All Questions
20 questions
1
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1
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225
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Is “actual” both a false friend and a cognate?
English definition of “actual”:
existing in fact; typically as contrasted with what was intended, expected, or believed.
Spanish definition of “actual”:
current, present, contemporary
These are ...
- 19
4
votes
1
answer
111
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Is there such a thing as attributive vs. modifier uses of adj? Is un rojo carro vs. un carro rojo the same difference as 红房子 vs. 红的房子？
In teaching Spanish I often explain the difference between pre-nominal adjectives and post-nominal adjectives as the difference between an English noun phrase in which the adjective is stressed, and ...
- 159
4
votes
1
answer
92
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Do constructs like "going to do" and "ir a hacer" share a common origin?
I'm curious about the linguistic background between these phrases because they don't make sense word-for-word in either language, but they work almost identically. Wikipedia says that a similar form ...
- 141
1
vote
0
answers
89
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"Ser"/"estar" acquisition in bilingual children (English-Spanish)
For the last week I've been wondering about how bilingual children (English-Spanish) might struggle with the acquisition of the "ser"/"estar" copulas, considering how these are ...
- 11
1
vote
0
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80
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Looking for socio research on "Latinx"
I'll crib the intro from Wikipedia:
Latinx is a gender-neutral English neologism, sometimes used to refer to people of Latin American cultural or ethnic identity in the United States.
"Latinx&...
- 541
3
votes
1
answer
215
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Differences between free languages and official languages?
In short: as far as I know, English in the USA has no official standards from the government for how it's to be written and used. There are just dictionaries. Spanish however, has the RAE, which is an ...
- 131
4
votes
0
answers
99
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Does California vowel shift occur in bilingual Spanish speakers?
I know that recently there has been a lot of research done on the California vowel shift being a key part of a California accent for younger kids who have grown up there.
Knowing that there is a ...
- 41
1
vote
2
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72
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Where can I find a set of Spanish-English comparable texts? ***(Not translations)***
This is my very first post, I hope I'm making myself clear.
What I'm asking for is a set of texts that are equivalent in both languages in terms of difficulty, word frequency and register (i.e. two ...
- 19
-2
votes
1
answer
525
views
Why do swear words mean the same thing in both English and Spanish (possibly more languages)
Earlier today, I was talking about swearing in other languages with some friends (this is a serious question, bear with me), so I decided to look up some lists of Spanish swear words for fun. This ...
- 109
3
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2
answers
651
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Are the English words "essence" and "essential" related to the Spanish word "ser"?
I always think of the Spanish verb "ser" being related to "essence", which can be contrasted with the verb "estar", which is related to "state".
"Ser" is also a noun with various meanings including "...
- 14.8k
7
votes
2
answers
488
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What came first: «starboard» or «estribor»?
In English, the right side of a ship (and everything beyond said side) is called «starboard». I know enough about sailing and about stars to know that stars can't have anything to do with that name, ...
- 184
1
vote
1
answer
114
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To be or not to be - you got to be somewhere to be something or you are where you are? [closed]
I wonder, in Spanish we have to different words for to be (location) and to be (description) from my point of view, as a natural Spanish speaker tho I've spoken English all my life, just not as much, ...
- 111
5
votes
2
answers
205
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Does the Perfect in addition to its perfect meaning also denotes perfective / imperfective / either meaning (in English and Spanish)?
Just to note that I'm well aware as to the difference between the perfect and perfective aspects.
Up until recently I though that the Perfect aspect can denote (in addition to its perfect aspect ...
- 51
2
votes
0
answers
187
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N-gram translations from Spanish to English
I have a large list of n-grams for spoken Spanish. I wish to establish for each n-grams whether or not it represents something idiomatic (phrasal verb, idiom etc.) or not.
For example, these are ...
- 1,072
1
vote
1
answer
575
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Use of subjunctive in various languages
The subjunctive is most often used when expressing volition. Using English and Spanish as examples:
The doctor recommends that you eat vegetables and fruits.
El médico recomienda que comas verduras y ...
- 179
2
votes
6
answers
1k
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Natural vs. "Forced" language learning
Would the "natural" way of learning a language (the way we learn our mother tongue) be better even for acquiring second (and third, etc.) languages?
What I mean is:
The "natural" way to learn a ...
2
votes
1
answer
256
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Are Spanish "que" clauses following "parece" complements or postponed subjects?
The Spanish equivalent of It seems that they hate each other is Parece que se odian.
In both languages seem/parecer are one-place predicates (well, both can optionally accept a second argument with ...
user6814
1
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1
answer
182
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Is «plausible» a false friend between English and Spanish? [closed]
I'm a native Spanish speaker and today I was just wondering about this, if it's a case like bizarre and bizarro (which in Spanish means «generous» or «brave», not «weird»).
I couldn't fully ...
3
votes
2
answers
3k
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Why is it correct to say "Honey, I'm home", but "Miel, soy casa" is not?
Inspired by the picture below (thanks to brainlesstaless), when I got home I called to my wife: "Miel, soy casa". After a short pause, she started laughing.
I know in Spanish this sentence makes no ...
- 141
2
votes
1
answer
465
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What are expressions like «The Dutch have taken Holland» called in linguistics? [closed]
And does anyone by chance know any expressions of this kind in Spanish?
Some others are:
Queen Ann is dead.
It rains a lot in England.
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