Sharpen the Saw: Improve Your Spanish / Afila la sierra: mejora tu español / 5 minutos de español + Podcast (English version)

 Sharpen the Saw: Improve Your Spanish

Hello! How are you? Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, depending on where you are or the time you're listening to us.

Welcome to this podcast for students of Spanish as a second language, and thank you very much for being here. Let's get to the point: what is today's topic?

Today, in the 202nd edition of the 5 minutes of Spanish, we are going to talk about the verb "afilar," a regular verb that means to sharpen a weapon or a bladed weapon or a knife.

Afilar el cuchillo, eso es más claro.

Sharpening the knife, that's clearer. 

Afilar - to sharpen Arma - weapon 

Arma blanca - bladed weapon

 "En la  cocina solemos decir el cuchillo no tiene filo, vamos a afilarlo"The knife is not sharp, let's sharpen it." And what is the edge? - The edge is the border Filo - edge And sharp or sharpened? - It's something that has an edge

But "sharp" has many more uses in English. Yes, let's look at some examples. First, "sharp" as "afilado": "The axe is very sharp, I'm going to cut firewood." But we also say: I'm going to sharpen the saw to cut some branches. So: Hacha - axe Sierra - saw

These expressions are also used in a figurative sense, so we hear the president of Argentina say he was going to apply the chainsaw to cut everything he doesn't like… Motosierra - chainsaw

Last podcast you said we were not going to talk about presidents for a while, and you mention Milei and his chainsaw… 

Well, let's move on to a much nicer person, do you remember we studied Stephen Covey at the university?

Afilar la sierra  "Sharpen the saw" is the seventh habit of the "7 Habits of Highly Effective People."

 
Yes, Sharpen the Saw. It's taking care of oneself to act effectively and have clear, assertive thoughts.
 For me, "sharpen the saw" is an excellent expression to explain this. I loved that book.

In this sense, "sharp" can also mean "intelligent." For example:

Es una estudiante muy inteligente  "She is a very sharp student." 

Any other uses?

 Yes, "sharp" can mean "intense" or "strong." "There is a sharp pain in my back." 
Any other examples? Of course. 
We can also use "sharp" to describe something "precise" or "exact." For example: 

La junta es a las 10:00 en punto "The meeting is at 10 am sharp."

 Synonyms for "afilado" or "afilada"? 
Filoso, agudo, or punzante. Sharp

 A profession related to sharpening?
  Afilador, that person who used to go around houses on his bike with a tune that identified him... and the ladies would come out with the knife to sharpen it… 
Very romantic... but it no longer exists and, besides, it doesn't adapt to modern knives. 
A profession that is disappearing, a nice topic for a podcast!

 And any expressions with "filo"? 
Doble filo - refers to a bladed weapon that has an edge on both sides of the blade. That is, an ambiguous situation that can be both effective or counterproductive at the same time. 

"Double-edged sword." That would be the translation. 

So we can say: 

Las redes sociales son un arma de doble filo, facilitan la comunicación pero pueden causar problemas.

Social media can be a double-edged sword because it makes communication easier, but it can also cause problems.

 Thank you very much for listening to the podcast this far! 

Sharpen the saw to study Spanish. Afila la sierra para mejorar tu español!

 If you liked the podcast, share it. See you soon Bye, bye