5 SIMPLE PHRASES STARTING WITH "EN..."

As newcomers to Spanish we often try to prioritise learning new vocabulary one word at a time. However, as we grow more adept we should also attempt to learn simple phrases and constructions that help us expand our knowledge beyond single words in isolation. Afterall, there are plenty of words in English that may only be expressed in Spanish with more than one word.

Today, we’re going to look at 4 simple constructions that begin with “en” (in / on), plus one that doesn't (we will come to that later). We will, where appropriate, discuss their etymology which may help us make some strong mental connections, and as usual show some example sentences.

“En (su) lugar” (instead)
“En (su) lugar” literally means in (its) place. Hopefully, we can easily see how we get from the literal meaning of in (its) place to the word instead.

There are in fact several other phrases in Spanish that also can translate to mean instead or in place. For instance: “en vez de”(instead of) or “en cambio” (instead).

Spanish	English
“En lugar de ayudarnos, se fue”	Instead of helping us, he just left.
“En su lugar, me enfocaré en mejorar mi español”	Instead, I will focus on improving my Spanish
“En cambio, vamos a casa”	Instead, let's go home

“En directo” (live)
“En directo” mean live in the sense of “live and direct” and is used to express when something is happening right now. Most commonly referring to a live TV broadcast for instance.

Spanish	English
“El guitarrista estaba tocando en directo”	The guitarist was playing live
“El discurso de la reina se presentará en directo”	The Queen's speech will be broadcast live
“En vivo y en directo”	Live and direct
“Espectáculos en directo”	Live performances

“En cuanto a” (with regard to / as to / as for)
Here we have a phrase which is less easy to understand from its literal meaning: in how much to.

Furthermore, “en cuanto” (without the “a”) can translate to mean as soon as. Although there are more common ways to express this, so we are not going to focus on “en cuanto” in isolation today.

“En cuanto a” can be used adverbially meaning with regard to, regarding, as to or as for.

Spanish	English
“En cuanto a la reunión, creo que la cancelaremos”	With regard to the meeting, I think we will cancel it
“En cuanto al otro asunto”	Regarding the other matter
“En cuanto a cuándo iremos, decidiremos más tarde”	As to when we will go, we'll decide later
“En cuanto al resto, vamos a ver”	As for the rest, wait and see

“En serio” (seriously)
Next, we come to another adverbial phrase.

Way back in POST #11 we learnt that we can usually make an adverb by taking a feminine form adjective and append a -mente suffix.

Thus, following the aforementioned rule, we might then expect “seriamente” to be the standard word for seriously. However, whilst it does indeed mean seriously, this is not the most common way to express this word. The adverbial phrase “en serio” is a far more common way to express seriously. Let’s see some examples:

Spanish	English
“¡Tío, en serio!”	Dude! Seriously!
“Desearía que te tomes las cosas más en serio”	I wish you would take things more seriously
“¡En serio, estos son los mejores!”	Seriously, these are the best!

“De hecho” (in fact / indeed)
Last but not least we come to a phrase that starts with “de” (of) but still translates as if we are still using “en”. Arguably then, we’re cheating a little with this last example. But it does serve as a nice reminder that phrases often use very different vocabulary to express the very same thing.

“Hecho” is a masculine noun meaning fact. It is derived from the verb “hacer” (to do / to make) and is the past participle of this very verb meaning done or made. Thus, it can function both as a noun meaning fact or an adjective meaning done or made. It is quite easy to see then, how something that is considered to have been done, then becomes a fact.

Spanish	English
“De hecho, somos gemelos”	In fact, we are twins
“De hecho, fueron los últimos en llegar”	They were in fact the last to arrive
“De hecho, estamos aprendiendo mucho”	We are indeed learning a lot

Conclusion | En conclusión
Today has been as interesting look at a few useful phrases. Clearly some are more obvious than others as to their true meaning.

It is true that the context and also which words may follow others can have quite a profound impact on their meaning at times. This being said, it’s important to start to embrace these types of constructions. Afterall, if we continue to only learn words in isolation, it will be almost impossible to fully understand some quite nuanced and idiomatic phrases.

It’s also important to remember that very often in Spanish, different words are used to express very similar English expressions. The last example serves as such a reminder, whereby we are literally saying “of fact” instead of “in fact”. There are no rules for these types of difference, we simply must learn them as we encounter them.

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