Jennyfer Monsalve
Jennyfer is a graduate of Universidad de Antioquia in Early Childhood Education and a passionate educator from Colombia. With a focus on teaching Spanish as a second language, she brings creativity and cultural richness to their classrooms. Outside of teaching, she enjoys painting.
There’s no better time to talk about today’s word than Halloween. The Spanish word muerte (death) comes from the Latin mors, mortis, which also means death. This root is shared by many other languages in the Romance family, including Italian (morte), French (mort), and Portuguese (morte). The transformation from mortis to muerte is part of …
If there’s a word that comes to mind when thinking about Halloween, it is disfraz. This word comes from the late Latin term disfrazare, a compound of the prefix dis- (which denotes a negation or separation) and fraceare, from fraces meaning rags or clothing. Essentially, the idea of disfraz was to alter or hide one’s appearance, …
As a child, I was never allowed to put my bag on the floor or open an umbrella inside the house, and I never questioned it before. That got me thinking about all the agüeros in the Hispanic culture and I would like to share them with you today. The word agüero traces its origins …
I visited my family in Spain earlier this year, and we spent a lot of time at the table eating and talking. Having two or three dishes per meal is the norm there, but the most important part is the conversation you have while eating. Sobremesa is a term with no direct translation in English …
Lately, I’ve been considering taking out a loan to finance my new business venture. In Spanish, when we talk about a loan in this context, we use the word préstamo, which originates from the Latin word praestare, meaning to provide or to lend, a term commonly used in financial, academic, and everyday settings. Latin American …
The word ojalá originates from the Arabic phrase in shā’ Allāh, translating to if God wills or God willing. This reflects the historical influence of the Moorish occupation of Spain, which lasted from 711 to 1492. Latin American Pronunciation European Pronunciation The best translations for ojalá are I hope, I wish, and hopefully, a term frequently …