The Spanish Word of the Year 2022

Unfortunately, this year that is about to end wasn't the brightest. From the Ukraine war and the never-ending COVID-19 pandemic to global economic woes and the ongoing climate change crisis, this year's Word of the Year summarizes, in just six letters, all of these unfortunate events. With that being said, let's reveal Yabla's Spanish Word of the Year 2022.

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"Crisis": The Spanish Word of the Year 2022

The word crisis (with the same spelling as in English) is our Spanish Word of the Year 2022. Let's see how to pronounce this word in Spanish with a sentence we could easily apply to the present times:

Vivimos en tiempos de crisis.

We live in times of crisis.

Caption 3, Los Años Maravillosos Capítulo 2 - Part 1
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By the way, the word crisis in Spanish doesn't necessarily mean something negative, but rather a drastic change in a particular situation. However, for the context of this lesson, we are using the following definition from the Diccionario de la lengua española:

Situación mala o difícil (Bad or difficult situation)

Do you know what the plural of the word crisis is in Spanish? Let's find out with the following clip:

por las crisis que genera,

for the crises it generates,

Caption 40, De consumidor a persona Short Film - Part 6
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Yes, the plural of the Spanish word crisis is... crisis! Why? Because words that have the accent on the second-to-last syllable and end in "s" don't change in the plural. In addition to crisis, words like virus and apocalipsis also follow this rule. For more information about this topic, check out our lesson about Rules for Forming the Plural of Nouns in Spanish.

Runners-up for 2022 Spanish Word of the Year

Considering the coverage that the war in Ukraine received this year, we were tempted to choose the word guerra (war) as our Spanish Word of the Year 2022. However, we opted for a word that takes into consideration all of the other problems affecting our world. Let's take a look at some of this year's runner-up terms.

guerra (war)

Yo soy "antiguerra", no me gusta la guerra.

I'm "antiguerra" [antiwar], I don't like war.

Captions 52-53, Ana Carolina Prefijos y sufijos - Part 1
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incertidumbre (uncertainty)

creo que debido a la incertidumbre que teníamos todas las personas,

due, I think, to all of our uncertainty

Caption 46, El coronavirus Confinamiento en España - Part 1
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inflación (inflation)

La inflación en América Latina será más alta que la media.

Inflation in Latin America will be higher than average

invasión (invasion)

Durante la invasión francesa en mil ochocientos ocho,

During the French invasion in eighteen o-eight,

Caption 60, Marisa en Madrid Parque de El Retiro
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Did you notice anything? That was a lot of words that start with the letter i, which even appears twice in the word crisis! That said, i is definitely the Spanish letter of the year!

And that wraps up Yabla's Spanish Word of the Year for 2022. What do you think of our choice? Please feel free to share your comments and suggestions with us, and here's to hoping that 2023 will be a better year!