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Spanish Word of the Day Archive
Saturday April 19, 2008
vista, noun:
to look up/to look down
In English we often use a verb such as look with adverbs such as up and down to express a meaning. These combinations of verbs and adverbs are known as phrasal verbs. In Spanish you can’t combine words in this way, so often Spanish combines a verb and a noun, as in alzar la vista, levantar la vista to look up and bajar la vista to look down.
Levantó la vista para ver quién pasaba por el corredor.
He looked up to see who was walking along the corridor.
Other phrasal verbs with look which Spanish translates with a similar structure are:
apartar la vista, to look away, and volver la vista, to look back:
Me niego siempre a volver la vista al pasado.
I always refuse to look back at the past.
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