So many phrases to say "about"

Question

If I'm not mistaken there are more than a few ways to say "about": sobre trata de en torno a estar para

When I see them, I see "about" but I don't know when to use them or how they differ from eachother in meaning.

Answer 1

Tratar de (as previously discussed)

Sobre (I use this one a lot)

Acerca de (I hear this one a lot).

Answer 2

Check out this link.

Answer 3

I´ll be following this one, as I´ve recently had the same thoughts too, so, thanks.

The one that got me thinking a couple days ago, was ´tratar´, so I´ll share my thoughts on that one, and let more experienced hands chime in with others.

Tratar is about in the sense of handles, or treats, with that latter being a cognate, which makes it easy to remember in this sense.

I heard it used for ¨This book is about...¨ ¨Este libro trata de¨ in some audio lessons last week. Then, this Sunday, while attending my first Spanish spoken word and choral event, it was used both to tell what a song and a poem was about.

So, natives can always tell us better, but I just ran into it several times in less than a week, so at least that sense has stuck in my head.

I look forward to reading more.

Good explanation. I'd say: Este libro se trata de/sobre la independencia de América. or Trata la independencia de América. I prefer the first construction. - francobollo, Dec 18, 2012

Interesting. I heard it during my audio lessons while driving, and somehow didn´t absorb the ´se´. This is the downside to audio only learning. The brain sometimes only hears what it expects, and not everything that is there. I need to repeat, it seems - rogspax, Dec 18, 2012