At work, a bunch of us started taking Spanish lessons. So, when a teammate who’s first language is Spanish greeted us, she said “buenos días” which means “good day”. A couple of us said “buenos días” back but I decided to overthink it and say “good morning” in Spanish instead.

Of course, this would have worked better if I’d known the Spanish term for “good morning” but I didn’t. I just said nothing instead.

When I had some time, I googled how to say “good morning” in Spanish. It’s “buenos días” which you’ll note is where I started.

That seemed kinda weird. I used the translate tool to find the Spanish word for morning. It’s “mañana”. Years of television had taught me that “mañana” meant “tomorrow”. Why was I now finding out that it meant “morning”?

I can sorta see some sense to it. “Tomorrow” started as “to morrow” or “to the morning”.

In a way, it’s comforting to know that Spanish can be as confusing and nonsensical as English.