Here are some useful phrases for when you need a hand in Spanish!
¿Tienes un momentito (e.g. para ayudarme con la cena)? – Have you got a moment (e.g. to help me with dinner)?
¿Me puedes echar una mano (e.g. con mis deberes)? Can you lend me a hand (e.g. with my homework)?
Juan me echó un cable en la reunión cuando me quedé en blanco – Juan helped me out in the meeting when I went blank/couldn’t remember what I was going to say.
Si mi suegra se enrolla mucho, ¡échame un capote y dime que me necesitas! – If my mother in law starts going on and on, help me out and tell me that you need me!
(Note, echar un capote is a phrase that comes from the world of bullfighting, when the capote, or cape, was used by other bullfighters to distract a bull from further attacking an injured bullfighter on the ground – it’s a common phrase but does not mean that we condone bullfighting!)
Notice a few other great Real Spanish phrases from the above sentences:
– Quedarse en blanco – to go blank / forget what you want to say
– Enrollarse – to go and on
Not Spanish, But Great Anyway: Lending friends a hand!
I want to ‘echar un cable‘ to two great initiatives which, although they are not directly Spanish-learning related, you might like, or know someone who will.
First of all, my friend John and I have launched a site called Making Time To Live – it’s about getting out, away from the screen, and being more creative, and we’d love people all round the world to join in.
Check it out here: http://makingtimetolive.com/
Secondly, people often ask us if there is a ‘Notes in English’ – for Spanish friends or intercambios learning English – we don’t have one, but a great friend of mine has set up ingles.fm which works very much along Notes in Spanish lines, and is run by very talented people. Pass it on to your English learning Spanish friends!
Check it out here: http://ingles.fm/ (they also have a sale on at the moment, so it’s a good time to tell people about it!)
¡Buen fin de semana a todos!
Ben
