Easy To Guess And To Remember Spanish Words

 

Let's start with the easy ones.

16 words.

SPANISH - ENGLISH

Many Spanish words look like shortened versions of English words.

alarma - alarm (clock's alarm)

amigos - friends (like our English word amiable)

ayer - yesterday (both languages have the letters ye, also er) ayer yesterday

dia - day

clase - class (ese classe - that class)

comun - common 

cultural - cultural

democracia - democracy

los documentos - documents 

es - it is

la fruta - the fruit

libro de texto - textbook , libro like the English word library

nacional - national

el problema - the problem

tarde - late - like the English word tardy

taxi - taxi

(in Spanish you have to use the, but in English we also use the a lot. Indians say I go to office which is a translation from their language, maybe Hindi, but in English we would say, I go to the office, because it is a specific office. A or an, means any, one of that type. The, or that or this, a specific one.)

Translating from Spanish to English is easy. But what about English to Spanish. Sixteen words. Let's start with the easy ones.

1 Taxi - taxi - the same.

2 cultural - cultural

Add the letter a to

3 alarm = alarma

4 Problem - problema

5 fruit - fruta - add the vowel a and drop the vowel i

6  day - dia - I find it easier to remember buenos dias, so from that I get the singular dia, changing the y to i, again simplifying the English

Useful Websites

duolingo.com

https://www.newsinslowspanish.com/home/news/beginner

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Simple Spanish words

Flag of Spain

Many Spanish words sound like and look like simplified English.

Spanish - English

alto/alta/altos - tall male/tall female/tall people (like the English word altitude)

chicas - girls (like the slang word, chicks)

dificil - difficult

elegante - elegant

es - is

estudiantes -  students

clase - class

marzo - March ( 

mes - month

mi - my

negro - black (the eg in negro is pronounced like egg)

oficina - office

pasaportes - passports

persona - person (feminine)

precios - prices

tu - you (singular) The Spanish is the same as the French, and starts with a ti, similar to thee and thou

English - Spanish

black - negro

chicks/girls - chicas

class - clase

elegant - elegante

is - es

March - marzo (The name of the third month starts with the same three letters in both Spanish and English. In Spanish you don't need to bother with a capital letter at the start. So easy.

month - mes

my - mi

 office - oficina

passports - pasaportes

person - persona (feminine)

prices - precios

students - studiantes

tall - alto/alta/altos

Useful Websites For Learning & Translating Spanish

duolingo.com

translate google

wikitravel phrase book Spanish

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Easy Italian Words

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Italian - English

cantare - sing (like cantor)

classe - class

coppia - couple

errore - error

dormire - to sleep (like the French dormir)

frase - phrase

lettera - letter (But letto is bed. I think of letter a is a bed but letto is let me lie on it.)

l'ombrello - the umbrella

osso - bone (useful for restaurants and hospitals)

perfetta - perfect

positivo - positive

uno - one (like unique)

voci - voices

English - Italian

bone - osso

class - classe

couple - coppia

error - errore

letter - lettera

one - uno

perfect - perfetto (drop the c and doube the t, to be perfect in Italian)

phrase - frase

positive - positivo (an adjective ending in o to match a mascine noun, such as the name Mario)

sing - cantare

to sleep - dormire

voices - voci (the i ending is plural, like spaghetti)

Useful Websites

duolingo.com

translate Google

Wikivoyage phrasebook Italian

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Malay Words Made Easy - Yes!

Problem
How do you learn Malay?

Answer
Start with the easy words. I looked at a survey on SilkAir airline. The first word I saw was:
s u r v e i - survey!

I have inserted spaces mainly because the spell checker tries to change words into recognizable English words. The spaces provide the additional advantage of enabling you to spot which letters are the same and which have changed in Malay.

Note that plurals are made by doubling the word, connecting with a hyphen. Malay, like many other languages, uses a k where English would use c or CK. (Compare the English word Kick.)

Malay - English
anak-anak - children (my memory aid is children have a knack for being amusing/annoying)
anda - you (think of  'and - er you?')
bisnis - business
check-in - check-in
dan - and (same letters, initial letter the same, next two letters reverses)
efisien - efficient
ekonomi - economy
kabin - cabin
kelas - class
kiosk - kiosk
makanan - meal / food (think 'Ma, can you make me another meal?')
minuman - drink (think in Malaysia we drink the minimum, man)
p a k e t - package / packet
s u r v e i - survey!
terima kasi - thanks (think terribly grateful)
tiket - ticket

English - Malay
and - dan
business - bisnis
cabin - kabin
check-in - check-in
children - anak-anak
class - kelas
drink - minuman
economy - ekonomi
efficient - efisien
food / meal - makanan
kiosk - kiosk
no - tidak
package - p a k e t
survey - survei
thank you (terribly much) - terimah kasi
ticket - tiket
yes - ya
you - anda

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages. See next post for more. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Chocolate Show - Friday to Sunday October 16-18 2015 at Olympia

I went to the chocolate show last year. Highly recommended. If you are buying tickets at the door you want to arrive at opening time because last year by 11 am the show had huge queues.

Ticket prices:

Buy on line and you will have time to work out which day to go and which price works for you. They have concession tickets if you are retired, family tickets which might be worthwhile if you are two adults and two children, and lower prices on Sunday.

Other events after you arrive are on a first come first served basis. For example, the chocolate show in the theatre.

You can see chocolate clothes and try different kinds of chocolate. Some stands offer free tastes. later in the day you will find queues. You might also find that later in the day they have run out of the free chocolates.

Highlights of my tour included discovering chocolate shops I did not know in London, as well as on line suppliers. Here's a picture from my previous visit, when I discovered the York Cocoa House, sampled the chocolate and watched children making chocolate lollipops.

Costs and extra costs
Your children or you might want to pay extra to take a class in making chocolates or attending a show.

Discounts
Lots of stands offer discounts, only at the show, or buy two at a reduced price.

Free
Tastes of lots of Chocolate. Some are just help yourself. Some are doled out one per person in a queue. Some are given only if you are a buyer and want to taste before buying. Prices vary from £5 or under to big boxes costing about £25, also monthly clubs where you pay several pounds a month and sign up for a year or indefinitely to be sent a monthly selection.

A show at 5 pm. You will have to sit through a long demo and talk about different types of chocolate and every fifteen minutes or so a box is passed around and you can take a taste of a piece of chocolate or a chocolate kebab. I could not hear at the back and as people left gradually moved forward to a seat with a better view. Excellent talk. Helpful if you have researched in advance different kinds of chocolate and different countries. They also answer questions either in the demo or if you try to catch the demonstrator at the end.

Getting there
The station is right outside the exhibition hall.

http://www.seetickets.com/event/the-chocolate-show/olympia/872546

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author, speaker.