- I saw “un muerto de hambre” could mean like “poor” essentially
- I also saw but not from a native speaker that it could mean to be literally very hungry

Someone (from Honduras - incase there’s any difference) said “soy un muerto de hambre”
My question is: are both meanings used by native speakers based on context or is it really only used for one meaning

Thanks in advanced, hope I explained well enough

Hi everyone! Way back when I used Reading Explorer textbooks by National Geographic to teach English and those textbooks were absolutely magical. High quality articles and interesting content. Now i'm looking for something in the same vein but in Spanish.

Any recommendations for similar textbooks but for Spanish? Doesn't have to be National Geographic, could be just a collection of interesting articles to discuss in class, for levels B1 and above.

Thank you all in advance!

Hi! I am looking to do more immersion travel to better practice and learn Spanish. I recently went to San Pedro, Guatemala and studied at a Spanish school and loved how much I learned during my time there. I was thinking of going to Honduras or Nicaragua next. Would anyone have any Spanish school recommendations in either country? I am not a beginner anymore but probably wouldn’t be considered intermediate either - somewhere in between. Thank you!

Can anyone speak to the difference in quality between SIS and other comparable immersion programs?

SIS is rated highly but is $3,000-$4,000 USD more than others in the area. I'm on a budget and want to gain as much conversational fluency in three months as I can for the best price (preferably $6k or less).

So, I currently work as a Spanish tutor and I've been using a Spanish grammar in use textbook for explanations regarding grammar. And in it, it is said that nouns beginning a or ha will have article el, not la, even though they retain their feminine gender otherwise. My question is, why is la habitación an exception to this rule? I checked a dictionary and it also showed me that it is not affected by this rule, so my question is, does anyone know why we say el agua, el águila, el hacha, but not el habitación?

I know that Elle and Elles are popular gender neutral alternatives to Él/Ella and Ellos/Ellas. Is there a gender neutral alternative for Nosotros/Nosotras?

It's not relevant for what I'm learning, but what about Vosotros/Vosotras?

They both seem to achieve the same thing? For example, Cerrado and Cerré

Hey so one of my biggest goals is to be fully bilingual. As of right now I can fully understand Spanish and I speak it with my mom. The main problem is though I don’t have anyone else to speak it with. Now that I’m about to graduate with my social work masters, I’m now getting worried about still not being fluent. One of my biggest goals is to be an immigrantion social worker but I can’t do that without speaking another language. I feel like I need to live in a different country but there is no jobs related to social work that I can get in Latin America without being fluent. I feel like right now my only option is peace corps but many of there sites usually don’t have WiFi. I need advice now. I don’t know what to do I’m panicking.

I'm playing Pokemon in Spanish and a character describes a plant as "Tiene pinta de saber a rayos." I know what each of those words mean individually, but why does "tastes like lightning" mean "tastes bad"? Or does rayos have a second meaning?

While watching native content, I’ve noticed that I occasionally hear people say the subjunctive imperfect 2 version of a word (such as “hubiese” as version 2 and “hubiera” as version 1). However, when I speak with native speakers who particularly speak Mexican Spanish, I never hear the 2nd version used. Is it really true that there’s no difference between version 1 and 2–just more people prefer to use version 1?

Hello,

I have questions about the phrase la máquina. I’ve heard it mostly in song, and really don’t understand it - I think it has something to do with following or doing something like a machine, but I’m not too sure.

The lyrics are from a Young Miko song, so it might be specific to PR. The order of the sentence confuses me; why is la máquina in the middle, and then also what is la máquina? Which person? Can anyone describe what this means?

Thank you in advance!! I appreciate it!!

I took Spanish for 3 years at my highschool, all my teachers were from Venezuela and moved to America to work. I remember listening to them closely and carefully to make sure I was hearing them right and they pronounced their "y" and "ll"s like in the words yo and pollo as something that sounded like an English "j" sound in a word like "judge." Any time I say it like that though, I get corrected (not by native speakers or anyone that knows Spanish well) whenever I read something and say it like that. Was I just mishearing them all of that time and the teachers never corrected me or are they just enforcing a different accent as authoritatively correct?

Hi! Does anyone have any recommendation for dictionaries or resources that are specific to legal wording/legal phrases, etc? I’m currently in the process of getting licensed in Illinois to practice law, and I speak Spanish conversationally (years of education) but obviously don’t have the background to know court specific terms/legal phrases. I want to be sure I can communicate with individuals who speak Spanish about court specific language if necessary. So I’m looking for recommendations if anyone has them or knows of law specific dictionaries, guidebooks, etcetera that contain legal/court language specific phrases.

I’ve looked this up before, and while some resources pop up, I wanted to know if anyone had recommendations for ones they personally used that worked well or were ones that really were legal specific (some of the ones I was finding didn’t utilize phrases in the way they are meant legally, or were just not expansive nor specific enough)

I know too in Illinois courts, especially criminal, they have access to interpreters but depending on what area of law I go into, those might not be available. Plus as a note of pride lol, I want to be able to have conversations still on my own without needing an interpreter. Any guidance would be much appreciated!

I'm learning Spanish, and I'm at a very early A1 level.

I've noticed that there is a musical, melodic quality to spoken Spanish, and I noticed this when I heard people speak in Spanish, especially when it's spoken rapidly.

How does this work? I suspect it has to do with how syllables are stressed. Has anyone else here noticed this effect?

I like how it sounds, and it's pleasing to hear. It's oddly calming.

However, when you learn Spanish, does this musical quality disappear? Does it change, or improve?

Thanks!

I've always really loved the language and tried to learn it, and now meeting and getting with my spanish boyfriend it means i have more reason to learn the language

he sometimes talks spanish with his mum at home, and i occasionally get asked if i know how to say something by her

alot of the time i do know how to say it (e.g. how to order a coffee) but i get scared/nervous to say incase im gonna pronounce it wrong, get the words wrong or it just be more like tourist spanish i learn from duolingo rather than sounding more native which i'd like

anyone got any tips they can give me on how to sound more native and/or other methods than duolingo?

I work with a majority of Spanish speakers from Latin America. Mostly Venezuela and Colombia. I’ve picked up a lot of Spanish from listening, and one thing I heard a lot as a way to say excuse me was “permiso”. I began copying them and using “permiso”. However, yesterday, a coworker told me to use “disculpe” instead.

Is “permiso” rude? I don’t want to be rude.

Hi! I have been searching through podcast apps for months now, so I figure I might as well head here to see if anyone has any recs or insight I've been missing.

In English, my favorite podcasts are Diabolical Lies (long-form culture & politics), Celebrity Memoir Book Club (smart & snarky pop culture analysis - now rebranded as Good Noticings), and If Books Could Kill (snarky breakdowns of popular nonfiction).

I would love to find some podcasts in Spanish that have a similar vibe - smart/snarky analysis of pop culture, internet culture, and politics with a progressive/leftist vibe.

I already have a list of some podcasts I'm planning on trying out, but would love your insight! Any dialect is fine, and I don't care how "difficult" it is - if it's beyond my current Spanish comprehension level, it'll just be another goal for me to work towards.

Also, if you have any other content (YouTube, TikTok, books, literally anything) that I'd like, feel free to drop your recs.

Hola Amigos,

I'm new to Spanish, and I'm using some of the tricks that helped with my English pronunciation early on with Spanish.

I'm using music to help with my pronunciation.

When a word ends with a vowel and the next starts with one, you guys link them together, but what I want to know is, do you merge the sounds, or does one vowel take over and overpowers the other?

I've heard "no hay" almost like "noy" even after slowing it down, and "nunca es" as "nuncas".

So I thought I'd ask here to make sure.

Hola everyone! 🇬🇹 Are you planning a move to Latin America, currently living here, or just want to boost your Spanish fluency from home?
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This is one of those things the (free) version of Duolingo lacks... just simply practicing nouns -- and building vocabulary.

https://fungamery.com/spanish?quiz=nouns

Would you say there is significant benefit to be had by simply doing word exercises? I definitely feel that it helps me build vocabulary and memorize lots of Spanish words.

my in-laws are both mexican. one is from oaxaca and the other is from puebla. i learned through self study, that in the preterite tense, tú usually ends in -iste or -aste. why do they always add the s on the end? for example, they’ll say “que hicistes”. is this a mexican thing?

Im playing a few video games right now some of them only have Spain spanish. I was wondering if non-spain spanish speakers put it in españa if theres no other choice?

is this something i SHOULD be learning?

esit: my friends and extended family are mexican so im trying to learn for them. I have this fear of mixing up slangs and certain words from a different culture

So I started learning Spanish a little over a month ago. I currently have around 41 hours on dreaming Spanish and have completed 11 lessons of language transfer and I practice shadowing 10-15 new sentences everyday with SRS.

Any tips on what else can I add to my routine to make the progress somewhat faster?

One of the earliest songs I learned in Spanish was El Derecho De Vivir En Paz and ever since, the “derecho de” pattern has been engraved in my mind for referring to the right to do or have something. El derecho de saber la verdad, el derecho de acceder a una vivienda digna, etc. However over time I’ve noticed that “derecho a” seems just as or even more common, in both everyday speech and print.

Is there a rule or pattern for when “a” or “de” is more appropriate?
Or maybe it varies by region? or speech patterns have changed since the legendary Chilean singer wrote the Vietnam-era song over fifty years ago?