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3 answers
What is the difference, if any, between "nunca" and "jamás"?
Friends tell me there is a subtle difference between the two, and that jamás is a little stronger, a little more definitive a statement than nunca.
Both mean "never"—but are there any measurable differences? Places where you'd use one and not the…
Robusto
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"Vegetable": verdura vs. vegetal
What is the difference between verduras and vegetales? In what situations can one be used as a translation for "vegetables" and the other cannot?
jrdioko
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21
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8 answers
In what ways is the letter “s” (or the /s/ sound) pronounced in Spain?
I’ve heard varying things regarding the varying pronunciations of the “s” sound in Spain. However, no one was willing (or at least, able) to explain these variations to me.
How is the “s” sound pronounced in Spain compared to its usage in, say,…
Richard
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20
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Why is "Usted" grammatically a third person?
In English polite form of address is "You" which is second person singular and plural. In Russian it is "Вы" which is plural second person.
In Spanish (and probably French and Italian) polite address is the third person.
Why so?
alpha-mouse
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20
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Why do Spanish words have gender?
English:
What is the origin of gender in Spanish words? (la mesa, el perro) I come from another language (English) that doesn't have gender for nouns, except maybe a few things like ships, planes, etc.
I'm not complaining, just…
gnarlybracket
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20
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3 answers
Internet Chat laughter in Spanish
In English we tend to use:
lol = laughing out loud;
rofl = rolling on the floor laughing;
lmao = laughing my a** off;
roflmao = rolling on the floor laughing my a** off.
These are just some of the forms of text laughter that I first encountered on…
Mark Mayo
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20
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2 answers
Why do we use "conmigo" but not "sinmigo"?
In Spanish we typically use "conmigo" for "with me" but "sin mí" for "without me".
What are the origins of the word "conmigo"? How did it come to be preferred over "con mí"? Why do we continue to prefer "sin mí" over something like "sinmigo"?
Cal Stephens
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20
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7 answers
Translation of "bug" to Spanish
What is the best way to translate "bug", as in a misfeature of a computer program or device?
Google translate offers a few options, none of which quite seem to fit, except the term itself:
bug → bug
error → error
bicho → insect, beast,…
Flimzy
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20
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3 answers
Does an accent mark change the pronunciation of single-syllable words?
I know that some single-syllable words (most pronouns, for example) come in two varieties, with and without an accent mark on the vowel.
"Él" has a different meaning than "el", but is it pronounced any differently?
Nathan Greenstein
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20
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How to say "because!" in Spanish?
In English when you don't want to give answer or when you don't have answer and a person asks you "why?" some people then answer: "because!". What is corresponding word in Spanish?
I've checked the dictionaries and I saw some translations for the…
Ubiquitous Student
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20
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Is there something deeper behind the "verb classes swapping" of the subjunctive endings?
In Spanish (and also in Latin, and most of Romance languages, too) the present subjunctive is formed by a kind of swapping the indicative endings between the verb declension classes: the 1st class (-a-) takes the indicative endings from the 2nd…
Honza Zidek
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5 answers
¿Cuál es la etimología de "al fin y al cabo"?
La expresión fijada "al fin y al cabo" en inglés sería algo como "at the end of the day, in the end, after all".
Pero quería saber, ¿se conoce la etimología? En la entrada "al fin y al cabo" en Wiktionary, hay algo sobre los significados de los…
Alenanno
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20
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¿Por qué el español se pronuncia como se escribe?
¿Por qué el español, a diferencia de otros lenguajes como el inglés, se escribe como se pronuncia (o se pronuncia como se escribe)?
En mis tiempos de estudiante, durante una clase de lengua salió esta pregunta y creo recordar que la respuesta es que…
Diego
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19
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¿Cómo se dice "bootstrap" en castellano?
En el mundo de la informática se utiliza mucho el término bootstrap (últimamente para referirse a Twitter bootstrap).
Veo que la traducción más directa es la de "lengüeta de zapatos", es decir, la tira (generalmente de cuero) que se sitúa en la…
fedorqui
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19
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3 answers
What's the difference between "debe de" y "debe"?
Is there any difference? What's their usage? When should one be used instead of the other one?
Examples:
El niño debe de hacer su tarea.
El niño debe hacer su tarea.
Alfredo Osorio
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