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:
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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!
