20 words in Spanish that do not have a direct translation into English

(CNN Spanish) — Imagine that you like a person for a long time, but you do not know what he thinks about you. One night they say goodbye on WhatsApp and in the middle of the conversation, he texts you i love you. What did he want to say? Was it ‘I love you’? Or is it really ‘I love you’? Is this the beginning of a passionate love story or a demonstration of brotherly affection? With the English phrase, we’re sorry to tell you, there’s no way to know for sure.

“I Love You” This is one of the many words that do not have an exact translation from Spanish to English. In honor of Spanish Language DayCelebrated every April 23rd, we remember some of them to celebrate the richness of our language – its eons, exclamation points and question marks to open and close sentences and tildes – shared (in varying degrees) by more than 590 million people. All over the world, According to the Cervantes Institute.

Stay up late, wake up late… wake up early the next day

There are probably millions of English speakers who know firsthand what it means for work or pleasure wake up late, that is, according to the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), “spend the night or most of it awake or not asleep.” However, they don’t have an exact equivalent, so they resort to three or four words to describe a sleepless night: wake up late, Stay out all night. And if they were up all night the day before yesterday, they can’t solve it quickly because it’s one of those words that doesn’t have a literal translation. to say day before yesterday There is no other option but to resort day before yesterday.

When it’s time to get up early the next day, they can’t state that fact in a single word like that. Wake up early, another expression that doesn’t have a direct translation from Spanish to English. The alarm clock rings and it’s their turn Wake up early.

When it comes to reasons to stay up all night, Spanish also leads the way with some words that don’t have a direct translation into English. wake up One Bottleexpression used for them parties Young people generally consume more alcohol at night and in open air.

Would you like to be my friend’?

Many Argentines will remember the word “”.A friend with benefits“For the famous Cont They might even think the term is an invention from the 90s. However, the RAE recognizes it and defines it as “a person who maintains a relationship with another with less formal commitment than a relationship”. This is another word that does not have its exact translation in English. will be Friends with benefitsIn Spanish we refer to friends with benefits, but not friends as such.

When it comes to interpersonal connections, there are many words in Spanish that cannot be translated into English as a single word, but instead require compound words. brother in law (brother-in-law) and father-in-law (father-in-law). in law And buddy They also have no exact equivalent in English.

By: Do you know your in-laws well? If you do, you might be interested to know.”Familiar” is another word that has no direct translation in English.

Enjoy well after dinner

What a lovely thing to do Desktop! Sobremesa is another word that doesn’t have a direct translation into English. One of the most important is to mention that time after eating, in which we talk at the table.

And speaking of food, there are many expressions that do not have an exact translation in English For a snack. The British Have an afternoon snackOne Have teaBut they don’t have a verb meaning snack.

Also, if you snack while reading with us, Enjoy! How do we say in English? Well, there is no such expression, and probably many English speakers resort to French Good appetite. But how nice to say it in our own language, right? (i.e., Third most spoken language after English and Mandarin Chinese).

In English they have BridgesBut not our favorite bridges

Of course, in English there is a word to refer to the constructions we call bridges BridgesBut not for days the bridgeBetween holidays and holidays and sometimes used for holidays.

At night, all cats are gray

Surely you’ve heard it said many times: “All cats are at night brown“, which does not exactly refer to brown, because when we refer to brown as a color, according to the dictionary, it is “like earth or a bear’s skin, and it is brown or red.” That color, exactly, or has no textual translation (though it says, With variation: All cats are dark gray in color)

If it’s a winter night and you’re one of those people who don’t have a good time with the cold, there’s another word that doesn’t have a text translation in English: Cool.

The list is not endless, but it goes on.

The list of words that do not have a proper translation in English is endless, no, but it still continues with verbs, nouns, adjectives. Here we leave the two that you can use regularly. This is PatchBadly done work must be corrected sooner or later; Brand newThe moment you use something new for the first time.