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Let’s learn some more important Spanish nouns! Today we’ll learn the words for “game”, “reality”, “safety”, and “list”, among others. We’ll also learn and practice some new idioms.
¿Qué hay de un juego?
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Today we’re going to learn a few nouns, including the words for “reality”, “safety”, and “game”, as well as a few new idioms. While we do, we’ll keep practicing the verbs Dejar and Esperar, as well as yesterday’s new adverbs.
Our first word is seguridad, which can mean either “safety” or “security”. As you can probably tell, it’s related to the adjective seguro, which sometimes means “safe”. And it also kind of sounds similar to the word “security” in English, although more often it does mean “safety”. Here’s an example:
It has to do with your children’s safety.
Tiene que ver con la seguridad de tus hijos.
Next we have the word realidad, which means “reality”. For example:
The reality is that that happened just afterwards.
La realidad es que eso pasó justo después.
A very common idiom using this word is en realidad, which literally means “in reality”. Here’s a simple example:
In reality, they were very far away.
En realidad, estaban muy lejos.
And actually, one of the reasons that the word realidad is so frequent in Spanish is that this is very often how you say “really” in Spanish; it’s about as common as de verdad. For example:
He said yes, but really he didn’t want it.
Dijo que sí, pero en realidad no lo quería.
In our quizzing, I’m going to try to make it clear whether to choose en realidad versus de verdad; in general, when I say “really”, you should predict de verdad, and when I say “in reality”, you should predict en realidad. But as you do, you’ll probably notice that in many cases, the English *could* have simply been “really”.
Try it yourself with this mini-quiz.
In reality, we leave those things there.
En realidad, dejamos esas cosas ahí.
He was hoping to have safety.
Esperaba tener seguridad.
Still, that’s not the reality.
Igual, esa no es la realidad.
The reality is that there isn’t security here.
La realidad es que no hay seguridad aquí.
In reality, we did quite a bit and we didn’t leave a lot of work.
En realidad, hicimos bastante y no dejamos mucho trabajo.
Next we have a few simple nouns to learn. The first one is the word for “list”, which is lista, a feminine noun. For example:
Do you have the list of things we want to have?
¿Tienes la lista de cosas que queremos tener?
Next is juego, spelled j-u-e-g-o, a masculine noun that means “game”. Here is an example:
No, it was just a game.
No, era solo un juego.
In Spanish, juego applies to many kinds of things involving play; it can refer to word games, party games, or even the play equipment in parks. Pretty much any noun that involves “playing” will be associated with the noun juego.
One example is “board games”; in Spanish, the term for this is literally “table game”, or juego de mesa. For example:
María has a lot of board games at her house.
María tiene muchos juegos de mesa en su casa.
Now for a less positive word: The word for “war” is guerra, spelled g-u-e-r-r-a. This is a feminine noun. For example:
During the war they didn’t know what to do.
Durante la guerra no sabían qué hacer.
Let’s practice the words lista, juego, and guerra.
This board game is fast.
Este juego de mesa es rápido.
We have a list with the things for the war.
Tenemos una lista con las cosas para la guerra.
War is not a game.
La guerra no es un juego.
Leave the list of games for the party!
¡Deja la lista de juegos para la fiesta!
This board game is kind of difficult.
Este juego de mesa es medio difícil.
Don’t leave that here or we’ll have to wait.
No dejes eso aquí o tendremos que esperar.
Next, let’s learn an idiom that uses the adverb pronto, which we learned yesterday. Consider the following English sentence:
I’ll do it as soon as they leave.
The English idiom “as soon as” translates into Spanish using the adverb pronto. Here’s the sentence in Spanish:
Lo haré tan pronto como se vayan.
So the idiom is tan pronto como. Try it yourself in this next example:
I knew it as soon as she came to the party.
Lo supe tan pronto como ella vino a la fiesta.
Incidentally, there are two other idioms for “as soon as”; sometimes Spanish speakers say en cuanto. So for example, “I’ll do it as soon as they leave” might be lo haré en cuanto se vayan. And in some regions, the idiom ni bien is used; for example lo haré ni bien se vayan. Neither of these idioms is quite as universal as tan pronto como, so in general in our quizzing, we’ll just practice that version of this idiom.
Let’s learn a few more idioms before we go on to today’s final quiz. In English, we often say “beyond” to refer to a distance that goes further than another distance being mentioned. In Spanish, “beyond” typically translates as más allá. This is often paired with de. For example:
Do you know what there is beyond that place?
¿Sabes lo que hay más allá de ese lugar?
In both English and Spanish, “beyond” can be used figuratively, not just to refer to real physical locations. For example:
I don’t know what we can do beyond that.
No sé qué podemos hacer más allá de eso.
We have just two more idioms to learn before today’s final quiz, and both of them use hay, but in kind of a strange way. First we have hay quienes, literally “there are who”. This is a common way to translate the English idiom “there are those who.” For example:
There are those who say death is a part of life.
Hay quienes dicen que la muerte es parte de la vida.
Try it yourself in this next example:
There are those who say it’s not the same.
Hay quienes dicen que no es lo mismo.
And our last idiom is used in questions. Let’s say you’re proposing something, and you want to say “how about” at the beginning. For example:
How about a board game?
The idiom for this is qué hay de, literally “what is there of”. Here’s how that sentence would look in Spanish:
¿Qué hay de un juego de mesa?
Now of course we already learned the idiom qué tal to ask “what about” or “how about”, specifically when you’re asking about the condition of something, or someone’s opinion of something. This new idiom, qué hay de, is more often used when you’re proposing something, although it can be used to ask about something’s condition as well.
Let’s practice tan pronto como, más allá, hay quienes, and qué hay de.
You don’t want that game? How about this one?
¿No quieres ese juego? ¿Qué hay de este?
You never leave your things here.
Jamás dejas tus cosas aquí.
There are those who leave as soon as they can.
Hay quienes se van tan pronto como pueden.
First, we have to do this as soon as we can.
Primero, tenemos que hacer esto tan pronto como podamos.
You’re waiting here, but I didn’t leave anything.
Esperas aquí, pero yo no dejé nada.
There are those who go beyond that place, but how about you?
Hay quienes van más allá de ese lugar, pero ¿qué hay de ti?
For more practice with any of this, feel free to dig deeper using the free materials here. Or if you’re ready, let’s go on to today’s final quiz.
I don’t want this game, it doesn’t have safety.
No quiero este juego, no tiene seguridad.
(Plural) Wait! I have a board game.
¡Esperen! Tengo un juego de mesa.
You made this worse than the other game.
Hiciste esto peor que el otro juego.
She is waiting just before the party.
Espera justo antes de la fiesta.
Yes, but how about the war?
Sí, pero ¿qué hay de la guerra?
Wait! You’re not speaking at all loudly.
¡Espera! No estás hablando nada alto.
The reality is that we hope the board game is good.
La realidad es que esperamos que el juego de mesa sea bueno.
They always leave things here in reality.
Siempre dejan cosas aquí en realidad.
Beyond that, how about the war?
Más allá de eso, ¿qué hay de la guerra?
They are waiting for you to speak quietly.
Están esperando que hables bajo.
They expect you to have a list in reality.
Esperan que tengas una lista en realidad.
I have left my things as soon as I left.
He dejado mis cosas tan pronto como me fui.
In reality, I was hoping to go as soon as I could.
En realidad, esperaba ir tan pronto como pudiera.
(Formal) Leave that there and wait! Someone will talk to you soon.
¡Deje eso ahí y espere! Alguien hablará con usted pronto.
Because of their safety, there are those who leave everything at home.
Por su seguridad, hay quienes dejan todo en casa.
Let me speak! I hope we can talk about this.
¡Déjame hablar! Espero que podamos hablar acerca de esto.
I have to leave my things where she left them.
Tengo que dejar mis cosas donde ella las dejó.
I hope there are those who can talk with me.
Espero que haya quienes puedan hablar conmigo.
To get more practice with these sentences, join the free course here and quiz yourself with them until you’re acing this.
Or tune in tomorrow for a big quiz to practice everything we’ve learned this week.
This show is brought to you by LearnCraftSpanish.com. Our music was provided 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 using our free course — join here.
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