Today we talk about 4 Spanish verbs that you’re probably using incorrectly, whether you just started studying Spanish or wheter you’ve been studying it for a while.
The first is aplicar. This Spanish verb means to make use of what you have to reach a goal. What people usually do when studying Spanish, is to link it to the English verb to apply. Sentences like “aplicar a una oferta de trabajo”, “aplicar a la universidad” are used in a wrong context as they don’t have nothing to do with the application to a job or a university. The same is for the noun “aplicación”, it doesn’t mean application form, in Spanish you should say formulario de ingreso.
Another verb is colapsar. This is a false friend due to its similarity to the English verb “to collapse”. Contrarily to what you might think, colapsar translates into to hold up or to become paralyzed. Therefore, when saying that a building collapsed you cannot use the Spanish verb colapsar, but you have to say el edificio derrumbó/se desplomó.
A verb that doesn’t exist but that is often heard is customizar. This Spanish idiom originates from the English verb “to customize”. However, according to the bulk of official dictionaries, (Fondeu BBVA for instance) this word is not present in the Spanish language. Even though during the years the language adapts to the needs of the speakers adopting new words, customizar is not a Spanish word yet. For this reason, in order to avoid mistakes, it’s preferable using verbs like personalizar, editar.
It’s very easy to make the mistake using the Spanish verb rentar to mean to rent. Despite their similar spelling, they have two completely different meanings. The verb rentar in Spanish means to yeald. You can say: en 2016 mi renta annual ha sido de 2300€. On the other side, the translation for to rent in Spanish is alquilar or arrendar depending on the context. However, you can only use the latter in financial or legal causes.
We hope we helped you to understand the right use of these verbs and that from now on you’ll be more careful when using them.
See you next time!
You might be interested in “Differences between coger and tomar“.
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