Are we covering the meanings of "Novia" and "Novio" completely with "Girlfriend" and "Boyfriend"?
This is a good question, and a question I have been wondering per years now. In fact, I would love if you give me your opinion as an English speaker, native or not, after watching my video below.
The goal for students is to sound more like a native speaker, right? Thanks to vocabulary and learning idiomatic expressions and colloquial phrases. So, today we’re going to talk about building a strong vocabulary foundation because this allows you to engage in more meaningful and complex conversations in Spanish, right? This is why I am taking as examples of this “Girlfriend” and “Boyfriend”, which are supposed to mean Novia and Novio. Or at least this is what we all learned when we studied English here, at least. I also think is what you learned when you started on Spanish, right?
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Expanding Your Vocabulary in Spanish
People they say “context is everything”, yes ok, I agree because learn how word meanings can change based on the situation or tone. But what about understanding the culture and customs of a country? This is what I want to talk to you about in this video, because listening to native speakers is one of the best ways to internalize new vocabulary, but apart from this, sometimes you need some cultural context, right? Otherwise you will be listening, and not catching the nuances.
The Meaning of Novia and Novio
I started studying English when I was a teenager; it was mandatory in high school, and one of those words you learn early on, at the beginner or A1 level, is ‘boyfriend’ and ‘girlfriend’ as ‘novio’ and ‘novia.’ However, I often found it a bit confusing that in textbooks, I would sometimes see a girl talk about her friend, and instead of saying ‘my friend,’ they would say ‘my girlfriend.’ Were they giving me additional information about the relationship between these two people, suggesting they were more than just friends? That didn’t seem to be the case. I soon learned that female friends refer to other female friends this way in English, accepted it, and used it. But as time passed, when I lived in the United States and talked about my ‘novio,’ I noticed people didn’t seem to understand that it was a serious relationship, that we weren’t just dating. I mean, this wasn’t someone I had just met three months ago; it had been years since then.
I soon realized that for Americans, everything was much more serious when you said ‘my fiancée,’ but in Spanish, saying ‘mi prometido’ or ‘mi prometida’ made me laugh. It was something that princes in movies and people from wealthy and important families would say. This concept didn’t really exist in the ‘normal’ social classes, and I would even say that, at that time, it sounded pretty ridiculous in my country to say something like that. Everyone would have made jokes about someone referring to their partner as ‘mi prometido’ or ‘mi prometida,’ or they would have assumed you were royalty.
People they say “context is everything”, yes ok, I agree because learn how word meanings can change based on the situation or tone. But what about understanding the culture and customs of a country? This is what I want to talk to you about in this video, because listening to native speakers is one of the best ways to internalize new vocabulary, but apart from this, sometimes you need some cultural context, right? Otherwise you will be listening, and not catching the nuances.
So in today’s video, I start by explaining the stages of a traditional relationship: dating someone, becoming boyfriend/girlfriend, and getting married. Of course, I’m talking about a traditional relationship that progresses to marriage, right? In Spain, it’s increasingly common to live together without getting married; you can even go to the town hall to fill out some documents that make you an official couple. This is called ‘becoming a registered partnership’ and it’s not a wedding per se; it’s easier and quicker. It’s valid depending on what you need. However, when it comes to ensuring that any future children of the couple have all the legal rights, marriage is necessary, and just being a registered partnership isn’t enough.
In the video, I also talk about these traditional marriage proposals on one knee with a ring that now some people, mostly young people, are imitating. This isn’t typical of our culture, as traditionally, couples have simply talked about their desire to marry each other and decided on a date, without all the elaborate preparations and the woman’s surprise that we see in movies. I explain how movies and TV shows are creating this trend here, leaving people like my friends, my family, and me, who find it all quite baffling, in disbelief. Hahaha, we don’t understand any of it.
Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great to adopt beneficial behaviors and traditions from other cultures, but I don’t understand how it benefits an average Spaniard with our low salaries to take on a tradition that ends up costing thousands of euros for a ring, especially when they’ll already have to spend thousands more on the wedding celebration. Why don’t we adopt the custom I always observed in the U.S. when I lived there, where people have dinner at a normal hour and go to bed early? That would actually be beneficial, in my opinion!
At the end of the video, finally, I’ll explain what the word ‘pareja’ means and why I think it’s being used more and more. So, will you stay with me? I definitely recommend this video.
How to Build Vocabulary in Spanish
Practice using new words in different contexts to make them a natural part of your speech. Don’t just memorize vocabulary; understand how and when it’s used by native speakers.
As you get more advanced, learning synonyms and variations of common words can help you express yourself more precisely in Spanish.
Reading books, watching movies, and consuming media in Spanish are excellent ways to expand your vocabulary naturally. And of course, if you landed on this video, I inform you that in this website you will find not only videos, but articles, podcasts with transcription, translation, vocabulary list, and some exercises, all for free.