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Even native speakers have no end of trouble with the distinction between aun and aún. In fact, this newsletter was instigated when our chief proofreader removed the accents she found on the u's in Belanova's title refrain Y aun así te vas. The band's own CD shows an accent on the u, so we were dubious. Ultimately, she convinced us that there should be no accent on the u in the phrase aun así. Hopefully the following will convince you too!
Revolvimos los planetas
We stirred the planets
Y aun así te vas
And even so you leave
Captions 16-17, Belanova - Y aun así te vas
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Aun así is a Spanish idiom, or usage expression, meaning "even so", "still" or "yet." We could have equally well translated the line as "And still you leave," or "And yet you leave."
Hace frío afuera, aun así ella no se pone un abrigo.
It's cold outside, yet she won't wear a coat.
No tengo mucho dinero, pero aun así voy a comprar la computadora.
I don't have much money, but still I'm going to buy the computer.
Habíamos pagado por la habitación y aun así tuvimos que buscar otro hotel.
We had paid for the room and yet we had to look for another hotel.
Aun así, creo que deberías disculparte.
Even so, I think you should apologize.
The word aun, by itself, and with no accent over the u, and not followed by así, can often be translated as "even."
No como torta, aun en mi cumpleaños.
I don't eat cake, even for my birthday.
Aun cuando lo leyera, no lo entendería.
I wouldn't understand it, even if I read it.
Ni aun sabiendo la dirección llegarías a su casa.
Not even knowing the address would you find his house.
Can you see how when we put aun together with así ("like this" / "this way"), we get something along the lines of "even like this" / "even this way"? Or, more concisely, "even so"? Diccionario de Uso del Español, by María Moliner, a favorite of professional translators, goes deeper:
"AUN ASÍ" Expresión adverbial de significado adversativo, ya que expresa oposición entre el resultado real de la circunstancia expresada por "así" y el que podría esperarse de ella. "Aun así no llegaís a tiempo"
"AUN ASÍ" Adverbial phrase with adversative meaning since there is a contrast between the actual outcome of that circumstance expressed by "así" and the expected result. "And still / yet you are not on time"
If that's a bit too deep, ¡no importa! (don't worry), just remember the basic meaning and you'll be fine!
Aún, with the accent on the ú, means "up until the present moment" and is basically synonymous with todavía. Confusingly enough, aún is also defined as "yet," "still," but in the temporal sense (as opposed to when they mean "even so" / aun así).
¿Aún estás aquí?
¿Todavía estás aquí?
Are you still here?
Aún no ha llamado.
Todavía no ha llamado.
She hasn’t called yet.
Ya son las once y aún no ha llamado.
Ya son las once y todavía no ha llamado.
It’s already eleven o’clock and she still hasn’t called.
¿Has tenido noticias? —Aún no
¿Has tenido noticias? —Todavía no
Have you had any news? — Not yet.
Let's continue with Arturo Vega's tentative arrival in New York:
Y vine primeramente en el sesenta y nueve para ver qué onda, a ver qué tal estaba Nueva York.
And I first came in sixty-nine to see what was going on, to see how New York was.
Captions 70-71, Arturo Vega - Entrevista - Part 1
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"¿Qué onda?" It's a common question in Mexico and elsewhere in the Spanish-speaking world. It's even a common greeting. If you took it literally, the question sounds like "What wave?" -since "qué" (with an accented é) means "what" and "onda" means "wave," technically speaking. While "de onda corta" is "shortwave," as in shortwave radio, note that "onda" can also mean "vibe" informally. And so "qué onda" can mean, basically, "what's up" or "what's going on," as our translators have it. ("What vibe" sounds silly in English.)
Onda in this informal sense seems to have originated in Mexican colloquial speech and is used in a wide variety of ways. This usage has spread throughout Latin America but, by most accounts, continues to be most common in the place it originated.
Note that ola is also a word for "wave," and this is the word used to describe the things that slap the beach. If you talk about an onda when describing a body of water, most native Spanish speakers will take it that you mean a "ripple." So, next time you visit Puerto Escondido, note that a surfista is certainly riding las olas, but might be staying at Cabañas la Buena Onda (The Good Vibe Cabanas) -- which are still so pure that they don't appear to have a website, but we guarantee you they exist (find them at La Punta, "The Point").
Chatting with Arturo Vega, the artistic director of the seminal New York rockers The Ramones, we learn he's from Chihuahua, Mexico (yes, the namesake of those tiny Taco Bell / Paris Hilton dogs). We also learn that he came to the U.S. in "los sesentas" ["the sixties"] -- as in, "los años sesenta." In fact, in just over six minutes of chatting in front of the camera, Vega mentions "los sesentas" four times (in captions 29, 30, 40 and 50, to be precise).
En los sesentas empecé a viajar y por supuesto en los sesentas era más atractivo ir a lugares como San Francisco, California
In the sixties I started to travel and of course in the sixties it was more attractive to go to places like San Francisco, California
Captions 29-30, Arturo Vega - Entrevista - Part 1
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But the grammar police say that Vega gets it wrong four times: In proper Spanish, the decades are supposed to be singular, so it's los sesenta (short for los años sesenta).
Well, let's give Vega the benefit of the doubt. You see, Anglicisms in Spanish are increasingly popular. By "Anglicism" here we are referring to the application of a rule of English grammar to Spanish. Besides making decades plural, as an Anglicism, you may hear some family names pluralized in Spanish as the are in English. For example: Los Ramones (as uttered by our interviewer in caption 37) is technically the incorrect way to refer to the members of the fictional Ramone family.
Y... aquí fue donde... conociste a Los Ramones
And... it was here where... you came to know the Ramones
Captions 36-37, Arturo Vega - Entrevista - Part 1
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(Granted, "los Ramone" does not echo the name of the legendary band....) Note: the band members each took the last name "Ramone" as stage names, but these neighborhood pals from Queens were not, in fact, related, nor born with this surname.
Tip: If you want to hear a more traditional translation of a famous U.S. family into Spanish, tune into Los Simpson. (Yup: it's singular: "Simpson.")
In the song's refrain, there's another example of a common verb used in a secondary sense.
Si dos ya no se llevan bien
If two don't get along [well]
Caption 11, Jeremías - Uno y uno igual a tres
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The first definition you'll probably learn for the common verb llevar is "to carry." Learn the nuances of this versatile verb and you'll find this construction:
Llevarse bien/mal con alguien
"To get on well/badly with somebody"
For more examples -- and more nuances of llevar -- you could check out:
ThoughtCo. > Spanish language > Using llevar
The verb prestar (which means "to lend") has some different uses in Spanish than the verb "lend" does in English. For an example, let's turn to Chober, chatting on the beach in Venezuela in this week's new interview.
Y buenos, el destino final es prestar un servicio donde la gente pueda degustar gastronomía local...
And well, the final objective is to provide a service where people can taste local gastronomy...
Captions 37-38, Playa Adícora - Chober
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If you translated the above quotation and decided 'prestar un servicio' was "to lend a service," you'd still get the gist of the sentence. But your English might sound a little stilted. Same holds true of this common phrase in Spanish:
Prestar atención
To lend attention? Well, in modern English we'd say "to pay attention."
For more Spanish phrases containing prestar, see:
WordReference.com > prestar
...vestía la ropa con la que tú sólo puedes soñar
...she wore clothes that you can only dream about
Caption 15, La Mala Rodriguez - La Niña
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In caption 15 of María's song La Niña we are told that the protagonist wore clothes "con la que tú sólo puedes soñar," (that you can only dream about). Soñar is the infinitive "to dream" and of course is related to the word for dreams themselves, sueños. The tilde (~) over the n tells us that this n is pronounced with the "palatal nasal sound" or [ny], like what we hear when we say the English word "canyon" (which is, appropriately, cañón in Spanish). Soñar, therefore, is pronounced [sonyar].
Being a rapper and therefore a poet, it's no surprise that a few lines later she ends another line with a very similar looking infinitive.
Te llaman, te llaman, tu teléfono no deja de sonar
They call you, they call you, your phone doesn't stop ringing
Caption 19, La Mala Rodriguez - La Niña
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By dropping the ~ over the n in soñar we get sonar, which means "to sound" and also, as in this case means "to ring." Because there is no tilde over the n, the word is pronounced with the standard [n] sound we are used to in English. As so often happens, in this case the infinitive sonar is best translated into English using the present participle ("ing") form of the verb, which gives us "ringing."
This week we also offer the eighth installment of De Consumidor a Persona ("From Consumer to Person"), from Spain, a probing look at tough environmental questions. In this clip, we hear:
Es decir, se trata de vincular la misma actividad que uno tiene pues para...
That is, it is about linking the same activity that one has, well, to...
trabajar por la abolición de la deuda externa.
to work for the abolition of the foreign debt.
Captions 37-38, De consumidor a persona - Short Film - Part 8
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We've discussed the versatile verb tratar ("to treat" or "to attempt to") in this space before. But we didn't yet touch on the common construction tratarse de [algo] ("to be about [something]"), which is seen in the phrase above.
Here's a common question:
¿De que se trata?
What is it about?
And one possible answer:
Yabla Spanish se trata de gente interesante.
Yabla Spanish is about interesting people.
Got that? Have a look at an interesting discussion of the phrase, found here.
Nos encontramos aquí en Adícora desde enero... desde el nueve de enero,
We are here in Adícora since January... since January ninth,
y terminamos nuestro trabajo de grado en abril, a finales de abril.
and we'll finish our thesis in April, at the end of April.
Captions 18-22, Patricia Marti - Estudios Médicos - Part 1
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With all Patricia's talk of school requirements, you could be forgiven for initially thinking 'a finales de abril' referred to her final exams. But the phrase actually means "at the end of April" or "around the end of April." And so, the quote cited above is translated as: "....and we'll finish our thesis in April, at the end of April."
If Patricia's project were to be delayed, she might say:
...terminamos nuestro trabajo de grado a principios de mayo
or even:
...terminamos nuestro trabajo de grado a mediados de mayo
As you probably guessed, those two phrases above mean "around the beginning of May" and "around the middle of May" respectively.
If she wanted to be even more vague, Patricia could also use the common phrase a mediados de año which means "around the middle of the year." As an adjective, mediado(a) means "half-full" or "half-empty," depending on how you look at it.
Aplicarle la palabra "solidario" a las finanzas tiene que ver con que todo el mundo pueda acceder a ese... elemento de intermediación que es el dinero para poder hacer lo que de verdad importa ¿no?
Applying the word "solidarity" to finance has to do with everybody being able to access that... element of intermediation, which is money, to be able to do what's really important, no?
Captions 51-54, De consumidor a persona - Short Film - Part 6
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There are some complicated thoughts being expressed in this short film about the social consequences of consumerism. The number of verbs in the above quote alone could make your head spin. But here we want to home in on just two of those verbs, joined together in a common phrase: tener que ver.
In Spanish, tiene que ver con means, basically, "has to do with" or "got to do with" in English. But, of course, ver means "to see" and not "to do" (that's hacer). That's just the way it is.
En este cuadro, represento a Bachué, que tiene que ver con la cultura muisca de las montañas en Colombia.
In this painting, I represent Bachué, who has to do with the Muiscan culture from the mountains in Colombia.
Captions 16-17, Beatriz Noguera - Exposición de Arte
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¿Y eso qué tiene que ver?
What's that got to do with it? [Or, more simply:] So what?
No tiene nada que ver.
It's got nothing to do with it.
One of the points that comes across loud and clear in the film De consumidor a person is that a lot of social issues have to do with $money$ (el dinero). Eso es la verdad. ("That's the truth.")
Dicen que no se puede cambiar... pues, ¡cómo no! si se llevan la tajada más grande del pastel.
They say it can't change... well, of course! if they take the biggest piece of the cake.
Captions 3-4, Andrés Manuel López Obrador - Publicidad de TV - Part 2
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The setup line here, Dicen que no se puede cambiar, translates to:
"They say that things can't change."
Then we have the simple phrase ¡cómo no!, which is translated as "of course!" Taking it word by word, cómo (with an accent over the first ó) means "how," and no means "no" or "not." But "how not!" is not quite as straightforward as the simple "of course!" in our translation. Context can be most helpful here. So, ask just about any soccer (fútbol) fan if they'll be watching the World Cup finals on Sunday and the reply in Spanish is the same: ¡Cómo no! / ("Of course!")
Next comes, si se llevan la tajada más grande del pastel, or "if they take the biggest piece of the cake." Note that the phrase la tajada más grande del pastel can also be phrased el trozo más grande de la tarta.
You see, both pastel and tarta mean "cake." At the same time, both trozo and tajada mean "slice" or "piece." And your choices don't end there: Another way to say "a piece" or "a bit" is un pedazo, but that's not necessarily culinary. It's often used in the sense of "to fall to pieces" (caerse a pedazos). Meanwhile, una porción is commonly "a portion" but it can also mean "a slice" as in, una porción de pizza.
Got all that? Don't worry if you don't find it's "a piece of cake," which, incidentally, is expressed in Spanish as no está chupado or, no es pan comido.
The votes are in and the official count is over. But the presidential election in Mexico may still be less than finished. The more left-leaning of the top two candidates, López Obrador lost by a hair (according to Mexico's election authority), but he's not admitting defeat and demands a painstaking recount. In this video footage, shot before the ballot counting began, the candidate says confidently:
Vamos a ganar de manera limpia, pacífica, en buena lid...
We're going to win in a clean way, peacefully, in a fair fight...
Captions 27-28, Andrés Manuel López Obrador - En campaña
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Make a vocabulary note that lid in Spanish means "fight" or "combat." Meanwhile, "en buena lid" is a common expression (in some parts) that means "in a fair fight" or, more figuratively, "fair and square." So the phrase above gives us:
"We are going to win in a clean way, peacefully, in a fair fight..."
The expression does not necessarily mean "a good fight," in the sense of it being close or fun to watch, but the election in Mexico has turned into just that.
Vale la pena explicar que en estos trabajos... este, hemos tratado lo más posible de no dañar la ecología.
It's worth explaining that in these jobs... well, we've tried to do everything possible not to damage ecology.
Captions 1-3, Javier Marin - Artesano Venezolano
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Venezuelan artisan Javier Marin tells us right away that he and his fellow jewelry makers are not damaging sea creatures when they make their pretty shell necklaces to sell on the beach. In this video clip, Javier's opening sentence begins: Vale la pena explicar que... A literal translation might begin: "It's worth the trouble to explain that..." Or, more simply: "It's worth explaining that..."
Vale la pena recordar la frase "vale la pena"
It's worthwhile remembering the phrase "vale la pena"
Later in the same sentence, we translate: "... we have tried to do everything possible not to damage the ecology." The verb tratar can mean "to treat" or "to try [to do something]" / [de hacer algo]. But note that there's another way to say "to try" in Spanish: probar. Here's how to differentiate the two:
Probar usually means "to try" in the sense of "to taste" or "to test." To try on clothing in a store, you use the reflexive probarse [probarse la ropa en una tienda].
Ay, no sé cómo detener esta máquina, voy a probar con el botón azul.
Oh, I don´t know how to stop this machine, I'll to try pressing the blue button.
Tratar [de] is usually used more in the sense of "to intend to" or "to attempt to." For example:
Tratamos de explicar el sentido de la palabra.
We tried to explain the sense of the word.
Es bastante testarudo pero igual voy a tratar de convencerlo.
He is quite stubborn but still I'll try to persuade him.
Of course, tratar means "to treat" too:
Cada vez que vamos a visitarlos nos tratan como reyes / nos tratan de maravillas.
Every time we go to visit them, they treat us as royalty / they treat us wonderfully.
And tratar [con] "to deal [with]". For example:
No quiero ni tratar con esa clase de gente.
I don't even want to deal with those people.
Cuando callas otorgas...
When you keep silent, you consent...
Caption 10, Circo - Un Accidente
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In the refrain to this catchy punk-pop hit, lead singer Fofé uses the common verb callar, which anyone who has ever annoyed their Spanish teacher knows means "to be quiet," "to keep silent" or, more bluntly, "to shut up." The next verb, otorgar, often means "to grant" [as in, permission] or "to award." There's an expression in Spanish: Quien calla otorga, which basically means "silence is consent" (or, "whoever is silent, consents"). So the refrain can be interpretted as "When you keep silent, you consent."
Incluso muchas veces me he tenido que... que callar porque...
Many times I even had to... to be quiet because...
porque no he tenido más remedio que reírme un poco.
because I didn't have any option but to laugh a little.
Captions 22-23, David Bisbal - Haciendo Premonición Live
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No te puedo mentir, no me puedo callar
I can't lie to you, I can't shut up
Caption 11, Bloque - Nena
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¿Te podés callar la boca? Mire, patrona, yo le voy a explicar.
Can you shut your mouth? Look, boss, I'm going to explain [it] to you.
Caption 51, Muñeca Brava - 44 El encuentro
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¡Cállese!
Shut up! (singular)
¡Cállense!
Shut up! (plural)
Pero yo no me lo creo, así que decido hacer este documental. Con ánimo de lucro
But I don't believe it, so I decide to do this documentary. With Intent to Profit
Captions 26-27, Con ánimo de lucro - Cortometraje - Part 1
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Lucro means "gain" or "profit." Think "filthy lucre" as a mnemonic device.
Nosotros no somos coherentes si ponemos nuestro dinero primero, buscándole un gran lucro.
We're not being logical if we put our money first, looking for a big profit.
Captions 32-34, De consumidor a persona - Short Film - Part 6
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...si predomina la lógica del beneficio y del lucro sin límite.
...if the logic of benefit and unlimited profit predominates.
Caption 67, De consumidor a persona - Short Film - Part 7
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Frankly, it's a little surprising to have a documentary ostensibly about the quest to end poverty and hunger with the title Con ánimo de lucro ("With Intent to Profit" / i.e. "For-profit"). After all, to describe non-profit (or, not-for-profit) ventures in the Spanish-speaking world, the phrase "sin ánimo de lucro" (or, "sin fines de lucro") is commonly used... Well, future installments of this documental promise to explain this cryptic title.
The short film Con ánimo de lucro opens with a series of commands that bring to mind John Lennon's famous song "Imagine":
Imagina acabar con el hambre y la pobreza.
Imagine putting an end to hunger and poverty.
Caption 1, Con ánimo de lucro - Cortometraje
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So, what's that word right after Imagina (the familiar command form of imaginar, "to imagine")? It's the Spanish verb acabar, which most learners first encounter as a simple way to say "to end" or "to finish." But as this opening quote already hints, acabar has many more meanings in Spanish depending on how it's used. In this lesson, we'll walk through all of them — from the most basic to the most idiomatic — so you can start using this versatile verb with confidence.
Before we dive into the more nuanced uses, let's look at a couple of classic examples of acabar in its most common sense:
Al final...
In the end...
Nuestro caso no es distinto de otros casos que acabaron mal
Our case is not different from other cases that ended badly
Captions 13-14, Victor & Leo - Recuerdos de amor
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Vale, hemos acabado.
OK, we've finished.
Caption 69, Animales en familia Un día en Bioparc: Cachorro de leopardo - Part 2
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Now that we've covered the basics, let's explore the many other ways acabar is used in Spanish — starting with the non-reflexive forms.
One very common use of acabar is to express the idea of "ending up" — arriving at a place or result, sometimes unexpectedly:
y seguro que iba a acabar en la basura, ¿no?
and for sure it was going to end up in the trash, right?
Caption 49, 75 minutos Gangas para ricos - Part 5
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al final el congelador acaba quemando los alimentos.
in the end, the freezer ends up burning the food.
Caption 4, Cómetelo Crema de brócoli - Part 7
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When followed by con and a thing or situation, acabar con takes on the stronger meaning of "to put an end to" — often something unpleasant:
Para nosotros, para el santuario de burros en España, es muy importante acabar con el maltrato animal,
For us, for the donkey sanctuary in Spain, it's very important to put an end to animal abuse,
Captions 38-39, Amaya El Refugio del Burrito
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When the object of acabar con is a person, it can mean "to break up" — as in ending a romantic relationship:
Pienso acabar con mi novio.
I'm planning to break up with my boyfriend.
Watch out — without context, the previous example could easily be misunderstood! Acabar con alguien can also mean to kill someone:
acaben con él y lo entierran por allí en el llano.
finish him off and bury him somewhere in the plains.
Caption 19, El Ausente Acto 2 - Part 8
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This is one of the most important and frequently used structures with acabar. Acabar de + infinitive expresses the idea of having "just" completed an action:
Isabel Zavala acaba de salir del edificio.
Isabel Zavala just left the building.
Caption 3, Confidencial: El rey de la estafa Capítulo 4 - Part 15
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Acabo de ver a ese chico moreno, alto y de ojos azules,
I just saw that brown-haired, tall guy with blue eyes,
Caption 19, Fundamentos del Español 3 - Le Estructura de las Frases
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Acabar por + infinitive conveys the idea of eventually or finally doing something — often after a process or struggle:
Acabé por decirle la verdad.
I finally told him the truth.
The reflexive form acabarse opens up a whole new set of meanings. Here are the most common ones Spanish learners should know:
Acabarse is frequently used to express that something has run out — whether literally or figuratively:
Cuando llegan cosas como que se acabó la leche, los pañales,
When things come like, that the milk ran out, the diapers,
Caption 8, La Sub30 Familias - Part 6
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You'll often encounter acabarse in what's known as the "no fault" or involuntary se construction. Notice how in the example below, acabarse is conjugated in the third person singular to agree with el tiempo (the subject), while the indirect object pronoun nos tells us who is affected:
Eh... Se nos acabó el tiempo, entonces espero que practiquen en su casa
Um... We ran out of time, so I hope you practice at home
Caption 59, Lecciones de guitarra Con Cristhian - Part 3
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A literal translation of this sentence would be "Time ran out on us." For more on the se involuntario, check out the series from El Aula Azul.
Acabarse is also a synonym for agotarse, and can mean "to sell out":
Quería ir al concierto pero las entradas ya se habían acabado.
I wanted to go to the concert, but the tickets had already sold out.
Finally, acabarse can mean "to be over" — and you'll often hear it in dramatic, emotionally charged moments, most frequently in the preterite tense:
Anda, ¡para! ¡ya! ¡Ya está, se acabó!
Come on, stop! Now! That's it, it's over!
Captions 28-29, Carolina - Acentos
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Other colloquial translations for ¡Se acabó! include "That's it!" or "That's that!" — and you'll hear it a lot in everyday conversation.
Se acabó, yo no voy a insistir.
That's it, I'm not going to insist.
Caption 1, Muñeca Brava 48 - Soluciones - Part 5
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Here's a summary of all the meanings of acabar and acabarse covered in this lesson:
• Acabar — To end / finish: El partido acabó.
• Acabar — To end up: Acabó en la basura.
• Acabar con (algo) — To put an end to something: Acabar con el hambre.
• Acabar con (alguien) — To break up with someone: Acabar con mi novio.
• Acabar con (alguien) — To finish off / kill: Acaben con él.
• Acabar de + infinitive — To have just done something: Acabo de llegar.
• Acabar por + infinitive — To finally / end up doing something: Acabé por decirle la verdad.
• Acabarse — To run out: Se acabó la leche.
• Acabarse — To sell out: Las entradas se acabaron.
• Acabarse — To be over: ¡Se acabó!
On that note, we'll leave you with one of the most beloved expressions featuring acabarse:
Y colorín colorado, este cuento se ha acabado.
And snip, snap, snout, this tale's told out" [Literally: Red, red-colored, this tale has ended"].
Caption 65, Cleer La princesa y el guisante
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This charming phrase — the Spanish equivalent of "And that's all, folks!" — is a staple at the end of children's stories. We hope this lesson has given you a much clearer picture of everything acabar can do in Spanish. Got questions? Something you'd like us to cover? We'd love to hear from you — drop us a line with your thoughts and questions. ¡Hasta la próxima!
Porque a mí me encanta la música francés y árabe, y yo no entiendo ni papa...
Because I love French [more correct: "música francesa"] and Arabic music, and I don't understand a word...
Captions 58-59, Si*Sé - EPK
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When Carol C. of Si*Sé says with a shrug, yo no entiendo ni papa, it's easy enough for us to understand by the context that she doesn't understand a word. She could also have said no entiendo nada, which means "I don't understand anything." [Remember: you use the word nada ("nothing") instead of algo ("anything") after no in negative expressions in Spanish.]
But here singer C.C. chooses a common Spanish phrase for emphasis -ni papa. Ni means "not even" or "nor." That much is straightforward. But papa is one of those words with an almost comic array of meanings -from "Pope," as in más papista que el papa ("more papist than the Pope"), to "potato," as in papas fritas ("french fries"). Well, one of the many meanings of papa comes from the Latin "pappa" and it means "baby food," "mush," or "pulp." And that's the meaning most commonly associated with the phrase ni papa (literally: "not even mush").
No puedo ver ni papa.
I can't see a thing.
Él no sabe ni papa.
He doesn't know a thing.
Related:
Es una papa.
It's a piece of cake. [It's easily done/easily accomplished.]
No te preocupes por el examen, es una papa.
Don´t worry about the exam, it´s a piece of cake.
Mi papá fue maestro de escuela, director de las escuelas de las compañías petroleras Shell, en aquel entonces.
My dad was a school teacher, head of the schools of the Shell oil companies, in those days.
Captions 6-9, Emiro - La Historia de Emiro
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On the beach in Eastern Venezuela, Pimienta Café proprietor Emiro tells us about his family history. To tell us about life "back then," Emiro uses the phrase en aquel entonces, which might seem to mean "In that then," if taken literally. But this common expression of time is better understood as "in those times" or "in those days."
Note the use of demonstrative adjective aquel here. Remember that in Spanish there are three demonstrative adjectives to say "this" and "that": este, ese AND aquel. The last of this demonstrative trio is sometimes translated as "that...way over there," implying more distance than a simple ese (or, "that"). So you should get a sense that Emiro is talking about what happened "way back when."
In the Columbian television series Los Años Maravillosos we hear the narrator speak of a simpler, more innocent time from his childhood.
Esa tarde salí a dar un paseo.
That afternoon I went out to take a walk.
En aquel entonces los niños todavía podían salir solos sin terminar en manos de un atracador.
Back then children could still go out alone without ending up in the hands of a thief.
Captions 1-3, Los Años Maravillosos - Capítulo 1
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Faithful readers might remember that we recently discussed a similar construction of time. You see, Hoy en día means "nowadays" even though it may appear to mean something like "today in day" if taken literally (and awkwardly). Back in Venezuela we have an example of Emiro using the phase while talking about his wife.
Luego aquí en Adícora conocí a una muchacha de aquí del pueblo, se llama Lizbeth, mi esposa ahora, hoy en día.
Then here in Adícora I met a girl from here in this town, named Lizbeth, my wife now, these days.
Captions 28-30, Emiro - La Historia de Emiro
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¡Te vieron la cara! ¡Dame!
They took you for a fool! Give me that!
Caption 65, Provócame - Piloto
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A literal translation of Te vieron la cara would seem to mean "They saw your face." However, there is an expression in many Latin American countries that goes me/te/se/nos vieron la cara de idiota, which translates literally to something like "they saw my/your/his/her/our face as the face of an idiot" but which is best taken as "They took me/you/him/her for a fool." The ending de idiota is often dropped and merely implied, so when Ana declares ¡Te vieron la cara! she means "They took you for a fool!" (By the way, while this expression is found from Mexico City to Buenos Aires, you are not bound to hear it in Spain.)
Depending on the context of the situation, the phrase can also mean they took you for something else besides a fool. For example, if you are charged a hefty sum for a street taco in downtown Tijuana, you might suspect "They took me for a tourist," Me vieron la cara de turista.
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