One of the things that helps keep learning a foreign language interesting is seeing how changing words can have surprising effects. For example, as explained in our newest lesson, on verbs that change meaning in the reflexive form, making a verb reflexive usually doesn't change its meaning a lot. For example, dormir usually means to sleep, but dormirse usually means to fall asleep.

But, as is almost always the case when citing grammar rules, there are exceptions. One of them mentioned in the lesson: Acordar usually means to agree (it's related to the English "accord,") but acordarse often means to remember.

Sometimes, you don't need to say merely that something is good (bueno, which can also be used as an interjection), but that it's the best. Normally then, you'd want to use the word mejor. To say something is the worst, peor will do just fine. Words such as mejor and peor are examples of superlatives.

Look in almost any dictionary, and the primary meanings given for hacer will be "to do" or "to make." In fact, the verb can be translated in countless ways depending on the context. For example, take this short sentence: "Un poco de sol no le hace daño a nadie." Now, you could translate that word for word and come up with something like "A little bit of sun doesn't make injury to anyone." But something far more natural would be this: "A little bit of sun doesn't hurt anyone." See similar examples in our lesson on phrases using hacer.

Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican fiesta that's celebrated on May 5, is an oddity: Although it's clearly of Mexican origin, it is probably celebrated more in the United States than it is in most of Mexico outside of the Puebla area, where the battle commemorated by the day occurred.

Go to any U.S. city with a large Mexican-heritage population today, and chances are there'll be some sort of a Cinco de Mayo celebration. That's not true everywhere in Mexico. And even in smaller U.S. communities without a Hispanic population, you'll find supermarket promotions and the like with a Cinco de Mayo theme.

Cinco de Mayo is often promoted as something like the Mexican independence day — but it's not, as independence is celebrated on Sept. 16. Read More...