If you've been following me for some time, then you'll know that I love a bit of "Spanglish"!

I spend all day speaking to Spanish speakers in English, I am regularly confused and sometimes amused by the "Spanglish" expressions I hear (and sometimes say myself!).

There is a variety of different forms of Spanglish and today I'll take a look at a few of them.

¡Vamos!

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Code-switching

This is something me and my wife do all the time, and is possibly the worst type of Spanglish!

It involves switching between languages when you are speaking, in order to either sound "clever" or because the particular word comes to you in the other language. So for example, I might say " cariño, no tenemos sufficente milk in the fridge" 

This type of code-switching has been described as "a corruption of Spanish and English and "linguistic pollution" by some linguists. (But I have to be honest and say that we really enjoy doing it!)

False friends

Words which sound or look the same, but have a different meaning in the two languages. These can be very confusing (but also fun!)

Examples:

Assist doesn't mean 'asistir', but instead is a synonym for 'help'. You 'attend' a meeting.

Actually doesn't mean 'actualmente'. It means something similar to 'really'. If you want to refer to something that is at the present time you need to say 'currently'.

Fromlostiano

This refers to translating expressions word for word from one language to the other. Such as the expression - From lost to the river! The closest English expression to this would probably be "in for a penny, in for a pound".

Other examples could include:

• He mounted a chicken - ¡él monto un pollo! - he caused a fuss/scene

• It's eaten bread! - es pan comido - it's a piece of cake!

Anglicisms 

There are loads of these, especially in the business world. Some relatively new concepts don't always have a translation in Spanish, or it's seen as fashionable to use the English version.

A few examples I've heard recently include:

• "¡No me hagas spoiler!"

• "Yo trabajo en marketing"

• "Este es un trending topic."

• "Yo tengo mi propio business online"

False anglicisms

There are some Spanish words which clearly have an English origin but don't really exist in English! Many Spanish people are surprised when I tell them that the following words are not correct in English!

• Go footing - I get the logic behind this expression, but it's not English! We would say jogging or running. 

• A parking - It sounds good, but it's not English! The English versions are car park (UK) or parking lot (US)

• Very fashion! - Fashion is a noun and the adjective is fashionable/trendy. So the English version would be very fashionable!

So, there you have it, Spanglish in all it's glory!

I hope you found this article interesting.

Please share your own experiences of using and hearing Spanglish.

If you're a Spanish speaker but you need English for work, then get reach out on LinkedIn!