Today’s Spanish Word/Phrase of the Day is “frescura de nieve” meaning “freshness; cheek, nerve (in a derogatory sense)”. In Portuguese, “cara de pau” is most appropriate. In Italian, “faccia tosta” (informal) or “fegato” are used in phrases like “He had a lot of nerve to talk back that way”.
Category: Foreign Language
Today’s Spanish Word of the Day is…
Today’s Spanish Word of the Day is “orfebre”, meaning “metalsmith; silversmith; goldsmith”. In Italian, “orafo” & “orefice” are used, while in Portuguese “arrives” is correct.
Helpful Techniques for Foreign Language Learning
This is a clip of Matthew Youlden, a polyglot – someone who is multilingual & speaks more than 2 languages. He describes some helpful techniques he has used to learn the languages he speaks.
Today’s Spanish Word of the Day is…
Today’s Spanish Word of the Day is “soborno”, meaning “bribery, subornation; bribe; kickback, hush money (informal)”. In Italian, “bustarella”, meaning “bribe” & “corruzione”, meaning “corruption; bribery; payola (implying music industry corruption); graft (type of political corruption – the obtaining of money or advantage by dishonest or unfair means, esp. through the abuse of one’s position or influence, as in politics; money or advantage acquired in this manner); decay, decomposition”. In Portuguese, “suborno” (meaning “bribery, suborning”) & “sobrecarga” (referring to a supercargo – “an officer on a merchant ship who supervises commercial matters and is in charge of the cargo”).
We’re at the end of the year & now is a time when some summer plants may be dying. I know I pulled one of my zucchini plants yesterday because many of its leaves were dead. Some flowers though, are just beginning to bloom. Additionally, since I was forced to put my tomatoes out late this year, the plants are just beginning to produce fruit. Hopefully with the warm year they will still have some time to produce before it gets too cold.
My potted peppermint is doing great, but it’s also flowering. If your peppermint flowers, you need to snip the buds off if you want to prolong its life cycle. It may produce for a good while longer & consider bringing it inside for the winter if you live in an area with colder winters. It still needs to die for the winter, but it will come back if it is brought inside & protected from the deep cold.
Consider what flowers & vegetables you might like to harvest seeds from. Choose the plants that die the latest in the season. You can cover the flower heads with a Ziploc bag, but wait until they die. You shouldn’t wait too terribly long to cover them with a bag once that happens so it’s there when they drop seeds. I know I have a sunflower that is super large this year; I’d like to get seeds from it, but it’s super tall & I have to figure out how to cut it down…
#spanish #italian #portuguese #soborno #bribe
Spanish Word of the Day
Today’s Spanish Word of the Day is “amedrentar(se)” meaning “to scare, to frighten; to get scared (reflexive)”. In Italian the appropriate word is “impaurire”, with the same meaning as the Spanish word. “Impaurirsi”, the reflexive, has the same definition. In Portuguese, “amendrontar” (meaning “to frighten”), “assister” (meaning “to scare, to frighten; to spook; to alarm, to startle”), & “atemorizar” (meaning “to intimidate, to to frighten; to daunt; to fill with terror” are used.
#spanish #italian #portuguese #vocabulary #language #translation
The Challenge of Idioms
The Mystery of Euskara…
There is a lot of mystery related to this language – it has no relation to any other language in the world.
http://www.bbc.com/…/20170719-the-mysterious-origins-of-eur… – Comparison from BBC of Basque & surrounding European languages. Basque is very distinct.
About this article
BBC.COM
When Gen Francisco Franco banned the use of the ancient Euskara language, residents of the Basque Country fought to keep it alive.
New vocabulary word for the day…
Just learned a new word. “auscultation” refers to “the act of listening, either directly or through a stethoscope, to the sounds within the body as a method of diagnosis”. I did not realize there was a special word in English to refer to the at of listening through a stethoscope. There are new things to learn every day…
In Spanish, “auscultación”; in Italian, “auscultazione” is appropriate while in Portuguese, “auscultação” is used.
I found this helpful website that provides a good demonstration of pronouncing “ç” & “ã”. It’s a complex thing to explain & easier to listen to & copy.
As I’m seeking a job, I have more time to read. I typically read multiple books simultaneously. Thus, although I’m reading Dave Ramsey’s Complete Guide to Money, I’m also in the midst of Telephone Interpreting: A Comprehensive Guide to the Profession by Nataly Kelly & the classic The Interpreter’s Rx: A Training Program for Spanish/English Medical Interpreting by Holly Mikkelson.
Both of these have some vocabulary lists in them, but I’ve compiled my own vocabulary lists before & I publish some on my LinkedIn profile. I seek out definitions in Italian & Portuguese as well so there are English definitions of a total of three languages: Spanish, Italian & Portuguese.
Today’s Italian Word of the Day is “apparire”, meaning “to appear, emerge; to show off, to stand out, to make an impression”. The reflexive, “apparirsi” means, “to seem, to appear; to look (colloquialism)”. In Spanish, “aparecer”, meaning ” to appear, to materialize; to show up, to turn out” is used; with the reflexive “aparecerse” meaning “to appear”. The Portuguese translation, “aparecer” means, “to come into view” while “surgir” (an alternate translation into Portuguese) means, “to appear, to emerge”.
I’ve got tomatoes in my vegetable garden; they’re green & getting closer to being ready to pick. There’s one cucumber & zucchini keep popping up! I feel good about how this year has gone thus far in the garden. I’ve been able to keep the thistle at bay mostly; though that’s always something to work on & watch out for. It is a very virulent & persistent weed. I picked a bunch of okra yesterday also…
My Vegetable Garden 