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.

Corfu

Corfu is a small island just off the East coast of Greece. It is about 237 square miles and has a population of about 100,000. Its principal city, also named Corfu has a population of about 40,000. Its history includes many battles and conquests which can be told by the many castles and forts throughout the island. Corfu is a very popular tourist destination and was mainly visited by higher class family's from England up until WW1 and today is visited by mainly middle class family's

Spanish, Lesson 7

'Introducing someone' is the topic of this week's lesson...

New phrases:

Soy (I am):  Jennifer, Jacob, etc.

Este es:  This is (male), Estos son:  This is, they are (plural, masculine, or group of males and females)

Esta es:  This is (female), Estas son:  This is, they are (plural, feminine)

Ejemplos: 

Esta es la novia de Carlos.: This is Carlos' girlfriend.

Este es el novio de Laura.: This is Laura's boyfriend.

Estos son mis vecinos - They are my neighbors.

Esta es mi esposa - This is my wife.

Esto es mi esposo - This is my husband.

New words:

Esposo/a: Husband/wife

Vecino/a: Neighbor (male/female)

Compañero/a: companion, classmate

Jefe/a: boss (male/female)

¡Mucho gusto!  - Pleased to meet you!  (Directly translated it means 'much pleasure', but can be used as a greeting also.)

Encantado/a - Enchanted (Male/Female): as in 'enchanted to meet you'.

Spelling/Vocabulary List #5

Anecdote - noun

a short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person
  • an account regarded as unreliable or hearsay
  • the depiction of a minor narrative incident in a painting

Cunning - adjective

1. having or showing skill in achieving one's ends by deceit or evasion
  • ingenious

2. attractive; quaint

Elixir - noun

a magical or medicinal potion
  • a preparation that was supposedly able to change metals into gold, sought by alchemists.
  • (also elixir of life) a preparation supposedly able to prolong life indefinitely.
  • a medicinal solution of a specified type; i.e. for coughs

Graft -

noun
Horticulture .

a. a bud, shoot, or scion of a plant inserted in a groove, slit, or the like in a stem or stock of another plant in which it continues to grow.
b. the plant resulting from such an operation; the united stock and scion.
c. the place where the scion is inserted.
2. Surgery . a portion of living tissue surgically transplanted from one part of an individual to another, or from one individual to another, for its adhesion and growth.
3. an act of grafting.

verb (used with object)
4. to insert (a graft) into a tree or other plant; insert a scion of (one plant) into another plant.
5. to cause (a plant) to reproduce through grafting.
6. Surgery . to transplant (a portion of living tissue, as of skin or bone) as a graft.


Horde -


noun
1. a large group, multitude, number, etc.; a mass or crowd.
2. a tribe or troop of Asian nomads.
3. any nomadic group.
4. a moving pack or swarm of animals.

verb (used without object)
5. to gather in a horde.


Lugubrious - adjective
mournful, dismal, or gloomy, especially in an affected, exaggerated, or unrelieved manner.

Nigh -


adverb
1. near  in space, time, or relation.
2. nearly; almost; (often followed by on  or onto).

adjective
3. near;  approaching.
4. short or direct: to take the nighest route.
5. (of an animal or vehicle) being on the left side.
6. Archaic . parsimonious; stingy.

preposition
7. near.

verb (used without object), verb (used with object)
8. Archaic. to approach.

Progeny - noun, plural -ny or, for plants or animals, -nies.

1. a descendant or offspring, as a child, plant, or animal.
2. such descendants or offspring collectively.
3. something that originates or results from something else; outcome; issue.

Scorn -


noun
1. open or unqualified contempt; disdain.
2. an object of derision or contempt.
3. a derisive or contemptuous action or speech.

verb (used with object)
4. to treat or regard with contempt or disdain.
5. to reject, refuse, or ignore with contempt or disdain.

verb (used without object)
6. to mock; jeer.

Idiom
7. laugh to scorn, to ridicule; deride.

Shole - noun

A plank fixed beneath an object, as beneath the rudder of a vessel, to protect it from injury; a plank on the ground under the end of a shore or the like.

Shoal -

noun

1. a place where a sea, river, or other body of water is shallow.
2. a sandbank or sand bar in the bed of a body of water, especially one that is exposed above the surface of the water at low tide.

adjective
3. of little depth, as water; shallow.


Sojourn -

noun
1. a temporary stay.

verb (used without object)
2. to stay for a time in a place; live temporarily.

Toil -

noun
1. hard and continuous work; exhausting labor or effort.
2. a laborious task.
3. Archaic . battle; strife; struggle.

verb (used without object)
4. to engage in hard and continuous work; labor arduously: to toil in the fields.
5. to move or travel with difficulty, weariness, or pain.
verb (used with object)
6. to accomplish or produce by toil.

Truculent - adjective

1. fierce; cruel; savagely brutal.
2. brutally harsh; vitriolic; scathing.
3. aggressively hostile; belligerent.

Unctuous - adjective

1. characterized by excessive piousness or moralistic fervor, especially in an affected manner; excessively smooth, suave, or smug.
2. of the nature of or characteristic of an unguent or ointment; oily; greasy.
3. having an oily or soapy feel, as certain minerals.

Vociferous - adjective

Crying out noisily; clamorous.

Spelling/Vocabulary List #4

Akimbo  adverb
with hands on the hips and elbows turned outward;
(of other limbs) flung out wildly or haphazardly

Champertous  adjective
(being of) an illegal agreement in which a person with no previous interest in a lawsuit finances it with a view to sharing the disputed property if the suit succeeds

Countenance noun
a person's face or facial expression; support

verb [trans.]
admit as acceptable or possible

Dispel verb [trans.]
make (a doubt, feeling or belief) disappear; drive something away; scatter

Eccentricity noun
the quality of being eccentric
● (usu. eccentricities) an eccentric act, habit, or thing

Elucidate verb [trans.]
make something clear; explain

Frank adjective
open, honest and direct in speech or writing, esp. when dealing with unpalatable matters
open, sincere, or undisguised in appearance or manner

Fey adjective
giving an impression of vague worldiness
● having supernatural powers of clairvoyance
● (chiefly Scottish) fated to die or at the point of death

Probate noun
the official proving of a will
● a verified copy of a will with a certificate as handed to the executors

verb [trans.]
establish the validity of  (a will)

Profane adjective
1 relating or devoted to that which is not sacred or biblical; secular rather than religious
2 (of a person or their behavior) not respectful of orthodox religious practice; irreverent
● (of language) blasphemous or obscene

verb [trans.]
treat (something sacred) with irreverence or disrepect

Prominent adjective
1 important; famous
2 projecting from something; protuberant
● situated so as to catch the attention; noticeable

Shrill adjective
(of a voice or sound) high pitched and piercing
● derogatory (esp. of a complaint or demand) loud and forceful

verb
make a shrill noise
● speak or cry with a shrill voice

noun
a shrill sound or cry

Solicitor noun
1 a person who tries to obtain business orders, advertising, etc. as a canvasser.
2 the chief law officer of a city, town, or government department.

Unobtrusive adjective
not conspicuous or attracting attention