Spanish Phrases

Thanks, Aqualung. I never knew that (obviously) I will practice up on those compound nouns a bit more.

[QUOTE=Dickhead]

The only [b]un[/b]abbreviated Spanish noun that ends in "o" but is feminine is "la mano" (hand).[/QUOTE]Dickhead, there is one other femine spanish word that ends in "o" that is often incorrectly seen as masculine, "la libido". Also, "la radio" (debatable whether it is or it is not a compound noun) is another word that many say it is feminine because they mistakenly think it comes from the compound word "radiografia". However, when one is using the word "radio" to mean radius or radium then it is "el radio". In parts of latin america like Mexico when they say "the radio" they use the masculine form, "el radio". However, the only two spanish words considered to be feminine that end in "o" and are not abbreviated are, "la mano" and "la libido".

Dickhead and Aqualung, I always enjoy your spanish grammar lessons.

Yeah, I learned most of my Spanish in Mexico so I say "el radio." But that isn't a compound noun. Yesterday I saw another example of what Aqualung was saying: el paraguas (umbrella) Singular yet spelled as if plural, and a compound noun.

I still have the handout from the last formal class I took, claiming that "mano" was the only example (but then talking about "radio.") However, my dictionary does indeed confirm that it is "la libido."

Ya learn something new every day. Thanks, Facundo. The next time I ring a privado's doorbell I shall say, "Necesito que alquien me ayude con la libido."

Keep in mind that for nouns beginning with A or HA though feminine the masculin article EL is used. For example "AGUA" - So it's EL AGUA. The noun is still feminine so its El agua fríA. This is because lA Agua would sound rather awkward. Or hacha (axe) which would be el hacha filosa (the sharp axe)

And then in the plural, these revert to "las." El agua, las aguas. El hacha, las hachas. There are other examples of avoiding having the same sound twice in a row, such as when "y" changes to "e": padres e hijos. Or when "o" changes to "u": una cosa u otra.

So given that it is "el agua," why is it "Puente Sah-ah-vedra" (same sound twice in a row) and not "Puente Sah-vedra" when pronouncing Puente Saavedra? My guess is because of the rule of strong vowels. "O," "e," and "a" are strong vowels while "i" and "u" are weak vowels. If two strong vowels are together they are pronounced separately: Balbo-a, barbaco-a, Noe, etc. But two weak vowels together, or a strong with a weak, are a diphthong and are slurred together: puerta, farmacia. If they are not to be a diphthong an accent mark is required, such as in the word for "day" and the word for "river."

Also I believe what Aqualung just said only applies to those nouns beginning with "a" or "h" that are stressed on the last syllable (syllables are counted from the end of the word). So it is "la hacienda" since that is stressed on the second syllable, but "el hacha" because that is stressed on the last syllable (the syllable closest to the article).

Hope I got that right.

Then you have words like "el azucar" (the sugar) that is masculine, but when standing alone, it is often used with feminine adjectives, as in "azucar blanca" (white sugar) The same with "el mar" (the sea) it becomes feminine in some nautical or weather usage, such as "en mar alta" (on the high seas) And of course in Spain the frying pan is masculine, "el sartén" and in much of latin america it's feminine, "la sartén". The word "la treponema" (a type of bacteria) is feminine in the dictionary, but all doctors use the masculine article, "el treponema", because it ends in "a", like "el problema". My favorite that seems to confuse many is, "el arte" (the art, masculine singular) but it's feminine in the plural, "las artes" (the arts) as in "las bellas artes".

The one that always confuses me is the feminine word for salt, "la sal". I always want to say "el sal", because in my mother tongue, the italian, the word for salt is masculine, "il sale".

No wonder frying pan messes me up so much! Seems like I get corrected no matter whether I use "la" or "el." So that one is like "radio." It varies geographically. I used to have trouble with "sal" until I moved here and saw the modifying adjectives like "sal gruesa" (coarse salt used to rub on meat for parrillas or asados) or "sal entrefina" (medium coarse).

What I learned about "arte" was that it was masculine unless modified by an adjective: los artes, las bellas artes. I did not know it is related to plural vs. Singular. I could be wrong on this since it was from the same class where the notes (actually copied from some textbook; that professor did not require us to buy a textbook and scoffed at the idea of copyrights) said "mano" was the [b]only[/b] feminine noun ending in "o." That class was funny as hell because the teacher's name was Conchita. Actually it was spelled Conxita because she was Catalan (that was her first language) I had already been to Argentina a couple of times and another student had been living in Uruguay and we could not stop snickering every time she said her name. The last day of class she brought wine and the dean saw her bringing it in and would not let her do it. She could not fathom this. Diferencias culturales. She was cute, too (but not a very good teacher).

A lot of adjectives that end in -ma are masculine: problema, tema, idioma, sistema, programa, etc. I have been told that these all come from Greek but I don't know why that makes them masculine.

One helpful hint is that adjectives that end in -cion are (always?) feminine. There should be an accent on that "o" but I can't make it happen in Linux. I think -mbre is the same, except that might be overruled if it is a compound noun.

Some words are masculine or feminine depending on the meaning.

La capital (capital city) versus el capital (equity of a business).

Or just the article changes but not the meaning.

La testigo (female witness) versus el testigo (male witness).

Some "moore" examples:

El papa = the pope.
La papa = potatos.

El cura = priest.
La cura = cure.

A strange one:

El policia (should have an accent on the "i") is a male cop, but la policia could either be a female cop or just cops in general (the police force)

And nouns of profession ending in -ista such as periodista and dentista take the article of the gender of the professional: La dentista is a female dentist and el dentista is a male dentist.

[QUOTE=Dickhead]No wonder frying pan messes me up so much! Seems like I get corrected no matter whether I use "la" or "el." So that one is like "radio." It varies geographically. I used to have trouble with "sal" until I moved here and saw the modifying adjectives like "sal gruesa" (coarse salt used to rub on meat for parrillas or asados) or "sal entrefina" (medium coarse)[/QUOTE]Caution: I am a Spanish (from Spain) speaker; maybe some of the things I am about to write are not 100% applicable to Argentine Spanish.

"El radio" = "radius" (of a circle); "la radio" = "a radio receptor". "sal" is both masculine and feminine, same as a "mar".

[QUOTE=Dickhead]What I learned about "arte" was that it was masculine unless modified by an adjective: los artes, las bellas artes. I did not know it is related to plural vs. Singular. I could be wrong on this since it was from the same class where the notes (actually copied from some textbook; that professor did not require us to buy a textbook and scoffed at the idea of copyrights) said "mano" was the [b]only[/b] feminine noun ending in "o." That class was funny as hell because the teacher's name was Conchita. Actually it was spelled Conxita because she was Catalan (that was her first language) I had already been to Argentina a couple of times and another student had been living in Uruguay and we could not stop snickering every time she said her name. The last day of class she brought wine and the dean saw her bringing it in and would not let her do it. She could not fathom this. Diferencias culturales. She was cute, too (but not a very good teacher)[/QUOTE]"artes" is always femenine. However, we say "el arte" because "la arte" would place two "a" following each other, with the second having a stress which makes it hard to pronounce correctly (thing of "a arm" vs. "an arm")

She may be right with the "mano" thing: I could not find any counterexample.

[QUOTE=Dickhead]A lot of adjectives that end in -ma are masculine: problema, tema, idioma, sistema, programa, etc. I have been told that these all come from Greek but I don't know why that makes them masculine. [/QUOTE]Uh. Those are not adjectives, but nouns. But yes, I could not think of any usual feminine word ending in -ma (except for "mama", "miasma", "ama", "sima", "cima", "fama", "cama", "dama", "mema".

[QUOTE=Dickhead]One helpful hint is that adjectives that end in -cion are (always? Feminine. There should be an accent on that "o" but I can't make it happen in Linux. I think -mbre is the same, except that might be overruled if it is a compound noun.[/QUOTE]Linux thing: difficult to say without looking at your setup, but here's a try: switch the keyboard to US International (using one of the applets you can usually add to a side panel); then ' followed by a would give you á. If your keyboard has an AltGr key, pressing a + AltGr (both at the same time) gives you á as well.

[QUOTE=Aqualung]Keep in mind that for nouns beginning with A or HA though feminine the masculin article EL is used. For example "AGUA" - So it's EL AGUA. The noun is still feminine so its El agua fríA. This is because lA Agua would sound rather awkward. Or hacha (axe) which would be el hacha filosa (the sharp axe)[/QUOTE]Only if the first "a" is stressed. E. G. "la acción".

"Uh. Those are not adjectives, but nouns. But yes, I could not think of any usual feminine word ending in -ma (except for "mama", "miasma", "ama", "sima", "cima", "fama", "cama", "dama", "mema"."

Yes. Fuck me. I meant nouns (sustantivos) not adjectives. Duh. I did figure out how to get accent marks on Linux but then the hard drive failed only two weeks after I got the fucking thing. So fuck me again, even harder.

Thanks. I have studied Spanish for years and I communicate okay but I don't want to talk like a pelotudo.

First off I don't know if this is even possible. It may be a culture thing, or a way of doing business.

Is there a spanish phase for when you go into a privado so they give you the lineup all at once vs. one chica at a time?

I went to Esmerelda 517 tonight and they threw 8 chicas at me. I ended up doing number 2 because I forgot number 1's name.

[QUOTE=Gato Hunter]First off I don't know if this is even possible. It may be a culture thing, or a way of doing business.

Is there a spanish phase for when you go into a privado so they give you the lineup all at once vs. One chica at a time?

I went to Esmerelda 517 tonight and they threw 8 chicas at me. I ended up doing number 2 because I forgot number 1's name.[/QUOTE]Take notes as they pass in review.

"Quiero ver todas juntas" should work, or "Prefiero ver todas las chica al mismo tiempo."