This translation has not yet been checked by a native speaker. If something reads wrong, tell me — a book about languages cannot afford approximations. Report a mistake
The threshold
What this language does
Spanish keeps a living subjunctive, used every day: it separates what is from what might be with a precision French has let slip. And it has two verbs for “to be” — one for what you are, one for what you are being.
The untranslatable
The time you stay at the table after the meal is over, only to talk.
Hello
Buenos días
in the plural — you wish someone the days, not the day
Work in progress
One language, two continents: what crossing the Atlantic does to a literature.
Do you know this language?
Each chapter ends with a conversation with someone who lives in the language.
Offer your voice →