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Let’s learn how to say “I guess” in Spanish, as well as several essential nouns, including the words for “class”, “love”, “fear”, and “peace.
I guess we’ll learn some nouns today.
Intro: Join us on a rigorous, step-by-step journey to fluency. I’m Timothy and this is LearnCraft Spanish.
Today we’re going to learn a few nouns that describe feelings, including the Spanish words for “fear”, “love”, and “peace”.
But first, let’s learn a few nouns that describe groups of people. Spanish has several nouns that are singular, even though they describe more than one person. We do the same thing in English with the word “family”; for example, we don’t say “my family are here”, we say:
My family is here.
Mi familia está aquí.
Spanish does this same thing with a bunch of nouns where we wouldn’t do that. One is the word gente, which we’ve already learned means “people”. In this next sentence example, we use the plural in the English, but we use singular for Spanish.
The people have done that.
La gente ha hecho eso.
Another word that works this way in both languages is “class”, which in Spanish is clase. This is a feminine noun. So for example:
The class isn’t here yet.
La clase aún no está aquí.
Another feminine noun for a group of people is la policía, which means “the police”. When we refer to the group or institution, we usually use plurals in English, but Spanish keeps this noun singular. For example:
The police aren’t here yet.
La policía aún no está aquí.
Now let’s learn a masculine noun that refers to a group of people: the word equipo, which means “team”. This is spelled e-q-u-i-p-o. Equipo. Here’s an example:
The team didn’t manage to do that on time.
El equipo no pudo hacer eso a tiempo.
Let’s practice policía, clase, and equipo.
Put yourself here or the police will know it.
Ponte aquí o la policía lo sabrá.
The class worked as a team to do it.
La clase worked como un equipo para hacerlo.
La clase trabajó como un equipo para hacerlo.
Do you even know that the class is better than the team?
¿Siquiera sabes si la clase es mejor que el equipo?
Maybe they’ll call the police.
Quizá they’ll call a la policía.
Quizá llamen a la policía.
Next let’s learn some abstract nouns that relate to how you feel. The first one is gusto, which means “pleasure”. As a simple example:
It has been a pleasure!
¡Ha sido un gusto!
This word is also used in the idiom a gusto, which means “comfortable”. For example:
No thanks, I’m comfortable here.
No gracias, estoy a gusto aquí.
Our next word is suerte, which means “luck”. For example:
What luck!
¡Qué suerte!
This word is often the translation for being “lucky”. In such cases, in Spanish, you typically just say that someone “has luck”. For example:
He meant to do that, but he wasn’t lucky.
Quiso hacer eso, pero no tuvo suerte.
Let’s practice gusto, a gusto, and suerte.
It’s a pleasure for me to do that.
Es un gusto para mí hacer eso.
She did it so much that I wasn’t comfortable.
Lo hizo tanto que no estaba a gusto.
Did you put the things in the house? Yes, it was a pleasure.
¿Pusiste las cosas en la casa? Sí, fue un gusto.
I’m not lucky and I’m never comfortable.
No tengo suerte y nunca estoy a gusto.
Let’s also learn the word for “peace”, which is paz, spelled p-a-z. This word is a lot more common in Spanish than in English. Here’s a simple example:
When he is here, we never have peace.
Cuando él está aquí, nunca tenemos paz.
I just want to have peace in my class.
Solo quiero tener paz en mi clase.
It’s very common to use the verb Tener with paz, especially when you’re talking about feeling at peace. And in fact, in Spanish, Tener is used with feelings all the time. In English, we often say that we “feel fear”, but in Spanish you more often talk about having fear.
The word for “fear” is miedo. Here’s an example:
That’s why I’m afraid.
Por eso tengo miedo.
So what’s happened here is instead of using an adjective, like “afraid”, we’ve literally translated this as “I have fear”.
Now what if you want to describe what you’re afraid of? One common way to do this is to use the preposition de before what you’re scared of. For example:
She’s afraid of the truth.
Ella tiene miedo de la verdad.
This is literally “she has fear of the truth”.
But it’s also common to use a instead of de:
She’s afraid of the truth.
Ella tiene miedo a la verdad.
This is literally “she has fear to the truth”.
And then sometimes, you’ll even see an indirect object used. For example:
I’m afraid of your friend.
Le tengo miedo a tu amigo.
This seems a bit weird, because Tener is usually associated with only direct objects, not indirect objects. But the implication is that you have the fear for someone else; technically speaking, the fear is the direct object, and the recipient of that fear is the thing that you’re afraid of.
In our quizzing, for now, we’ll generally simplify this a bit: We’ll generally use de with miedo. But just be aware that as you are exposed to more and more Spanish, you’re going to end up encountering a, and even indirect objects, in connection with this word.
Let’s practice miedo and paz.
They are afraid of spiders.
Tienen miedo de spiders.
Tienen miedo de las arañas.
She is not at peace, she is afraid of everything.
No está en paz, tiene miedo de todo.
I put the things where my mom wanted so that she can have peace.
Puse las cosas donde mi mamá quería para que tenga paz.
In this next example, someone is afraid of something, and what she’s afraid of is an entire fact or statement, which requires a que phrase. So we’ll use miedo de que. Try to predict the Spanish of the first half of the sentence.
She is afraid that the clothes she bought won’t fit.
Tiene miedo de que la ropa que she bought no will fit.
Tiene miedo de que la ropa que compró no le sirva.
There’s one more way that miedo is often used, and that’s to indicate that something scares you. In these cases, you’ll say that it “gives you fear”, using the verb Dar. To show why we’d do this, compare these two sentences:
I’m scared of the lady.
Tengo miedo de la señora.
The lady scares me.
La señora me da miedo.
So what’s the difference between “I’m scared of the lady” and “the lady scares me”? Well, there’s not really much of a difference; it really just has to do with what you’re emphasizing. So in our quizzing, when we say that something “scares” someone, putting the action on the thing that’s scary, you can expect to use Dar, but when we say that someone is “scared of” someone or something, you can expect to use Tener.
Let’s practice this a bit.
Those things scare him.
Esas cosas le dan miedo.
She is afraid of doing that.
Tiene miedo de hacer eso.
He doesn’t want to go, maybe heights scare him.
No quiere ir, quizás heights le den miedo.
No quiere ir, quizás las alturas le den miedo.
I’m not going to put those on, because I’m scared of them.
No voy a ponerme esos, porque les tengo miedo.
Horror movies don’t scare you?
¿No te dan miedo horror movies?
¿No te dan miedo las películas de terror?
Our last two nouns are the words for “love” and “affection”. The word for “love” is amor. For example:
I’m happy about having the love of my family.
Estoy feliz de tener el amor de mi familia.
This word is also very often used as a term of endearment. For example:
Yes, my love, we are almost home now.
Sí, mi amor, ya casi estamos en casa.
The word for “affection” is cariño. For example:
With much affection, I’m going to tell you (all) something.
Con mucho cariño, les voy a decir algo.
To express that you have affection for someone or something, you’ll often use an indirect object, and the most common translation is that you’re fond of someone. For example:
I’m fond of that girl.
Le tengo cariño a esa chica.
Literally, “for her I have affection for that girl”. Here’s another example:
I’m very fond of my class.
Le tengo mucho cariño a mi clase.
But ultimately, the reason that cariño is so extremely frequent in Spanish is because it’s a common term of endearment, meaning something like “darling”. For example:
No, darling, you can’t go to work with dad.
No, cariño, no puedes ir al trabajo con papá.
Let’s practice amor and cariño.
The love of parents is really powerful.
El amor de los padres es realmente powerful.
El amor de los padres es realmente poderoso.
My mom made me something with much affection; put it on the table!
Mi mamá me hizo algo con mucho cariño; ¡ponlo en the table!
Mi mamá me hizo algo con mucho cariño; ¡ponlo en la mesa!
Do you think you’ll wear this for the party, my love?
¿Crees que vas a ponerte esto para la fiesta, mi amor?
My dad is harsh with me sometimes; still, I know he’s fond of me.
Mi papá es harsh conmigo a veces; igual sé que me tiene cariño.
Mi papá es severo conmigo a veces; igual sé que me tiene cariño.
Darling, the love of our pets is great.
Cariño, el amor de our pets es great.
Cariño, el amor de nuestras mascotas es genial.
Now, before we go on to today’s final quiz, we’re going to do something unusual: I’m going to go ahead and teach you another verb.
Don’t panic! This verb is actually extremely easy to learn, both because it has a pretty simple meaning AND because it’s conjugated exactly the same way that Poner is conjugated.
So the verb is Suponer, spelled exactly like Poner, but with the letters s-u at the beginning. In fact, every single form of this verb is exactly the same as the corresponding form of Poner, but with the letters s-u at the start. So for example pongo becomes supongo, pone becomes supone, and the participle, puesto, becomes supuesto.
So what does this verb mean? Suponer means “to suppose”. So even though it’s conjugated exactly like Poner, the meaning has nothing to do with “to put”. The most common form of this verb is supongo. Here’s an example:
I suppose they didn’t do it.
Supongo que no lo hicieron.
Here’s an example that uses the third person singular, supone.
Where does he suppose that we are?
¿Dónde supone que estamos?
And actually, in English, we are often lazy and use the word “guess” instead of “suppose”. For example:
I guess he won’t do it on time.
Supongo que no lo hará a tiempo.
Now when it comes to guessing, as in guessing games, there’s another verb for that in Spanish. But most of the time in English when we talk about guessing, what we really mean is “supposing”.
Let’s practice using just three of the most common forms of this verb: supongo for “I suppose”, supone for “he/she supposes”, and supuse for “I supposed”.
He supposes that I don’t even have one.
Él supone que ni siquiera tengo uno.
I supposed that you went with them.
Supuse que fuiste con ellos.
I guess she doesn’t want it either.
Supongo que ella tampoco lo quiere.
My friend supposes that I’m going with him.
Mi amigo supone que voy con él.
I guess she is sad.
Supongo que está triste.
I supposed that we didn’t have to do it.
Supuse que no lo teníamos que hacer.
To dive into any of this more deeply, go to LCSPodcast.com/94. Or if you’re ready, let’s practice all of this together using today’s final quiz.
Our team has to wear the uniform.
Nuestro equipo tiene que ponerse the uniform.
Nuestro equipo tiene que ponerse el uniforme.
I’m putting them(f) with affection where he put them before.
Las pongo con cariño donde él las puso antes.
He supposes that I’m not afraid of those things.
Supone que no tengo miedo de esas cosas.
Darling, you don’t have to suppose that.
Cariño, no tienes que suponer eso.
My class and I put(past) our work on the teacher’s(f) desk.
Mi clase y yo pusimos nuestro trabajo en the desk de la teacher.
Mi clase y yo pusimos nuestro trabajo en el escritorio de la maestra.
I guess she doesn’t want me to put this here.
Supongo que no quiere que ponga esto aquí.
Put that here so we can have peace!
¡Pon eso aquí para que podamos tener paz!
I guess my friend wants us to put it in the living room.
Supongo que mi amigo quiere que lo pongamos en the living room.
Supongo que mi amigo quiere que lo pongamos en la sala.
How lucky that your(plural) love is so big!
¡Qué suerte que su amor sea tan grande!
The team has put it in the house.
El equipo lo ha puesto en la casa.
I want them to put this exactly where I want.
Quiero que pongan esto exactamente donde quiero.
I’m fond of the people who put things where they have to go.
Les tengo cariño a las personas que ponen las cosas donde tienen que ir.
This is too spicy, you always put a lot of spices(f)!
Esto es demasiado spicy, ¡siempre pones muchas spices!
Esto es demasiado picante, ¡siempre pones muchas especias!
I really did it with a lot of affection.
Realmente lo hice con mucho cariño.
You have to put yourself in my shoes.
Tienes que ponerte en mi lugar.
You almost did it right, but you have to put it here instead.
Casi lo hiciste bien, pero tienes que ponerlo aquí en vez.
You’re lucky that I didn’t call the police!
¡Tienes suerte de que no I called a la policía!
¡Tienes suerte de que no llamara a la policía!
He supposes that it’s too much for them.
Supone que es demasiado para ellos.
(formal) Please wear this if you are fond of us.
Por favor póngase esto si nos tiene cariño.
We don’t wear that because we aren’t comfortable.
No nos ponemos eso porque no estamos a gusto.
They put(preterite) that there to show their love.
Pusieron eso ahí para show su amor.
Pusieron eso ahí para demostrar su amor.
You’re lucky because you have peace.
Tienes suerte porque tienes paz.
I don’t want you to put those things in the house if you are afraid.
No quiero que pongas esas cosas en la casa si tienes miedo.
I guessed that I didn’t have class today because it was snowing.
Supuse que no tenía clase hoy porque estaba snowing.
Supuse que no tenía clase hoy porque estaba nevando.
Darling, I guess they don’t have to get sad because of this.
Cariño, supongo que no tienen que ponerse tristes por esto.
Maybe I will put it here so that she doesn’t put it.
Quizás yo lo ponga aquí para que ella no lo ponga.
He always puts this here and I’m afraid.
Siempre pone eso aquí y tengo miedo.
I supposed that the police would be here and that I’d be comfortable.
Supuse que la policía estaría aquí y que yo estaría a gusto.
For more practice with all of this, go to LCSPodcast.com/94, or tune in tomorrow for a quiz to practice everything we’ve learned this week.
This show is brought to you by LearnCraftSpanish.com. The Spanish voice in this episode was our coach Ximena Lama-Rondón. Our music was performed by the Seattle Marimba Quartet, and I’m Timothy, encouraging you to do the hard work of learning Spanish. Acquiring a second language is one of the most fulfilling things you can do, so start your fluency journey today at LCSPodcast.com.
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