Ghosting the “guiri”: six Spanish verbs I hope you learn sooner than I did

As my time here in Spain is almost exactly at its halfway point, what better thing to be thinking about than the Spanish language itself?

For me (and, I daresay, many people) language is one of the most obvious and constant factors of living abroad: I am perennially conscious of it—when I’m ordering at the cafeteria, when I brush past someone in the bus, when I’m buying fruit at the market.

And what kinds of words can better help unlock language for us than verbs, the workhorses of the sentence? Think about it.

Compare: I drank a glass of orange juice vs. I guzzled a glass of orange juice.

They walk to the park vs. they amble to the park.

Unrelated photo, but shout out to the MálaGANG – just a buncha ballers being ballers, you know??

Changing a verb can have a huge effect on a sentence, and many times, mid-sentence in Spanish, I’ve found myself grasping for a verb I want to use but simply don’t know the word for in Spanish. With this in mind, I’m going to share some of the most helpful verbs I’ve learned after being here in Spain for four months.

Whether these will be the first six words in Spanish you know (after, of course, the mainstays, “hola” and “burrito”) or you’ve long been studying Spanish, read on to check out these sick verbs 🙂

1. Acabar

 For reasons beyond my knowledge, I something (mis?)learned in class that “acabar de…” is for when you just finished something. Well, I think this is true, but you can also use it as a nice little substitute for “terminar,” meaning “to finish” or “to end.”

While this is a synonym for a verb I already knew, “terminar,” “acabar” is definitely common and I have been enjoying starting to use it more and more.

Example: “Acabo mis clases a las 4 hoy” would be “I finish my classes at 4 today.”

2. Coger

This word? Super helpful. But most important thing: use deeeeeep caution when using this word!

And by this, I mean that in Spain, this verb is used all the time in a very innocuous and daily way: “Necesito coger el bus” would be “I need to take the bus.” Anywhere outside of Spain, though, “cogiendo” the bus would be a pretty weird and disgusting thing to do to a bus (to put it professionally, you just said you needed to have vulgar sexual relations with the bus :’D).

[Check out Word Reference’s numerous different definitions of “coger” to clear things up.]

Bottom line: if you want to “coger” the metro in Spain, go right ahead. But please stay away from the metro if that’s what you want to do to it in Argentina!

Besides the comical mistakes people have made, are making, and will make with this verb, depending on where they are in the world and who they are talking to, “coger” is pretty much the word to use for “to take” in Spain. From what I can tell, “tomar” is used more for drinking something, and I don’t think I’ve heard “agarrar” (another word meaning “to take”) from any Spaniards to date.

Example (in Spain!): “¿Puedo coger este plato?” would be “Can I take this plate?”

3. Llevar

Okay, so, I already knew “llevar” going into Spain. “Carry,” “bring,” or “wear” right? Yes!

But, one phrase I’ve had asked to me time and time again when people learn that I’ve recently moved to Málaga is, “¿Cuánto tiempo llevas aquí?” Literally, “How much time do you bring/carry here?” or more like “How long have you been here?”

Now, I grew up always trying to manage the clunky “Hace (time word) que…” to explain how long I had been doing something, but it is much, much easier—and, it feels, more common—here in Spain to say “Llevo tres años aquí.”

Example: “Llevo dos años estudiando español” would be “I’ve been studying Spanish for two years.”

4. Parecer/Venir

I’m combining these fellas, literally, “to come” and “to appear,” respectively, because the context where I have learned to use them is the same.

If you want to ask, “How does that sound?” you can say “¿Cómo te viene?” or “¿Cómo te parece?”…literally, “How does it come to you?” or “How does it appear to you? Again, when trying to schedule meetings with professors, meet-ups with friends, establish a time for dinner, “venir” and “parecer” really come in handy in this context.

Example: “Podríamos quedar a las diez, ¿os parece?” would be “We could meet at ten, if that sounds okay with you all?”

And, speaaaaaking of “quedar”…

5. Quedar(se)

The days of me asking people in Spanish to “reunite” (reunirse) are over! “Quedar,” a nifty verb meaning a whole slew of different things (including some different meanings when it is the reflexive “quedarse”), can effectively mean “to meet up.”

(If you want to read more on the various usages of this verb, check out this post or this one.)

[Side note: I think that quedarse (or maybe it’s just quedar) can ALSO mean to date (someone), but I’m not really that sure. Anyways, meeting someone and dating someone certainly have different connotations, so, ah, yeah…if anyone wants to clear this up for me, comment below!]

Example: “Puedo quedar a las nueve mañana” would be “I can meet at nine tomorrow.”

And, well, if you’ve got a meeting you want to happen at 9, that’s a pretty nice phrase to be able to say! But do keep in mind that if this meeting is happening in Spain, it’ll probably start late :’D

6. Soler

This verb is really interesting. It’s a verb in Spanish that means the adverb, “usually,” in English. Confused? I was, too.

Here’s an example to clear it up: “Suelo venir aquí” means “I usually come here.”

Pretty nifty, right?

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Anyways, adding these verbs (or at least specific usages of them) to my repertoire here in Spain has been quite helpful for me, so hopefully it will be for you too! If you have any other veritably vivacious verbs in Spanish that you’ve found particularly helpful, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below 🙂

And with that said, my peeps, that’s about all I have time for today. Happy Spanish, happy weekend, thanks for reading, and stay Splashy!

-Matt 🙂