Coffee Break Spanish - 5 untranslateable words to use this December | A Coffee Break with Anabel

Episode Date: December 3, 2025

We’re back with another mini Coffee Break Spanish lesson to help you build natural, everyday vocabulary! ✨In this short episode, Anabel introduces five useful Spanish words that don’t have a direct translation into English:➡️ trasnochar➡️ madrugar➡️ estrenar➡️ empalagar➡️ friolero/aDo you already know any of them? Listen to the episode to discover what they mean and how to use them naturally in conversation. 🗣️✅ Don’t miss out on more bite-sized lessons like this! Subscribe to the Coffee Break Spanish newsletter and get weekly language tips straight to your inbox. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Coffee Break Spanish. I'm Annabelle, and I'm very happy to be in this episode with you. In this episode, I'm very happy to be in this episode with you. In this episode, I'm going to share with you, some words very special in Spanish, that are quite useful now that's the period of festival. With the festivity season approaching us, I'm bringing you some very useful words that don't have a direct translation into English,

but they are too good not to know. Let's have a closer look. Let's have a closer look. The first word is trachnotach, and this is a verb, which means to stay up all night, whether studying, parting, or just losing track of time. I'm a year For a year Last night

To finish to envolver The Regalus of the family Yesterday I stayed up all night to finish wrapping the

presents for the family So here we can see Tras Noche in the Pretrate tense I stayed up all night If you pay attention to the verb

Trash Notchar you can see the noun noche in it. Noche, remember, is a feminine noun and it means night. So I hope this helps you to remember how to use

this verb, Trashnotchar. Now, the next word is kind of the opposite to Trashnotchar. It is Madrugar. And it means to wake up very early, often

before the sun is up. For example, Mauna I have to madrugar to go to the airport. Tomorrow I have

to wake up early to go to the airport. We also have the noun La Madrugada which is that period

of the night after midnight and before the sun comes up. Also a very useful noun. Now our third word is

Estrenar. And this is probably one of my favorite verbs and one that I miss when I speak in English. This verb is used to mean to wear or to use something for the first time. Don't worry, I have an example for you. I'm excited because I'm going to starter the vestido that me I'm excited. I'm excited. Because I'm going to wear for the first time

the vestido that me bought the dress I bought this Christmas Eve. So I'm very excited because I'm going to wear the dress I bought for the first time this Christmas Eve. And there we have boy a strener. I'm going to wear or to use for the first time. We are talking about a dress, so in English we'll say to wear. However, there is something very important to keep in mind about this verb.

Personally, I really like getting things secondhand. So technically, they are not brand new. Then you might be wondering, can I use Estrenar for things that I buy secondhand? Well, yes, you can. Because what we understand is that that thing, although it's not new, it is new to you. Or it is new to someone else. The thing is that that thing that is not brand new anymore, it has found a new home. So that's why we can use Estrenar.

No, you you. There is your example. Me I bought this telephone in the tiends

a second man and I've got to estrenarlo. There is our verb but it

has a pronoun after it, estrenar lo. So then, me this

telephone in the tienda in the second hand store or in a charity

shop And I'm looking forward to Estrenaolo, using it for the first time. And that it refers to this telephone. That's why it's masculine and singular in Spanish. Estrenar lo. Perfect. Now our fourth word is embalagar.

And this is going to come up handy in this festivity period. I have a sweet tooth, so I really, really like sweets. And a lot of the times it has happened that I say, oh, this is delicious, this is very good. And there's someone else who said that, oh, it's too sweet for me. There is where they use this lovely verb. So I am familiar with it, although personally I don't use it that much because I really love sweet things. Then, empalaga describes that feeling of overwhelming streetness when something is too sugary. Let's see an example.

El pastel empalaga much. So empalaga is our verb, em palagar, in the present tense, third person singular, because it's agreeing with el pastel. Why am I saying all this? Because in English, actually, we are simply using the verb to be. What we are going to say for el pastel empalaga much is the cake is extremely sweet. So I know that it can be tricky, but just keep in mind that empalagar means that something is very, very sweet. It's extremely sweet. Also, from this verb empalagar, we have the adjective empalagoso, empalagosa,

which is also very useful to describe something, a situation, or even someone. But be careful because normally it has a negative connotation, because we are saying that something or someone is too sweet for our liking. Genial, well, we are going to be having a look at Friolero Friolera, which is another adjective, and it is one of my favorites, and one that I am missing now that it is getting colder. here in Scotland.

So Friolero, Friolera, is an adjective used to describe someone who is extra sensitive to the cold. For example, No Salgas sin abrigo, that you're very friolero. Don't go out without a coat. You are always so sensitive to the cold. And now, I'm to ask you, I'm I hope you get a

friolero or the friolera of your family or of your group of I hope

you get a chance to practice these words in context in your next conversation

or just writing down some sentences. Now if you think that is

all if you would like to keep improving your Spanish

you can receive regular free many lessons straight to

your inbox by signing up to our newsletter Just go to coffeebreaklanguages.com slash Spanish. And after here, the episode of today,

I hope that you have enjoyed exploring these words with me. Until the next and happy coffee breaking. You have been listening to a coffee break language's production for the Radiolingo network. Copyright 2025 Radiolingua Limited. Recording copyright, 2025, Radiolingua Limited. All rights reserved.