Locuciones： The Vocabulary Hack Every Spanish Learner Needs

Hey everybody, Kiru Paul here. In this video, I'm going to be talking all about locuciones. And if you've never heard that word, you're not alone. If I ask 10 students if they know what locuciones are, I'd be surprised if I get one that knows it. But now that you know the word, it is really going to boost your Spanish. You see, locuciones are set phrases in Spanish that you can't break down word by word because they would have a different meaning. I'll give you an example. Por lo tanto. Three words. Por lo tanto. Taken together as a set phrase means therefore. But if you try to break it down and translate each one, you would have trouble coming up with that. Por is because. Lo is it doesn't work that way. So we have to learn these as set phrases and use them that way. Now, if you go Google it, you're going to get hundreds of them and it could be information overload. So what I'm going to do in this video is I'm going to cover, I don't know, about 50 of them. I'm going to give you examples and talk about different ways you can use them and try to give your Spanish a little boost here. Now, if you're a member of my private learning group, the Kiro Spanish Crew, if you'll pop in there, I'm going to go ahead and put a PDF with all of the locuciones that I'm going to cover here with examples, everything else, you can just download it. If you're interested in learning more about the Kiro Spanish Crew, I'll put a link to it in the description section of this video. All right. So let's go ahead and get started. Now, I'm going to break these down into categories. I'm going to start with locuciones adverbiales, which are our adverb clauses. A lot of useful stuff in here. Okay. First one I want to cover is sin querer. Sin querer. This is literally saying without wanting, and it means unintentionally, accidentally. You could just plug this into things. For example, lo hice sin querer. I did it unintentionally. I broke the glass unintentionally. Next one on our list is al azar. Al azar, which means randomly, at random. It can also mean like by chance. It just depends on the usage there. I took a book randomly, at random from the library, or I took a random book from the library. We have to choose a number at random or randomly. Now, as far as by chance, something like I don't like to leave things to chance. So that's how that would work. See, these are pretty useful, right? Next one on our list, like behind the back of someone, right? But this is, it's plural. You'll notice it's like of someone. Now, this one will change just a little bit. So sometimes it's going to have a definite article and be a las espaldas, and sometimes it's going to have a possessive in there. It could be like sus espaldas, his, her back, you know, a mis espaldas, behind my back. I don't like that you talk behind my back. They made plans behind his back or behind her back, okay? And just keep thinking they're saying backs, plural. And if you're going to ask yourself, why are they doing that, Paul? Don't overthink it, okay? It's a set phrase. You're going to just learn a las espaldas or, you know, with possessive, a mis espaldas, a tus espaldas, a sus espaldas. So when are you going to use that definite article, las? Well, it's going to appear in like if you're going to say behind the back of someone, then it's going to be something like, they did it behind Juan's back. Next one on our list is a menudo, a menudo, and it means often. I go to the market often. Do you come around here often? It's a useful one, right? You can figure out where to put that in. That's very similar to our next one, with frequency, right? Frequently. We can just plug it back into what we had before. I go to the market frequently. Do you come around here frequently? The next one is de repente, de repente, and it means suddenly. And this is a great one for you folks who like to tell stories. You're already working, you know, with your stuff in the past tense. You're preterite and perfect, talking about something happened, and then de repente, suddenly, empezó a llover. It started to rain. Now, de repente doesn't have to be at the beginning. For example, I can say something like, el perro empezó a ladrar de repente. The dog suddenly started to bark. See, you can put it there as well. I'm going to play with that one a little bit. Next one is a escondidas. Two words. You may not, you know, that little ah up there, you're like, is that there? Yeah, it's there. A escondidas, and it means secretly. Maria secretly ate cake before dinner. El estudiante revisó el celular a escondidas durante el examen. The student, you know, secretly checked his cell phone during the exam. Next one on our list is, por ahora, for now. And we use this one like we would in English, you know. Everything's good for now, you know, up till this point, but we are probably anticipating some type of a change. Now, I'm going to give you the next one because it's very similar, and I'm going to show you how they're different, and that is hasta ahora. Hasta ahora. And literally means until now, but in English it would be like, so far. Todo está bien hasta ahora. Everything's good so far, right? I'm not anticipating. It's not like, for now, so far. Just think of those that way. Por ahora, for now. Hasta ahora, so far. You're going to be fine. Next one on our list is, a propósito. A propósito. This actually has two meanings. One of them is on purpose. ¿Lo hiciste a propósito? Did you do it on purpose? ¿Me dijiste eso a propósito? Did you tell me that on purpose? And the other meaning is, by the way, or speaking of which. A propósito, ¿cómo está tu mamá? By the way, or speaking of which, how's your mom? Our next one is, de vez en cuando. De vez en cuando. This one is four words, it means from time to time. De vez en cuando voy al cine. From time to time I go to the movies. I don't even think we need more examples. You got this one. So our next one is, en vano. En vano, which means in vain. And this one just literally says in vain, so you should be able to remember this one. If you use in vain a lot in English, stick this in your Spanish. Lo intenté en vano. I attempted it in vain. Our next one is, enseguida. Enseguida. And it means right away, immediately. You'll hear this just by itself. Maybe I asked the waiter to bring me something. ¿Me trae más servilletas, por favor? You know, will you bring me more napkins, please? Enseguida. Enseguida. Right away, or immediately. No te preocupes, lo hago enseguida. Don't worry, I'll do it right away. Our next one is very close to, enseguida, and it is, de inmediato. De inmediato, which means immediately. Necesitamos una respuesta de inmediato. We need an answer immediately. The next one on our list is one I use all the time because I'm a time guy, and this is, a tiempo. A tiempo, which means on time, right? Because I always want people to be on time. Tenemos que llegar a tiempo. We have to arrive on time. I don't know how many times I've said that to my wife. Countless times, countless times. Now we're going to move on to locuciones verbales, which are going to be our verb phrases. And you know, chances are you've been learning verbs, like most of us do, you just learn a verb. Like, dar means to give. And then you start seeing it used in different ways, and you're mistranslating the usage. You realize, hey, I think this means some other things. Chances are those are verb phrases. And we're going to start with one that uses dar, and dar is in so many of them. I mean, I could probably do a video just with those verb phrases. But this is a very popular one, and it is dar a luz. Dar a luz, and it means to give birth. Literally, gives to light, if that helps you remember it, which I think it kind of helps me remember it. Maria dio a luz anoche. Maria gave birth last night. Next one on our list is tener en cuenta, and it means to take into account or keep in mind. And it uses our mega verb tener, right? One of the first verbs I teach anyone. Now you can actually substitute this with tomar en cuenta, to take into account, either one. I'm going to give you the examples with tener en cuenta. This is one of those ones you could actually use with the imperative, the command form. You tell somebody to keep something in mind. If we're speaking in the informal, it would be tener en cuenta, tener en cuenta. Tener en cuenta que solo es un niño. Keep in mind he's only a child. And if you're going to speak in the usted form, it would be tenga. Tenga en cuenta que no tenemos dinero para hacer eso. Keep in mind or consider, take into account that we don't have money for that. Next one on our list is one you may already be using. If you're not, you really should. And it is hacer caso. Hacer caso, which means to pay attention to someone, to listen to them. And not just listen to them, like hear them talking. That's more like escuchar. It's like to listen to them. For example, Los hijos de mi amigo nunca le hacen caso. My friend's kids never listen to him. My wife may say something to me like, Nunca me haces caso. You never listen to me. Or, ¿Por qué no me hiciste caso? Why didn't you listen to me? And that's usually when I'm like, oh, I know better and I make some horrible mistakes. Well, not horrible, little mistakes, but should have listened. Next one on the list is quedarse sin. And quedar, you're going to see a lot. It means to remain. And quedarse is the pronominal form. Quedarse sin means to be left without or to run out of something. Which one it would be in English is really going to be context. Nos quedamos sin tiempo. We ran out of time. Nos quedamos sin dinero. We ran out of money. Or it can be we're left without money. Either way, you want to look at it. And this one can be used like more figuratively as well. Me quedé sin palabras. I was left without words. I didn't have anything to say. That sort of thing. The next one on our list also uses the verb dar, to give, and it is dar por hecho. And I really like this one. It means to assume something, to take it for granted that something is a certain way. No des por hecho que él lo sabe todo. Don't assume that he knows it all. Ellos dieron por hecho que ella estaba enferma. They assumed that she was sick. Now, there's a useful expression that you can get from this. If somebody asks you to do something and you want to come back with the Spanish equivalent of, hey, consider it done, you can use this in a command form. If it's the tú form, the informal, dalo por hecho, consider it done. And if you're speaking in the formal, the usted form, de lo por hecho, de lo por hecho. The next one on our list is ponerse de acuerdo, and it means to agree or come to an agreement. This uses the verb poner, which it means to put, and it is also a mega verb. It is in tons of locuciones, and this is one of them. Ellos se pusieron de acuerdo rápidamente. They came to an agreement very quickly, or just rapidly. I like quickly. Very quickly, quickly. No podemos ponernos de acuerdo. We cannot come to an agreement. We can't agree. And the next one on our list uses the Spanish mega verb llevar, which means to carry, and it is llevar a cabo, and these three words together mean to carry something out or accomplish something. More to carry something out. Think of it that way. Llevamos a cabo el proyecto con éxito. We carried out the project with success. ¿Cómo piensas llevar a cabo eso? How do you plan to carry that out, to execute that? Now, this particular construction, llevar a cabo, you're going to see it a lot with like the police operations if you read the news in Spanish, and hopefully you are because that's really going to help you. For example, anoche, elementos de la policía llevaron a cabo dos operativos en la ciudad. Last night, police officers carried out two operations in the city, and it can be like raids or searches, things like that, that kind of carry out. Next one on our list is hacer falta, and it means to be necessary, to need, or be lacking something. A couple examples with this one. Nos hace falta más información. We need more information. We're lacking information. Me hace falta dormir. I need to sleep. I'm lacking sleep. You can use this one to say you miss someone too. For example, me hace falta. I miss you. Literally, you would be saying you make to me lacking. See why we can't do that? We can't do a word for word breakdown. We just accept what this means. So if somebody's like, me hace falta, it means, ah, you know, I need you. I'm missing you. That's a useful one. Next one on our list is echar la culpa, and it means to blame someone. Me echaron la culpa por lo que pasó ayer. They blamed me for what happened yesterday. No me eches la culpa. Don't blame me. That's a command form there, the imperative. No me eches la culpa. Next one on our list is going to use the verb dar again, and it is dar con, two words. Literally, to give with, but what it means is to find or to come across something. This is very common when the police find people. You'll see that used a lot in newspapers. Ayer, yesterday, la policia dio con el ladrón. The police found the thief. Next one on our list is andar con, and it means to hang out with somebody, and it can also mean like to date or be involved with somebody. It's all about context there, and the verb there is andar, which means to walk. So what we're literally saying is you walk with this person. So there's a famous saying in Spanish, dime con quien andas y te diré quien eres. Tell me who you hang out with, and I'll tell you who you are. Maria anda con mala gente. Maria hangs around with bad people. No me gusta que andes con ellos. I don't like that you hang around with them or hang out with them. Literally, I don't like that you walk with them. Next one on our list is tener lugar, and it means to take place, and it means just like it does in English, so this shouldn't be too hard for you. La conferencia tuvo lugar en abril. The conference took place in April. El concierto va a tener lugar en el parque. The concert's going to take place in the park. Next one on our list also uses the Spanish megaverb tener, and it is tener que ver con, and it means to have something to do with something, to be related to it. What we're literally saying is it has to see with something, and again, can't take these phrases and break them down because they don't make any sense, but if it helps you remember it. Esta situación tiene que ver This situation is related to what we talked about yesterday or has something to do with what we talked about yesterday. Now, with this particular phrase, you may see the word nada, which means nothing, inserted in there, especially when we're speaking in the negative. Esto no tiene nada que ver con eso. This doesn't have anything to do with that. Just because you make it a negative doesn't mean nada will necessarily be there. I could say something like, no tiene que ver contigo. Es mi decisión. It doesn't have anything to do with you. It's my decision. So, let's move on to our next category, locuciones adjetivales, and that's going to be our adjectives there. Remember, adjectives are going to describe our noun, and I don't think I have to do as many examples with these. I think you'll get these pretty quickly. Our first one is de buena calidad, and that literally says of good quality, but we're going to be using it for like high quality. Quiero comprar un abrigo. I want to buy a coat de buena calidad, like a high quality coat, you know, a good one. And if we're talking about high quality stuff, we've got to talk about low quality stuff, right? De mala calidad. De mala calidad. Esta camisa es de mala calidad. This is like a low quality shirt. Next one on our list is along those same lines. De primera. De primera. And that's like first rate, first class, and it's always going to be feminine, no matter what you talk about. Es un servicio de primera. It is a first rate, top notch service. And if you don't really like something, a lot of times we're going to say de tercera, which means third rate. You're like, is there a second one? Yeah, I guess there is, but usually something's de primera or de tercera. Like this is a third rate kind of hotel. Este es un hotel de tercera. This is like kind of a dive. Next one on our list is de lujo. De lujo. And it means luxurious. Voy a reservar una habitación de lujo. I'm going to, you know, reserve a luxurious, a deluxe room. The next one on our list is de película. Película is the movies, right? This is like saying from a but it means like outstanding, like wow. Fue una boda de película. It was like an awesome, you know, wedding. It was outstanding. Like something from the movies is what you're kind of literally saying, but it doesn't have to be like that. It could just be outstanding. Next one on our list is de moda, and it means fashionable or trendy. Todas las mujeres que trabajan aquí, all the women who work here, llevan ropa de moda. Wear stylish or trendy clothing. Now, if you want to say that something is stylish or fashionable or is not, you can use the verb estar. Ese estilo no está de moda. That style is not fashionable. It's not trendy. Todo el mundo quiere estar de moda. Everybody wants to be fashionable. This video has gone a lot longer than I thought it would, and I've gone through a lot of coffee. Our next one is fuera de serie, and it means outstanding, and you're just going to stick it on like an adjective. Es un jugador fuera de serie. He is an outstanding player. Next one is de mente abierta, open-minded. Maria es una persona de mente abierta. Maria is an open-minded person. And the next one is fuera de servicio, which means out of order. El ascensor está fuera de servicio. The elevator is out of order. The next one is de confianza, and it means trusted or trustworthy. Es un mecánico de confianza. He's a trustworthy mechanic. Solo quiero compartir información con mis amigos de confianza. I only want to share information with my trusted friends. The next one is de buen corazón, kind-hearted. Mi vecina es de buen corazón. My neighbor is kind-hearted. And that brings us to the last one in this category, de mal gusto, and it means in poor taste. Ese chiste fue de mal gusto. That joke was in poor taste. And that brings us to the very last category I'm going to cover in this video. I hope somebody's still here. And that is locuciones propositivas, and that's going to be our prepositional phrases. And we're going to kick this one off with a causa de, which means because of. Cancelamos el viaje a causa de la tormenta. We canceled the trip because of the storm. And yes, you have other words for because. You could just say por la tormenta, but I'm giving you some new ones, all right? Next on the list is a favor de, and that means to be in favor of something, and you typically use this with estar. Estamos a favor de la propuesta. We're in favor of the proposal. It's also commonly used with the verb votar, to vote. Votamos a favor del cambio. We voted in favor of the change. And we can't talk about in favor of something without talking about, you know, against something, and that's en contra de. So we have a favor de and en contra de. We voted against the law. We are against all of this. Next one on the list is a pesar de, in spite of. In spite of the rain, we went to the beach. In spite of everything, we keep going. Seguir adelante. That's a pretty good expression, you know, you can use as well. Keep going. Next one on our list is debido a, and it is due to something. Debido a tráfico, llegamos tarde. Due to the traffic, we arrived late. Next one on the list is en lugar de, in place of. Think of it as instead of. This is great when you want to order something at a restaurant and you're substituting things. En lugar de is perfect for that. En lugar de verduras, instead of vegetables, me trae más papas fritas. Will you bring me more french fries? And I know that doesn't sound as healthy, but it's tasty. It's tasty. And our very last one of the video for you folks who are still here is en medio de, in the middle of. Las mujeres están en medio de la calle. The women are in the middle of the street. So it can be physically in the middle of something. En medio de la discusión, Juan se fue. In the middle of the argument, Juan took off. It can be like that as well. It's pretty useful. Well, that's it for this particular video. I hope you enjoyed it. I don't expect you to learn all of these particular phrases. Some of them may be like, you know what? I don't think I'm ever going to use that one, Paul. That's fine. Some of them, however, you might be like, hey, that's going to make my word list. When it comes to word lists, those are very personal things. People always ask me for word lists, but they're personal. As you discover words and you discover phrases, you build your word list so it's relevant to you. Otherwise, I could just hand you a dictionary or something and be like, hey, here's my word list. You can work on that. Well, that's it for the video. I hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to give it that thumbs up. It just helps me out. Until next time, hasta luego.