Mealtime phrases to sound like a native Spanish speaker!
If you are eating out with Spanish relatives or friends, here are some of the common words and expressions related with food, drink and eating in general that you may hear at the dinner table. So if you can memorise some of these to use yourself too, you will no doubt greatly impress your Spanish friends or family!
Ordering your meal:
Estoy dudando entre … y …: I can’t make up my mind between … and …
Me apetece …: I feel like, I quite fancy …
De primero …: For the starter …
De segundo …: For the main course …
De postre …: For dessert …
Estoy en ello.: I’m working on it.
Quiero algo ligero de primero.: I’d like something light as a starter.
Me reservo para el postre.: I’m saving myself for dessert.
Vamos a compartir …: We are going to share …
Voy a probar …: I am going to sample / try … Continue reading
Bandwurmwörter: Getting to Know Compound Words in German
Now that I have finished school, received my A-Level grades, and confirmed my place at University, I have received a long reading list to get me started with the next stage of my academic career. Amongst other things, this list includes a textbook containing extensive lists of German vocabulary. As I was leafing through the book, I couldn’t help but notice how long lots of those words were, especially the nouns. Now, as a student of the language, I’m familiar with the complex, almost agglutinative nature of many German words – a linguistic phenomenon which can be intimidating to many learners at first. However, if you can see past the character count, and begin to see these words as friends rather than enemies, they can be an invaluable aid in communication … Continue reading
A Beginner’s Experience of Chinese Tones
Please note that this article uses Simplified Chinese characters, which some devices may not be able to support. Click here to access a version of the article which uses Pinyin instead.
你好！ The other day I was watching a film with my parents – Hidden Strike. You may have heard of it, it’s on Netflix, and, at time of writing, it’s ranked in the top 20. There’s an interesting scene in the film, where it emerges that one of the protagonists, a stereotypical-looking action antihero, played by WWE wrestler John Cena, can speak Chinese. His new-found companion, played by martial arts legend Jackie Chan, then asks him where he learned to speak the language. Cena replies “上海市，死人安排公司” – In Shanghai, at the funeral parlour. Continue reading
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