If you want to say “I’m embarrassed” in Spanish one way to say it is tengo vergüenza, which literally means “I have shame.” One way not to say it is estoy embarazada, which would be a woman saying she’s pregnant. That could obviously create a great deal of confusion (see anecdote below). Of course, a man making the same mistake would say estoy embarazado, which more than confusion would probably just cause laughter.
Embarazada is a conjugated form of the verb embarazar, which means “to impregnate.”
The following anecdote is courtesy of this Spanish language site:
“A large crowd had gathered together in an auditorium to hear a lecture. There were some native Spanish speakers, who were dignitaries, sitting on the stage. An American woman had been invited to address the audience as a guest speaker. As she began speaking, she introduced herself, and then to break the ice, she pointed to the person on the stage who had invited her to speak and said in Spanish, “I’m embarazada and it’s his fault.” She meant to say “I’m embarrassed and it’s his fault,” but what she actually said was “I’m pregnant and it’s his fault.” The crowd gasped and everyone was in shock. You can imagine how she must have felt afterward when she found out what she had really said.”
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Maria says:
September 14, 2010 at 2:47 pm (UTC -4)
I think Biondi made the same mistake while traveling the world a couple years ago.