Anglicism - Definition

Ludwig Wittgenstein said that "the limits of my language are the limits of my world", and at don Quijote, we couldn’t agree more.

Today, we are going to talk about foreign words. They are loan words that one language takes from another to cover a semantic void or to offer a lexical alternative.

Read this entry in Spanish if you want to practice.

In a globalized world like the one we live in nowadays, ideas travel at great speed and cross borders. For this reason, new concepts arise sometimes, and with them, the need for a word to name them.

But we are going to focus on some loanwords that come from the English language (also called anglicisms) and have made their way into the Spanish vocabulary. In some cases, the loan word is assimilated into the receiving language with changes in spelling and/or pronunciation.

However, those who learn Spanish as a second language find some of these adjustments very comical. 

10 Examples of Anglicisms Adapted to Spanish

Next, we present 10 examples of hilarious anglicisms adapted to Spanish in terms of spelling and pronunciation that have been accepted by the RAE (Spanish Royal Academy).

Here at don Quijote, we hope you’ve enjoyed this blog post. Besides, we’d like to say thanks to the English language since Spanish wouldn’t be the same without these fantastic loan words!

If you want to learn more about the Spanish vocabulary, have a look at our last video 5 Palabras que existen en español pero no en inglés.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

Today, we begin our post with a beautiful quote by Henry David Thoreau. The excuse, the arrival of autumn. Can you think of a better place than a forest in the middle of nature to enjoy this season? For this reason, we present a compilation with the top 8 forests to visit in autumn in Spain. We hope you enjoy them.

Read this post in Spanish.

1. Irati Forest (Navarra)

Irati Forest is the largest forest mass in the Foral Community of Navarra and the second largest beech-fir forest in Europe (after the Black Forest in Germany). It is a beautiful forest whose soil is covered with a reddish mantle when the leaves fall. Trees and vegetation turn the same color, giving rise to an idyllic autumnal scene. In addition, in the Irati Forest we can find 16 marked paths for hiking enthusiasts. Just don't forget to wear hiking boots and bring a camera to immortalize the landscape.

2. Muniellos Forest (Asturias)

Located within Fuentes del Narcea, Degaña and Ibias Natural Park in Asturias, Muniellos Forest is the largest oak grove in Spain and one of the best preserved in all of Europe. Stroll into the Muniellos Forest and discover one of the best outdoor settings to visit in autumn. The environment, home to many legends of Astur mythology, maintains a very intense green color (thanks to the holly) that mixes with the gold and reddish tones from the fallen leaves of beeches, chestnut trees, and oaks. Keep in mind that only a limited number of people are allowed into the forest each day, so you’ll need to request permission before you go using the Principality of Asturias website.

3. Ordesa Valley (Aragon)

Ordesa Valley is one of the best places for rural tourism in Huesca. Located in the Aragonese Pyrenees, Ordesa and Monteperdido National Park undergoes a beautiful transformation around this time of year: beeches, birches, maples, and ash trees give rise to a colorful spectacle when the fall arrives. A landscape dotted with yellow and reddish colors makes this area worth visiting to enjoy some of its hiking trails. Wrap up and wear appropriate footwear so you don't miss one of the ideal places to travel in the fall.

4. Gorbeia Natural Park (Basque Country)

Gorbeia is the largest Natural Park in the whole region, known for its lush vegetation. It is embedded in a magical environment, especially at this time of the year, due to the golden and copper-colored tones that paint the landscape. Prepare a getaway now and enjoy unique places like the Akaitz beech woods, the limestone pavement of Pardarri, the Arritzaga Valley, and the cirque glaciar in Pardelutz. At Gorbeia Natural Park, you will discover an idyllic site straight out of a fairy tale, the perfect place to visit in the fall.

5. Aran Valley (Lleida)

Located in the Catalan Pyrenees, the Aran Valley is one of the best destinations to travel in autumn. After the summer, the first snowfalls begin on the mountain tops, which cover some of the highest peaks in Spain with an immaculate white mantle. In addition, the yellow, maroon, and orange shades of deciduous trees (beech and centenary oaks) make the valley’s forests some of the most attractive to enjoy the cozy colors of this season. We recommend you dress warmly and bring the appropriate gear to avoid being cold and to be able to walk comfortably around these incredible landscapes.

6.  Faedo de Ciñera Beech Woods (León)

Although it is small, the Faedo de Ciñera holds the title of The Best Cared For Forest in Spain. This very special forest is located in the Central Leonese Mountains, where it is said that a witch named Haeda, guardian and protector of the place, dwells. Let your mind wander on paths surrounded by trees and stop to nap by the stream that bears the same name: you will discover one of the most charming areas to explore in autumn.

7. Ambroz Valley (Cáceres)

Located to the south of the province of Cáceres, between Las Hurdes and the Jerte Valley, we find the Ambroz River Valley. With its chestnut trees and oak woods, it is one of the best places to enjoy the colors of autumn. In fact, the locals even have a fiesta dedicated to this season: "Magic Autumn." It is a Festival of National Tourist Interest that is celebrated annually between the months of October and December with different outdoor activities: hiking trails, exhibitions, local products and food markets, craft fairs, dances, competitions, and much more make the Ambroz Valley the perfect place to have fun with family and friends.

8. Tejeda Negra Beech Forest (Guadalajara)

Tejeda Negra is the southernmost beech forest in all of Europe, located in the province of Guadalajara. Thanks to its deciduous trees, the best time to visit the Tejera Negra Beech Forest is autumn. The color variety is spectacular, and if you go with an expert, you can also enjoy the many species of mushrooms that you can find there. The hiking trails around the area are not very difficult and are truly beautiful. It is advisable to book in advance as a limited number of people are allowed entry.

We hope you enjoyed the post and, above all, that you organize a getaway very soon to experience the essence of autumn in the middle of nature.

This week we would like to give you the last details you need to get a full overview of the Spanish adjective placement. Let us refresh your memory! We encourage you to go back to our first article on the topic and keep on reading this post in English or in Spanish to upgrade the way you use adjectives.

Before or after the noun?

Usually, we place adjectives that express order before the noun. These include primero (first), segundo (second), último (last), próximo (next), siguiente (following), nuevo (new), antiguo (old). For example:

Espero hacerlo mejor en el próximo examen. (I hope to do better on the next exam.)

However, when we talk about the chapters of a book, the episodes of a TV series or the floors of a building, these adjectives can also be placed after the noun. For example:

El segundo capítulo es mejor que el primero. = El capítulo segundo es mejor que el primero. (The second episode is better than the first one.)

La ropa de deporte está en la tercera planta. = La ropa de deporte está en la planta tercera. (Sports clothes are on the third floor.)

Changing form and meaning

We must consider that some adjectives change their form regarding their position before or after the noun. Grande (big), bueno (good), malo (bad), primero (first) and tercero (third) do so. Let’s have a look at how some of them vary in form:

Un chico bueno = un buen chico (A good boy)

Un consejo malo = un mal consejo (A bad piece of advice)

El capítulo primero = el primer capítulo (The first episode)

El tercer piso = el piso tercero (The third floor)

In all the cases above, adjectives keep the same meaning regardless their position in the sentence. However, the adjective grande (big) has different meanings depending on whether it goes before or after the noun:

Barcelona es una ciudad grande. (Barcelona is a big city.)

Barcelona es una gran ciudad. (Barcelona is great city.)

In the first sentence, grande describes the city’s dimensions, i. e., its size, while in the second example gran talks more about its character: a great, wonderful city. In this case, it talks about the quality of Barcelona, not about its size.

Please note that all the adjectives above change their form to agree with masculine singular nouns, but the word grande has also a different spelling for feminine singular nouns, as we have seen in the example Barcelona es una gran ciudad. The reason behind is that grande is built in the same way both for masculine and feminine nouns, so if the form changes in masculine it must also do it in feminine.

Thanks to Ignacio Sellés from our school in Alicante for bringing some extra light to the topic.

If you want to improve your knowledge about specific topics such as adjectives, we encourage you to try our don Quijote private Spanish lessons. With them, you’ll have the opportunity to focus on the topics that most interest you.

The letter "ñ" is one of the hallmarks of the Spanish language. It is present in many words and helps us distinguish them from others that are quite similar in terms of their spelling. Some of the most common examples are: caña/cana, pena/peña, cuna/cuña, campana/campana.

If you want to learn more about this beautiful letter, showing up next, you’ll discover some interesting details. You can continue reading this post in Spanish.

What is the name of the symbol over the letter “ñ” in Spanish?

The elegant headdress that lays on top of the "ñ" is called virgulilla. However, most Spanish speakers do not know this detail, so it’s very common that they refer to this spelling sign as the hat over the “ñ”, the accent mark, or even the eyebrow.

However, those who are dedicated to computer programming usually know the real name, since it turned out to be a big headache for some of them. The letter "ñ" and its virgulilla made it necessary to increase the number of bits used to represent it on the computer screens, although many times this is still a challenge to achieve.

Where does the letter “ñ” come from?

The letter "ñ" arises from the need to represent a new sound that, although did not exist in Latin, appeared in different Romance languages with the spelling of different groups of consonants, such as the double "n" (anno-“año”), the letters "gn" (lignu-“leño”), or the combination "ni" followed by vowel (Hispania-“España”).

But linguistic economy has always been very important, and since there were too many options for the same sound, medieval scribes (those who copied the books when there was no printing press) decided to simplify. Finally, the group of consonants “nn” was chosen, which was later abbreviated into a single one, and distinguished by the placement of this upper-line called virgulilla.

Later, in the thirteenth century, King Alfonso X the Wise set the first rules of Castilian language, and the "ñ" was established as the preferred spelling to reproduce the phoneme /ɲ/. Thus, its use was extended and included in the first grammar of Spanish, written by Antonio de Nebrija and published in 1492.

In the same way, other Romance languages ​​that emerged from Latin adopted other ways of representing the sound /ɲ/: Italian and French opted for the “gn” combination, Portuguese decided on “nh” and Catalan “ny”.

How many languages contain the letter “ñ”?

This is the fifteenth letter of the Spanish ABC, but it does not belong to the basic Latin alphabet. However, it is not an exclusive letter of Spanish, as it is present in many other languages ​​such as Aymara, Asturian, Breton, Bubi, Chamorro, Basque, Filipino, Galician, Guarani, Iñupiaq, Kiliwa, Mixtec, O'Dham, Otomi, Papiamento, Quechua, Rohingya, Tagalog, Crimean Tatar, Tetun, Wolofmapuche, and Zapotec.

Besides, the sound /ɲ/ can also be found in languages from every continent. Some remote examples are the Nile-Saharan and the Australian Aboriginal languages.

Equivalent Letters in Other Languages

In other languages, the double "n" has derived in different spellings:

• in Oromo, Aragonese, Venetian, Walloon, Catalan, Ewe, Gã, Ganda, Hungarian, Hmong, Indonesian, Ladino, Lingala, Malay, Quenya, Sesotho, Swahili, Walloon, Zhuang and Zulu.
• in French, Breton, Walloon, Jèrriais, Italian, Corsican, Sardinian, Genoese, Piedmontese, Lombard, Venetian, Friulan, Latin and Sicilian.
• in Occitan, Mirandés, Portuguese and Vietnamese.
• in Dutch, Croatian, Faroese, Friesian, Arumanian, Serbian, Cimbrian, Finnish and Albanian.
• <Ň> in Czech, Slovak and Roma.
• <Ń> in Polish, where, in addition, the digraph has the same value (the same happens in Basque, where apart from the <ñ>, in some dialects it is not even read as a <ñ>).
• <Ņ> in Latvian.
• (at the beginning of the word when it is palatized) in Gaelic.
• in Leonese possible solution in ñ at the beginning of the word (ñube nnube).
• and in Scottish Gaelic when pronounced palatized.
• <ɲ> in Bambara.
• in Basque (sometimes also the spelling or <ñ>).
• in gagauz before ä, e, i, ö and u.
• <に ゃ> in Japanese (hiragana), (ニ ャ, katakana) although its sound is not identical, it is borrowed for better pronunciation, since the sound <ñ> does not exist in Japanese. For example <ベ ゴ ニ ャ> translated into Spanish “Begonya ”(Begoña), as you can see it cannot be translated as is the <ñ>.
• <Нь> in Ukrainian, Russian and Bulgarian.
• <њ> in Serbian.
• <ஞ்> in Tamil.
• <νι> in Greek.
• <ኝ> in ge'ez, amharic, tigriña, tigré, harari, blin and me'en, among other languages ​​that use the Ethiopian writing system.
• <ञ> in Hindi, Marathi, among other languages ​​that use Devanagari.

Some Words Written with <Ñ>

Here are some of the most used examples of words that are written with the letter <ñ>. Among the words with positive connotations, we find: soñar (dream), retoño (tot, sprout), aliñar (dress, season), buñuelo (fritter, profiterole), compañero (partner), hazaña (feat), cariño (love), enseñar (teach) o entrañable (endearing). On the other hand, we also use the language to describe unpleasant situations. In this way, we find: daño (damage), ponzoña (poison), puñal (dagger), arañar (scratch), niñato (immature person), ñoño (cheesy, tacky), engaño (trickery, lie), migraña (migraine), añoranza (nostalgia, longing), huraño (shy, hermit-like) o carroña (carrion).

And now, tell us ... what is your favorite word written with <ñ>?

In our last few academic posts, we studied how to spot the difference between masculine and feminine nouns and adjectives. That probably wasn’t completely new to you, but today we’re going to cover a topic that students are always asking about. It usually doesn’t get the attention it deserves in the classroom.

Now that we know when an adjective is masculine or feminine, where do we put it? There’s no easy answer because in Spanish, adjectives can go before or after the noun.

Read this post in Spanish.

Some adjectives always go after the noun. These adjectives express:

• Color: ¿Te gusta mi vestido azul? (Do you like my blue dress?)
• Form: Me he comprado una mesa redonda. (I bought myself a round table.)
• State or condition: En esta casa hay muchas cosas rotas. (In this house there are many broken things.)
• Type: Quiero un teléfono móvil. (I want a mobile phone.)
• Origin: Me gusta la música española. (I like Spanish music.)

However, there’s an exception: in poetic language, these types of adjectives can go before the noun.

• Me enamoré de sus rojos labios (I fell in love with his/her red lips).

All other adjectives (the ones that don’t fit into the categories listed above) can be placed before or after the noun, depending on the situation.

• When a Spanish adjective comes after the noun, it is usually being used to distinguish the thing we’re talking about from something else.
  •  Vamos por el camino grande. Parece más seguro que el camino pequeño.

(Let’s take the big road. It looks safer than the small road.)

• When a Spanish adjective comes before the noun, it’s not being used to distinguish the noun from other nouns. Instead, the adjective is being used to highlight a quality of the noun.
  •  El pequeño camino que lleva a la cima de la montaña es peligroso.

(The small road that leads to the top of the mountain is dangerous.)

In this case, there is only one road. The adjective pequeño is being used to describe a characteristic of the road. We don’t need to distinguish between a big road and a small road because there is only one.

These adjectives that can be used before the noun usually describe a characteristic whose meaning is relative. That is to say, the characteristic they describe depends on making a comparison. For example, grande-pequeño (big-small), rápido-lento (fast-slow), bonito-feo (pretty-ugly), fuerte-débil (strong-weak), largo-corto (long-short), cercano-lejano (near-far), etc. Something is big or small, pretty or ugly, fast or slow, etc., depending on what we compare it to.

Usually, you will see these adjectives with relative meanings placed before a noun in formal writing. For example, Los testigos dicen que se asustaron porque escucharon una fuerte explosión (The witnesses say they were frightened because they heard a loud explosión).

To learn more, sign up for one of the Spanish courses we offer at our schools.

Thanks to Ignacio Sellés from our school in Alicante for teaching us where to put our Spanish adjectives.