Spanish Word of the Day
Tuesday March 11, 2014
despedir, verb:
to say goodbye to
When a friend leaves, Spanish-speaking people usually want to say goodbye to them properly. That’s when the word despedir comes in:
Salgo a la calle para despedirte.
I’ll come out so say goodbye to you.
You can translate this same meaning as to see off. Notice the word order in the next example.
Fuimos a despedirlo a la estación.
We went to the station to see him off.
You use the reflexive form, despedirse when two or more people say goodbye to each other:
Se despidieron con un beso.
They said goodbye with a kiss or They kissed one another goodbye.
You can also use the reflexive form with de, to mean to say goodbye to:
Se despidió de nosotros y volvió a la vida diaria.
He said goodbye to us and went back to his day-to-day life.
Remember that despedir is conjugated like pedir, and the -e- of the stem changes to -i- in cases like the last example.
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