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LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Spanish word of the day: ‘Infinito’

This word means something that has no end.

Published: 4 September 2019 15:46 CEST

Spanish word of the day: 'Infinito'

Photo: nito103/Depositphotos

An infinite love, an eternal friend. It is also used to designate an imprecise place due to its remoteness and poor definition. Let's see some examples of infinito, which means infinite or boundless.

Infinitoas in boundless:

A día de hoy no sabemos si el universo es infinito.

Today we do not know if the universe is infinite.

It can also refer to immeasurable.

¡Siento por él un cariño infinito!

I feel endless love for him!

In maths it means infinity:

Algunas ecuaciones tienden a infinito y no sé cómo resolverlas.

Some equations tend to infinity and I don't know how to solve them.

As an adverb infinito means profoundly deeply:

Lamento infinito este mal entendido. Vamos a hablar y lo solucionamos.

I'm deeply sorry about this misunderstanding. Let's talk and solve it.

The song 'Ginza' by J Balvin uses the word. 'Ven que te invito hasta el infinito'

Pronunciation:

een-fee-nee-toh

Check out our other word of the day posts

This word of the day has been contributed by LAE Madrid, the leading Spanish academy in Madrid. Accredited by the Insitituto Cervantes, it offers Spanish courses for all levels and also has Spanish classes for kids and families.

READ ALSO Getting explicit: Your guide to how to swear like a Spaniard

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Spanish Expression of the Day: A ver

A ver, literally meaning ‘to see’, serves two main purposes in Spanish.

Firstly, it can express expectation or interest in knowing or seeing something, like ‘let’s see’ in English.

So you might say ¿a ver? in an interrogative manner in anticipation while opening a letter or birthday present, before looking through some binoculars or as you peer over a wall to see what’s happening.

Secondly, a ver can also be used to get the attention of another person before saying something to them, asking them a question or giving them an order, such as saying ‘right then’, ‘now’, ‘I mean’, ‘the thing is’ or ‘OK’ in English.

It’s an extremely common interjection in Spanish, spliced into conversation as often as es que, o sea or en plan when Spaniards try to express themselves.

A ver used in the two above senses goes at the start of the sentence, and in the case of a ver as in ‘let’s see’ it can stand on its own without having to add any extra information.

A ver isn’t colloquial but you usually only encounter its use in spoken Spanish and not written down.

That may explain why many Spaniards wrongly assume that a ver is written haber, the infinitive ‘to have’ form in Spanish. They’re pronounced exactly the same, so it’s somewhat understandable.

A ver can also be used in different Spanish sentence constructions, as in vamos a ver la película, ‘we’re going to see the film’ or a ver si hay suerte, ‘let’s see if we get lucky’ or ‘let’s hope we get lucky’.

All in all, adding a ver to your spoken Spanish is likely to make you sound more native, and getting its usage right isn’t too difficult overall.

Examples:

– ¡Mira! Esta noche hay luna llena.

– ¿A ver?

– Look! There’s a full moon tonight!

– Let’s see?

¡A ver si España gana la Eurocopa!

¡Let’s hope Spain wins the Euro!

¡A ver! ¡Basta ya de tonterías!

Right! Enough of this nonsense!

¡A ver, niños! ¿Cuántas patas tiene una araña?

Now, children! How many legs does a spider have?

A ver, es una persona muy complicada.

The thing is, he’s a very complicated person.

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