(Im)practical Spanish Trivia Quiz

Answer: Post office box

The abbreviation "apt.", or , more properly, "apdo" stands for "apartado de correos" in these ads, or post office box. Once I learned this, the addresses made a lot more sense, as only the box number and post office location were necessary. The abbreviation for "apartamento" (apartment) is properly "apto".

It was a fairly common practice amongst the English speaking community at that time to mix Spanish terms in with English in this way.

Answer: The gender of my dog

The question translates to "male or female" but for dogs, not people, which I already recognized as "hombre" and "mujer". The word "macho" was familiar to me from its use in English, so I was able to work out what the question was fairly readily. The answer was "macho", by the way. According to his papers his "raza" (breed) was "mixta" (mixed), but we called him an Andalusian terrier.

Answer: Does he bite?

It was a prudent question, as small dogs can often be a bit nippy, especially with strangers. The answer was that he seldom bit people (other than me, and that was only in play), might bite another dog if they were aggressive, but was most likely to show his displeasure with anyone or anything by barking.

In practice, I usually just said "No" and kept him on a short leash if I sensed any tension.

Answer: That my dog couldn't come on the bus.

I always won this exchange, by carrying my little dog in my arms, pretending not to understand and simply going to the back of the bus and sitting down. The driver never put up much of an argument, and none of the other passengers ever seemed worried by my dog's presence.

Although I never met the dog in person, there had at one time been a pooch who would ride the bus on his own, that the drivers all knew and tolerated. I had heard that tale, and kept it in reserve in case I needed to cite a precedent.

Answer: I told her that I had a "pain in my wheel".

What I should have said was that the pain was in my "rodilla" (knee), but for some reason I was always mixing those two words up, and saying silly things like this. At least I didn't further shame myself by saying I was "embarazada" (pregnant), when I was simply "avergonzada" (embarrassed) by my mistake.

Answer: I told her my dog "likes to eat bears".

This was another case of my mixing up two words with very different meanings, in this case "oso" (bear) when I meant "hueso" (bone). It took me some time to understand why my friend was laughing, but I finally did so when she raised her arms and mimed being a bear coming to get me! Even had I used the right word for bones, it might have been better to say "masticar" (chew) rather than "comer" (eat), but either way it wouldn't have been nearly as funny.

Answer: Speak more slowly

The word "despacio" simply means "slowly", and it could come in handy due to the fact that spoken Spanish is often very rapid, and difficult to pick up for the non-native speaker. I did find that watching Spanish TV shows helped me with this, but I still had trouble picking up finer points.

I've put the "speak louder" option there, as this was a tactic often used by English-speakers when they couldn't make a Spaniard understand them. (It doesn't work.) The funny part was the day I was in Montse's store and her friend (let's call him Juan) pulled exactly the same thing on me, in Spanish! Montse and I both had a laugh about that!

Answer: If the crane falls, I'll go to jail.

Pepe was grinning widely as he pretended to be put in handcuffs to be led away to jail. It was a fun conversation, as his English and our Spanish were on equal levels of incompetence, so a lot of gestures and even drawings were involved. His amusement at our paranoia proved to be justified, as not one of the many cranes along the beach road ever fell down in my time there.

The similar sentence construction of the correct answer and Pepe's statement was meant to help you make the correct choice, even if your Spanish is non-existent.

Answer: Don't pull!

Despite appearances, in this case "tires" has nothing to do with wheels or tyres/tires that go on them, but is a form of the verb "tirar" which means "to pull". I wasn't too sure what he meant, but did manage to stay on my (small) horse for a few jaunts along the beach.

The last time I went I was given a much larger horse to ride, but he had other ideas and simply walked back into his stable with me aboard! I stayed behind and watched a blacksmith at work whilst the rest of the group went for their ride.

Answer: Cerdo

"Cerdo" is the word for pork, which I could by at a "carnicería" or butcher's shop. The vegetable shop could provide me with nabos (turnips), zanahorias (carrots) and pomelos (grapefruit) along with many other tasty fruits and vegetables. Thanks to patient people like the lady in this shop, my Spanish improved a lot over the years.