This Spanish vocabulary lesson consists of two parts. The first part will teach how to express condolences in Spanish. The second part of this lesson covers some insulting things to say in Spanish. Let’s begin with the part of this lesson which covers expressing condolences in Spanish.
I received an email today from a customer who asked:
“Hola Patrick,
My next door neighbor’s grandfather passed away last night. My next door neighbor and his family are from Mexico and they know that I am trying to learn Spanish so we always only speak to each other in Spanish. How would I say ‘accept my condolences’ in Spanish? I have a ton of learning-Spanish books but not one of them teaches this useful phrase.”
There are a couple of ways to say it if speaking to the person who suffered the loss in his or her family. You can say:
Mi más sentido pésame. Accept my condolences. (Not a literal translation but close enough.)
“Mi más sentido pésame” sounds somewhat formal. If you prefer to sound a little less formal you can just say:
Lo siento mucho. I am very sorry. (Literally, “I feel it a lot.”)
If you are not speaking directly to the person who suffered the loss in his or her family and want to say “give him/her my condolences” you can say:
Dale mi más sentido pésame. Dale mis condolencias.
The second part of this lesson covers some insulting commands to say in Spanish. In case you ever need to give such commands in Spanish, I am going to list 6 of them. Not that you’d ever want to say such awful things to someone in Spanish. But just in case…
1. ¡Vete! – Scram! Beat it! Get out of here! Leave!
2 ¡Lárgate! – Get out of here!
¡Lárgate! is one that I always here in the movies that have been dubbed over from English to Spanish. I have never heard the term used in Colombia. But anyone in Colombia would know what it means.
3. ¡Déjame en paz! – Leave me alone! (Literally, “leave me in peace.”)
4. ¡Fuera de mi casa! – Get out of my house!
You could also say “¡Vete de mi casa!” And if speaking to more than one person, then “¡Váyanse de mi casa!”
5.¡Cállate! – Shut up!
6. ¡Cállate la boca! – Shut your mouth!
I don’t know if you will ever need to use any of these “grosero” (rude) commands, but just in case you do or find it interesting knowing how to say such commands.
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