In a previous blog post I told you about an American who was visiting here in Medellin, Colombia. He visited the the “academia” (academy/school) where I practice an “artes marciales” (martial arts) called “jiu-jitsu brasileño” (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu).

He made 3 mistakes while speaking Spanish. In retrospect, he actually made 4 mistakes. Let’s say his name is “Sam” (not his real name to protect his privacy).

As I mentioned in my last blog post, one of the mistakes he made was when a couple of the Colombian guys who I train with asked Sam how often does he train in “jiu-jitsu brasileño,” in his attempt to say “every other day” in Spanish he incorrectly said:

• Cada otro día.

But “día por medio” is the correct way to say “every other day” in Spanish. But if you prefer a way to say “every other day” in Spanish that is closer to the way we say it in English, here’s another way to say “every other day” in Spanish:

• Cada dos días – every other day “Cada dos días” literally means “every two days.”

There’s another way to say “every other day” in Spanish — but it is not as commonly used in Latin America – actually, I should say that “it is not as commonly used in Colombia” — as “día por medio” and “cada dos días.” And it is:

• Un día sí y otro no — every other day (Literally, “one day yes and the other no”)

How To say Whatever, Whichever or Any One in Spanish

Today, I want to talk about another one of two four mistakes that Sam made with his Spanish:

Before leaving the jiu-jitsu academy that night, Sam decided to buy a souvenir, a tee-shirt with our jiu-jitsu academy’s emblem. Our jiu-jitsu instructor who happens to be from Panama always speaks to the visiting Americans in English. Referring to the tee-shirts in the display window, I heard him ask Sam, “which one?” Sam responded, “cualquier.” But if Sam wanted to express “any one” or “any one of them” that was not the correct response.

In Spanish “cualquier” is used as an adjective. And “cualquiera” is usually – but not always – used as a pronoun.
So in response to my instructor’s question, “which one?” Sam should have responded, “cualquiera” (any one).

In English, “any one” is actually an “adjective phrase.” But a crash course in English grammar is beyond the scope
of this blog post. Here are some examples of how the Spanish words “cualquier” and “cualquiera” are used.

Although this grammatical structure is not as common as putting the adjective “cualquier” before a noun, you may
come across phrases where “cualquiera” is used as an adjective instead of a noun and comes after the noun. For example:

In my next blog post, I will tell you about the third mistake that Sam made with his Spanish.