Spanish Word of the Day Archive
Tuesday July 22, 2008

echar, verb:
to throw; to throw out; to fire

The core idea behind the very common word echar is that of throwing an object somewhere:

Échame las llaves.
Throw me the keys over.

Échalo a la basura.
Throw it away.

You can also use it to refer to throwing people physically out of somewhere:

Su padre lo echó de la casa.
His father threw him out of the house.

From this meaning comes the more metaphorical meaning of firing someone from a job.

Lo han echado del trabajo.
They’ve fired him.

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Spanish Word of the Day ArchiveTuesday July 22, 2008