Elementary - Divorced

I remember a great elementary Spanish class where we the group was just getting to know each other, one guy kept mixing up 'casado' with 'cansado' (much to the annoyance of his girlfriend). Isabel (the teacher) eventually worked out a way for him to get it straight - to be casado makes one cansado, but then his girlfriend started to get ticked off that he was then saying 'Estoy soltero'! Couldn't win really.

I for one find the etymological backstory to a word very helpful in understanding and memorising.  the fact that ser comes from the same root as essense and estar from the same root as state/status gives a huge clue as to correct usage

more latin roots please. its something spanish and english have in common hence a way we can create mental linkages to existing knowledge.

Thanks JP.  I think I will also start translating "Y" as "So" when it comes at the beginning of a sentence.

Is "que pena" the same as "que barbaro"?

So estar is talking about a status, which was, is, will change. that will help, thanks JP.

Hi SpanishPod! You guys beat me to the punch! Here´s your question of the day!

Pregunta del día:

Durante los últimos años, el divorcio entre ancianos ha surgido a niveles altos. ¿Qué opinas de eso? In recent years the divorce rate among the elderly has risen to high levels. What´s your opinion of this?

A mí me da pena. Despues de haber pasado la vida entera con alguien, no pienso que lo haría yo. It pains me. After spending my life with someone, I don´t think I would do it.

Carmen

Esa es una afirmación interesante.
¿Quién hizo el estudio, cual país que se ha estudiado, y cuáles son los períodos incluidos en las muestras para la comparación?

That is an interesting allegation.
Who did the study , which country was studied, and what were the periods sampled for comparison?

Ok, so I went out with the dog for a walk and she said,

-  Penso me se lo hizo mal a del sentido. recuerde la pagina de web, que stevestrv citó... ( y me penso mi perro era abogado en una vida pasado) En caso de que no ser así, pero como esto. .
¿Quién le hizo el estudio, . . . -

missworldtraveler: Creo que "qué barbaro" quiere decir algo como "qué bueno" pero "qué pena" significa "qué lástima". Entonces los significados son muy distintos. I think that "qué barbaro" means something like "how great" but "qué pena" means "what a pity". Thus, they are very different.

Pues, creo que Leo dice la frase "qué pena" con mucha ironía. Las palabras significan "qué lástima" pero el tono significa "qué bueno que ella es soltera ahora", ¿no? Well, I think Leo says the phrase "qué pena" with a lot of irony. The words mean "what a pity" but the tone means "how good that she is single now", doesn't it?

Martinillo missworldtraveler

"que bárbaro" cool mean smoothing like awesome or cool.  (cool is English slang for very good).  But I think it also could mean something very similar to “how bad”

It might be like the English word “amazing”.  Something is amazingly good or amazingly bad.

My understanding of the meaning is not good and I wasn’t going to post anything but I wanted to let you know that I do not think that "que bárbaro" is not only used for positive feelings.

Spanishpod Team

Can you help used with the meanings of “que bárbaro” please?

stevestrv: You are probably right, I just thought of the way Pepa used the word in the Del Taco al Tango show about Argentina. Since then I'm always thinking of Gael Garcia Bernal when I read "bárbaro". :)

It seemed to me that Pepa may have been using bárbaro in the ironic way "bad" is used in "black" english as in " hey that's really bad, man" meaning it's pretty good.  This is supported by the multiple meanings listed in wordreference oxford dict.

It is used in somewhat that way in this lesson where given the subject matter, I think it is partially a bilingual pun against "quelle barb - what a rapatious wit,  how astute(fr)"

Here in lessons, it has been used to mean things that are not nice,  Such as "how ridiculous or inappropriate" 

or Oh my goodness, how silly in this one.

There is also an elementary or newbie lesson that uses it, but the search engine doesn't list it.  That one used it in the "awful" sense.

In this one, I wonder about pena, shame.  Shame denotes alternatively dishonor, and pity for an unfortunate loss (of opportunity)  Is this, what a discusting development, or it was unfortunate that those people couln't make a go of it.

This is a great discussion. Thanks to everyone for your thoughts, questions and dialogue. Very helpful.

Gracias, JP por la referencia a la lengua latina.  Thank you JP for the reference to the Latin language.  I enjoy the grammar and linguistic history very much.

I relate barbaro to 'barbarian' and would think that que barbaro tends to mean 'what an uncouth (barbaric, mean) ...'

stevestrv, martinillo, y los demás...

Aquí   cerca de 8:05 tienes una explicación sobre "qué bárbaro!" en otro contexto que expresa sorpresa.

Kikuyu

Thank you very much,  Good find.  I think what Lili was saying is consistent with my believe that “Qué bárbaro” means something like amazing.  But I was only think of amazingly good or bad, not just amazing like in the example you found.

Do some Spanish speakers say "Soy casado" and others say "Estoy casado"?  If so, how do you know which one to use?

Jaimemayo

It looks like you can use both ser and estar with casado, just like divorciado.  See this link.

Stevestrv, ¡Gracias por el enlace!