Ch 18 · Lesson 25Spanish · Chapter 18 · Lesson 25 · Themed review
El dinero y las compras
Buying, selling and what it costs. is rich and also delicious, which is a good word to have at a market.
Practise this lesson
15-word session
A quick mix of exercises - recognise, recall, type and build each word. Miss one and it comes back round until it sticks.
Worth knowing
rico is rich and delicious, which is a useful word at a market
is rich. is also delicious, and it is the ordinary word for it: is said about food several times a day across the Spanish-speaking world.
The ser/estar split does most of the sorting: is usually wealthy and is tasty. It is not watertight, because is everyday for food in many places too, and context does the rest. Even so, the split does most of the job, which is a good demonstration of why that distinction is worth the trouble it costs you.
ganar
is to earn, to win and to gain. is I earn a thousand euros. is we won. Spanish sees no reason to separate them, and once you notice the connection it is hard to unsee: both are getting something by effort.
is the mirror: to lose money, to lose a match, to miss a train. is I missed the train, not I lost it.
The question you will actually need
¿ ? How much does it cost. ¿ ? also works and is very common in Spain. ¿ ? is how much is it, used at the point of paying.
is stem-changing: , . It agrees with the thing being bought, not with you, which puts it in the same family as and .
cuenta
is the bill, a bank account, and a count. , favor is the phrase you will use most. is to realise, and it is one of those reflexive expressions that has drifted a long way from its parts: literally to give oneself the account.
Shops
is a shop and also a tent, which sounds like a problem and never is. is a market. is a box and the till, so is pay at the checkout.
is cheap. It arrives later than it should, because people say the prices of things far more often than they say the word for inexpensive.