Spanish word of the week: rato

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

Rato is a noun that means time or while.

You can listen to the pronunciation of rato in the audio clip below:

Rato is a terrifically useful word which is used in many different phrases to do with time:

Hace un rato means a while ago, or some time ago

Se marchó hace un rato. She left a while ago or She left some time ago.

como decías hace un rato as you were saying a few minutes ago

Today we’ll look at some of them. First of all, pasar el rato, to pass or to while away the time:

Para pasar el rato, me puse a leer el periódico. To while away the time I started reading the paper.

Tú no le importas nada. Él lo que hace es pasar el rato contigo. You don’t mean anything to him. He’s just passing the time with you.

The phrases pasar un buen rato and pasar un mal rato mean to have a good time and to have a terrible time:

Pasamos un buen rato. We had a good time.

Me hizo pasar un mal rato. I had a terrible time because of him.

The phrase para rato means for a good while yet and can be translated in various ways:

Tenemos para rato: el avión tiene retraso. We’ll be here for a good while yet: the airplane’s been delayed.

Con este gobierno hay espectáculo para rato. With this government there will be entertainment for some time to come.

We hope to see you again the week for another word!