Ponerse, hacerse, volverse, and convertirse en are some of the expressions that can mean “to become”. Ponerse is used only with adjectives, and expresses a change in a physical or mental state. Hacerse is used with both adjectives and nouns and implies that a personal effort is involved in the change. Volverse is used only with adjectives and implies a complete change. Convertirse en is used with nouns and means to be changed into something.

• Ana se puso enojada/triste/cansada.
  Ana got upset/sad/tired.

• Ellos se hicieron ricos; se hicieron abogados.
  They became rich; they became lawyers.

• Don Quijote se volvió loco.
  Don Quijote went crazy.

• Nadie se convirtió en rana.
  Nobody turned into a frog.

“To spend” is usually pasar when referring to time, but gastar when referring to money or effort. “To misspend or waste” can be rendered as perder (to spend/waste/lose time) and malgastar (to misspend/waste money or effort).

• Pasaron tres días en Taxco, México, donde gastaron todo el dinero que traián consigo.
  They spent three days in Taxco, México, where they spent all the money they had with them.

• Malgasté doscientos dólares y perdí un par de días tratando de reparar mi coche.
  I wasted $200 and a couple of days trying to get my car fixed.

Gente refers to people in the abstract and is a singular noun. Pueblo (besides meaning “town” “village”) refers the group of people that makes up a country or geographical area. Personas (“persons”) or individuos [not individuales] can be used to a group of individual or specific persons.

• La gente hoy en día no sabe mucho de la geografía.
  People nowadays don't know much about geography.

• Los romances son un tesoro del pueblo español.
  Romances [ballads] are a treasure of the Spanish people.

• Hay varias personas aquí que hablan español.
  There are several people here who speak Spanish.

Individuo is a noun meaning “(an) individual” or “(a) person”. Individual is the adjective form meaning “individual” in the sense of “single” (only one).

• Es un individuo extraño.
  He's a strange individual.

• El señor Gómez nos dio una lección individual.
  Mr. Gómez gave us an individual lesson.

Aparecer means “to appear” in the sense of “to make an appearance”, such as a ghost. Parecer means “to appear” in the sense of “seem”. Parecerese a means “to resemble” or “to look like (someone)”.

• De repente una nube oscura apareció sobre nosotros.
  Suddenly a dark cloud appeared over us.

• Eso parece ridículo.
  That seems ridiculous.

• Elena se parece a su madre, ¿no?
  Elena looks like her mother, right?

The conjunctions y/e and o/u. Y (and) changes to e before a word beginning with the sound “i” [which may also be spelled hi because in Spanish h is silent]. Likewise, o (or) becomes u before a word beginning with the the sound “u”.

• Su carta es larga e interesante.
  Her letter is long and interesting.

• Vinieron e hicieron todo lo posible para ayudarme.
  They came and did everything they could to help me.

• Hay siete u ocho chicos aquí.
  There seven or eight kids here.

The usual rule in Spanish for capitalization of titles of articles, songs, books, movies, etc. is to capitalize only the first word and proper nouns:

Article: “El concepto del honor en las obras de Lope de Vega” (“The Concept of Honor in the Works of Lope de Vega”)
Song: “La blanca Navidad” (“White Christmas”)
Book: El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha (The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quijote de la Mancha)
Movie: Lo que el viento se llevó (Gone With the Wind)

Remember also that days of the week (lunes, martes, ...), months of the year (enero, febrero, ...), nationalites and languages (español, francés) are not capitalized unless they are the first word in a sentence or title.

Pero is the usual conjunction that means “but”. Sino means “but” in the sense of “but rather” and is used when preceded by a negated item which is replaced by what follows sino (i.e., “not this but rather the other”). Sino que is used in the same was as sino, but is followed by a clause (including a conjugated verb) that replaces the preceding negated item.

• Preferimos jugar pero no podemos.
  We prefer to play, but we can't.

• No quiero la blusa azul sino la roja.
  I don't want the blue blouse but rather the red one.

• No salieron anoche sino que comieron en casa.
  They didn't go out last night, but (instead) they ate at home.

tanto [never *tan mucho!].
Note also that the plural form “so many” is tantos/as.

• Por favor, no bebas tanto.
  Please, don't drink so much.

• Ella trabajó tanto como yo.
  She worked as much as I (did).

• Nunca he visto tantas personas en un mismo lugar.
  I've never seen so many people in one place.

Tiempo (in addition to meaning “weather”) refers to time in the general or abstract sense, similar to “era” or “epoch” or as time as something which passes:

• Estos tiempos son difíciles.
  These times are hard.

• No tengo tiempo para leer nada.
  I don't have time to read anything.

Vez means time in the sense of “occurrence”; it is also used in such expressions as "muchas veces" (“often”, “many times”), "una vez" (“once”) , and "a veces" or "algunas veces" (“sometimes” or “at times”).

• Esta vez voy a ganar.
  This time I'm going to win.

• Muchas veces voy al cine a solas.
  I often go to the movies by myself.

• A veces [o: Algunas veces] es mejor esperar un poco.
  Sometimes it's better to wait a while.

Hora refers to a specific time of the day:

• Es (la) hora de comer.
  It's time to eat.

• ¿Sabes la hora? ¿Qué hora es?
  Do you know the time? What time is it?

Aprender means to “learn by studying”, whereas enterarse de is to learn in the sense of “to find out”, somewhat similar to "descubrir".

• En esa clase aprendimos mucho vocabulario.
  We learned a lot of vocabulary in that class.

• Nos enteramos de que alguien nos espiaba.
  We learned (or: found out) that someone was spying on us.

You cannot use the indefinite artifcle un(-a) before otro:

• Tengo otra idea.
  I have another idea.

Also note that in Spanish the plural form "otros" occurs before, not after, a number:

• Tengo que hacer otras mil cosas.
  I have to do a thousand another things.

is generally expressed as la mayor parte de:

• Pasaremos la mayor parte del día en el centro comercial.
  We'll spend most of the day at the shopping center.

In a negative sentence, one negative must appear immediately beafore the verb (and any accompanying direct or indirect object pronouns). Other negatives may appear somewhere after the verb, including nadie (“no one”), nunca or jamás (“never”), ningún/o/a (“none” or “no” [used before a noun]). Remember to convert indefinite words (i.e, “something”, “anybody”, etc.) to their negative equivalents and to avoid the plural form of "ningún" unless it modifies a noun which is always used in the plural (e.g., ningún libro, but ningunos pantalones):

• No es nada.
  It's nothing. (Or: It's not anything.)

• Nadie viene aquí jamás.
  No one ever comes here.

• No tenemos ningún diccionario.
  We don't have any dictionaries.

The word century is usually translated as siglo. When writing a century, Roman numerals are used after the word siglo, but cardinal numbers are used in speech:

• Pronto entramos en el siglo XXI (el siglo veintiuno).
  We'll soon enter the 21st Century.

• Cervantes nació a mediados del siglo XVI (el siglo dieciséis).
  Cervantes was born in the middle of the 16th Century.