Palabritas del día — alcantarilla
Well, I quickly polished off the chapter of las palabras de la vivienda, and have moved on to las de la ciudad. Here are a few from today’s studying…
la alcantarilla — sewer. Lovely, eh? I put it in here because it was the only word I studied today that rhymed with día!
la avenida — avenue. Easy one, eh? Besides the noun, it’s also the feminine form of an adjective that can be used with bien o mal to mean “harmonious” or “at odds” (or well-matched/mismatched). So you could say: Al principio, la creíamos una pareja bien avenida. Pero hoy, dos años después, nos parece que no… Están, Gabriel y Ángela, muy mal avenidos. — At first we thought they were a well-matched couple. But today, four years later, it seems that Gabriel and Angela are very poorly suited. Think of it as the two of them “at an intersection”, crossing each other rather than “running along parallel and smoothly” like una avenida…
la acera — sidewalk. ¡Menos mal que no hacen las aceras de acero! — Good thing they don’t make sidewalks out of steel! (though the kids on their monopatines would love the ultra-smooth ride)
el bloque — block. This is, in general, for all kinds of blocks and blocs (wooden, disk drive, city/apartment and political, as in the political party el Bloque Quebequense). But you can also use la manzana (apple) for a city block. And that applies to all cities, not just in Nueva York (La Gran Manzana). (But if you’ve been paying attention, you should remember that from before!)
la bolsa — bag. Ah, yes, true, it is a bag — but in the case of el capítulo sobre la ciudad, I think they’re referring to the fact that it also means stock exchange. In fact, in Barcelona there is a little bar called La Bolsa, where the prices of the drinks vary according to supply and demand. You can get a drink for very cheap if no one else is drinking it, but popular drinks will skyrocket in price! Kinda fun way for capitalists to…er…get drunk?