Some subtle ways that Spanish differs from English

 

Over more than 40 years, I have learned many subtleties to Spanish. It is true of Spanish, as it is of learning the guitar, that it's easy to learn poorly but hard to learn well. Here is a random list of differences between Spanish and English that surprised me when I first learned them. Each language apparently has its own logic.

In Spanish, you don't turn on (prender) or turn off (apagar) a faucet; you open it (abrir) or close it (cerrar).

You can't say in Spanish "He almost fell down" (casi se cayó), because people will say, "He already fell down, so he didn't 'almost' do anything." The correct way to say this is "Casi se cae," which literally translated means "He almost falls down."

In Spanish, you don't eat (comer) your soup; you drink it (tomar). The same is true of oatmeal.

There is a curious construction in Spanish that goes something like this: "hasta que no termine" which literally translates as "until I don't finish" where we would say in English "until I finish." 

I will share more of these in future posts.

A sign in Spanish demonstrating how to wash one's hands correctly. I take photos of signs like these to demonstrate both similarities with, and differences between, Spanish and English.