Echar y Trabar

'Echar y Trabar'

August 4, 2012

By: Gina Yoryet Roman

From the Mexican side of the coin, English is a very crazy and inconsistent language and on top of that, its phonetics don’t make sense at all. There are 41 different phonemes (sounds, combination of letters: ‘ae’) which can have more than five different ways to pronounce.

The grammar and writing aspects though are a piece of cake, at least for me. Phrasal verbs are a major migraine for many Spanish speakers because they are polysemous, (meaning they have more than one definition) and I can see why; in their mind they are processing thoughts in their mother tongue so they automatically translate, with this creating more bewilderment. How can a two-letter word change the meaning completely AND how can two words represent three, four or five irrelevant ideas?

A great example of that is ‘put on:’ Put on used as a verb means to place, to add, etc. Put on used as a noun = to play a joke on someone, to deceive someone, to put on weight = to gain weight, to put on an event = to organize an event and so on. This can be very confusing and even more considering that there are close to 1,000 or more and to spice things up even more, not only are there two word but three word phrasal verbs as well not knowing when the verb and the particle can be separated. How do we know when to separate them? We automatically know as we learned to talk using this terminology so from the American side of the coin, these verbs come natural to me.

It is very important to learn phrasal verbs because they are so prevalent in everyday spoken and informal written language. It is like learning a whole new language that is very normal to me since I grew up speaking it even though I didn’t know how to define them until a later stage in my life. Another two verbs that have countless meanings are ‘keep’ and ‘get’ so it is hard to explain to someone learning English.

Just like English every language is a maze, particular words in Spanish can have a zillion definitions like the verb ‘echar.’ Echar la sal = to jinx someone, echarse al agua  = to jump in the water, echar el brote = to sprout, echar el cierre = to lock a place, echar del trabajo = to fire someone, echar a la derecha = move to the right, echarse un jueguito = play a match, echar 20 años = to estimate 20 years, echarse atrás = to back out on something, echar chispas = to be infuriated, echar pestes = to swear, echar una parrafada = to pronounce, echar dos horas en el trayecto = to take to hours in the process of something, me voy a echar una película, I’m going to see a movie, echarse = to lie down, echar a perder = to spoil to go bad, echarse novio/a = to start dating someone, echale sal a los frijoles = sprinkle salt on the beans, etc.

Another whimsical verb is ‘trabar.’ This verb can be used in various ways:  trabas burocráticas = bureaucratic issues, ¡Traben la salida! = block the exit!, la puerta se trabó = the door is stuck, traba los labios = seal your lips, hay muchas trabas = there are many obstacles, con menos trabas = more user friendly, eliminar las trabas = remove obstructions, mi mente se trabó = my mind was blocked, trabas impuestas = blocking tactics, Te daré un poco de información, ya que vas por la vida como un gato... sin bigotes, trabándose siempre detrás del refrigerador

All right, I' m gonna give you a little feedback...... since you seem to be proceeding through life like a cat without whiskers...... perpetually caught behind the refrigerador. Echarse a alguien = to do someone, and so on. 

I can think of other fun verbs in Spanish that vary in meaning making it difficult for new learners. So I am in complete disagreement when I hear radio or yellow pages advertisements guaranteeing to learn a language fluently in six months because learning a language takes a lifetime. Every day I learn something new about both my native languages and I have a ton of fun with the slang part but for now “Me voy a echar un sueñito porque estoy cansadísima.” = I’m ready to hit the sack because I am exhausted.