La Palabra del Día: Espantar
Espantar
to frighten, to scare away, to scare, to shock
Special thanks to CentralAM for the idea for this word
If you have ideas for good words, please send me a PM – I will make it a future word of the day.
This thread is kindly moderated by drvicente. Please correct your posts according to drvicente’s indications and suggestions, and of course use the corrections to learn from your errors! 
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Use the Word of the Day in a complete sentence that best exemplifies one of its definitions. Please provide both the Spanish and the English version and vote for other sentences that you like. The two best sentences (the most voted and the one selected by the mod and the thread owner) will be chosen to be used as the example sentences for the Word of the Day 30 days later based on votes and correctness. ********************************************************************************* Remember, you may NOT use a translator. This exercise is to test your abilities to write in both Spanish and English. ********************************************************************************* Only fully correct sentences are eligible to be chosen for the Word of the Day example sentences. ********************************************************************************** You may choose to include one picture with your sentences, but this picture may not be included in the Word of the Day email, so make sure your sentence is fully comprehensible without the visual aid .
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My Example:
Mi empresa está alquilando un depósito. Una mujer y yo estábamos visitando el depósito cuando vimos un ratón, la mujer se espantó y gritó mientras yo me partía de risa.
My company is renting a warehouse. A woman and I were visiting the warehouse when we saw a mouse – the woman was scared to death, and she screamed while I was laughing…
27 Answers
Antes de matrimonio, mirar bien a la madre de tu novia, podría espantar tu bastante
para evitar una tragedia.
Corrected . - "Podría espantarte lo suficiente como para evitar una tragedia"
Before marriage , look well at your girlfriends mother , could scare you enough
to avoid a tragedy.
I may have bitten off more than I can chew here.This is not necessarily the opinion of the management.
Cuando tengo sueño me tomo un café para espantar el sueño
When I feel sleepy I have a coffee to keep myself awake
I'm scared because last night I had a bad dream.
Estoy espantada porque última noche vi un mal sueño.
With Vicente's corrections:
Me espanté porque anoche tuve una pesadilla.
Veíamos la orilla de Danubio con las gaviotas. De repente las se espantaban y se echaban a volar.
We have seen the bank of Danube with the seagulls. All of a sudden they were frightened and took to the air.
No quiero espantarte pero hay una víbora cerca del pie.
I don't want to scare you, but there is a poisonous snake by your foot.
Cuando era niña, me espanté cuando me di cuenta de donde viene nuestra comida.
When I was a child it shocked me when I understood where our food comes from.
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Cuando una persona se espanta, su cara puede mostrar expresiones muy graciosas.
When a person is frightened, his face can show very funny expressions.
Edit again:
Mis hijos siempre han estado espantado de las arañas así que tengo que sacar las arañas grandes o pequeñas afuera cada vez las veo.
Edit : Mis hijos siempre han estado espantado de las arañas así que tengo que sacar las arañas grandes o pequeñas afuera cada vez que lo veo.
My children have always been afraid of spider so that I have to take the spiders big or small outside every time that I see them.
Mis hijos siempre han estado espantado de las arañas así que tengo que sacarlas afuera cada vez que la veo.
My children have always been afraid of spiders so that I have to take them outside every time that I see them.
Algunas cosas me dan miedo, pero tu, ¡ni hablar! No me vas a espantarte.
With Naomi's correction:
Algunas cosas me dan miedo, pero tu, ¡ni hablar! No me vas a espantar.
Some things do scare me, but you, no way! You will not frighten me away.
Existen mil remedios caseros para espantar las moscas, pero creo que ninguno funciona. 
There are thousands of household remedies to scare away flies, but I don't think any of them work.
When they were leaving for Mexico they heard some bad news that scared them.
Cuando iban a saliendo para México oyeron algunas malas noticias que espantarlos.
Corrections: Cuando salieron para México, oyeron unas malas noticias que les espantaron.
Tengo una foto aquí de mí pero cuando alguna gente verán la foto, harán espantado
I have here a photo of me but when some people will see the photo, they will be shocked.
Some neighbours of ours used to keep (ie: to have) a lion in their garden to frighten away intruders (burglars)
= Algunos de nuestros vecinos tenían un león en su jardín para espantar (a?) los intrusos (eg; los ladrones)
Editor's note's: This is not true but it just seemed to be a good example of a sentence where I could use the verb espantar = to scare/frighten away
Corrijan mi español, por favor
Intenté acercarme unas aves bonitas para sacar una foto, pero antes de estuve bastante cerca, las espanté.
I tried to get close to some beautiful birds to take a photo, but before I was close enough I frightened them away.
Why should I watch horror movies? I don't like to be scared with for no reason!
¿Porque tengo que ver películas de miedo de horror? ¡No me gusta estar espantada espantarme sin razón!
