Pena frequently refers to “sorrow” or “grief,” as you may have discovered when listening to the melancholic lyrics of Frente a Frente by Enrique Bunbury:

Y así ahogar las penas
And like that drown our sorrows
Caption 15, Bunbury - Frente a frente

Pena also can refer to “shame” or “pity,” as used by Spanish soccer star Iker Casillas when discussing catastrophes, such as the earthquake in Haiti.

La... la pena es que siempre suceden en... en los sitios más desfavorecidos.
The... the shame is that they always go on in... in the most disadvantaged places.
Caption 25, Iker Casillas - apoya el trabajo de Plan

It’s no surprise, then, that the common expression ¡Qué pena! is used to express “What a shame!” or “What a pity!”

Pena is often preceded by a form of the verb dar (to give), giving us the expression “dar pena.” It can be used to express sorrow or sadness.

Me da pena verlos sufrir así.
It makes me sad to see them suffer like that.

In much of Latin America, dar pena is also commonly used to express a sense of feeling ashamed or embarrassed. We hear this in the worldwide hit Fuego from Colombia’s Bomba Estéreo.

Vamos hasta abajo, a mí no me da pena
Let's get down, I’m not ashamed
Caption 25, Bomba Estéreo - Fuego

Along the same lines, many Latin Americans also use dar pena to express feeling shy. When we visit Fonda Mi Lupita for lunch in Mexico City, the manager, José, tells us why Carmen, the cook, is doing her best to hide from the camera:

Ella se llama Carmen, que le da un poquito de pena.
That’s Carmen, who is a little shy. [She feels a little embarrassed.]
Caption 21, Fonda Mi Lupita - Encargado - Part 1

Dar, in the case of dar pena, falls into the category of “verbs like gustar.” The construction is not parallel with the way we usually express the same sentiment in English; a mí no me da pena literally translates to “[it] does not give me shame.” This sounds rather awkward, of course, in English, where “I’m not embarrassed” is the common way to express the same sentiment. (In line with typical “verbs like gustar” construction, our Spanish natives agree that José would have been more grammatically correct if he had said a quien le da un poquito de pena.)

Pena can also commonly refer to “punishment,” so it’s not unusual to see it used in phrases like con la pena de muerte (under the punishment of death) or la pena máxima permitida por la ley (the maximum punishment permitted by law).

Vale la pena (“it’s worth it”) to keep an eye out for these and other interesting uses of the word pena!

Related lessons from our archives:

Merecer la pena
Le in “verbs like gustar"; Le in leísmo
Gustar: To like, to please, to taste

The Spanish verb caer means "to fall." Listen to what our artist friend Francisco tells us about a big coastal flood that took place in Venezuela a few years back:

Mucha madera cayó en el mar.

A lot of wood  fell into the sea.

caption 8, Playa Adícora - Francisco - Part 3

When describing the tumble-down of a person, caer is very commonly used in the reflexive, caerse. Notice it when  Venezuelan pop band Sondulo sings this line:

Si me caigo, me vuelvo a parar.

If I fall, I stand up again.

Caption 8, Sondulo - Que te vaya mal

On the other hand, it is also possible to use caer when someone drops something.

¿Y en un momento se te cayó una birome al piso? -Sí.

And at a certain moment you dropped a pen on the floor? -Yes.

Caption 67, Cuatro Amigas - Piloto - Part 2

This is the same sort of “impersonal” (passive voice) construction that we saw in our lesson on olvidar. Literally, what the Spanish phrase is saying is that the pen fell and that this happened to “you.” (Spanish speakers will understand that you unintentionally dropped it.)

The reflexive verb caerse is conjugated in relation to the object dropped, the pen, not to the person who (unintentionally) dropped it. It is only thanks to the indirect object pronoun te that we know that it was “you” (tú) who dropped it. As a consequence, if we remove the pronoun “te” the meaning of the sentence will change:

¿Y en un momento se cayó una birome al piso? -Sí.

And at a certain moment a pen fell on the floor? -Yes.

We find the same construction when Mexican first lady Margarita Zavala talks about her husband, Felipe:

Felipe es un... muy buen papá, pues se le cae la baba por sus hijos, les toma fotos...

Felipe is a…. very good father, he really loves his kids, he takes pictures…

Caption 15, Felipe Calderón - Publicidad - Part 2

Caérsele (a uno) la baba is an expression used to express deep fondness for someone or something. Literally, la baba means “the drool.” So the idea is that you like something so much it makes you drool (or “the drool falls”/”you drool”). Of course it’s an expression and native speakers do not think about it in literal terms.

Note that this “impersonal” construction is not used if someone drops something intentionally, in that case we look to the verb tirar:

Cuando vio la pistola, tiró el cuchillo.

When he saw the gun, he dropped the knife.

Keep your eye out for these and other interesting uses of caer when you tune into LoMásTv for your daily dose of authentic Spanish.