If you are familiar with the term “Latin Lover”, you may not be surprised to know that Spanish is called a Romance language. But the romance we are talking about here is not exactly the Latin Lover type –unless you love to learn Latin.

Spanish is a Romance language because its origins reside in the Latin of ancient Rome (as well as other languages such as Italian, French, Romanian and Portuguese).

The English language has a lot of words that are very similar to Spanish, because they come from Latin and French roots. Among the delightful discoveries of similarities between the languages are words such as teléfono móvil (mobile telephone), soprano (soprano), pronto (right away; soon), and thousands of others that differ by just one or two letters, such as conclusión (conclusion), composición (composition), libertad (liberty), economía (economy), invención (invention) and presidente (president).

Embarrassing mistakes may arise from words where the sounds and even the roots are the same, but the meanings are completely different (false friends). For example, the word “embarrassed” in English means ashamed, but the Spanish word embarazada, which comes from the same root as the English word, means “pregnant”. So you can say in English that you are a little embarrassed, but in Spanish you cannot be just a little embarazada. Either you are pregnant or you are not!

Here are just a few examples of Spanish words that you already know, because English uses them too:

• You may have been to a fiesta.
• You´ve probably taken a siesta.
• You probably know at least one señorita, and you surely have an amigo.
• You may have eaten a tortilla, tapas or paella, and drunk sangría.
• You have probably said Hola! and Adiós!

And I am sure that you have heard these expressions before:

Mi Casa, Su Casa

To make guests feel more comfortable or relaxed in their homes some people say, “Mi casa, su casa”. The literal translation is “my house, your house.” A more accurate and grammatically correct way to say this would be, “Mi casa es su casa”, or “My house is your house”.

Hasta La Vista

Made popular in “Terminator 2″, this phrase does not translate well into English. The closest translation is “until we see each other”. It is another informal way to say “goodbye”.

I hope you have enjoyed this Spanish vocabulary. If you require professional Spanish translation services, then please do not hesitate to contact us!

See you next week!