Your blog is amazing! I just wish I would have found it before I came to Spain. I was studying in Euskal Herria. Ill be leaving in 3 day but I’m for sure going to try to use some of your advice and phrases.
Thank you! I hope that even after leaving that beautiful country that is Euskal Herria, you go on learning Spanish and Euskera. You never know when they might come in handy again – and even if they don’t, knowledge enriches the soul.
In honor of your stay, here’s a Spanish word that came from Basque (for unfortunate reasons). A zulo is a very small space. It is the basque word for hole, and it came to be known because ETA used them to hide weapons and kidnapped people. Even though that sense of a place used to store illegal goods is still alive, it can also be coloquially used to refer to any confined space.
La policía rescató a los secuestrados de un zulo en las montañas.
The police rescued the hostages from a small cave in the mountains.A ese bar no voy que no se cabe, es un zulo.
I won’t go in that bar! We’ll be cramped, it’s like a prison cell.Mejor vamos en tu coche, en el mío ir cuatro es como un zulo.
We should rather go in your car, in mine there’s not enough space for four.
Originally published in Talk like a Spaniard.