Spanish Grammar Tips – Part 2

Spanish grammar can be a doozy, and whether you’re studying Spanish for the first time, or brushing up on your skills, here are eight more tips for avoiding common mistakes.

Catch Spanish Grammar Tips-Part 1 here.

1.Cobrar: triple function

In Spanish, the verb cobrar can mean to charge, to earn, or to cash (as in a paycheck). It’s one of those tricky verbs that has two opposite meanings, so make sure you’re paying close attention to context.

Examples:

To charge: Recibí solamente 15 pesos de cambio. No me cobraron bien.

To earn: Cuando trabajaba en el cine cobraba 1.500 pesos mensuales.

To cash: Te pago el viernes después de cobrar.

2. False Cognates (False Friends)

Cognates are words that appear in a similar fashion in different languages.

Examples: science, ciencia / nation, nación / map, mapa

Sometimes words appear to be cognates, but really have very distinct meanings.

Examples:

Actual in Spanish means current or present day (not actual): El presidente actual de Nicaragua es Ortega.

Carpeta in Spanish means folder (not carpet): Mis papeles deben estar en su carpeta.

Excitado(a) typically means sexually aroused (not excited): Estuve excitado cuando vi a la chica en bikini.

Embarazada means pregnant (not embarrassed): Ella estaba embarazada cuatro meses antes de que se notara en el estómago.

3.Trámite / Tramitar

In English, there is no verb form of paperwork. We say we have paperwork to do. Trámite is very common in Argentine Spanish and refers to any kind of procedure (administrative, etc) where paperwork is involved. Tramitar is the process of completing your paperwork.

Examples:

Tengo bastantes tramites para hacer antes de conseguir la visa.

Estamos tramitando los papeles del divorcio.

4. La gente

Simply put, gente is feminine, and more importantly, singular unlike the word people in English, which is plural.

Example: Mucha gente de Argentina no sabe bailar el tango.

5. Carrera / Cursar / Materia / Facultad

Now that we’re familiar with cognates, here is an interesting case: the primary meaning of carrera is a race. The second definition is a course degree or as the Yanks would say, major.

Example: Los chicos están haciendo una carrera en contabilidad.

If you want to say that you studied something, the best verb is cursar(se).

Example: Estoy cursando dos materias este semestre.

Materia is the word for class/course/subject.

Example: Voy a cursar filosofía medieval. Esta materia debe ser interesante.

Facultad is used to refer to the university and/or its campus.

Example: Voy a la facultad todos los martes y jueves.

6). Socio-Member

When you want to talk about joining a club, this is your key word. Combine it with ”hacerse” and you’re golden.

Hay una espera de 8 años para ser socio de Boca Juniors.

Mi padre es socio de una organización que lucha para proteger la Amozonía.

7).Billón-One million million (one trillion)

That’s right. The English billion is the Latin American trillion. The way they say OUR billion is ”mil millones.” Confusing indeed, but it would be hypocritical for me to criticize considering I’m still new to the metric system.

La población mundial casi llega a siete mil millones de habitantes.

8). Masculine/Feminine Exceptions

Here is a list of some of the more common gender exceptions. You’ll notice some patterns:

el aroma, el Canadá, el clima, el día, el diploma, la disco, el drama, la foto, el idioma, el idiota, el indígena, la mano, el mapa, la modelo (female), el poema, el problema, el programa, la radio, el sistema, el tanga, el tema, el subte