Say it right Flashcards
choices
opciones, selecciones
what’s your choice?
qué escoges?
there’s no choice
No hay de otra
Good choice
buena selección
What are my choices?
Cuáles son mis opciones?
picky / choosy
especial
Ellas is muy especial para la comida
demanding
exigente
annoyingly fussy
fastidioso
annoyingly picky (Mex.)
sangrón / No seas tan sangrón
enough
suficiente
plenty (use caution)
Tengo suficiente dinero ( I have enough to buy gas)
Tengo bastante dinero (boastful, “I’ve got plenty of money”
alcanzar
can mean “to reach” but also “to be enough” “to afford”
Te alcanza para una Coca?
Do you have enough for a Coke?
No me alcanza
“I don’t have enough.” (money)
Can you afford new shoes?
Te alcanza para nuevos zapatos?
Enough already!
Basta!
Es bastante guapo
He’s plenty handsome
Es bastante listo con las computadores
He’s really clever with computers.
El lo suficientemente listo
He’s clever enough.
Temor
temor = specific fear (temer); more like a feeling
temo que algo haya pasado
I’m afraid that something has happened
Mi temor es que escapen los animales
My fear is that the animals might escape.
Temo haber llegado en un mal momento
Temo que hayamos llegado en un mal momento
I feat we may have arrived at a bad moment.
Miedo
run of the mill sort of fear (fear of the dark, fear of scorpions…)
Me dan miedo / Tengo miedo de ellos
it gives me fear / I fear others
Susto
a scare; more sudden than a fear; a shock
Que susto me diste!
What a scare you gave me!
asustar
to scare (same as dar susto)
tengo miedo los osos
los osos me asustan
bears scare me
suggests bears sneak up and scare you
espantar
to scare away
espantapájaros
scarecrow (literally “scare away birds”)
espanto
spook, ghost
la casa de los espantos
haunted house
miedoso
cowardly
pusilánime
cowardly
espantoso
frightfully bad, dreadful
to convey scary use…
miedo
Es una película de miedo
it’s a scary movie
una película de horror
horror movie
tétrico
eerie, spooky
aterrador
terrifying
pavor
terrifying, intense, almost phobic fear mingled with equal parts died and loathing
me dan pavor las tarantulas
I’m terrified of tarantulas
pánico
similar to pavor but more slangy
me da horror
it disgusts me (me da asco)
me da cosa
slangy, “gives me the creeps”
adivinar
to guess
Adivina quien es
Guess who it is
Adivina que
Guess what
I guess….
Supongo (suponer)
Supongo que ya me voy
I guess I’ll be going now
Vas a ir esta noche?
Me imagino que si
Are you going tonight?
I guess so
atinar / acertar
to guess right
A ver si le aciertas la ganador
Let’s see if you can guess the winner
Atinaste!
You got it (guessed right)
Let me guess
A ver si le atino
la mitad de pizza
media pizza
una pizza medio cocida
half of the pizza (noun = mitad)
half a pizza
a half-cooked pizza
half a bottle of wine
media botella de vino
Dame la mitad
Give me half
Irse a mitades
split the cost (slangy)
Si compramos una pizza, nos vamos a mitades
If we buy a pizza, we each pay half
medio
“kind of” (as a modifier)
medio feo
medio feliz
medio borracho
kind of ugly
kind of happy
kind of drunk
a mediado de
around the middle of (always used with time)
a mediados de marzo
en medio de
in the middle of
en medio de la calle
en medio de gran lío
in the middle of a big mess
A medias
adverb describing how something is done, half-way, or half-ass
Esos albañiles lo hicieron a medias!
those construction workers did a half-assed job.
Never use “cómo” this way
“How do you like…” “How was the…”
How was the movie?
Que tal estuvo la película?
How’s the soup?
Que tal la sopa?
7 words for ‘maybe’
- No lo sé
- puede ser
- a lo mejor
- tal vez
- quien sabes?
- quizàs (formal)
- chance (slangy)
avoid these two for ‘maybe’
probablamente
posiblemente
universal excuse when something bad happens at your hands
fue sin querer
by accident / inadvertently
sin querer / sin pensar
on purpose
a propósito / con querer
lo hice con querer
I did it on purpose
you must… / you have to…
you’d better..
you ought to…
you should…
tengo que
mas te vale
mejor..
debes / deberías
mejor vas / mas te vale ir
you’d better go / you better go (or else…)
debes ir mañana
deberías ir mañana
debieras ir mañana
You should go tomorrow
adding “de” to “deber”
evidence that something is “supposed to be” or “should be” / no debe de haber llegado (he must not have arrived yet)
No debió haber llegado
He shouldn’t have arrived. (That is did arrive but against speaker’s better judgement.)
You should have gone
Debías haber ido / Debiste haber ido
- Debías haber ido a la fiesta
- Debiste haber ido a la fiesta
- Debiste ir a la fiesta
- You should have gone to the party (you missed a good time)
- (similar to above but with hint of “I told you so”)
- It was your duty/obligation to go
you should have gone
hubieras ido
they should have called
hubieran llamado
obligar
to make / to force
la policía nos obligó a salir
they police forced us to leave
el diablo me obligó a hacerlo
the devil made me do it
usually
generalmente, normalmente, por lo general, suele…
most of the time
casi siempre
most of the people
casi todos
to waste time
perder el tiempo
a waste of time
una pérdida de tiempo
to ruin
echar a perder
echaste a perder el juego
you ruined the game
to spoil / to go to waste
echarse a perder
estás echando a perder al nińo.
you’re spoiling the boy
