Okay, so I needed to figure out how to say “astonishing” in Spanish the other day. It wasn’t for anything super important, just chatting with a friend online, and I wanted to describe this absolutely wild story someone told me.
My First Thought
Honestly, my first instinct was just to kinda wing it. My Spanish is okay, but not great, especially with fancier words. I thought, maybe something related to “surprise”? Like “sorpresa”? But “astonishing” feels stronger than just surprising, doesn’t it? It needed more punch.
Hitting the Books (or the Keyboard)
So, guessing wasn’t cutting it. I did what most folks do, I guess. I opened up my laptop and went straight to one of those online translation websites. You know the ones. I typed in “astonishing” and hit enter.
It spat back a couple of options. That’s the thing, right? It’s rarely just one perfect word.
Here’s what popped up mostly:
- asombroso / asombrosa
- sorprendente
- increíble
Making the Choice
Alright, options. Now I had to pick. Increíble just means “incredible” or “unbelievable,” which is close, but not quite the same feeling as “astonishing” to me. It’s used a lot, maybe too much.
Sorprendente means “surprising.” Like I thought before, it felt a bit weak for the story I was reacting to. The story wasn’t just surprising, it made my jaw drop a little.
Then there was asombroso. I looked that one up specifically. Dictionaries said things like “amazing,” “astounding,” “astonishing.” Bingo. That felt like the right level of intensity. It has that sense of wonder or disbelief that “astonishing” carries in English.
The Result
So, I went with asombroso. I typed back something like, “¡Qué historia tan asombrosa!” It felt right. It’s a good word to have in your back pocket, stronger than just ‘surprising’ or ‘incredible’. Took a few minutes of clicking around, but got there in the end. Just another little language adventure, you know?
