

Odio eso - I hate that.

*Past tense: Lo odié

3. Me desagrada - I dislike it/I dislike that (not too common)

4. Me asquea - I find it revolting (not to common, and for me it is stronger than saying you hate something)

5. Lo repudio - I repudiate it/I hate it (stronger even, and not common)

6. Me parece molesto - I find it annoying

*Past tense: me pareció molesto

You can add the words mucho (much, manu, a lot), and tanto (a lot):

No me gusta mucho: I don't like it very much

No me gusta tanto: AI don't like it very much

Lo odio mucho - I hate it very much

Also bien (very) muy (very, much) and tan (a lot, so) for this one:

Me parece bien molesto - I find it very annoying

Me parece tan molesto - I find it so annoying

Me parece muy molesto - I find it very annoying

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This is it for now :)

I hope you guys find this lesson useful and simple.

Until next time!

How to say you’re in a hurry in Spanish

surely find useful: How to tell others you're in a hurry.

First, the key word:

*Prisa (pree-sah) - hurry, rush, haste

Now, here are some ways to say you're in a hurry:

Tengo prisa - I'm in a hurry

Ando con prisa - I'm in a hurry (Literally, 'I walk in a hurry.')

*Use this when you meet a person you know in a place, but you can't stay to talk for too long.

If you want to say it like an excuse:

Es que tengo prisa - It's just that I'm in a hurry

*You can also add the word mucha (much, many) to these expressions, to say that you're really in a hurry:

Tengo mucha prisa - I'm really in a hurry/I'm in a real hurry

Es que tengo mucha prisa - It's just that I'm really in a hurry.

Now, how to tell others to hurry up:

Date prisa - Hurry up

Avanza - Hurry

No te tardes - Don't take long

*To make it more polite, add Por favor - Please

*You can add it before or after:

Por favor date prisa - please hurry up

Avanza, por favor - Please hurry

No te tardes, por favor - Don't take long, please

*To make this last one more polite or respectful (if you're talking to a stranger or someone older than you, for example, you say) say it this way: No se tarde/No tarde.

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 This is it for now :)

I hope you enjoyed this lesson and that you found it useful and simple.

Until next time!

How to express happiness in Spanish

Hello everyone and welcome to Your Daily Pinch of Spanish! :)

I was requested to make lessons on how to express emotions, and I thought it would be best to make it as a series, since emotions are many and in one post would be very long and I like to keep things simple so everything is easier to understand.

Today I start with how to express that you are happy.

Let's begin :)

First words for happiness:

Feliz (feh-lees) - Happy

*The strength of pronunciation is in the last syllable.

Felicidad (Feh-lee-see-dad) - Happiness

Alegría (ah-leh-gree-ah) - Happiness, joy

Alegre (ah-leh-greh) - Happy, cheerful, lively

Contento(a) (kohn-ten-toh(ah))- Happy, pleased

Now I will give you phrases to express your happiness:

1- First the super simple estoy feliz.

estoy means 'I am', so this phrase means 'I'm happy'. To say that others are happy, the verb estoy changes:

Estás feliz - You are happy

Está feliz - She/he is happy

Están felices (plural) They are happy

*You can add 'muy', 'tan', 'bien', and 'súper':

Estoy tan feliz - I'm so happy!

Estoy muy feliz - I'm very happy!

Estoy bien feliz - I'm very happy

Estoy súper feliz - I'm super happy

*You can add these words to contento(a), and alegre, too.

2- Me hace feliz - It makes me happy

*Hacer translates to 'do'.

You can also say- Me pone feliz - it makes me happy, Like 'eso me pone feliz' (that makes me happy).

*Poner - translates to 'put', so literally this translates to 'It puts me happy', but the way it is used in everyday Spanish the expression translates to 'it makes me happy'.

3- Me contenta - It pleases me, or, it makes me happy

*I really don't hear this too often, unless the person had been previously sad or down, and somebody cheers them up.

*You can also say 'me pone contento' (if you identify as male) or 'Me pone contenta' (If you identify as female). This translates to 'it makes me happy' (literally 'it puts me happy').

*Me contenta, even if it sounds and looks exactly as the the example above that a girl would use, is a different word when connected to me; it's for everyone to use. It's a form of the verb 'contentar', meaning 'it makes me happy'.

*You can also say estoy contento (if male; if female: contenta) to say 'I'm happy'.

4- Me alegra - it makes me happy

*This one I usually hear it here as a reply to good news. Like me alegra escuchar eso - I'm happy to hear that.

*You can say estoy alegre for 'I'm happy', as well.

*You can use 'tanto' and 'mucho':

¡Me alegra tanto escuchar eso! - It makes me so happy to hear that!

Me alegra mucho ver que todo está bien - It makes me very happy to see that everything is okay.

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This is for now. There will be many more lessons to come about expressing feelings and emotion. I hope you can understand well, and if you have any doubt, just contact me on my Twitter or Facebook, or my Tumblr too and I'll answer.

I hope you find this lesson useful :)

Thank you for reading! Until next time!

Dia de las madres. Mother’s Day in Spanish

Hello everyone! And Welcome to Your Daily Pinch of Spanish :)

Today I bring you a simple and short lesson post in which you will learn how to congratulate a mom on mother's day and also some Hispanic countries' names.

So, how do you say 'mother's day' in Spanish? 

Día de las Madres - Mother's day (literally, Mothers' day; in Spanish it's in plural.)

Here's how you congratulate a mom! :)

¡Feliz día de las madres! - Happy mothers' day!

Some Hispanic Countries that celebrate mother's day today:

I wrote a pronunciation guide in parenthesis in case you want to know how we pronounced these in Spanish.

(The second Sunday of May)

Honduras - (ohn-doo-rahs)

Perú - (Peh-roo)

Puerto Rico - (Poo-ehr-toh ree-koh)

Colombia - (koh-lohm-bee-ah)

Cuba - (coo-bah)

(The tenth of May)

México - (mehk-see-koh) (*more commonly pronounced: meh-hee-koh)

El Salvador - (ehl sahl-vah-dohr)

Guatemala - (goo-ah-teh-mah-lah)

The Vocabulary List!

I know, by this point you probably can translate all this, but to make it more complete, I include the words:

Feliz (feh-lees) - Happy

Madre (mah-dreh) - Mother

Día (dee-ah) - Day

Mayo (mah-joh) - May

De (deh) - (*Indicates possession) Of, from, by

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This is it for today! A short little lesson post for Mother's day. I hope you enjoyed it and learned something with me today :)

Until next time!

How to say you’re hungry in Spanish

Hello! Welcome to Your Daily Pinch of Spanish :) 

As the title shows, I'll show you today how to express that you're hungry. Plus, I'll show you some exaggerations and slang.

Let's begin! This will be a short and very simple lesson. First, the word for hungry:

Hambre (ham-breh) - Hunger, hungry

How to say you're hungry:

- Tengo hambre - I'm hungry

*The one you will hear the most, and use the most. Can be used in any setting, both casual and formal.

- Estoy hambriento/Estoy hambrienta - I'm hungry

*This one is less common than the example above.

(*ending in 'o' is the masculine, and in 'a' the feminine)

Casual exaggerations:

*Me muero de hambre - I'm starving

*Estoy verde de hambre - I'm starving (literally: I'm green with hunger)

*Estoy muerta de hambre/Estoy muerto de hambre - I'm starving

Other related expressions:

Tengo el estómago vacío - My stomach is empty/I'm on an empty stomach

Estoy en ayunas - I'm fasting

No he comido nada - I haven't eaten anything

No he comido nada todavía - I haven't eaten anything yet

To end, Puertorrican slang for hungry!

(It's super casual, so you shouldn't use it in public; just use it among friends and family)

Estoy esmayao/Estoy esmayá - I'm starving

(ehs-mah-jah-oh) (ehs-mah-jah)

(Ending in 'a' is the feminine form, and ending in 'o' is the masculine)

*I think this word came from the word 'desmayado' which means unconscious (from fainting), but we use it to express that we're very hungry. And you will usually hear older people using it (older people here use it more than 'tengo hambre' to express they are hungry, so for them most of the time it's not an exaggeration).

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This is it for now :)

As usual I hope you find this useful. Any doubt, you can always contact me on my twitter page. 

See you next time!

Read and Translate: Wildfire

Hello and Welcome to Your Daily Pinch of Spanish! :)

Today I want to talk about something that's been going on near where I live, and it's actually very annoying: a fire. More like a wildfire.

It's not particularly big, an it's not that out of control, you could say (as in it doesn't seem to be spreading much), and it is far enough so that everyone in this neighborhood is safe, but the smoke still gets here and it is annoying, especially at night.

I'll talk to you about it in Spanish now, and later give you the translation and notes:

Cerca de mi casa está quemando un fuego, en el tope de un monte. Lleva ya cinco días, y si veo el humo subir hoy, entonces ya serán seis. Está cerca de mi casa, pero no al punto que sea peligroso. El humo es lo más que presenta una molestia, porque la casa se llena de ese mal olor, en especial en la noche. A veces parece como si al fin se hubiera apagado el fuego, pero luego, en la tarde (quizá por el sol caliente y el calor) vuelve a encender, y el humo a subir. Espero que ya lo controlen los bomberos el día de hoy.

Now let me give you the full translation of this in English:

Near my house there's a fire burning, on the top of a hill. It's been burning for five days, and if I see the smoke coming up today, then it will be six. It's close to my house, but not to the point that it's dangerous. The smoke is the biggest annoyance, because the house gets full of that bad smell, especially at night. Sometimes it appears as if the fire finally extinguished, but then later, in the afternoon (perhaps because of the hot sun and the heat) it goes on again, and the smoke rises. I hope the firefighters control it today. 

Vocabulary and notes:

Vocabulary

(*I won't give you all of the words, since some I'm going to explain as a phrase in a moment.)

1- Cerca (sehr-cah) - Near, close to

2- Está (Ehs-tah) - to be (present form)

3- Quemando (Keh-mahn-doh) - Burning, to be burning (from verb 'quemar')

4- Tope (toh-peh) - The top

5-  Monte (Mohn-teh) - Hill

6 - Cinco (seen-koh) - Five

7- Entonces (ehn-tohn-sehs) - Then

8- Pero (peh-roh) - But

9- Peligroso (peh-lee-groh-soh) - dangerous

10- Humo (oo-moh) - Smoke

11- molestia (Moh-lehs-tee-ah) Annoyance

*Annoying translates to - molesto, or, molestoso; and also fastidioso.

12- Casa (kah-sah) - House

13- Mal olor (mahl oh-lohr) Bad smell, bad odor

14- Noche (Noh-cheh) - Night

15- Luego (loo-eh-goh) - Later

16-  Tarde (Tahr-deh) - Afternoon

17- Sol (Sohl) - Sun

18- Caliente (Kah-lee-ehn-teh) - Hot, warm

19- Calor (ka-lohr) - Heat

20- Encender (ehn-sehn-dehr) - To turn on, to switch on

21- Subir (soo-beer) - Rise

22- Espero (ehs-peh-roh) - I hope (from verb 'esperar'. It also translates to wait, in this form 'I wait'.)

23- Controlen (cohn-troh-lehn) - control (from verb 'controlar')

24- Bomberos  (bohm-beh-rohs) - Firefighters (*plural. Singular is: bombero) 

25- Hoy (oi) - Today

Notes:

Lleva ya - This expression translates to 'it's been' or 'it has gone on'. Literally, it would translate to 'it carries already'. Lleva ya cinco días - It's been five days, or, it has gone on for five days.

Si ___ entonces ___- The word si (without an accent) means 'if'. It's the conditional. Usually it will be followed by entonces, like in English 'if' is followed by 'then'. Si (something happens) entonces (outcome). Si veo el humo subir hoy - if I see the smoke rise today entonces ya serán seis (días) - Then it will be six (days).

Sometimes the word entonces won't be there, but as a conditional, it will usually have an outcome. An extra example: Si llueve hoy, no voy a salir - if it rains today, I won't go out.

Hubiera - This word causes confusion even to native Spanish speakers. (Well, it did to me for a long time lol). And why, you may ask? It's because there is another word that is used in the same context and means exactly the same thing: Hubiese (oo-bee-seh). The two are interchangeable; you can use it exactly the same. Now, I read that hubiese is more formal than hubiera, at least it originally it was. Today you can use both for the same purpose and in the same context. It translates to 'would have' or 'there was'. Extra examples: Hubiera/hubiese dormido más - I would have slept more.

Ella hubiese ganado - She would have won

*Update: I hadn't even finished writing this when I saw the smoke rising, so, yet ANOTHER day of smoke here. That fire just keeps going and going. (*Update: This was in 2015. That fire lasted for days!)

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This is it for today! This is quite a long one, isn't it? I hope you have enjoyed this post, and that you find it useful, which is the most important.

If you have any doubt, just contact me on my Twitter page or my Facebook page.

You can also go to my Tumblr Blog, too.

See you next time! :)

How to ask for help in Spanish

Hello everyone and welcome to the blog! :)

Today I want to show you how to ask for help in Spanish. This is one of the most important things you should learn when learning a new language.

As usual, I will write a pronunciation guide in parenthesis, but you can always check the tables I created to help you with Spanish Pronunciation. (*Update: The page with these tables doesn't currently exist, since I had to delete the spanish blog. I am remaking everything in this blog. I will update when I have the page ready again.)

Let's begin. I'll start by giving you the translations to both the noun and verb for 'help':

Ayuda (ah-joo-dah) - Help (noun)

Ayudar (ah-joo-dahr) - To help (verb)

Now I'll show you five phrases to ask for help:

1) Permiso, ¿me puede ayudar? - Excuse me, can you help me?

*Use this when you need to ask something in a place, like directions, for example. You can add 'por favor' ('please') too:

Permiso, ¿me puede ayudar? Por favor

Permiso, ¿por favor me puede ayudar?

Por favor, ¿me puede ayudar?

Casual variations:

¿Me puedes ayudar? - Can you help me?

¿Puedes ayudarme? - Can you help me?

¿Mira, me puedes ayudar? - Hey, can you help me?

* You can of course add 'por favor' to all of these.

2) Necesito ayuda - I need help

*Again, you can also add 'por favor', especially if you're approaching a person on the street in a place.

3) Ayúdeme por favor - Please help me

4) ¿Alguien me puede ayudar? - Can someone help me?

5) Ayuda - Help

*If you find yourself sick or in a dire situation in public, sometimes all you can say is just 'help'.

*Variations of this: (all of these translate to 'help me')

Ayúdenme

Ayúdame

Ayúdeme (*This is a formal version)

*You will often see these written with exclamation marks ¡Ayúdenme!

There are also the expressions:

¿Me puedes dar una mano? - Can you give me a hand?

*A more formal version can be: ¿Me puede dar una mano? Or ¿Me da una mano?

*More casual versions:

¿Me das una mano?

¿Puedes darme una mano?

Dame una mano - Give me a hand

*A more formal version: Deme una mano, or, Deme una mano, por favor (also 'Por favor, deme una mano)

Préstame tu ayuda - Lend me your help

*Also: Préstame ayuda

This one is more casual, and honestly, I rarely hear it.

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This is it for now! Al always, I hope you find this lesson useful, and easy to understand. If you have any doubts, contact me on my Twitter Page, or Facebook Page.

Thank you for reading, and have a nice day :)

Until next time!