Spanish word of the week: asunto

This week’s Spanish word of the week is asunto.

Asunto is a noun that means matter; affair.

To hear how asunto is pronounced, you can click the icon below: 

In its broadest sense, asunto means matter:

No sé nada de ese asunto. I don’t know anything about the matter.

Es un asunto muy delicado. It’s a very delicate matter.

But it’s also used to mean your personal affairs or business:

Eso no es asunto suyo. That’s none of your business.

Eso es asunto mío. That’s my business.

No me gusta que se metan en mis asuntos. I don’t like people poking their noses into my business.

Referring to an event that’s in the news, it means affair:

el asunto Filesa the Filesa affair

It can also be translated as affair in examples like the next one:

Siempre se entromete en mis asuntos. He’s always interfering in my affairs.

In Spain, asuntos exteriores are foreign affairs, so the government department that deals with them is:

el Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores the Foreign Ministry, the State Department

In southern Latin America people use asunto informally in the phrase ¿A asunto de qué…? to mean why:

¿A asunto de qué lo llamaste? What did you call him for?

Come back next week to read about our next Spanish word of the week!