Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez, once, doce, trece…

Veinte y uno, veinte y dos

treinta y uno, treinta y dos

cuarenta, cincuenta, seisenta, ochenta, noventa, cien…

Easy, Right?

The pattern is simple enough to remember.  The problem is that native Spanish speakers rattle them off so quickly it’s difficult to make heads or tails of what’s being said.  Even advanced Spanish learners have trouble with numbers.  Embarrassingly, they can still cause me quite a bit of trouble from time to time, because it’s something that can’t be practiced with a book and it’s not something audio programs the likes of Pimsleur focuses on.

How Best To Learn Numbers In Spanish

Unfortunately, I think this is truly an area where “practice makes perfect.”  I don’t know of any secret tools or techniques that are truly effective for this type of thing.  So why did I bother writing this post if I don’t have any ideas on how to overcome the problem in question?  I think it’s important to remind ourselves there’s no substitute for hard work.  Often, we as consumers come to believe there’s a secret formula or easy answer for every problem we might have.  Thus, we become susceptible to falling for every scam in town.  Sometimes, you just have to do things the old-fashioned way.  Nobody said learning Spanish would be easy, did they?

Llevar As “To Carry”

The most common definition of llevar is “to carry” as in “carry an object from here to somewhere else.”  For example, say you need to drop a package off at John’s house.  You would say:

Tengo que llevar el paquete a la casa de John -> I have to take the package to John’s house.

Llevar As “To Wear”

Llevar is also commonly used to express the notion of “to wear,” which can be applied to clothes or hair.

Llevo el pelo largo ->  I have (wear) long hair

Llevo gafas negras ->  I’m wearing black sunglasses

LLevar To Express Time

Llevar can also be used to express time.  For example,

Llevo dos años aquí en Barcelona ->  I’ve lived here in Barcelona for 2 years

Similarly, you can use llevar with yourself (me) as the indirect object to express how long it took you to accomplish something.  In this case, llevarme will translate roughly as “it took me”

Me llevó más que cuatro horas preparar para la entrevista -> It took me more than four hours to prepare for the interview

Llevar To express Similarity/Dissimilarity

Llevar can also be used idiomatically to compare two different nouns.

España no lleva mucho a Argentina ->  Spain and Argentina don’t have much in common (not true, but bear with me)

Traer means “to bring, to carry with you”

Examples:
Traje la cerveza => I brought the beer (i.e. I’m already at the party and brought beer with me)
Me trae las llaves => He’s bringing me the keys.

Llevar means “to take out, to carry away”

Examples:
Llevo la cerveza => I’m bringing the beer (i.e. I’m still at home, but will arrive with the beer soon)
Te llevan las llaves => They’re taking his keys to him (i.e. they are here now, but will soon arrive with your keys)

They key distinction can be summed up as follows:

Use llevar if an object is being transported to a destination where you’re not.

Use traer if an object is being transported to a destination you are currently at.

Of course, both verbs have other usages that don’t overlap, particularly llevar. I’ll cover these usages in-depth in a future post.

Nos vemos – See ya

Hasta luego – later dawg (or just “see you later”)

Chao - goodbye (from Italian)

Hasta la vista - until we meet again

Hasta mañana – until tomorrow

Nos divertimos mucho – It’s been fun!

Que te vaya bien – take it easy

Memorize this list and try to respond with something different from the other person. If your friend says “nos vemos,” try “chao” or “hasta mañana” instead.

Traer:  to bring

The most common translation for traer is “to bring” in the sense of something being delivered to you. 

He’s bringing me the keys -> Me trae las llaves

She brought me a cake yesterday -> Me trajo una torta ayer

Another common usage is for when somebody gives you a lift somewhere, i.e. takes you there.  Be careful not to confuse this usage of traer with llevar, which is a common mistake.

Eliot is taking me to the airport.-> Eliot me trae al aeropuerto

Traer is used to translate “to take, to bring” in the sense of taking something somewhere, but only when you have already arrived at your destination.  If are at a party discussing the cake you brought with you, traer would be the correct verb a la “I brought the cake -> Traje la torta.“  However, if you were at home discussing the coming party with the host and she asked what you would be bringing, you would use llevar to say “I’m bringing a cake -> Llevo una torta.“ 

One final common usage of traeris when ordering in a restaurant.  Instead of the more formal quisiera, many Spanish-speakers will use traer instead to ask for something to be brought to the table.  If used in the form of a question and followed by por favor, this is a perfectly polite way to do it, contrary to popular belief.

Could I have a beer, please?  -> ¿Me trae una cerveza, por favor?

Traer is a stem-changing verb, with the first-person present indicative conjugation being “traigo” and several irregularities in the other tenses to boot.  Consult your copy of 501 Spanish Verbs (if you don’t have one, you should!) for more conjugation information.

“Hay un auto.”

and

“Hay does autos.”

are both correct.

The same form is also used when asking questions.  In the case of a question, the question ¿Hay? means both “Is there?” and “Are there?”  Just as above, the sentences

“¿Hay un auto?”

and

“¿Hay dos autos?”

are both correct, translated as “Is there a car?” and “Are there two cars?” respectively.

When it comes to learning Spanish, sometimes the simplest tools are the best.  Sure, programs like Rosetta Stone, Pimsleur, and FSI are amazingly effective and deserve a place on every Spanish learner’s bookshelf, but these so-called core programs all share the same weakness to a greater or lesser extent:  vocabulary.  Specifically, they don’t teach enough of it for my taste.

While the above-mentioned programs are great for teaching conversational skills, eventually you’ll need to branch out and discuss topics a bit more diverse than what you’d like for dinner or the weather.  By the time you’re in the intermediate-to-advanced stage of your studies, you should know a few hundred nouns, most common regular and irregular verbs, and the grammar tools to string them together.  Unfortunately, however, you can’t speak about politics, the economy, or any other advanced social topic if you don’t know the relevant vocabulary.  That’s where vocabulary cards come in.

For Vocabulary Building, Rote Memorization Still Works Best

There are simply no substitutes for rote memorization when it comes to vocabulary building.  But don’t worry, this aspect of the learning process isn’t nearly as bad as it sounds.  It’s actually quite simple.

• First, purchase a good set of Spanish vocabulary cards from Amazon or your local bookstore.
• Every morning, take 10-15 vocabulary cards off the top of the deck and take them to work, school, or on errands.
• Whenever you have a free moment, drill with the vocabulary cards.  This could be anything from 15 minutes on your lunch break to 30 seconds in the elevator.  Every little bit counts and over the course of the day, those 30-60 seconds study breaks add up.
• Drill the cards both ways, from English to Spanish and Spanish to English, all day until you can do through them all without hesitation.  If there are words you still can’t quite get every time at the end of the day, put them in the pile to go over again tomorrow.
• Every two or three weeks, go through the pile of words you’ve already learned and spend a few minutes before bed each night going over them until you’ve reviewed them all.  Depending on how far you are through the deck, this could take a few nights or more.
• Continue until you’ve finished the deck.  Repeat if necessary.

This process, if done consistently, should yield excellent results over the course of two or three months.  If you learn 10 words per day like this, an easily-manageable number, you should be able to finish a standard pack of 1000 vocabulary words in just over three months.  Since just the 1000 most common words make up over 80% of daily speech, you’ll be well on your way to achieving a functional fluency by the time you’re done.  At this point, feel free to explore any specialty areas may be interested in.  For instance, if you are in the medical field you may want to learn medical Spanish vocabulary.  If you’re interested in guitar, learn guitar vocabulary, etc.  An excellent book for this, even though it’s not in vocabulary-card form (and thus marginally less effective), is Mastering Spanish Vocabulary: A Thematic Approach, which divides vocabulary lists thematically into different topics.  Choose a topic you’re interested in (business, entertainment, automobile parts, whatever) and get to work.

Ready to get started?  Purchase Modern Spanish: Bilingual Vocabulary Cards (Spanish Edition) from Amazon today.

Actual – Actual means “current” as it relates to time in Spanish, as in “He is currently driving (El está conduciendo actualmente).”  It never means “actual” in the English sense of the word i.e. “Is he actually going to do that?”

Embarazada – Embarazada means “pregnant”, not “embarrassed!”  Use tiene vergüenza instead if you want to convey embarrassment.

Caliente – Caliente is a border-line case because it does mean “hot” in many cases; however, when referring to human beings it usually takes on a strong sexual connotation.  If you blurt out “Estoy caliente” don’t be surprised if you get a few inappropriate offers, because what you just said isn’t that the room temperature is making you hot.  What you actually implied is “I’m hot (for you).”

Americano – An Americano in Spanish is anybody from the Americas (including North, South, and Central America), not just those born in the United States.  Many Spanish-speakers will take it as an insult if you imply otherwise.  To say you are from the United States, you can say either “Estoy de los Estados Unidos” or “Estoy norteamericano,” which technically includes Canada.

Asistir – Means “to attend” or “be present,” as in “I attended a meeting this morning.”  It never means “to assist” in the English sense.  For that, use atender.  Speaking of which…

Atender – Atender means “to attend to.”  To say you attended an event, use asistir above.  These two verbs are among the most often confused in the entire Spanish language.

En absoluto – Means “absolutely not”, which is the exact opposite of what you would expect.  To convey the meaning of “absolutely,” use totalmente.

Decepcionar – Means “to disappoint,” not “to deceive.”  To deceive someone, you would use “engañar a alguien.”

Emotionante – Means “exciting” as in “That was an exciting game!”  To say something was emotional, stick to “emocional.”

Sopa – Means “soup.”  Soap is “jabón.”

El Menú del Día

Tourists to Spanish-speaking countries are often confused by the false cognate menú, as in menú del día. The word menú does not mean the same thing as in English. Instead, a menú is a sort of Spanish combo meal, usually including a soup or salad (sopa o ensalada), side dish (primer plato), main or second course (segundo plato), and desert (postre) all for one price. El menú is generally the most economical way to eat and is available usually only for the midday meal.

La Carta

You will generally be misunderstood if you use the word menú to try to express the equivalent of the English word “menu.” For that, you should use the Spanish word carta. I was once mocked as illiterate in a restaurant in Barcelona because I slipped up and asked for the menú long after they had stopped serving it for the day. “No hay” and a confused expression are the only responses you’re likely to get if you mix up these two nouns.