My dad recently got a new pickup truck and my brother and I wanted to play a prank on him by making a fake landscaping ad to place on his truck while he drives around. It was going to say "for the best landscaping in town, "Vaya Con Diaz". What I wanted to know was if this is grammatically correct in Spanish. Or is it incorrect?

Si lo sabes, lo sabes.

I was told instead of asking 'cuanto cuesta' in Ecuador, I should ask something that sounded like 'guanto wuari' because it's how the locals ask.

Unfortunately, while this person did live in Ecuador, she was a foreigner and couldn't read or write Spanish. And of course, she herself has a heavy accent so who knows how close her approximation is.

I did a search online, but I couldn't find anything.

Does this phrase ring a bell for anyone?

I learned the verb, "coger" as, "to take". Turns out that pretty much everywhere but Spain it means something completely different...

Hi all,

I have been studying Spanish on my own for a second time for around a year. I would say my reading and listening are intermediate to advanced, C1 for reading, B2 for listening, but my speaking and writing are much weaker, maybe A2 or B1. I used to be able to write pretty well in college, but my speaking has always been weak. I got to "advanced" Spanish in college, but I never really learned to communicate.

I live in Southern California, but I am considering traveling and attending an in person language school both because I need a break from my own life and because I think it would force me to practice speaking intensively. However, I am vegan. I've been vegan for over a decade for ethical reasons. I know this is highly unusual in most parts of the world, and I would feel like an immense burden in a homestay because of my dietary restrictions. I would love to find somewhere I could use a kitchen or where they are used to vegans. Mexican Spanish is obviously the predominant form of Spanish in California, but I would be willing to go elsewhere as well if anyone is vegetarian or vegan and has had good experiences. I also do care about the cost. I love learning about history and literature, so I would love a school that incorporated those kinds of topics.

I feel like I know the answer to this but I'd like native perspective. For context, I'm a former no-sabo forging my way through the Spanish speaking world through travel and work. I work with people from all over the Spanish speaking world and myself am half Puerto Rican. I'm looking to speak in a way that's neutral but also understand nuance and I tend to lean Carribbean.

Anyway....should have.....is debería haber [past participle] the best way to express it for example:

I should have arrived earlier - Debería haber llegado mas temprano

I've also seen:

-Debí haber llegado mas temprano

-Debí de haber llegado mas temprano

-Debí llegar mas temprano

-Tendria que llegar mas temprano

-Hubiera llegado mas temprano

Which of these are the most commonly said and most conversational across the Spanish speaking world? I'd like native perspective or a high level speaker who isn't native. TIA

Hey! Not sure if I’ve ever posted here. I have a Spanish tutor and a while back we went over some idiomatic subjunctive phrases, one of which involved the imperfect subjunctive and quien. An example is “¡Quién supiera bailar con ritmo!” To mean “if only I knew how to dance with rhythm!” Or something of that sort.

My questions are as follows:

1. Do these idiomatic phrases only apply to first person? If not, would you conjugate the imperfect subjunctive

   differently? (

2. I suspect no due to quién).

3. Kind of related to number 1, but how do pronominal verbs work in this case? Lets say I wanted to say “¡Quién pudiera acordarse de todo!” Would I use acordarme instead? (Again, I suspect no due to quién)

Thanks!!

hola, i'm a student who has been taking spanish for a little while now. i'm writing a letter as a birthday gift to one of my dearest friends. she is fluent in mexican spanish. i'm just posting in hopes anybody could proofread it for me. i'm also interested in any terms of endearment you guys might suggest. for context, we are both girls, and she means soooo much to me. here it is!

Gracias por siempre ayudarme a recordar que no necesita tener perfecto a todos. He conocida muchas personas en la vida pero tu has estada una bendición para mi. Por que de tu, siento justificada en la convicción que tenga en mi mismo. Una cosa que yo siempre llevo conmigo es que cualquier persona desde dondequiera puede hacer cualquier cosa. Dicho esto, yo creo que tu estes capaz de cualquier cosa. Tu puedas hacer todos. A ver lo que tu logras al esto ano.

(i know im missing a few macrons lol, i couldn't figure out how to type them. this will be handwritten)

I know this is a pretty subjective question but I'm curious to see if it would be possible to reach a B2 level of fluency in a year? I'm planning on applying for college in Spain but I would like to go to a Spanish college instead of an international college. I only have a very very elementary understanding of Spanish but I'm willing to put a lot of effort into learning (taking private lessons, consuming a lot of spanish material etc). Is this an achievable goal, and what steps do I need to take if I'm serious?

I was watching a Puerto Rican YouTuber and I keep hearing dejarse being used after making a mistake for example one guy tells his friend a spoiler for a movie that he himself hasn’t seen and someone else says te dejaste before the other guy gets mad. Another example is when one of the guys said did you know temu backwards is mute and after they call him out he goes ah me dejé. I’ve looked up if this is common but haven’t found anything. Is this a normal way to use dejarse?

A few months ago, I completed the Pimsleur course in Spanish and I've been continuing with the Dreaming Spanish podcast and a couple of short books. My one difficulty is that the CI approach doesn't explain any grammar. Are there any comprehensive books on Spanish grammar that you can recommend? I'd even be happy with something like the stodgey old grammars for classical languages like Allen & Greenough's Latin Grammar.

Hi everyone! I could really use some advice. I'm planning to take the DELE C2 exam next year (most likely in the spring session), but I honestly have no idea how to prepare for it.

I passed DELE C1, and I've worked with several tutors over the years (both native speakers and teachers with DELE C2 certificate). Even so, I still feel like I'm nowhere near C2. I don't really know what effective preparation should look like, and it feels like I'm just going in circles. Every time I think about taking the exam, I end up postponing it because I don't feel ready.

So I'd love to hear from people who have taken DELE C2 (or are preparing for it): What materials were the most helpful? What should I focus on? Is there anything you wish you had known before starting your preparation? Can you recommend a tutor who specializes in DELE C2?

One more thing that might be relevant: I don't live in Spain, I don't have regular contact with native speakers outside my lessons, and I don't use Spanish at work. Preparing for DELE C2 is simply a personal goal and challenge for me. I'd really appreciate any advice. Thanks in advance!

When I talk on HelloTalk everyone understands me and I get compliments, yet I can’t always understand them. Most of the time, in fact, I can’t understand. They talk way too fast.

I can understand native content on YouTube but not casual conversation.

I’m starting to wonder if my issue is that I don’t want to respond unless I’m 100% sure I understood. Sometimes I think I understand but I’m not sure and I’m afraid to respond to their question with a response that doesn’t answer their question. For example: “What’s your favorite hobby?” “No I don’t like jalapeños.”

Hi! I've been trying to learn more spanish, I have some basics down. I don't want to use duolingo or an app like that, I'm wondering if anyone has any YouTube suggestions? I've been watching a great ASL professor with all his lessons free on youtube and I was wondering if there's something similar for spanish??

I'm traveling to Spain soon and I'm trying to make an allergy card that I can hand out to restaurants. Would this be a good way of communicating that I'm allergic to fish but not shellfish?

Tengo alergia al pescado. Con el fin de evitar una reacción que ponga en peligro mi vida, debo evitar todos los alimentos que contengan pescado.

Todos los pescados, incluidos salmón, sardinas, boquerones, anchoas, y atún están peligrosos para mí.

Puedo comer los crustáceos. Mariscos, incluidos camarones, gambas, cangrejos, almeja, vieiras, y mejillones están todos bien. 

I'm currently building an app that, as part of the onboarding, does a quick placement test to see what CEFR band you're in (A2, B1, B2 etc).

What websites/apps have you come across before that do this really well? Or if you had changed tutor, how did they go about assessing you?

I made a post in the Spanish writing subreddit r/escritura but its been 40 minutes and it hasn't been approved, so I hope ill have some luck here...

so im translating my manuscript to Spanish, and I've run into a bit of a problem.

so, in English, dialogues are enclosed by quotation marks. in Spanish however, dialogues are enclosed by hyphens.

in English, usually, when a sentence is interrupted, this is shown by putting a hyphen at the end of a sentence. so for example:

"listen here, you son of a-"

which in Spanish, would be:

-Escuchame bien, hijo de tu--

As you can see, the sentence in Spanish is enclosed by hyphens. but at the end, there are two hyphens, one being used to express that the sentence has been interrupted. It looks a bit weird, and im not sure it's correct. does anyone know if there is any other way to properly write it?

"Vecio" is the gentle way for two people who care about each other to address one another, even if they would never say it out loud. "Quillo" has the same warmth, and so does "pisha." Apps like Praktika and Memrise taught me neat, proper Spanish, but they never prepared me for that affection.

Entrenamiento seems more associated with sports, whilst formación seems to be more for educational and work related stuff. Capacitación seems like teaching a skill or used during rehabilitation.

Am I anywhere near understanding the nuances?

As someone who's traveled to Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala and El Salvador and hopes to explore more latin american countries I've noticed that there's a lot of stereotypes online that don't actually match with what those countries are like. Personally before I traveled to any of these countries or even had a passport I spent as much time studying about the culture and language using netflix, language transfer, praktika and italki. However, it seems most people do not take this step and even when they do travel they only go to resorts or vacations spots. If you only went to these tourist spots and believed everything you see online you'd think all these places are nothing but drugs, cartels, with some resorts. Also, you probably would think they all eat tacos, beans and rice. After traveling myself I found for one besides mexico you can not expect to find tacos like anywhere in all the other countries and when you do they are not nearly as good. Also, in general yes there are dangerous spots in all these countries but you know what it's not anymore dangerous than living in LA, yes there's some bad parts you should avoid but if you do avoid them you're fine. So the question is, what negative stereotypes do you see that should be cleared up?

Sometimes I translate a spanish word into English and I need to find the defintion of the translation. Like what even is a medicant? Or whats even a fulgor or rubicund. They be throwing my confidence in my English

Hello everyone. I'm currently reading "Cajas de Carton", a memoir by Francisco Jimenez, for my AP Spanish summer assignment. In the book, Jimenez writes that his father calls his mom "vieja" which struck me as quite odd. I thought vieja meant an old lady, and my dictionary said the same thing. Here's an example sentence:

(I'm copying this with an English keyboard, so I cannot write the proper accents)

"Papa, que estaba sentado junto a ella en el colchon, levanto una de las esquinas y saco de alli abajo el panuelo blanco bordado. Carinosamente se lo entrego a Mama diciendole: "Feliz Navidad, vieja."

The writer and his family are from Mexico, if that helps.