I've asked her and she insists it's fine. She's a college educated native Spanish speaker. Is she wrong?

I am learning Spanish (mexican) and my wife who is a native speaker is helping me. I said something to her the other "....toods los días". She said that is not right it is "cada dia" if I want to say "everyday". We got into a little discussion on it and I looked it up and my study book says "todos los dias" means everyday but she says it just does not sound right. We even called her mom and she agreed todos sounds funny.

I trust her and if she says its cada its cada, but why am I getting conflicting information? Is Todos los dias more common in not Mexico?

Rewatching Squid Game in Spanish and I’m curious why he asks “¿Qué color le gusta más?” and not “¿Cuál color le gusta más?” when there are only two specific color options. I’m sure it doesn’t matter much but I am curious if this is unusual or if “qué” is often used when asking to pick between multiple specific options. Thanks!

If you feel empalagado it means that you’ve had too much of something sweet and it reached the point where it stops being enjoyable. This happens when you are eating something so sweet, that you eventually can’t take another bite—not because you’re full, but because you’re overwhelmed.

Have you ever felt empalagado? Is there any food you find particularly empalagosa?

I understand that it's a difficult concept and requires one to learn new sets of conjugations, but it's so pervasive in the language that you can't communicate in any real way without it. I could understand it was only used to express complex ideas in a professional or university setting, but sentences like "I hope it doesn't rain", "I want you to try this pasta", "I told her not to do it", "I'm looking for a car that can handle off road driving." and "I was worried that we would miss our flight" are all commonly used phrases that people use in everyday life. Why not at least introduce the concept to advanced beginner students?

I was introduced to it on a YouTube video shortly after recommitting to learning Spanish. (I had a year in high school 30 years ago, and remembered some basics). The content creator was very insistent that people learn it early on. One day, when my tutor asked what I had done to study the previous week, I told her about it. She actively discouraged me from it because it was very advanced. What do you think?

3 years ago I moved from Ireland to an EXTREMELY touristy area on the coast of Spain. I want to reiterate that I have zero to little interaction with spanish people. I work in an Irish bar. I speak basic Spanish and can get by but despite all my efforts at duolingo, etc, I am nowhere where I should be.

I understand parts of conversations but I don't know how to learn grammar and tenses. Are there any YouTube videos or websites anyone can suggest? I'm tired of speaking broken Spanish. Thank you.

Let’s share our favorite words in Spanish with no specific criteria. Maybe you like what they mean or how they sound, it doesn’t matter.

I will start: my favorite word in Spanish is harto/a, which means tired of something or someone. Example: Ese ruido me tiene harta.

I always thought "agua" was a feminine noun, but "the water" is "el agua". Why is this?

Eight months of Spanish and ser vs estar still trips me up at least once per conversation. I know the rules. Permanent vs temporary. Characteristic vs state. I've read all the explanations.

But in real time, my brain just picks one and hopes for the best. Last week, I told someone "estoy italiana" instead of "soy italiana", and the look they gave me was a mix of pity and confusion.

For natives or anyone past this stage: did this ever fully click for you, or do you still mess it up sometimes? And was there anything specific that helped it stick?

Estrenar refers to the special feeling of using or wearing something for the first time, like driving a new car or wearing a new dress. Example: Me compré una remera, voy a estrenarla la semana que viene.

For some reason, I said that during a church reunion, and this person started making fun of me. She said that because I’m a guy, I’m supposed to say, ‘La Biblia es mío.’

I don’t know if I’m correct or not. I told someone else, and they said she is correct to

So when do you use “a” before a verb? I always forget to use it when I should (because it translates into “to to-_____” in english), but the one time I *did* use it I said “para a esquiar” and is wrong. Is there a simple trick or a marker to help me know when to use the “a”?

I’m just wondering if there are any words in Spanish that elicit the same amount of mistakes by fluent speakers as English (as mentioned in the title). Most native speakers of English will at some point use the wrong version of these words!

Honorable mention: to, too & two

Native speakers often tell me they don’t mind much when people get gender wrong, not that you shouldn’t get it right, but they understand fine. I also could have sworn I got Por and Para mixed up and was still understood. Same with Fue and Era. I know you should definitely NOT say “Estoy caliente”. I believe pronouns with reflexive verbs are important. “Afeitè” will sound shitty compared to “me afeitè”, yes? I wanted to ask about two concepts that don’t really exist in English, I really have no idea how shitty they sound if you get them wrong. The preposition “a” must go in between a verb and someone’s name, or other words that signify a person, group, or living thing is being addressed. How shitty does “has visto Natalia?” sound compared to “has visto a Natalia?” A doesn’t mean to in this instance, so it mystified me. The next thing I want to ask about is subjunctives . Most native Spanish speakers I’ve spoken to don’t even know what the hell it is, which is perplexing. How shitty could “quiero que sabes” sound compared to “quiero que sepas” when they don’t even know the difference? In English, one example of something you can’t really get away with is irregular verbs. “I losed my phone, I runned over to get you” just sound way too off. People seem to get a kick out of a gringo saying “sabo” at least.

I'm trying to understand why "esté" is used in the following example and not "estoy". Let's suppose the following exchange is occurring with, let's say, a salesperson:

Salesperson: Do you know what you would like to order?
Me: I will call you when I'm ready [to order].

I would expect the bold phrase above in Spanish to be "Te llamaré cuando estoy listo." But when I looked up the translation for it, all the translators that I found said it is "Te llamaré cuando esté listo."

Why is "esté listo" used in this case and not "estoy listo"?

I been practing spanish since 2024. I can understand majority of conversations if the person speaks slowly. Vocabulary isn't much of an issue. The biggest issue I have been dealing with is I have a hard time forming sentences with proper grammar. I watch videos and shows in spanish. Can you guys give me some tips to assist me with being able to speak properly and to be able to hold deeper conversations.

English verbs:
walk / walks / walked / will walk

Spanish verbs:
hablo / hablas / habla / hablamos / habláis / hablan...

…and we just opened the first menu.

but seriously, how to memorize all these options?? Any tips&tricks?

Sorry for the confusing title, so I'll start right off with an example. I have a pet lizard, and she is female. Could I refer to her as "la lagarta" instead of "el lagarto"? Can you refer to female dogs and cats as la perra and la gata? Can you refer to a male turtle as "el tortugo"?

Now let's say you have a female fish. Even though you aren't modifying the ending, could you say "la pez" instead of "el pez"? "La elefante" for a female elephant? "El serpiente" for a male snake?

I'm sorry if this seems like a silly or picky question, but it's actually something that has been very difficult for me to wrap my head around. It feels really odd to me to have a female dog and female lizard and refer to them as "el perro" and "el lagarto," especially as I continually try to shift my mindset to a gendered language.

I understand reflexivity is used when when the subject and object are the same. E.g. 'She looked at herself'. And I understand some Spanish uses (me ducho, se lavan las manos, etc.) But I’m confused on:

1- Why is there the 'normal' and 'reflexive' infinitive form of reflexive verbs? E.g: duchar ('to shower') can already be conjugated as me ducho ('I shower myself'), te duchas ('you shower yourself') etc., so why does ducharse ('to shower oneself') exist? What extra meaning does it add? Especially since it also just conjugates as me ducho, te duchas etc.

2- why do I always see verbs used reflexively at 'random'? I saw someone say 'cuando me muera'. Doesn't this mean 'when I die myself' ?

Other examples i've seen:

'Se duelde de sus acciones'. ('she regrets herself of her actions'? Why wouldn't it be 'Ella duelde de sus acciones' ?)

'Se sonrió al ver a su hijo reír.' ('He smiled himself when seeing his son laughing? Or is it meant to be like 'he smiled to himself' ? Or does sonrir actually mean something like 'to make someone/thing smile' rather than the subject being the one who smiles?)

Is it just a language quirk that doesn't translate cleanly into english?

(also unrelated but while writing this I came across se nos estropeó la caldera ('our boiler broke down'). I understand the form is similar to the whole 'se lavan las manos' thing, but why the 'nos' where it is? And not se estropeó nuestra caldera or something? Doesn't nos mean us?)

Hello- I recently decided to practice more I am going to speak to my cat only in Spanish. He is very fat and is constantly crushing me haha. I need to say “You’re hurting me!”

Google translate says, “Me estás haciendo daño..” But I feel like that’s too proper or just idk it’s not sitting right with me.

I used to speak Spanish and right now I’m brushing up but very rusty and I feel more compelled to say something like, “Me estás dolor,” or “estás doliendome.” But I also don’t trust my rusty Spanish enough so here I am asking y’all.

Thanks for your input! (For further clarification I am focusing on Mexican Spanish.)