Spanish Word of the Day Archive
Thursday July 17, 2008

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desapercibido, adjective:
unnoticed

Part of learning a language is noticing and remembering which words go with which other words. There’s a saying which expresses that: ‘You shall know a word by the company it keeps’. For instance, in English we talk about something going unnoticed. But in Spanish, the verb you use with desapercibido - unnoticed - is pasar. As in English, this phrase is often used with a negative.

Su presencia no pasó desapercibida ayer.
Her presence didn’t go unnoticed yesterday.

Solicitó que la despedida pasara* lo más desapercibida ayer posible.
He asked for his farewell party to be as low-key as possible.

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