![[P]](http://cache.lexico.com/g/d/premium_mh.gif){kind=small}
Spanish Word of the Day Archive
Monday September 17, 2007
tiempo, noun:
time
In our time-poor world, time — tiempo is one of the things we talk about most — in English and in Spanish. There are lots of phrases using tiempo with a verb. Some of them are very similar to English, such as tener tiempo — to have time, and matar el tiempo to kill time:
No tengo mucho tiempo.
I don’t have much time.
Para matar el tiempo leí el periódico del lugar.
To kill time I read the local paper.
But other phrases use Spanish verbs you might not expect from English, such as perder el tiempo — to waste time, and ganar tiempo — to save time:
¡Por qué pierdes el tiempo con él? Es un cero a la izquierda.
Why are you wasting your time with him? He’s a nobody.
Si cortamos por el parque vamos a ganar tiempo.
If we take a shortcut through the park we’ll save time.
Content By
© HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2006. All rights reserved.