Free Spanish Lessons
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Estar hartoLesson 154. ExpressionsIn the Argentine drama Provócame, we hear an ugly exchange between Mariano and his mamá. First, she calls her son an imbecile and then, a little later, Mariano spits: ¡Estoy harto de que te metas en mis cosas, mamá! Yes, he's had it up to here, as we might say in English. Hearing these lines, we were reminded of the theme song for another drama in our library: Disputas. The song goes like this: Me llamas para decirme que te marchas... Did you notice it's "harta" instead of "harto" in the song? The "you" is obviously female. You see, "harto(a)" is an adjective that on its own means "full." It agrees with the person who's, well, had it. No parece porque me aguanto You see, Julieta is enduring her illness in a way someone who's fed up with sickness might not. In a sense, you can tolerate (aguantarse) something until you are sick of it (estar harto). Aguantar: A whole lot to bearLesson 106. VocabularyHere's a haunting description of what it's like to be out in a field, wounded by a land mine:
The verb aguantar is a synonym for soportar in this context. It means "to be able to endure," "to stand" or "to bear." You'll often see aguantar followed by hasta ("until") to set a limit for how much can be stood or endured. For example: Hay que aguantar hasta mañana You'll probably hear the verb aguantar used by students with heavy work loads and tough teachers, but the verb can describe truly horrific pain as well.
Carmín: A color and a lipstickLesson 2. Vocabulary
You'll note that Perales also sings "Y te has pintado la sonrisa de carmín". In this case carmín refers to lipstick, so the phrase translates as "And you have painted a lipstick smile". Carmín can also refer to the color crimson (aka carmine), and sometimes to a type of wild rose. Lipstick, aside from carmín de labios, is also known as lápiz de labios. Bear it in mind next time you find some on the collar, yours or otherwise. (Did you know that collar, in Spanish, is the same word as for neck: cuello?) Estrenar: To use for the first timeLesson 1. Vocabulary
Part 2 of Disputas, La Extraña Dama, spotlights Spaniard José Luis Perales' classic tune Me Llamas. In this plaintive ballad sung to a woman who's on her way out the door (and out of his life), José sings y aquel vestido que nunca estrenaste, lo estrenas hoy.... Here we find a great little verb, estrenar, which the dictionary tells us can mean "to use or wear for the very first time", or "to debut". So our phrase can be translated as "and that dress that you've never worn before, you debut it today..." As is so often the case with music and poetry, these verses, so lovely in Spanish, are difficult to translate elegantly into English. Keep your eyes open, estrenar is often used in relation to the premiere of a film or the release of a book (or even a website). A quick web search of estrenar with either película or libro will give you ample example.
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