Spanish Lesson #10 - Describing Family Members

¿Cómo es?/¿Cómo son? - What is he/she/it like?/What are they like?

Por ejemplo:

¿Cómo es tu madre? - What is your mother like?

Mi madre es bonita.  - My mother is pretty.

Mi padre es alto. - My father is tall.

Mis hermanos son bajos. - My brothers are short.

Bajo/a - short

Alto/a - tall

Feo/a - ugly

Simpático/a - nice

Tonto/a - silly/foolish

Inteligente - intelligent

Fuerte - strong

Débil - weak

Joven - young

Viejo/a - old

Muy - very

Bastante - quite; quite alot; enough:  El es bastante fuerte - He is quite strong.

Spelling/Vocabulary List #7

{Most of our words this week come from The Long Walk.}

Bustle -

verb (used without object)

1. to move or act with a great show of energy (often followed by about ).

2. to abound or teem with something; display an abundance ofsomething; teem (often followed by with).

verb (used with object)

3. to cause to bustle; hustle.

noun

4. thriving or energetic activity; stir; ferment.

Dainty - 

adjective

1. of delicate beauty; exquisite.

2. pleasing to the taste and, often, temptingly served or delicate.

3. of delicate discrimination or taste.

4. overly particular; finicky.

noun

5. something delicious to the taste; a delicacy.

Dour - adjective

1. sullen; gloomy.

2. severe; stern.

3. Scot. (of land): barren; rocky, infertile, or otherwise difficult or impossible to cultivate.

Farcical - adjective

1. pertaining to or of the nature of farce.

2. resembling farce; ludicrous; absurd.

Flotsam - noun

1. the part of the wreckage of a ship and its cargo found floating on the water.

2. material or refuse floating on water.

3. useless or unimportant items; odds and ends.

4. a vagrant, penniless population.

Gruel - noun

a light, usually thin, cooked cereal made by boiling meal, especially oatmeal, in water or milk.

Hillock - noun

a small hill.

Lorry - noun

1. Chiefly British . a motor truck, especially a large one.

2. any of various conveyances running on rails, as for transporting material in a mine or factory.

3. a long, low, horse-drawn wagon without sides.

Larch - noun

1. any coniferous tree of the genus Larix, yielding a tough durable wood.

2. the wood of such a tree.

Magnanimous - adjective

1. generous in forgiving an insult or injury; free from petty resentfulness or vindictiveness: to be magnanimous toward one's enemies.

2. high-minded; noble.

3. proceeding from or revealing generosity or nobility of mind, character, etc.

Palisade - 

noun

1. a fence of pales or stakes set firmly in the ground, as for enclosure or defense.

2. any of a number of pales or stakes pointed at the top and set firmly in the ground in a close row with others to form a defense.

3. Botany . palisade parenchyma.

4. palisades, a line of cliffs.

verb (used with object)

5.to furnish or fortify with a palisade.

Shrewd - adjective

1. astute or sharp in practical matters: a shrewd politician.

2. keen; piercing.

3. artful.

4. Archaic. malicious.

5. Obsolete. bad.

Tarpaulin - noun

1. a protective covering of canvas or other material waterproofed with tar, paint, or wax.

2. a hat, especially a sailor's, made of or covered with such material.

3. Rare. a sailor.

Temerity - noun

reckless boldness; rashness.

Spanish Lesson #9 - Family Members

madre/mamá - mother/mommy
padre/papá - father/daddy
hermano/a - brother/sister
hijo/a - son/daughter
abuelo/a - grandfather/mother
tio/a - uncle/aunt
primo/a - male cousin/female cousin

Por ejemplo:

¿Quien es el/ella? - Who is he/she?

El/ella es mi primo/prima.  He/she is my cousin.

Spanish Lesson #8 - The Rooms in a House

la cocina - the kitchen

el baño - the bathroom

el comedor - the dining room

la habitación - the room

el dormitorio - the bedroom

la sala - the living room

la ducha - the shower

la escalera - the stairs

el apartamento - the apartment 

¿Que es esto?  What is this?

Este es/esta es... - This is (masculine, feminine)

Spelling/Vocabulary List #6

{Our words for the next two weeks are taken from The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien.}

Flabbergasted - verb (used with object)
to overcome with surprise and bewilderment; astound

Laden

- adjective
burdened; loaded down

- verb (used with object)
to lade

Lavish

- adjective
1. expended, bestowed, or occurring in profusion: lavish spending.
2. using or giving in great amounts; prodigal (often fo. by of): lavish of his time; lavish of affection.


- verb (used with object)
3. to expend or give in great amounts or without limit: to lavish gifts on a person.


Outlandish - adjective

1. freakishly or grotesquely strange or odd, as appearance, dress, objects, ideas, or practices; bizarre.
2. having a foreign appearance.
3. remote from civilized area; out-of-the-way.
4. Archaic.  foreign; alien.

Pavilion

- noun

1. a light, usually open building used for shelter, concerts, exhibits, etc., as in a park or fair.
2. any of a number of separate or attached buildings forming a hospital or the like.
3. Architecture a projecting element of a facade, used especially at the center or at each end and usually treated so as to suggest a tower.
4. a tent, especially a large and elaborate one.
5.  a small, ornamental building in a garden.
6. Also called base. Jewelry. the part of a cut gem below the girdle.

- verb (used with object)

7. to shelter in or as if in a pavilion.
8. to furnish with pavilions.

Peculiar

- adjective

1. strange; queer; odd
2. uncommon; unusual
3. distinctive in nature or character from others.
4. belonging characteristically (usually fol. by to): an expression peculiar to Canadians.
5. belonging exclusively to some person, group, or thing: the peculiar properties of a drug
6. Astronomy designating a star or galaxy with special properties that deviates from others of its spectral type or galaxy class.

- noun

7. a property or privilege belonging exclusively or characteristically to a person.
8. British a particular parish or church that is exempted from the jurisdiction of the ordinary or bishop in whose diocese it lies and is governed by another.
9. peculiars.  Also called arbitraries.  British Printing.  special characters not generally included in standard type fonts, as phonetic symbols, mathematical symbols, etc.

Phalanx - noun

1. (in ancient Greece) a group of heavily armed infantry formed in ranks and files close and deep, with shields joined and long spears overlapping.
2. any body of troops in close array.
3. a number of individuals, especially persons united for a common purpose.
4. a compact or closely massed body of persons, animals, or things.
5. Military (cap.) a radar-controlled US Navy 20mm Gatling-type gun deployed on ships as a last line of defense against anti-ship cruise missiles.
6. (in Fourierism) a group of about 1800 persons, living together and holding their property in common.
7. Anatomy, Zoology  any of the bones of the fingers or toes.

Rune - noun

1. any of the characters of certain ancient alphabets, as of a script used for writing the Germanic languages, especially of Scandinavia and Britain, from c200 to c1200, or a script used for inscriptions in a Turkic language of the 6th to 8th centuries from the area near the Orkhon River in Mongolia.
2. something written or inscribed in such characters.
3. an aphorism, poem, or saying with mystical meaning or for use in casting a spell.

Scintillating - adjective

1. animated; vivacious; effervescent
2. witty; brilliantly clever

Spasm - noun

1. Pathology.  a sudden, abnormal, involuntary muscular contraction (tonic spasm) or of a series of alternating muscular contractions and relaxations (clonic spasm).
2. any sudden, brief spell of great energy, activity, feeling, etc.

Sundry

- adjective
1. various or diverse

- Idiom
2. all and sundry, everybody, collectively and individually: Free samples were given to all and sundry.

Unfurl - verb

(used with object)
1. to spread or shake out from a furled state, as a sail or a flag

(used without object)
2. to become unfurled

Vigor - noun

1. active strength or force.
2. healthy physical or mental energy or power; vitality.
3. energetic activity; energy; intensity.
4. force of healthy growth in any living matter or organism, as a plant.
5. active or effective force, especially legal validity.

Vulgar - adjective

1. characterized by ignorance of or lack of good breeding or taste.
2. indecent; obscene; lewd
3. crude; coarse; unrefined
4. of, pertaining to, or constituting the ordinary people in a society: the vulgar masses.
5. current, popular; common.
6. spoken by, or being in the language spoken by, the people generally; vernacular.
7. lacking in distinction, aesthetic value, or charm; banal; ordinary.