Spanish Word of the Day: echar

Today a word that may be a bit difficult to use, as it has quite some meanings and is used in many expressions. Still, I’ll try to explain some of its uses (as it’s certainly an important word to use). It’s also a word that I learned to used correcty just some weeks ago; echar.

Being here in Spain, surrounded by Spaniards, people sometimes ask me; ¿no echas de menos tu tierra? – “don’t you miss your [home]land?”. At first this expression confused me, as I know the meaning of echar but didn’t know the meaning of this particular expression. If you’d look up the word in the dictionary, you’d see that its main meaning is “to throw”, while it can also mean “to pull”, “to put”, “to give”, “to show”, etc. This explains why it’s pretty hard to learn how to use it, as it mostly comes down to learning the expressions in which it’s used (for which an SRS is a perfect tool, of course).

Here are some common phrases and expressions with the word echar. In a follow up post I’ll discuss more colloquial ways to use it.

Sentences

Lo eché a la basura.
I threw it away.

Echó la cabeza hacia atrás.
She threw her head back.

¿Le echas azúcar al café?
Do you take sugar in your coffee?

Échame un poco de vino.
Give me some wine.

Le echó una maldición.
She put a curse on him.

*Sentences taken from Pocket Oxford Spanish Dictionary.