Learning Spanish is interesting, usually fun and often complicated. It has many spelling rules, too many verb tenses, and a really extensive vocabulary. Many words are written the same and mean different things, many synonyms, many rules... However, not everything is tedious. Spanish is also a very funny and curious language! That's why, to make it easier to learn, we're going to tell you the biggest curiosities of the Spanish language. Let's go!
Curious facts about Spanish language
To make more interesting to learn Spanish, we're going to leave you some curious facts that will make you think it's much more fun.
- Do you know the word "oía"? It means to hear. Well, it is the shortest three-syllable word that exists. It's the only Spanish word that has that extension. Did you know that?
- There is a Spanish word that can be said, but not written. I'm sure we just blew your mind. What's the imperative of "Salirle"? The imperative of the verb "salir" would be composed of "sal" and "le". However, its reading would be erroneous in Spanish. Therefore, it is used, but it is not written.
- As in the first case, we also know which is the longest diccionary word. It has 23 letters, one more than "sternocleidomastoid". The word in question is "electroencephalographer". It is possible to create anticonstitucionalmnete or "superanticonstitucionalmente" of 28 letters, but adverbs do not appear in the dictionary.
The richness of Spanish language
- The 14 shortest words in Spanish. a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'i', 'l', 'm', 'n', 'o', 'u', 'v', 'x', 'y'. These 14 letters have a meaning beyond that of the letter itself. They function as conjunctions, prepositions, Roman numerals, mathematical concepts or as adjectives.
- There's only one number that's written with as many letters as its value. The number 5 "cinco."
- The croquettes ("croqueta") are delicious, but if someone tells you that in Spanish the word "cocreta" exists in the dictionary, you can say no to it. It's a very common mistake.
- The word "Olympics" refers to the "Olympic Games". If someone says no to you, you have to know that the word is found in the dictionary since 1884. The first modern Olympic Games took place in Athens in 1896.
- If you are learning Spanish, you have already known the letter Ñ. well, the tilde that carries the N is known as virgulilla.
A very rich language
- The word helicopter is composed of helico (from the Latin helix, helix) and ptero (from the Greek ptero, ala or alado). Many people thought it was composed by helicop + tero, but it is a mistake.
- The dictionary of the RAE defines more than 93.000 words. The first edition of 1780 had 46,000 testicles. The fourth edition (1803) had approximately 59,000 lemmas, but in the 1829 edition there were only 47,000, as the Latin correspondences of the voices were eliminated. The current edition (2014) is the twenty-third.
- Do you know why thieves are called chorizo? We stole it from the caló. Apparently, in caló "to steal" it is said 'chorar' and "thief", 'chori' (the origins of both words go back to Sanskrit).
- The word "reconocer" is a palindrome. That is, it reads the same if you read it from left to right and from right to left.
