Estoy a punto de llegar al cuarto piso

In my last post I talked about birthdays in Spanish - Estoy de cumple.  If you haven't read it yet, you should, because I talk about several birthday-related words your Spanish book left out.

Today we're going to continue on with the subject of age and if you thought your Spanish book betrayed you on the topic of birthdays, well, it's not going to get any better.

You've probably already mastered this bit of Spanish:

¿Cuántos años tienes?
How old are you?

Tengo 24 años
I'm 24

Your Spanish book leaves you high and dry after that, but that's where this post comes in to save the day.

You can also reply with:

Tengo 24
I'm 24

OK, that's just a slightly different version of what your Spanish book taught you, but I just wanted to let you know you can say it without the word "años".  It seems rather obvious, but I wondered about that for a long time.

Here are some more options.

Tengo cuarenta y algo 
I'm 40 something

Tengo treinta y algo
I'm thirty something

Tengo veinte y tantos
I'm twenty something

You don't even need the verb tener.

Apenas trienta y cinco
Barely thirty five.

 Now it's time for the really fun stuff.

Adivina cuántos años tengo
Guess how old I am

You could also just say:

Adivina
Guess

If you really want to have fun, you can reply with:

¿Cuántos años me pones?
How old do you think I am?

Literally that means how many years do you put on me, but literal translations don't always make sense, like in this case.

If someone asks you this question, you need to be ready to reply.  Let's take a look at this short dialog:

¿Cuántos años me pones?
How old do you think I am?

Te pongo 30
I think you're about 30

Uy, no, tengo 22
Um, no, I'm 22

Isn't that embarrassing.  Let's hope that doesn't happen to you.

Sometimes you don't mind telling people your age in general, but you don't want to discuss specific numbers.   The verb IR really comes in handy for this.

Voy para los treinta
I'm going on 30

Voy para los sesenta
I'm going on my 60's

Mi hija va para dos años
My daughter is going on two

You can also use the verb estar.

Mi hermano esta en su treinta
My brother is in his thirties

Mi esposo esta en los cuarenta
My husband is in his 40's

Here are even more cool options to talk about your age.

Soy cuarentón
I'm in my 40's

Es una cicuentona muy atractiva
She's a very attractive 50 year old

Use the verb ser to be somewhat specific about you age no matter how old you are:

Soy (I'm).....
veinton/veintona                I'm in my 20's
treintón/trientona               I'm in my 30's
cuarentón/cuarentóna         I'm in my 40's
cincuentón/cicuentona        I'm in my 50's
sesentón/sesentona             I'm in my 60's
setentón/setentona             I'm in my 70's
ochentón/ochentona           I'm in my 80's
noventón/noventona           I'm in my 90's

Surprisingly, or maybe not, there's another way to say the same thing.

Soy...
veinteañero/veinteañera  
treintañero/treintañera
cuarentoñero/cuarentoñera
cincuentañero/cincuentañera
sesentañero/sesentañera
setentañero/setentañera
ochentañero/ochentañera
noventañero/noventañera

Which version of the above you use is up to you.

Of course, you could always take Mafalda's approach on the subject of age:

Hopefully you got a laugh out of that.  And if you don't know who Mafalda is, you're really behind in your Spanish culture.  Maybe Malfada will be the focus of future post.

That leaves us with one more thing to discuss.

Estoy a punto de llegar al tercer piso 
I'm about to arrive at the 3rd floor

OK, that's the literal translation but at this point I think we all know what's really going on.

When you llegar to the 3rd floor, it's a way of saying you're about to turn 30.

You can arrive to a number of floors, like the quinto piso (5th floor) , and yes, you guessed right, it means you're about to turn 50.  Throw the floor in you need and you're good to go.

Well, I think that's enough for one blog post.  Now go forth and impress your Spanish speaking amigos with your new found ability to talk about, or even avoid talking about your age.

¡Hasta la próxima!

Estoy de cumple

Everybody loves birthdays.  Too bad our Spanish books didn't teach us everything we need to know to celebrate them properly.   But don't worry, today you're going to learn some Spanish that will impress your friends and show them that all your hard work is paying off.

Let's start with the verb cumplir.

When you're talking about age cumplir means to turn a certain age.

Hoy cumplo 30 años
Today I turn 30


Mi hijo cumplió 12 años en agosto
My son turned 12 years old in August

Mi tio cumple 50 manaña
My Uncle turns 50 tomorrow

You probably know where this is going next.  You can't talking about turning a year older without talking about birthdays.

Feliz cumpleaños
Happy birthday

You can also say:

Feliz cumple
Happy B-Day

OK, that's not a literal translation, but it's basically the English equivalent.  This is a very informal way to say it.

You were probably taught to say "today is my birthday" using:

Hoy es mi cumpleaños
Today is my birthday

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but you do have another option.

Estoy de cumple
Today's my birthday

¿Estás de cumple?
Is today your birthday?

¿Quién está de cumple?
Who's birthday is it?

That's actually the short version. The complete sentence is:

¿Quién está de cumpleaños?

You could also say:

¿Quien cumple años hoy?
Who has a birthday today?

Es mi cumple
It's my birthday

¿De quién es el cumpleaños? 
Who's birthday is it?

In English we love to ask the question "Who's the birthday boy?", and you can  ask the same question in Spanish:

¿Quién es el cumpleañero?
Who's the birthday boy?

¿Quién es la cumpleañera?
Who's the birthday girl?

Now that we know a bit more about birthdays and the verb cumplir, we can make our birthday wishes a little more creative.

Feliz cumpleaños,  que cumplas muchos más
Happy birthday, may you turn many more

That wraps it up for today, but we're nowhere near done talking about age.  In my next post we'll talk more about the many other things your Spanish book left out.

¿Por qué no te echas un coyotito?

If there's one word in Spanish that probably everyone in the US learns, it's the word siesta.  I doubt that I need to explain what it means, but just to make sure no one gets left in the dark, a siesta is a nap.

Me voy a tomar una siesta, me estoy muriendo de sueño
I'm going to take a nap, I'm really sleepy

Those of you who are really astute may have noticed "I'm really sleepy" is not a direct translation of "me estoy muriendo de sueño".  Literally "me estoy muriendo de sueño" is "I'm dying of sleep".  Sure it's understandable, but we just don't say that in English, or at least I've never heard it.  

OK, It's time to get back on track.

Tomar una siesta is a great way to tell people you're going to grab a few winks, but you're not going to impress anybody and it's kind of boring to be honest, at least when you compare it to some of the other options you have.  Let's take a look at these other options.

Echarse una siesta

Antes de salir a la fiesta me voy echar una siestecita para recargar pilas
Before I leave for the party I'm going to take a little nap to recharge my batteries

A siestecita is just a diminutive of the word siesta.  Use whichever one you prefer.

Now we're starting to sound a little more native.  But we're not done yet, we're just getting started.

Echarse un sueño

Voy a echarme un sueñito
I'm going to get a little sleep

Sueñito is another one of those diminutives and it comes from the word sueño which officially means dream or to be sleepy.  You can also use the word sueño if you're not big on diminutives.

Our next phrase involves the word pestaña, which means eyelash.

Me voy a echar una pestaña, estoy muy cansado
I'm going to take a nap, I'm really tired

And of course you can use it in it's diminutive form.

Me voy a echar una pestañita de 1 horita no más
I'm going to take a little nap for just an hour, no longer

So far all the ways we've looked at to say we're going to lay our heads down for a little bit are pretty neutral and should be recognized by all Spanish speakers, but this next one might be  exclusive to our Mexican neighbors.

Echarse un coyote

Ahorita que no está el jefe, me voy a echar un coyotito
Since the boss isn't here right now, I'm going to take a nap

¿Por qué no te echas un coyote?
Why don't you take a nap?

And there you have it.  Three ways to say you need to recharge those pilas and one additional way to say it if you want to sound muy Mexicano.

¡Hasta la próxima!

No seas haragán

This piece of Spanish that I'm going to talk to you about today came out of a conversation I had on Facebook.  In fact, I've been picking up a lot of Spanish from chatting with my amigos on Facebook.

During one of those chats I admitted to a friend that I hadn't written anything for my blog lately, not to mention several household chores I had been avoiding.  He replied to me with:

wow hahaha tu has estado de guevon lol
Wow, you have been lazy

Güevón is very slangy word for perezoso, which means lazy.  I've also seen it written as huevón, and a Google search will also give you güevón.  I wouldn't lose any sleep over how it's spelled, because it's a very informal word best reserved for your friends and online chat.  Nor whether or not you put the accents in the right place.  In fact, when you're texting or chatting very few people put any emphasis on accents at all.  And yes ladies, you too can be huevonas.

Actually, I need to point out that you can say de güevón ,  un güevón , or just güevón .

De güevón translates to being lazy, while un güevón might be best translated as a lazy bum, and güevón sometimes can be translated either way.


Sos un webon, no te gusta hacer nada
Dude you are a lazy bum, you don't like to do anything


Webon is another spelling variation you'll see and sos is a conjugation of Vos, which I plan on blogging about very soon.  It's informal, equivalent to tú.

Levantate ya es tarde no estes de guebon
Get up, it's late, don't be lazy

No seas güevón 

Don't be lazy

Eres güevón
You're a lazy bum

And like always, there's more than one way to skin a cat, and in Guatemala you can skin that cat with the word haragán.

My amigo explained it to me perfectly:

haragán es lo mismo que perezoso
es colloquial para decir que has estado de perezoso
oh de haragán

Haragán is the same as perezoso
It's a colloquial way to say you've been lazy

With that in mind, it shouldn't surprise you that you can substitute haragán for  güevón. 

No seas haragán
Don't be lazy

Ya ponte a trabajar no estes de haragán
Now get to work and don't be lazy

And there you have it, three ways to let your buddies (or kids) know just how lazy they really are.

Before I forget, I need to tell you that güevón in all it's forms is not for polite company.  It is considered a grosería (bad word), although like many words in Spanish, how bad it is can vary from country to country.  Have fun using this with your friends and don't say I didn't warn you.

Also güevón can mean different things in different countries, so be sure you know your audience.  If you have friends from different countries don't be shy about asking what it means to them.

And while I'm not going to make any promises, I'm going to try and be a little less of a guevon and starting blogging a little more often.

Hasta la próxima!

¿Unos mates?

I've recently become friends with an Argentino - a man from Argentina.  He's a really nice guy and he's been teaching me a lot of Spanish as well as some things about Argentina.  In fact, we even went to an Argentinian restaurant, which is the whole reason I'm writing this entrada.

Take a look at the photo below.  Once I saw this, I knew I had to write something about it.

No, your eyes are not deceiving you.  That is a pata de vaca, or cow hoof.  Much to my surprise, this is also a pata de vaca:

Anyway, I'm not here to talk about plants, so let's get back to the more interesting of the two.

Let me show you one more photo.  Why?  I don't know, for some reason I'm fascinated by this thing.

Ok, now that I've gotten that out of my system I'm ready to move on and explain what cow hooves have to do with Argentina.

So, what do cow hooves have to do with Argentina?  Nothing really.  This pata de vaca is simply a fancy (or creepy) cup for drinking mate.

Argentina is famous for mate.  What is mate you ask?  The simple answer is tea.  But the simple answer isn't good enough for us, so let's get to the real answer, starting with our vaca de pata.

The vaca de pata, while it is rather bizarre looking, is used to drink the tea.  And this is actually what's called mate.  Mate is the name of the "cup" used to drink tea.

Here's a photo of a more traditional mate:

What are mates made of you ask?  OK, maybe you didn't ask, but I'm going to tell you anyway.

Los mates pueden ser de calabaza, alpaca, madera, plata, hueso caña, y también los hay de plástico, vidrio, metal, loza

Mate can be made from pumpkin, pewter, wood, silver, calf bone, and also from plastic, glass, metal, and ceramic

Traditionally mate is made from pumpkins.  I don't know much about that process, but I do know how to search YouTube and I found this video you can watch for a short lesson on como hacer y curar un mate.  Get those Spanish ears ready!

Now that we've established that mate is actually what you drink the tea from, we need to talk about the tea itself, which is called yerba mate.

Yerba mate comes from a tree that looks like this:

When it's ready to be put in your mate it looks something like this:

Brewing yerba mate isn't quite as straight forward as making some good old fashioned Lipton ice tea.  The short version of the story is that the yerba mate goes in the mate, then you add hot water.

I mentioned hot water; luckily Argentinos heat up water the same way we do, by using a pava.

Pava means kettle, as in a tea kettle.  You may also hear it called a tetera.   And yes, pava also means turkey.  Technically when talking about turkeys a pava is a female turkey, and pavo is a male turkey, but we're not here to talk turkey (bad pun, I know).

 My explanation of the mate making process is far from exact, so here's a quick video that explains everything.

OK, so now we know the technical differences between mate and yerba mate.   If you watched the video, you may have noticed that the leaves and the water are mixed together.  It doesn't seem like a very tasty beverage.  You may have also noticed something that looks like this:

It's called a bombilla.  You put the bombilla into the mate.  If you look closely at the bottom of the bombilla (the gold piece), you'll notice several little holes.  The holes are used to filter out the yerba mate leaves leaving you with the wonderful flavor of the tea.

Drinking mate in Argentina is like drinking sweet tea in the south, it's a tradition, virtually a mandate.

When you walk into a friends home in Argentina, the conversation might go something like this:

Hola, ¿unos mates?
Hi, tea?

!Como no!
Of course

¿Dulce o amargo?
Sweet or bitter

Como tomes vos
However you drink it

Don't let the word vos confuse you, it's just another way to say tú.  It's called voseo, and that's a topic for another post.

Well, that's it.  Now you know a little bit about drinking mate.  Oddly enough, despite having been to an Argentinian restaurant and having learned so much about mate, I actually didn't get try any.  They didn't have any for the customers, just their own personal stash.  Go figure.

¡Hasta la próxima!

Gira a la derecha, mas adelante

Just about everyone has a GPS these days, and if you're serious about learning Spanish, you should be getting your directions in Spanish.

If you haven't changed the language on your GPS yet, today you're going to learn everything you need to know to get where you're going.  Break out your driving gloves boys and girls, it's time to go for a ride.

Here's a screen shot from the GPS on my phone, let's take a closer look at it.

 Let's start with the word bifurcación, which you'll find at the top of the picture where the directions start.

A  bifurcación  is a fork in the road. If you look at the picture closely you can even see the little arrows showing the fork in the highway.

Tome la izquierda cuando llegue a una bifurcación del camino
Go left when you get to the fork in the road

Next we get to:

Mantente a la derecha y sigue las indicaciones
Keep to the right and follow the signs

We need to take a closer look at the first part of this, Mantente a la derecha. To be specific, the verb mantenerse.

Mantenerse seems to be the verb of choice for my GPS.  Your GPS may prefer permanecer.

Permanece a la derecha
Keep to the right

Hold on, we're not done skinning this cat yet.  You have one more option:

Quédate a la derecha
Stay to the right

Your GPS might not use quedar, but it's certainly something you'll probably hear on the street and may even want to use yourself.  Here's another example for good measure.

Desde Tulum, quedar en el carril de la derecha
From Tulum, stay in the right lane

OK, let's move on.

Gira ligeramente a la izquierda hacia 85 North
Take a slight left towards 85 North

Hacia is the word you want when you need to talk about where your heading.

Voy hacia el sur
I'm going south

En lugar de irme a casa, voy hacia el restaurante
Instead of going home, I'm heading towards the restaurant

Also notice that the word North wasn't translated.  Your GPS might translate it so you may want to refresh your memory if those directions aren't already burned into your brain.

OK, we're still not there yet, so let's keep going.

Toma la salida 86 hacia 13 North, en dirección Buford Highway
Take exit 86 towards 13 North, towards Buford Highway

This is really pretty straight forward.  The only thing I want to touch on is en dirección.  En dirección is another way to say towards.   Here are some examples:

Voy en dirección a mi casa
I'm heading towards my house

Caminar hacia el norte en dirección a la Calle 55
Walk heading north towards 55th Street

Gire a la derecha en dirección al hotel Hilton
Turn right towards the Hilton hotel

Notice all of my examples used  en dirección a, while my GPS didn't use the "a".  I suspect that's a translation error on their part.  And finally we have:

Incorpórate a 13 North
Get on 13 North

Incorporarse is used to for taking/getting on the highway.

Desde Barcelona, incorpórate a la autopista y toma la salida 12
From Barcelona, get on the freeway and take exit 12

You may also hear carretera used for highway, and notice the use of tomar for taking the freeway.

Toma la carretera 880 rumbo al Norte
Take highway 880 going north

You may have noticed the word rumbo.  It's just another way to say which way you're headed.

Voy rumbo a casa de una amiga
I'm headed towards a friends house

Next we have the following:

Continúa durante 3,6 mi
Continue for another 3.6 miles

You may have noticed the "3,6".  In Spanish the comma is used instead of the decimal point, so don't let it confuse you.

And the part we've all been waiting for:

El destino está a la izquierda
Your destination is on the left

We need to talk to about one more thing that didn't show up on my GPS this time.

Sigue derecho
Keep straight

You may also hear the word recto for straight.  And remember, derecha is right while derecho is straight.  The first time I got directions while driving I nearly forgot this distinction, luckily my passenger got me straightened out in time.

Sigue recto
Keep straight

Lastly, let's look at the title of this entry.

Gira a la derecha mas adelante
Turn right further ahead

FYI, you can get your directions online in Spanish as well.  I use Google Maps with my language set to Spanish.  You'll see the same vocabulary used.

And that about wraps things up.   If I missed something, leave me a comment.

Espero que les sirva, ¡cuídense!

¿Puedes pasar por mi?

In the last post I talked about the verb llevar and among other uses, you can use it to talk about taking people from one place to another.  If you haven't read that post, you can click here to read it.

So now we know how to ask someone to take us somewhere, but now we need to know how to ask someone to bring us back.  Lucky for us Spanish has a verb for that.  In fact, there are several ways, so let's learn how to ask someone to pick us up.

The first one we're going to talk about is the verb recoger.

¿Me puedes recoger?
Can you pick me up?

¿Quieres que te recoja?
Do you want me to pick you up?

¿Quieres que te recoja en casa?
Do you want me to pick you up at home?

Ven a recogerme
Come and pick me up

Mi amiga me recogió en el aeropuerto

My friend picked me up from the airport

Por favor recógeme en el aeropuerto a la 1 pm
Please pick me up from the airport at 1PM

¿Me puedes recoger a las seis?
Can you pick me up at 6?

Yo te recojo
I'll pick you up

¿Y dónde te recojo?
And where do I pick you up?

Te recojo a las 8
I'll pick you up at 8

Another way to say it is to ir a buscar.

Voy a ir a buscar a Jose al cumpleaños
I'm going to pick up Jose from the birthday party 

¿Quieres que vaya a buscarte a casa?
Do you want me to pick you up at home?

Not that I'm at all a grammar fan, much less an expert, but notice the "vaya" above.  If the conjugation looks strange it's because it's in the subjunctive.  Remember that when you're telling someone what you want them to do, or as in this case, you're asking what you can do for them, you need the subjunctive.  

Enough of that, let's get back to the fun stuff.  


El pastor fue a buscarme al aeropuerto
The pastor picked me up from the airport

Cuando vayas a buscarme allí estaré
When you come to pick me up I'll be there

Voy a buscarte al aeropuerto el domingo
I'll pick you up from the airport on Sunday

While we are done talking about grammar, we're not done talking about how to get that ride home.
There's also pasar a buscar a alguien

¿Te paso a buscar a tu casa?
Should I stop by your house and pick you up?

¿Quieres que te pase a buscar?
Do you want me to stop by your house and pick you up?

¿Donde te paso a buscar?

Where should I pick you up from?

My personal favorite, pasar por.  This is very common in Mexico, and probably the preferred choice when speaking with Mexicans.  It also happens to be the first way I learned to ask this question.

Por favor pasa por mi al aeropuerto a la 1
Please pick me up from the airport at 1

¿Vas a pasar por mí al aeropuerto?   
Are you going to pick me up from the airport

¿Puedes pasar por mí?
Can you pick me up?

There's also  venir a buscar.

Ven a buscarme
Come get me

¿Puedes venir a buscarme al aeropuerto?
Can you come get me from the ariport?

¿Ven a buscarme al trabajo?
Will you come pick me up from work?

We can't forget about pasar a buscar.

Mi novio pasó a buscarme
My boyfriend came to pick me up

Pasa a buscarme
Come pick me up

¿Querés que te pase a buscar?
Do you want me to pick you up?

And last but not least, ir por.

¿Quieres que vaya por ti?
Do you want me to come get you?

Voy por él
I'm going to get him

Tengo que ir por ella
I have to go get her

Voy por mi padre
I'm going to get my dad

Well, that's it.  Or maybe I should say that's enough.  You may be wondering which one of these many options you should use.  My suggestion, use the one you find easiest to remember, or the one  that you hear the native speakers around you use.

I hope you found this discussion useful, hasta la próxima.