Saturday, April 20, 2013

Estoy de cumple

Everybody loves birthdays.  Too bad our Spanish books didn't teach us everything we need to know to celebrate them properly.   But don't worry, today you're going to learn some Spanish that will impress your friends and show them that all your hard work is paying off.

Let's start with the verb cumplir.




When you're talking about age cumplir means to turn a certain age.

Hoy cumplo 30 años
Today I turn 30


Mi hijo cumplió 12 años en agosto
My son turned 12 years old in August

Mi tio cumple 50 manaña
My Uncle turns 50 tomorrow

You probably know where this is going next.  You can't talking about turning a year older without talking about birthdays.

Feliz cumpleaños
Happy birthday

You can also say:

Feliz cumple
Happy B-Day

OK, that's not a literal translation, but it's basically the English equivalent.  This is a very informal way to say it.

You were probably taught to say "today is my birthday" using:

Hoy es mi cumpleaños
Today is my birthday

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but you do have another option.

Estoy de cumple
Today's my birthday

¿Estás de cumple?
Is today your birthday?

¿Quién está de cumple?
Who's birthday is it?

That's actually the short version. The complete sentence is:

¿Quién está de cumpleaños?

You could also say:

¿Quien cumple años hoy?
Who has a birthday today?

Es mi cumple
It's my birthday

¿De quién es el cumpleaños? 
Who's birthday is it?

In English we love to ask the question "Who's the birthday boy?", and you can  ask the same question in Spanish:

¿Quién es el cumpleañero?
Who's the birthday boy?

¿Quién es la cumpleañera?
Who's the birthday girl?

Now that we know a bit more about birthdays and the verb cumplir, we can make our birthday wishes a little more creative.

Feliz cumpleaños,  que cumplas muchos más
Happy birthday, may you turn many more

Keeping all these phrases in your head can be difficult, but if you have an Android phone you can carry these phrases with you and many more with the My Spanish Phrase Book app.   It's got a lot of useful conversational focused phrases you just won't find in other phrasebook apps.  Check it out.

Here's another post you may find useful.  While it's not about birthday's, it is about telling people how old you are.  Estoy a punto de llegar al cuarto piso

That wraps it up for today, but we're nowhere near done talking about age.  In my next post we'll talk more about the many other things your Spanish book left out.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

¿Por qué no te echas un coyotito?

If there's one word in Spanish that probably everyone in the US learns, it's the word siesta.  I doubt that I need to explain what it means, but just to make sure no one gets left in the dark, a siesta is a nap.



Me voy a tomar una siesta, me estoy muriendo de sueño
I'm going to take a nap, I'm really sleepy

Those of you who are really astute may have noticed "I'm really sleepy" is not a direct translation of "me estoy muriendo de sueño".  Literally "me estoy muriendo de sueño" is "I'm dying of sleep".  Sure it's understandable, but we just don't say that in English, or at least I've never heard it.  

OK, It's time to get back on track.

Tomar una siesta is a great way to tell people you're going to grab a few winks, but you're not going to impress anybody and it's kind of boring to be honest, at least when you compare it to some of the other options you have.  Let's take a look at these other options.

Echarse una siesta

Antes de salir a la fiesta me voy echar una siestecita para recargar pilas
Before I leave for the party I'm going to take a little nap to recharge my batteries

A siestecita is just a diminutive of the word siesta.  Use whichever one you prefer.

Now we're starting to sound a little more native.  But we're not done yet, we're just getting started.

Echarse un sueño

Voy a echarme un sueñito
I'm going to get a little sleep

Sueñito is another one of those diminutives and it comes from the word sueño which officially means dream or to be sleepy.  You can also use the word sueño if you're not big on diminutives.

Our next phrase involves the word pestaña, which means eyelash.

Me voy a echar una pestaña, estoy muy cansado
I'm going to take a nap, I'm really tired

And of course you can use it in it's diminutive form.

Me voy a echar una pestañita de 1 horita no más
I'm going to take a little nap for just an hour, no longer

So far all the ways we've looked at to say we're going to lay our heads down for a little bit are pretty neutral and should be recognized by all Spanish speakers, but this next one might be  exclusive to our Mexican neighbors.

Echarse un coyote

Ahorita que no está el jefe, me voy a echar un coyotito
Since the boss isn't here right now, I'm going to take a nap

¿Por qué no te echas un coyote?
Why don't you take a nap?

And there you have it.  Three ways to say you need to recharge those pilas and one additional way to say it if you want to sound muy Mexicano.

¡Hasta la próxima!