I've recently added a new entry to my list of complaints against the Spanish language. This is not a long list, and overall I'm still pretty happy with Spanish (or castellano, as they call it here), though there are some things that really get under my skin. For example:
• There's no word for toes. They say "feet fingers." Ridiculous.
• The word for "go straight" is just one easy-to-miss letter away from the word for "on the right" (derecho/derecha).
• It's also too easy to confuse the words for 2 and 12 (dos/doce). Several times I've made plans to do something at one of those times, only to realize at the last minute that it was actually the other.
• The whole subjunctive thing. (I admit to a certain repulsion/fascination with this one.)
Here's my latest addition: I've sadly had to learn that the Spanish euphemism for putting an animal to sleep is "sacrificar." So every time I start to talk about Aggie, I feel that word looming ahead of me. I know that soon I'm going to saying that we had to "sacrificarla." Sometimes I think I'll use the blunt word for kill instead, just so I don't have to face the image of an Aztec priest leading poor Aggie to the top of an ancient pyramid before slicing her open and holding her beating heart aloft to an approving crowd. So far I've resisted the temptation, but really, couldn't someone have come up with a more soothing euphemism? Isn't that what a euphemism is for?
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