Let’s talk about machine translation. Often abbreviated as MT, it refers to automated software that can translate text inputs from one language to another. Google Translate or DeepL are some of the most popular machine translation services on the Internet.

Although the machine translation market size is expected to grow worldwide in the next years, as Statista data shows, Google Translate will never achieve the efficiency of human-powered translation. Do you want to know why? Keep on reading to discover some of the funniest Google Translate Fails in Spanish and why they can’t (yet) be avoided.

Switch to the human-translated Spanish version of this post.

Polysemic Words: A Nightmare Scenario

Without the right context, polysemy can be a great challenge for translation machines, especially in short text strings. When a word has multiple meanings, Google Translate chooses one according to the information given in the rest of the sentence. But, as you can see in the example below, that doesn’t always work.

The word school refers not only to a teaching organization, like don Quijote Spanish schools, but also to a large number of fish swimming together in the same direction. However, Google Translate does not quite grasp the difference. The result? A target text stating that some fish spend most of their time being schooled.

Proper Nouns Hinder Proper Translations

Proper nouns should only be translated in very specific cases. For example, when a fictional character’s name defines something about his personality. If you’re a Lord of the Rings fan, you’ll know how important it is for Gandalf the Grey to become later Gandalf the White. That’s why, for once, Spanish movie translators did well in translating this character’s name for ‘Gandalf el Gris’ and ‘Gandalf el Blanco’.

However, in most cases we shouldn’t translate proper nouns. In the example below, Google Translate didn’t realize that Pink is (also) a proper noun and ended up saying a that a color went straight into the Billboard Hot 100 list.

Proverbs and Sayings: A Long Way to Go

Google is getting more and more efficient thanks to artificial intelligence. However, and even if English<>Spanish is one of the language pairs most human input, it makes mistakes. It can translate well-known sayings, like it’s raining cats and dogs, but it doesn’t work with the less common ones.

The equivalent Spanish saying in the following case would be mejor pájaro en mano mejor que ciento volando.

Cultural Differences: Guaranteed Failure

Even professional translators can sometimes overlook cultural differences… imagine how often machine translation does so. How many lives does a cat have in your language? In English it’s nine, but in Spanish it has seven, and in Arabic only six. And believe us, Google can’t tell the difference.

Final Thoughts

Automation is taking over the world, but there are some tasks that a machine will successfully perform on its own. Translating is one of them. If you work in an international environment, we strongly recommend you to take a business-oriented Spanish course so you don’t need to rely 100% on Google Translate for your emails and presentations.

Spoiler: same as ‘little’ vs ‘a little’

Our latest post about Spanish language talked about quantifiers such as mucho, bastante, demasiado and poco. In today’s article, we are going to go over the differences between poco and un poco when used with uncountable nouns.

If what we are saying is all Greek to you, switch to the Spanish version of this post and keep on reading.

Countable or Uncountable?

To better understand this blog post, you need to know first what countable and uncountable nouns are:

• Countable nouns are realities that ca be counted unit by unit. In other words, they can be assigned a number. For example, libro (book), niña (girl), casa (house), botella (bottle), or beso (kiss) are countable entities.

Tengo tres libros de terror

(I have three horror books)

En España es normal saludarse con dos besos

• However, uncountable nouns depict realities that, due to their nature, can’t be broken into units. Therefore, they can’t be counted. Substances, materials and abstract concepts usually fall into this category: leche (milk), agua (water), azúcar (sugar), paciencia (patience), miedo (fear)… For example:

En esta piscina hay mucha agua

(This pool has a lot of water)

Mi profesor tiene bastante paciencia

(My teacher has a lot of patience → is very patient)

In this case, it would be incorrect to say, for example, tres aguas* (three waters) or 20 paciencias* (20 patiences). The quantity of this kind of nouns is determined by quantifiers such as mucho (a lot of), bastante (quite some), demasiado (too much) and poco (too few), but not with numbers.

Poco vs un poco

The type of nouns we’ve just reviewed, uncountable nouns, can use the formula we introduced at the beginning of this post: un poco (a little). The difference between poco (little) and un poco (a little) depends mostly on the speaker and the message he or she wants to convey.

• Poco (little) highlights the idea that there is almost nothing. In other words, the word has a negative connotation. For example:

Hay poco café en casa. ¿Puedes ir al supermercado por favor?

(There is few coffee left at home. Can you please buy some more?)

• Un poco (a little) expresses that there is a bit of something, although not that much. In other words, the word has a positive connotation. For example:

Hay un poco de café en casa. No es necesario que vayas hoy al supermercado hoy

(There is little coffee left at home. You don’t need to go to the supermarket today)

In the first instance, the speaker considers that there is not enough coffee left, while in the second example he or she considers that there is few coffee left, but it is enough.

To summarize, with poco the glass is half empty and with un poco de the glass is half full.

Many thanks to Ignacio Sellés, from our Spanish school in Alicante, for writing this post. Keep on learning Spanish with don Quijote’s language resources!

For Catholics all over the world, Christmas is a traditional holiday that starts on December 25. It commemorates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, but it is also a time to celebrate with our loved ones, exchange gifts, eat typical products, say goodbye to the year that ends, and welcome the new one that begins.

Click here to continue reading this blog post in Spanish.

But, in Spain, we have our own holiday traditions, and when New Year’s celebrations are over and January 6 is approaching, we start to prepare one the most exciting festivities —especially for the youngest of the family: the arrival of the Three Wise Men. We have already told you in other posts of this blog what this tradition consists of, but today we are going to give you some tips for you to enjoy the ritual of writing the letter with your children, nephews, cousins ​​or little siblings. Not only is it about making a list of all the things they want to be given, but it can be also a good opportunity to teach them to think about their actions and the situation of the world around them.

1. Teach them to reflect on their behavior

Writing the letter to the Three Wise Men can be a great way to perform an exercise in self-criticism in which children reflect on their behavior and improve it in the future. It is therefore a good time to teach them that they should evolve day by day and have a conscious life, not only on these dates, but also during the rest of the year. They will learn to value that every effort has a reward.

2. Teach them to make decisions

Each year in the month of December, children start to decide what gifts they want to receive on January 6. But since they can't ask for everything in the toy catalog —because the Wise Men would go bankrupt— the little ones must learn to choose what they really want. They will be also learning that every decision we make has some kind of impact on our lives. Explain also that, although their desires are reasonable, they may not be given everything they asked for, as the Wise Men must reach every child in the world and, sometimes, they make mistakes. Thus, they will learn that we ​​cannot have all we want, even when we deserve it.

3. Recommend them to ask at least for one non-toy gift

Although we all know that children love toys, it can be a good point to teach them that there are other valuable things to ask for. Maybe, something to make the world a better place, like the ending of war, hunger or pollution throughout the world; or even something for their future, such as a family trip, or an unforgettable experience in a Spanish summer camp! They will learn a new language and make friends from all over the world.

4. Recommend them to choose one other gift that encourages exercise —physical or mental

Hottest toys today encourage sedentary lifestyle, that is, they are designed for children to play without much effort. However, this can be a good time to change habits and ask for some toy that promotes outdoor exercise, teamwork or intellectual development. Good examples of this are puzzles, bicycles, skates, sports balls, or even Spanish courses in Spain!

5. Teach them some history

Take this opportunity to teach some history to the youngest of the family. Tell them about the origin of cultural holidays . They will be learning interesting facts about our past and having fun at the same time, since history can be told as a story. They’ll love it!

At don Quijote, we hope you make the most of this blog post, so that you can perform the ritual in the best way! Here, you can find a letter template that you can download (click on the photo) and complete with the children around you. Do you take the challenge?

This is probably not the first time you find us talking about linguistic economy. When we shorten words, either using apocopes, acronyms or other types of abbreviation, we make language more economical. In other words, we express ourselves quicker. In today’s post, we bring you a list with some of the most used abbreviations in Spanish, so you can easily identify them.

Keep on reading to learn the most commonly used Spanish abbreviations or click here to switch to continue reading in Spanish.

Before Getting Started: Differences Between Sigla and Acrónimo

Both siglas and acrónimos are shortened forms of words. In Spanish, siglas are a type of abbreviation formed by the initial letter of each term in the string. They are spelled letter by letter. By contrast, acrónimos can be spelled by syllable.

• Sigla: ECB > BCE (European Central Bank > Banco Central Europeo). Spelling: B-C-E.
• Acrónimo: UN > ONU (United Nations > Organización de Naciones Unidas). Spelling: O-NU.

In this article by RAE (which is by the way an abbreviation of Real Academia Española) you’ll find the most common Spanish abbreviations.

Country and Language Abbreviations

Let us introduce you the ISO 3166 system in case you didn’t know it. This is a standard coding system that assigns three letters to each country. This way, the code for Spain is ESP, the code for Mexico is MEX and the code for Costa Rica is CRI.

And because not all countries have just one language, the international community has created another abbreviated system called ISO 639 to identify all languages around the world using only two letters. Here’s the name of all official languages spoken in Spain according to this system:

• Spanish: ES
• Catalan: CA
• Basque: EU
• Galician: GL

International Organizations Abbreviations in Spanish

One of the biggest challenges when learning a new language is being able to understand abbreviations. Some cultures tend to keep the official abbreviation (in the source language), but we all know that in Spanish we translate everything, even movie titles.

However, most of the times organizations abbreviations are made of English or French terms, which are not that different from Spanish. Thanks to this, the Spanish abbreviation usually differs from the English one only in the order of the elements. Let’s see the abbreviation of some of the most popular organizations in the media:

Time Abbreviations

Charts, calendars, reports and official documents usually contain dates that we tend to shorten to save time and space. To do so, we can use only numbers following the format dd/mm/yyyy or shorten the name of the month and the weekday. Although there are discrepancies between the different short forms, Fundéu recommends the use of the following ones:

Month Abbreviations in Spanish

Weekday Abbreviation in Spanish

Texting Abbreviations in Spanish

Since the SMS (abbreviation of Short Message Service) appeared, the use of abbreviations increased. Afterwards, social media and instant messaging did they part and, nowadays, abbreviations are an ordinary thing in our daily chats. Twitter’s character limit and WhatsApp’s immediacy are good reasons why you should learn to identify (and use) texting abbreviations.

Let’s leave aside academic formality for a while and have a look at some of the most popular digital abbreviations.

Hope you found this post useful. Next time you face an unknown Spanish abbreviation, breath deeply and don’t panic! You can use the tips above to find out its meaning.

As we live in a globalized world, international relationships are increasingly frequent. From the late 15th century to the 17th century, Western culture began to spread to other parts of the world and extensive overseas exploration emerged as a powerful factor in European culture. That led to the discovery of new continents, and also to the exploitation of different resources and cultures, meaning the beginning of globalization. In this way, all kinds of resources were exchanged, making borrowed words a thing in most languages nowadays.

As we’ve already told you in other blog posts, Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world (thanks in part to the colonization during the Spanish Golden Age), with almost 500 million native speakers, a fact that has had a considerable impact on different languages. For this and other reasons (we love helping you to learn Spanish in the most original and easy way), today we want to share some 15 Spanish-origin words that are used naturally and have been borrowed by the English language.

Continue reading this entry or click here to switch to the Spanish version.

Some Spanish Origin Words

1. Aficionado: In Spanish, this term is used to define a person who has an interest in some subject informally or superficially. But in English, this word is used as a synonym for connoisseur, that is, `understood´ or `expert´. For example, a `literature aficionado´ would be someone who, in addition to enjoy reading, has deep knowledge or is an expert in literature.

2. Barrio: Native English speakers use this term as a synonym for `neighborhood´ or `quarter´, and its meaning is the same as in Spanish: a specific area of a city or town.

3. Cafeteria: It is usually used to refer to a self-service coffee shop or restaurant, but also for those spaces found in schools, or workplaces, which are used for eating and having lunch. It is also a synonym for “canteen”.

4. Fiesta: The word fiesta has the same meaning as the word `party´, and was included in English dictionaries in 1983 after Lionel Richie used it in his song `All Night Long´.

5. Guerrilla: This word means the same in English as it does in Spanish, that is to refer to paramilitary groups acting independently of official armies in a specific conflict.

6. Macho: This word is not used in English to refer to the sex of the different species, it only means `very masculine´. It began to be used after the famous song of the Village People: `Macho Man´.

7. Maestro: Actually, this term is an Italian origin word, and it is used in English with two different connotations: to refer to famous composers and conductors of classical music, and also to designate geniuses in other areas and disciplines. 

8. Mosquito: As we do in Spanish, this term is used in English to allude to a slender, long-legged insect that bites.

9. Negro: This term was used until the 19th century, especially in the US, in a very pejorative way towards black-skinned people. Today is still a super offensive insult and disrespect for African American people.

10. Patio: This term is used in the United Kingdom to refer to outdoor spaces inside pubs or restaurants. The equivalent English origin is `beer garden´ or `terrace´. On the other hand, patio is also used to make reference to that spaces that usually exist in the single-family houses in the UK and Ireland.

11. Plaza: The word plaza means the same as in Spanish and it is a synonym for `square´, `park´ or `court´, although recently it has begun to be used for shopping mall, and also for especially representative hotels, such as the `Plaza Hotel´ in New York.

12. Politico: Word used in informal contexts to refer to the politicians of a country in a pejorative way.

13. Pueblo: In English, this word is used to refer to American Indian villages of the southwestern US.

14. Siesta: The word siesta is associated with the habit of lying down for a while after having lunch. The English-origin term is `nap´.

15. Solo: This term of Spanish origin refers to loneliness or the fact of doing something without any company, especially in a musical performance or composition.

At don Quijote, we hope that this entry’s been interesting and fun for you, but, above all, that helps you understand these words in order to use them correctly in both languages. Finally, we want to share a phrase that any English speaker would understand without much difficulty: El maestro tocó un solo de guitarra en la fiesta de la plaza del barrio, lo que no dejó dormir la siesta al macho del pueblo. Can you think of any other?

Imagine having to plan a trip without Internet. You would need to use a real map, ask around to find a hotel, choose a restaurant without reading Google reviews… Sounds tough, right? Well, centuries ago, when the first explorers and merchants sailed the seven seas, they didn’t have machine translation apps in their smartphones.

How do you think they communicated with people from other lands? The answer is easy: they had to find linguistic solutions easy to understand for both parties. Keep on reading this post or click here to switch to the Spanish version of this article and find out about mixed languages and how they originated.

Lingua franca, pidgin and creole

When a cultural exchange between two or more different cultures takes part, speakers need to find a way to communicate effectively. Before translators existed, this was possible thanks to linguae francae, pidgins and creole languages.

A lingua franca is an already existing language which people from different linguistic backgrounds use to communicate. Until the 18^th Century, for example, Latin was the lingua franca for scientists and scholars. Nowadays, English has taken that role on an international level.

In contrast, a pidgin language is a new linguistic variety that arises when two or more groups of speakers need to attain something immediately; for example, a trade deal. It’s the result of the contact between at least two languages, with one of them having more prestige than the other one.

Finally, creole languages, as their name indicates, are those that have developed organically from the colonies’ cultural mixture. With the European expansion in the 16^th and 17^th Centuries, Amerindian languages, European languages and African languages merged, generating new linguistic varieties.

5 Spanish-Based Pidgin and Creole Languages

Due to the History of the Spanish Crown, Spanish is present in many mixed languages around the world. Here’s a list with the top Spanish-based pidgin and creole languages.

1.Chavacano

Chavacano is a group of languages spoken in the Philippines. The vocabulary of Chavacano consists generally of Spanish words and grammatical structures borrowed from the local languages. It is the main language of Zamboanga City, although it is not very common for Filipinos to speak it fluently.

2.Palenquero

In Colombia, about 2500 people spoke Palenque in the early 90s. It is a mixture of Spanish and the slaves’ African languages. Nowadays, it is practically an unintelligible language for Spanish speakers and just some old people speak it, so most probably it’s going to disappear soon.

3.Jopara

Did you know that Guarani is the national language in Paraguay, as well as Spanish? 90% of the population understand it and it is taught in schools, but most speakers mix it very often with Spanish. This Guarani variation is called Jopara.

4.Cocoliche

This pidgin is the language that resulted after several Italian dialects mixed with the Spanish spoken in Argentina during the 19^th and the 20^th Centuries. Like other mixed languages, its use is mostly restricted to the conversational mode. This language has less and less speakers every time, but many Cocoliche words are now part of the Lunfardo speech, a dialect spoken in Buenos Aires.

5.Yanito

And finally, we have the only creole language in Europe: yanito. The old continent has traditionally been migrant, and that’s why most mixed languages in the world are found in colonies. However, there is one example of a creole language in Spain: Gibraltar’s yanito. People in this British territory in Algeciras Bay (Cadiz) speak a peculiar mix of English and Spanish.

Hope you learned a lot about how far a language can get. If you want to learn more on the topic, watch the video below. Are you considering now learning Spanish?

Sergio Leone said that “La vita è un'attesa tra un esame e l'altro” (“Life is a wait between one exam and another”).

The wait is now over and the next call for the official Spanish exam of the Cervantes Institute (the most internationally recognized, the DELE exam) is upcoming very soon.  At don Quijote, we know that this test is necessary for many reasons, we want you to be super prepared so that you can get the best grade you can!

Continue reading if you want to know more or click here to change to the Spanish version.

We assume that you have already completed the DELE exam preparation course with us, but since we do not want you to miss anything, today we bring you a lot of practice (sample DELE Exam Papers divided by levels) with which you will reinforce your skills and review the contents and exercises for the test.

When is the DELE exam?

In previous blog posts, we’ve already given you some tips on how to sing up for the DELE exam in 5 easy steps, and we’ve also talked about the exam dates and registration deadlines for 2019.

As for the next (and last) dates for the DELE exam, these will be next November. The levels convened are the following:

• A1 and A2 / B1 for the youngest

• A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2 for adults.

But if you have not registered yet, we regret to tell you that it is already too late for now, since the last day to register was October. However, if this is your case and you have not arrived on time, do not worry! The dates for next year will come out soon and you will be able to complete your registration. Stay tuned, because we will notify you as soon as we have news.

Sample DELE Exam Papers

Here you can find some sample DELE Exam Papers, which have been broken down into the different levels according to the European Framework Language Levels. Click on each link to go directly to the Instituto Cervantes’ DELE webpage and download the sample exam papers for each level:

DELE Exam Sample Papers A1

DELE Exam Sample Papers A2

DELE Exam Sample Papers B1

DELE Exam Sample Papers B2

DELE Exam Sample Papers C1

DELE Exam Sample Papers C2

We trust that these exercises will be useful and can serve as a guide for preparing the DELE exam. We can only wish you the best of luck and encourage you to continue studying Spanish or other languages. We'll be waiting for you!

Popular slang words among young Spaniards (and their Spanish counterparts)

Although 60% of Spaniards say they can’t speak English, there are more and more foreign terms that end up slipping through their everyday conversations. New tech, the rise of the Internet, and globalization explain somehow the Shakespearization of Spanish. But, are all these loans actually necessary?

Read this post in Spanish.

In 2016, RAE (Royal Spanish Academy) launched a campaign against anglicisms called “Lengua madre solo hay una”, which encouraged the use of Spanish counterparts for popular words such as brainstorming or casting.

However, Spanish youngsters have taken the lead in the use of anglicisms due to their exposure to the Internet. We have compiled some of them in this list with the trendiest English words (and their Spanish meaning). From now on… there’s no excuse to get Spanish back on track!

1. Crush

A crush is an intense and usually short-lived infatuation commonly translated into Spanish as flechazo (‘arrow wound’, referring to Cupid’s). Another Spanish counterpart that we recommend is amor platónico (platonic love).

2. Hater

Social media are a breeding ground for anglicisms. This term was born right there to describe people who complain about everything or who present intense hostility online. We agree that the direct translation odiadores doesn’t sound like a match, but what about criticones (fault-finders)?

3. Stories

Instagram has changed the way young people speak. Even the different posts types are now part of the Internet vocabulary. Just as it occurred with the Facebook’s timeline in the past, Instagram Stories (easy to translate to Historias) are such a thing nowadays.

4. Mainstream

Since the boom of the underground culture, this word has been on everyone’s lips. Mainstream music, art, fashion, or literature are the ones that get promoted through mass media, reaching large audiences. Although we don’t have an exact counterpart in Spanish, we recommend you use cultura de masas instead.

5. Hype

The hype has become such a popular term in the Internet. This expression, short for hyperbole, depicts excitement or expectation. When Fundéu, a linguistic non-profit organization, asked Twitter how to translate this word into Spanish, bombo or flipe were two of the top-rated options.

That was it for our 5 trendiest anglicisms today. If you want to look at things from another perspective, watch our video about 5 Spanish words that have no English translation.

Traveling abroad to learn Spanish can be a great challenge, but it can also help you open new doors and paths, both academically and professionally. In order to make the challenge a little easier for you and taking advantage of the fact that we are in the month of computer learning, today we are going to talk about computer vocabulary in Spanish.

Click here to read this blog post in Spanish.

The Advancement of New Technology

You already know that emerging technologies are increasingly present in our routines, so we are forced to memorize new concepts frequently, even when we learn another language. New technology has really become part of our every day’s life, whether we are sitting in front of a laptop, using a desktop computer, or even surfing the web on our tablet or smartphone. Besides, it is also important to be able to hold a conversation and to use these concepts in a general context as they may come up time and time again!

Although the vocabulary of technology, especially that of information technology, is full of English origin words which you should identify, many of these terms have been translated or adapted to Spanish so they sound more natural to native speakers. Since it’s important to be accurate and to have a good command of vocabulary, this list will be very useful for you, particularly if you are interested in working in a Spanish speaking office environment or in doing business with Spanish clients or partners that might be using new technology items.

In this section, you will find the most commonly used words in Spanish to refer to hardware, software and interaction with programs which you might have to put in practice in computer related situations. If you are going to be in a situation where it is likely that you need these words, we recommend that you keep them close at hand until you have learned them off by heart, so that you can refer back to them in whatever situation may arise.

Computer Terms in Spanish

And if you want to write the word español properly when using a computer, you will need a keyboard that contains the letter <ñ>. The other options are to copy and paste it or even enter its own symbol code:

• <Ñ> Uppercase: ALT + 0209
• <ñ> Lowercase: ALT + 0241

At don Quijote, we hope you’ve enjoyed this blog post and, especially, that you put these terms into practice so that you will be able to use them as a real native speaker.

Anglicism - Definition

Ludwig Wittgenstein said that "the limits of my language are the limits of my world", and at don Quijote, we couldn’t agree more.

Today, we are going to talk about foreign words. They are loan words that one language takes from another to cover a semantic void or to offer a lexical alternative.

Read this entry in Spanish if you want to practice.

In a globalized world like the one we live in nowadays, ideas travel at great speed and cross borders. For this reason, new concepts arise sometimes, and with them, the need for a word to name them.

But we are going to focus on some loanwords that come from the English language (also called anglicisms) and have made their way into the Spanish vocabulary. In some cases, the loan word is assimilated into the receiving language with changes in spelling and/or pronunciation.

However, those who learn Spanish as a second language find some of these adjustments very comical. 

10 Examples of Anglicisms Adapted to Spanish

Next, we present 10 examples of hilarious anglicisms adapted to Spanish in terms of spelling and pronunciation that have been accepted by the RAE (Spanish Royal Academy).

Here at don Quijote, we hope you’ve enjoyed this blog post. Besides, we’d like to say thanks to the English language since Spanish wouldn’t be the same without these fantastic loan words!

If you want to learn more about the Spanish vocabulary, have a look at our last video 5 Palabras que existen en español pero no en inglés.