Another unique aspect of soler is that it has no direct English equivalent. There is no one-word verb in English which has the exact meaning that soler has in Spanish. If you look in an English-Spanish dictionary, you will see “to be in the habit of” or “used to” or  given as definitions of soler in English.

Here’s all you need to know about soler. It’s a verb that you use in Spanish to indicate that an action is routine or an activity is habitual. In English we would resort to using the adverbs “usually” or “generally”  to convey the same meaning.

In the present tense, soler is used to refer to current actions which are routine or habitual.
In the past tense, soler is used to refer to past habitual or routine actions.

Also, soler is always, always, always followed by the infinitive of another verb which represents the routine action. (The formula is: SOLER + INFINITIVE of another verb = habitual action)

Here are some examples:

Cuando Daniel era pequeño, solía comer pasteles de barro. Creía que eran chocolate. When Daniel was little, he would eat (was in the habit of eating) mud pies. He thought they were chocolate.

¿A qué hora sueles acostarte? What time do you usually go to bed?

Solía acostarme temprano pero ahora suelo dormir menos de cinco horas cada noche. (I used to go to bed early but now I usually sleep less than five hours every night.)

Suelo ir al gimnasio tres veces a la semana y suelo dar un paseo en el parque con mi perro todos los días. (I usually go to the gym 3x a week and I usually take a walk in the park with my dog every day.)

Soler can also be used  in the subjunctive just like any other normal Spanish verb.

For example:

Espero que el tren suela llegar a tiempo porque tengo prisa. (I hope the train usually arrives on time because I’m in a hurry.)

Me sorprende que Antonio suela salir con chicas tan bobas porque es un hombre muy culto. (It surprises me that Antonio usually goes out with such bimbos because he’s a very cultured, well-educated man.)

No creo que los famosos de Hollywood suelan cenar en este restaurante tan cutre y sucio. (I don’t believe that Hollywood celebs generally dine in this tacky, dirty restaurant.)

There is an easy way to uncover the meanings of Spanish idioms and expressions and you can do it by using a monolingual (Spanish-only) dictionary. Here’s how:

Always look up the meaning of an expression by checking the dictionary entry for the first noun mentioned in the expression. The reason? A Spanish verb is more likely than a Spanish noun to be used in multiple expressions. For example, the verbs dar, estar, ir, tener, are used in plenty of Spanish phrases and expressions. An excellent Spanish dictionary will list expressions that contain those verbs, but if there are numerous expressions, most dictionaries usually only list the most commonly-used ones. That’s why you’re better off looking for the definition of a Spanish expression by first checking the entry for the main noun mentioned.

Spanish expressions (frases hechas) are combinations of words whose meaning adds up to something very different from their individual parts.

Take, for example, an expression like “ir al grano.” The verb ir means “to go” while the noun grano can be a seed, a grain of sand or a pimple on somebody’s face. But when ir is added to grano (ir al grano) the meaning changes from a literal translation to a figurative one.

When I checked the dictionary under “IR” there was no definition for the expression. But when I checked “GRANO”, there was the expression with its meaning. Ir al grano means “to get to the point.”

So, to recap, here’s a step-by-step process you can use to find the definition of a Spanish expression.

Step 1: First, look up the primary NOUN

Step 2: If there is no noun, look up the VERB.

Step 3: If there is no verb, look up the ADJECTIVE.

Step 4:  If there is no adjective, look up the PRONOUN.

Most of the time, you won’t have to go down that entire scale. You will usually find your definition by first looking up the noun or the verb. Usually the first two steps (checking the noun or the verb listed in the expression) is enough.

By the way, I strongly believe that once you reach an intermediate-level of Spanish, you should start using a Spanish-only dictionary. Why? A monolingual dictionary usually gives a more comprehensive definition. A good monolingual dictionary will also give you examples as well as multiple definitions. The average bilingual dictionary, because it contains two different languages, generally does not have the space, if it is in book form, to offer the same level of detail.

Of course, there are some electronic or online bilingual dictionaries which are excellent, but another advantage to using a monolingual dictionary is that it forces you to think in Spanish. That means less translating in your head, which is a good thing.

Check out: “How to use a Spanish-English Dictionary”

Don’t worry, I’ll still be tweeting Spanish verbs over @ReVerbSpanish, but now you can add @SpanishWordz to the mix.

Why the spelling “Spanish Wordz”?

Because “Spanish Words”, “Spanish Word”, “Palabras”, and “Spanish Vocab” were all already taken on Twitter.

The plan is to tweet Spanish words that hopefully you aren’t too familiar with. I know what you must be thinking….ANOTHER Spanish Word of the Day stream on Twitter?! Yes, I know there are already plenty of these “Spanish Word Of the Day” tweets on Twitter. But most of them are focused on very basic Spanish words. Perro= dog. Lunes = Monday. Comer = to eat.

That’s great for beginners or people who need a refresher, but what about those of us who already have the basics down pat and want to keep progressing?

It’s time to stretch yourself, especially if you’ve been studying Spanish awhile and are at an intermediate or advanced level. Get out of the habit of using the same basic Spanish words over and over again.

For example, you may use the word “amigo,” even in situations where it may not be the best choice. In English, we have words like colleague, coworker, acquaintance, roommate, neighbor, buddy. Why not learn the Spanish equivalents and deposit them into your Spanish memory bank?

Even if your accent speaking Spanish isn’t perfect, using more sophisticated words in Spanish will go a long way to making you sound more fluent.

There won’t be any overall theme or specific reason why certain words get posted on particular days. They will just be words that strike me as interesting and unusual. Often they will be words that I’ve noticed in the news that I think might help folks expand their Spanish vocab past the usual common Spanish 101 words. If you’re studying Spanish in college or in high school taking Advanced Placement Spanish, some of these vocab words may come in handy.

I will post at least one Spanish word daily. On some days I may post more than one. But there will always be at least one new word posted everyday. I’m commited to doing this every day for the next 365 days. After that, who knows?

Follow me on Twitter:

Spanish Vocabulary @SpanishWordz

Spanish Verbs @ReVerbSpanish

Bilingual tweets @VoicesEnEspanol

Kids stuff @CodysCuentos

Conocer is intangible knowledge in the sense of to be familiar with someone or something. Use this verb with people, places and things.
Example: ¿Usted conoce Madrid? Do you know Madridl? ¿Conoces a Felipe? Do you know Phillip? Are you acquainted with Phillip? ¿Conoce usted ese café? Do you know that café? Are you familiar with that cafe?

Saber, meanwhile, means to know a fact, to have specific knowledge about something.

Examples:

¿Sabes a qué hora empieza la película? Do you know what time the movie starts? ¿Sabes el título de la película? ¿Sabe María mi nombre? Do you know the title of the movie? Does Mary know my name?

You can get additional mileage out of saber by adding an infinitive to it. An infinitive is an unconjugated verb. Here is the formula for saying “to know how” to do something in Spanish. Saber + infinitve = to know how (in English)

Here are some examples:

¿Sabe cocinar tu compañero de piso? (Does your roommate know how to cook?

Sí, él sabe cocinar. (Yes, he knows how to cook.)

Notice that this construction in Spanish doesn’t require the adverb “cómo” (how).

So, to summarize, conocer and saber both mean “to know” but with distinct usages.
Use CONOCER when referring to people, places or things that you know or are familiar with. Use SABER when referring to facts, information, specific know-how.

2. Once you’ve listened to the audio drill at least once or twice, then look at the written form of the conjugated verb so that you can see and memorize the spelling. Do the audio drill again, this time reading and repeating the conjugated verb. A good online Spanish verb conjugator is available at Word Reference.com. Just type in the verb you need in the search box and once you land on that verb’s  page, click on “CONJUGATOR” to see a full table of conjugations for that specific verb.

Remember, you have to practice using these verbs for them to stick in your memory. Each audio verb drill is five minutes or less, so it doesn’t take much time for you to sneak in a little Spanish verb practice every single day. ¡Suerte! and Happy Re-Verberating!

Have you ever used a Spanish-English dictionary to look up a word only to discover later on that the meaning you found wasn’t quite accurate for the situation? In fact, it’s quite common for Spanish-English dictionaries to lead many language learners astray with definitions that are imprecise or misleading.

The classic example are the verbs SER and ESTAR. Both mean “to be” in Spanish but with a difference. Using these two verbs interchangeably can change the meaning of a sentence even though the standard dictionary says that both verbs are the Spanish equivalent of “to be” in English.

While SER and ESTAR are obvious examples, there are several other Spanish verbs which create similar problems, albeit on a smaller scale, for Spanish learners. For example, the verbs hacerse, ponerse, quedarse and volverse all mean “to become” in Spanish but they cannot be used interchangeably in Spanish. That’s because each one of these verbs has an additional layer of meaning that doesn’t always get explained properly in a typical dictionary.

So, that’s what the ReVerb Spanish blog and podcast are going to focus on – the nuances, the variations in meaning for verbs that appear to synonyms.

Neither the blog nor the podcast will teach you Spanish grammar. That’s not the point of this program. Instead it will be a supplement to your Spanish language studies.

In addition to the blog entries, there are also audio Spanish verb drills available. Listening to these audio exercises are a good way to practice your Spanish verb conjugations. If you’ve ever second guessed yourself or gotten tongue tied when trying to remember the correct form of some basic verbs, listening to these audio drills might help.  I’m only making a few basic verbs available initially. But if I get feedback indicating that there is strong demand for more audio verb drills, I will add more audio verb drills to the current collection.

Would you like to make a suggestion or give feedback? Send me a message.  Tell me what you think so that I can improve this site. ¡Gracias!