I enjoy learning new expressions in Spanish, especially those involving animals. Two of my new favorites are está como una cabra and estás como una vaca sin cencerro . It´s all about goats and cows today!😀 Está como una cabra describes someone who is crazy, wako, out of their mind, mad as a hatter. I found this expression in a reading and listening practice exercise at Practice with Lawless Spanish .  The title is ¡Está como una cabra!  where a person talks about their crazy neighbor. Estás como una vaca sin cencerro comes to me from a short video clip from Pedro Almodóvar´s 1995 film El flor de mi secreto . It is used to describe someone who is lost, aimless, without direction or purpose. In this touching scene a mother and a daughter honestly speak about the loneliness each has experienced.   I am happy to have discovered the film El flor de mi secreto and to have watched this moving scene.  And I have enjoyed learning two Spanish expressions! ...

  My Spanish Word of the Day is descabellado . I learned it while listening to the latest Spanish With Vicente video/podcast entitled El mejor ALIÑO del mundo . He tells a funny story about when he was living in England and found it absolutely crazy that people would season their French fries with malt vinegar. As time went on he learned to love it. Nowadays, while living in Spain, he often seasons fried food with this particular condiment and of course, all the Spaniards think he's crazy.   It was fun to listen to this podcast. I learned a little bit about British as well as Spanish culture!

  Desvivirse por means to do anything for someone or something .  It also means to bend over backwards or fall over yourself for someone or something .  A definition in Spanish is: Mostrar incesante y vivo interés o solicitud por una persona o una cosa . Below is an example sentence. In the novel Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Germán Blau becomes a famous, sought-after painter.       "Art dealers and gallery owners who years ago hadn't had the time of day for German were now bending over backward to gain his attention."        "Marchantes y salas de exposiciones que años atrás no se molestaban en darle los buenos días se desvivían por congraciarse con el."

 Yesterday I came across an article at Huffington Post entitled La estrategia de vacunación europea pincha en hueso . This is a new idiom to me. According to Collins online dictionary, it means to come up against a brick wall . I found this definition in Spanish at Dual Texts : no conseguir lo que se pretende, fallar en el intento; encontrar oposición o dificultad en alguien o algo .  So it basically means to encounter obstacles . The article in the Huffington Post describes the many difficulties that the European Union is up against as it tries to vaccinate its population in response to the Covid-19 Pandemic. The obstacles occur in the manufacturing of the vaccine as well as transporting and distributing it. It sounds a lot like what has been happening here in the U.S. Well, getting back to pinchar en hueso , apparently it is a term derived from bullfighting. When the matador thrusts his sword into the bull's neck, he means to pierce the aorta to kill the bull. But, i...

 Dar por is a verb + preposition combination that has several meanings. To take to A la gente le dio por hornear panes y bizcochos durante la cuarentena. (People took to baking bread and cookies during the quarantine.) Rosa siempre hacía platos españoles, pero ahora a ella  le ha dado por hacer platos franceses. (Rosa has always made Spanish dishes, but now she has taken to making French dishes.)   To take up Cuando se jubiló, a mi padre le dio por jardenería. (When he retired, my father took up gardening.) To presume dead or give up for dead Lo dieron por muerto en la guerra aunque no encontraran el cadáver. (He was presumed dead, although the body was not found.) Los soldados enemigos la dispararon y la dieron por muerta , pero sobrevivó. (The enemy soldiers shot her and left her for dead, but she survived.) To take for granted Di por hecho que encontraría el trabajo perfecto, así que seguí buscando. (I took it for granted that I would find the perfect job, so I ke...

¡Hola!  Do you know how to express the logical outcome of a circumstance or event in Spanish? First let´s remember what types of phrases we would use in English. Phrases such as  not surprisingly, no wonder, quite right too, with good reason, not without good reason,  and rightly so  all convey the near certain outcome of a situation. So, how do you put that into words in Spanish? The answer is  no es para menos . Look at this example.  Roger está muy preocupado  y   no es para menos . Tiene una hipoteca y acaba de perder su empleo.  (Roger is very worried  and with good reason . He has a mortgage y he has just lost his job.) So, how do we express the logical outcome of a circumstance or event? The answer is no es para menos . ¡Así que ya lo sabemos! Now we know! 😀  

  ¿Quieres que te sirve un poco más café? ¿Quieres que te ponga un poco más cafe? These are questions you might ask when you are offering to refill a cup of coffee for someone. The word for word translation of these sentences into English do not sound natural to me. I am assuming that the most common way to translate these sentences would be either of these three: Would you like a little more coffee?  or Would you like a refill?   It is always good to remember that the subjunctive follows querer + que when there is a change of subject . Clipart: Microsoft/Bing Creative Commons License