...and do they actually speak both languages?

My Oxford Spanish/English dictionary translates mañana as meaning variously 'morning' or 'tomorrow'. However, it doesn't take very much bitter experience living in a latin country to learn that if someone says that they'll do something mañana, they actually mean 'some day in the future that's not today, and is probably not tomorrow either, and definitely not tomorrow morning'.

It turns out, however, that there are various other blatantly misleading and misunderstanding-provoking "translations" perpetrated by the cloistered dictionary-writers of Oxford - for example:

• más tarde, which in the dictionary is simply 'later', actually means 'in the future, but today'

• pronto, in the dictionary appearing as 'soon', is really something of a synonym for mañana, i.e. 'definitely not today', but with a higher likelihood of actually being tomorrow

• más adelante, 'later on' according to Oxford, which might seem like it might mean today, is fact 'definitely not today, not tomorrow either'

• rápido, which is supposed to mean 'fast', is actually what you'd say if you meant 'soon'

This means that, according to Oxford, in Spanish 'fast' is sooner than 'soon', which is actually later than 'later', and 'later on' is later than all three. 'Tomorrow', of course, is certainly later than 'later', probably later than 'sooner', but definitely sooner than 'later on'.

The upshot is I seldom know when anything is likely to happen; I just wait hopefully...