¿Por qué estás en cueros en la sala?

Settle down ladies, take a deep breath and try to stay focused.  Guys, sorry, I've got nothing for you.  The good news is you'll learn all the Spanish you'll need to find a picture more to your liking by the end of this post.

Today we're going to talk about being naked and how to get that way.  And I am in no way responsible for the trouble you guys are bound to get yourself into with this info.  There, I've made my disclaimer and I'm sticking to it.  Let's get started!

The gentleman in our picture is medio desnudo or semidesnudo if you prefer.  OK, he's probably a little more than half-naked.  I'm pretty sure if we take away his leaf he'd be completamente desnudo - completely naked.

While desnudo is a perfect word for describing our friends wardrobe, it's certainly not the most creative or fun way to talk about it.

Here's a nifty phrase you can most certainly find a use for at some point.

Como tu madre te trajo el mundo
Like your mother brought you into this world

So, how did your mother bring you into to this world?   In your Traje de Adán or Traje de Eva.

Adán and Eva are Spanish for Adam and Eve and a traje is a suit.  The literal translation is your Adam or Eve suit.  Figuratively speaking, we're talking about your birthday suit, which is what our friend is wearing in the photo.

I can't begin to tell you why our friend is in his Traje de Adán, but I can show you a few ways to talk about being naked and how to get naked in Spanish.

Estar desnudo is pretty standard.

No entres, estoy desnudo
Don't come in, I'm naked

To talk about the process of getting naked, you can use the verb desnudarse.

Me voy a desnudar
I'm going to get naked

You may find this next example more fun.   I'll bet some of you will be using this one right away.  This is the part where you refer back to my disclaimer.

¡Desnúdate!
Get naked!

Feel free to add mujer or hombre on the end of that.

Now that we have the standard boring Spanish out of the way, let's move on to the fun stuff.

Estar encuerado

¿Por qué estás encuerado?
Why are you naked?

And remember, if you're a woman you need encuerada.  The verb encuerarse works just like desnudarse.

¡Encuérate!
Get naked!

Me encueré en la playa
I got naked at the beach

You may know the word for leather is cuero, which is pretty much Spanish101.  What you may not know is that you can also use the word cuero to talk about being naked.

Estoy en cueros
I'm naked

En las playas nudistas todos están en cueros
At the nude beaches everybody's naked

¿Por qué estás en cueros en la sala?
Why are you naked in the living room?

I'm not sure I want to know the answer to that question.

There's also andar en cueros.

Me gusta verte andar en cueros
I like to see you going around naked


I've seen en cueros and encuerado translated as butt-naked or stark naked, and even just plain naked.  While there probably is a slight difference in the meaning of these terms, the bottom line is you're talking about someone sin ropa, with no clothes on.


Oh, before I forget, there's one more word for naked, and this one is very, very Mexican.  And that word is bichi.  There's also andar bichi, which works exactly the same as the other expressions.


¿Te gusta andar bichi por tu casa?
Do you like to walk around your house naked?

Hold on, there's more.

Sácate la ropa
Take off your clothes

Quítate la ropa
Take off your clothes

Surprisingly (or maybe not) you can use quitarse and sacarse to talk about taking off your clothes.  I don't know about you, but it came as shock to me when I first learned about this.  Actually, those two verbs are not specific to taking off your clothes, you can use them to talk about taking off anything.

Who knew there were so many ways to talk about being, and getting, naked.  And to tell you the truth, there are probably even more colloquial ways to say it, especially when you start talking about regional Spanish.  If you know a nifty expression, please comment, sharing is always welcome, It's how we learn.

¡Hasta la próxima!

¡Pulgar Arriba!

You've likely figured out that pulgar arriba means thumbs up.  It's not much of a stretch to figure out that pulgar abajo means thumbs down.  Not to knit-pick, but the proper way to say pulgar arriba/abajo is pulgar hacia arriba and pulgar hacia abajo.  But anyone who knows me also knows that I like to speak how the people speak, so I'll be following the crowd and going with pulgar arriba.  You may also hear manita arriba.

I'm sure your Spanish book taught you the word for hand, la mano, and even the word for fingers, dedos de la mano, or simply dedos or deditos.  But as always, those pesky Spanish books are focused on grammar, and often leave out some important details. 

Any Spanish speaking five year old can look at their hand and ramble off the names of their deditos.  Imagine my surprise when after 5+ years of studying Spanish I couldn't do the same. 

Let's do a quick run down of los nombres de los dedos,  starting with the thumb, dedo pulgar.  You can also say dedo gordo.  Next we have the índice, or as we call it the index or pointing finger.  The middle finger is called dedo medio or corazón.  The ring finger is dedo anular and last, but not least we get to the pinky, or little finger, dedo meñique.   FYI, you can drop the word dedo and just refer to each finger by it's name: pulgar, índice, etc.

You can do a lot of interesting things with fingers, let's talk about a few of them.

I can't remember the last time I needed to pinky swear, but in case you ever do the phrase you're looking for is promesa de meñique. 

There may come a time when you need cruzar los dedos (cross your fingers) or  mantener los dedos cruzados (keep your fingers crossed). 

This next image is probably the most recognized gesture you can make with your fingers.

In Mexico it's called sacar el dedo or pintar el dedo. Maybe a kind reader can tell us what's it's called in other countries.

Well, that's all you can do with fingers that I'm going  to talk about in this blog.  I try to keep this blog family friendly, so if you want to read about some not so innocent things you can do with fingers click here.  

That's it for today,

¡Hasta la próxima!

Encontramos de nuevo nos

Write this date down, because today I'm going to do something I promised I would never do on this blog - talk about grammar.   But bear with me, I think you'll find this to be one of the most enjoyable grammar lessons you'll ever have.  And quite possibly the only one you'll get on this blog.

Encontramos de nuevo nos

I'm sure many of you already know this sentence makes no sense.  But mistakes like this are common for beginners, because those Spanish pronouns can be pesky when you're first starting to learn Spanish.

Do they go at the begining of the sentence, or at the end? To make matters worse, sometimes they can go either at the begining or the end.  For someone new to the Spanish language, learning the do's and don'ts can be a nightmare.

But don't worry, today I'm going to share a video with you that will help you out by giving you some advice about where these pesky pronouns go.

The video is in Spanish, so get those Spanish ears of yours ready.  It does have English subtitles, so don't worry too much. 

Today we'll be visiting with our friends the Huevo Cartoones.  You may remember I first introduced you to them with Huevo Santa.  This episode is a parody of Star Trek, or as it was titled in Spanish "Viaje a las Estrellas". 

 In case you weren't able to catch all of that, let's do a recap of the more relevant parts.

Despite being in some serious danger, our starship captain finds it necessary to correct the grammar of his nemisis. 

The Evil Captain:
Encontramos de nuevo nos
We meet again
   (Said incorrectly)

Starship Captain:
Quieres decir que "nos encontramos de nuevo"
You mean we meet again
 
The Evil Captain:
 Eso dije
That's what I said.

Starship Captain:
No, es que pusiste el nos al final de la frase y debería ir al prinicipio
No, you put nos at the end of the sentence and it should go at the beginning

The Evil Captain:
Tus escudos estan a punto de fallar y te mos destruire!!!!
Your shields are about to fail and we're going to destroy you!
   (Also said incorrectly)

Starship Captain:
te destruiremos

The Evil Captain:
¿Que no va al principio de la frase?
What, it doesn't go at the beginning?

Starship Captain:
No, en este caso no

After our heroes come up with a plan to save themselves from being destroyed, we find ourselves back aboard the enemy vessel...

Evil Crew Members:
Pueden destruirnos
They can destroy us

The Evil Captain, now thinking he has an excellent grasp on those pesky pronouns decides to try and correct his crew members about their pronoun usage....

The Evil Captain:
Nos pueden destruir. El nos va al principio de la frase
They can destroy us.  The nos goes at the begining of the sentence.

Evil Crew Members:
En este caso es igual el principo o el final
In this case is the same at the begining or the end

The Evil Captain:
No, pues asi no puedo hablar este idioma a veces si , a veces no
I can't speak this language, sometimes yes, sometimes no

Evil Crew Members:
¿Que hacemos con las minas?
What do we do about the mines?

The Evil Captain:
No se si se dice nosotros o otros nos
I don't know if you say nosotros or some other nos

That's all of the dialog pertinent to us today, and sadly, despite being a grammar guru, things didn't work out so well for our starship Captain. 

Personally, I got a real kick out of that video.  I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did, although I have to admit it loses something in translation.

¡Hasta la próxima!

No estaba muerto estaba de parranda

At least once a year I try to go to Mexico (Baja California) for a little R&R.  This trip is pura fiesta - nothing but partying .  There's no better way to learn and practice your Spanish then by walking the streets all day and night, hanging out in bars and restaurants talking to anybody and everybody.
With that in mind, I thought I'd share some things I've learned about having a good time.  Para que tu sepas (just so you know),  some of the things in this post may be very Mexican, but are probably understood by many. 

Let's get started.

Ir de parranda

To go partying.  Just that simple.  A  parranda is a party.  This is one of several ways to say party besides fiesta.  In fact, most of the people I talk to rarely (if ever) use the word fiesta when they talk about going partying. 

Manaña voy de parranda para celebrar mi cumpleaños
Tomorrow I'm going partying to celebrate my birthday

A Parrandón (parrandona for the ladies) is someone who likes to party. You can also say Qué parrandón to talk about a great party.   Parrandero (parrandera) is also a term for someone who likes to party.

Ir a Pachanguear

Yep, another way to say you're going to party.  I don't recall where I picked up this expression, but here are some examples:

¿Vamos a ir a pachanguear verdad?
We're going to go partying right?

Estoy pachangueando
I'm partying

El sábado me fui de pachanga con mis amigas
I went out partying with my girlfriends on Saturday

Es muy pachanguero
He likes to party

Panchanguero (pachanguera) is a someone who likes to party.  In English we'd probably say party animal.  A pachanga is a party.

Let's not forget about Ir de fiesta.  It works the same way the other expressions do.

¡Vamos de fiesta!
 Let's go party!

Manaña voy de fiesta para celebrar mi cumpleaños
Tomorrow I'm going partying to celebrate my birthday

Fiestero/fiestera is another way to talk about being a party animal.

I've got one more for you, and this might come as shock.

Ir de party

Vamos de party
Let's go party

While it may sound strange, this is a very, very common way to talk about going out to party.  I've heard the expression vamos de party more times than I can count.  And that's good news for you, because if you can't remember the the other options you will most certainly remember this one.  And you'll sound authentic to boot. 

Well, know that we've established that we ready to party, what kinds of places can you party at?

Un bar.  Yes, a bar, just we like we say in English, but give it your best Spanish accent.  You can also go to "un club".   Again, just use your Spanish accent and you're golden.  If you want to sound a little more Mexican, you can use the word "antro".

¿Hay un buen antro por aquí?
Is there a good club around here?

I will warn you that antro might have a different meaning in other countries.   I mentioned that I like to go to antros to my friend from Peru, and she gave me a strange look.  Turns out that to her an antro was not a club, but a bar, and a dive bar at that.   Go figure.  I think the word discoteca is probably more universal.

Well, after all of that, I'm sure you've figured out what today's expression means.

No estaba muerto, estaba de parranda
I wasn't dead, I was partying

You can also say:

No estaba muerto, andaba de parranda

This is a nice phrase you can use to get a few laughs if you haven't seen someone in a while and they ask you where you've been.  Or why you haven't posted anything to your blog in almost a month.

Well, that's it for now.  I've got some more party and drinking related vocabulary and phrases to share with you all in a future post, so stay tuned!

¡Hasta la próxima!

¡Qué madrugadora eres!

For the most part, the holidays have come and gone.  Yes, we still have to get through "el año nuevo", but Christmas (la navidad) is usually the most stressfull half of the holiday season, especially viernes negro (Black Friday). 

My only problem with viernes negro is that you have to levantarse temprano (get up early) to take advantage of the best ofertas (sales).    Venga (come on), who decided that 4 in the morning is a good time to get up and go shopping?

Anyway, as I mentioned above, to talk about getting up early you need the verb levantarse. 

Tuve que levantarme a las 4 de la mañana para ir de compras para el viernes negro
I had to get up at 4 in the morning to go shopping for Black Friday

Siempre me levanto temprano para ir al trabajo
I always get up early to go work

Levantarse is one of those verbs you just have to know.  If you're not familiar with it, it's pretty standard, so you'll find plenty of help in your Spanish book.  However, what you may not know is that there's another way to talk about getting up early. 

Madrugar also means to get up early. So with that in mind, you can say:

Madrugué (or Me levanté temprano)
I got up early

Here's another example.

Madrugué a las 4 del la mañana para ir de compras
I got up early at 4 in the morning to go shopping

Instead of "4 de la mañana" you can say "4 de la madrugada".

Por Madrugar in our photo above would translate to something like "for early birds" or "for early risers".   And speaking of early risers, you have the terms madrugador or madrugadora, which is a way of refering to someone who gets up early. 

¡Qué madrugadora eres!
You're really an early bird/early riser

There's really no one word translation in English that I can think of, but you get the idea.

Keep in mind that madrugador is for a male and madrugadora is for a female.

There's also a saying in Spanish you may have heard:

A quien madruga Dios lo ayuda
The early bird catches the worm

This bit of Spanish is a great addition to your toolbox and sure to impress your Spanish friends that have been monitoring your progress. 

¡Hasta la próxima!

Ahorita vengo

Ahorita.  One simple word. It's not hard to spell, it's not even hard to pronounce.  But don't let that fool you, because this little word has not only caused problems for gingos like us, but for native born Spanish speakers as well.

In Spanish, the word for now is ahora, which is where the word ahorita is derived from.  Figuring out where ahorita comes from is the easy part.  Figuring out what it means is the hard part.

Ahorita
Right now

Ahorita vengo
I'll be right back

If you frequent Mexican restaurants, you may have heard this:

Ahorita le traigo
I'll bring it right now

Notice that I said Mexican restaurants.  That's because ahorita is primarily a Mexican thing.  Not that other Spanish speakers don't say ahorita, because they do.  It's the meaning of ahorita that not all Spanish speakers agree on.

In some parts of the Spanish speaking world ahorita simply isn't used at all.  In other parts it's interpreted as "later".  Rather then me trying to explain it to you, I'm going to point you to a real life example of the kind of havoc this tiny little word can cause.  Take a look at this YouTube video.  The video is of a young woman talking about how the word ahorita caused the first argument between her and her boyfriend.  It's actually kind of funny and is a mixture of Spanish and English, so it's a good chance for you to put those Spanish ears to work.

Since we're on the topic of Mexican Spanish, there's yet another Mexican way to say "right now". 

Regreso luego luego
I'll be right back

In fact, I actually wrote a post about "luego luego" a few years ago.  You can read it by clicking here.

If you want to convey the notion of "right now" in standard Spanish that everyone can understand, then you want "Ahora mismo".

¿Se le traigo ahora mismo?
Should I bring it right now?

Since ahorita isn't a 100% reliable way of telling someone you'll be right back, let me give you a few phrases that should work universally.

Ahora (mismo) vuelvo

Enseguida vuelvo

Ya regreso

 Enseguida regreso

Well, that's it for today.  I hope you all found this useful.  If you speak Spanish with enough people, sooner or later you'll hear these phrases and hopefully won't fall victim to the "Deer in headlights" syndrome. 

Hasta la próxima.

Si me toca el gordo, qué hago?

If you translated this as:

¿Si me toca el gordo, que hago?
If the fat man touches me, what do I do?

You'd be wrong.  Let's find out why.

OK, the truth is, whether or not your translation is wrong depends on context.  "El gordo" does mean fat man, but it also has another meaning.

"El gordo" is  a colloquial way of referring to "la lotería".  And "lotería" means lottery in case you don't know.  It's not uncommon for us to refer to the lottery as "the big one", and "El gordo" is the Spanish version of that.  "El gordo" is universal, so you can use this with Spanish speakers from anywhere.

You may have wondered about the use of tocar in this sentence.  Literally "si me toca" translates to "if it touches me", but we wouldn't say that in English.  You could have easily said:

¿Si me gano el gordo, qué hago?
If I win the the big one, what do I do?

As you can see, using the verb ganar (to win) is more of a direct translation.  But using the verb tocar is also a very common way of expressing this.  It's also a good way of flexing your Spanish muscles and impressing your Spanish speaking friends.

And speaking of tocar, it's used in a few other ways you may find surprising.  But I'm not going to tell you what they  are in this post.  In fact, I'm not going to tell you at all, because another fellow blogger has already written a great post about this, so why reinvent the wheel?

My new found internet friend and Spanish aficionado runs the blog Vocabat.com.  Her blog focuses on Colombian Spanish and gives us some great insight on the language and culture of Colombia.  What makes her blog even more informative is that she is reporting directly from the city of Medellin.  I can't even begin to tell you how jealous I am.  Anyway, it's a great blog, check it out.

Here's the link to her post on the verb tocar.  If you're serious about learning Spanish, be sure to read it, because it's both informative, and amusing.  Not to mention it may very well save you some embarrassment.  

¿Me toca o me toco?

That's it for today, ¡hasta la próxima!