¿Quiubo parcero?

I don't know about you, but the first thing I thought when I first saw "Quiubo" is "What?  Is that even Spanish?".  Turns out it is.

Quiubo is a shortened version of ¿Qué hubo?, which if you ask me, is almost as cryptic as quiubo.

Think of it as our bastardized version of "what's up" - "wazzup".  In fact, "what's up" is what this phrase actually means.   Add it to your list of informal Spanish greetings.  I know this phrase is used in Colombia and Mexico, but I'm not making any promises about anywhere else.

That leaves us with parcero.    Parcero (parcera) is simply another way to call someone an amigo, along the lines of pana, mano, compa, carnal and cuate.  Parcero is very Colombian.  And according to our good friends at Word Reference, the abbreviated form, parce, is very much in fashion these days. 

Let's take a moment to talk about a few more informal greetings. 

Pana, which I believe is very common in South America, goes quite well with:

¿Qué hay pana?
What's new buddy?

And "Qué hay" is short for "Qué hay de nuevo". 

Then there's "Qué onda".

Qué onda compa (mano/carnal/cuate)
What's up buddy/brother/dude

Keep in mind words like compa, mano (shortened from hermano), carnal, and cuate don't always have an exact (or any) translation, consider the English words more or less equivalents.  I grouped all these together because they are very Mexican.  Spend a few minutes listening to a morning radio talk show on your local Mexican station and you'll probably hear all of these within 30 minutes.  Also, click here to read my earlier post about "qué onda".  If you plan on going to Mexico or speak with a lot of Mexicans, you'll want this one in you toolbox.

And of course there's "¿Qué pasa?, but do we really need to discuss this one? 

The last one I'll mention is...

Qué has hecho
What have you been up to?

I'm sure there's a bizillion more of these, but at some point in your Spanish speaking career you will hear all of the ones I mentioned above, if you haven't already.

Ya!  That's it for today. 

¡Hasta la próxima!

¿Tienes ganas?

Before we start talking about "¿tienes ganas?", let's start with the word ganas. 

Ganas can perhaps best be translated as desire, or the urge to do something.  So with that in mind, we can start to talk about expressions like "Tener ganas de".

Tener ganas de means to feel like doing something.  Here's some examples:

Tengo ganas de ir al cine
I feel like going to the movies

¿Tienes ganas de ir a la playa?
Do you feel like going to the beach?

Vamos al cine
Let's go to the movies

No tengo ganas
I don't feel like it

You can also say something like...

se me pasaron las ganas
I don't feel like it anymore

There's also "dar ganas de".  This is when something makes you feel like doing something.

Esta canción me da ganas de bailar
This song makes me want to dance

You may have also heard....

¡Échale ganas!

Which translates to something like "do  your best", "put your all into it", "give it your best shot".

There's also Con ganas de.

¿Cómo estás?
Con ganas de verte

How are you?
With the urge/desire to see you / I really want to you see.

That loses a little something in the translation, but I think you get the picture.  Once you get a good grasp on this subject, the Spanish will make much more sense.

And now we're about to get what  I found to be an interesting and somewhat surprising use of the word ganas.

When you start talking about "las ganas", it's a way of refering to "deseo sexual" - sexual desire, or as we might say "to be in the mood".   I wouldn't call that a literal translation, but it definitely conveys the meaning.

Es dificil no sentir ganas al verlo
It's hard not to be in the mode when you see him

Se perdío las ganas
He's not in the mood any more

Mi esposo tiene más ganas que yo
My husbands is in the mood more often than me

And finally, if you're with that someone special and the time is right, you can ask:
¿Tienes ganas?
Are you in the mood?

Las ganas doesn't always refer to romantic urges, but the context will certainly make it clear when it does. 

This post is by no means an exhaustive discussion of the word ganas and it's associated expressions, but it's more than enough to get you started.

One last thing.  For those of you who are really ambitious, here's a link to a talk show video of a group of woman having a discussion about "las ganas".  It's a fairly interesting discussion and it's a great opportunity to give your listening skills some serious practice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xj1PT02Csk


¡Hasta la próxima!

Ve al grano y no te andes por las ramas

Ve al grano y no te andes por las ramas

This was another one of those expressions that stopped me dead in my tracks. Hopefully I can prevent the same thing from happening to you.

Let's make a literal translation, although it won't do us any good.

Ve al grano y no te andes por las ramas
Go to the grain and don't walk toward the branches

Ramas is literally the word for tree branches, and no te no andes comes from andar, which has many uses. In fact, I talked about several uses of andar which you can read about by clicking HERE.

So now that we know our literal translation is useless, exactly what does this mean?

Ve al grano y no te andes por las ramas
Get straight to the point and don't beat around the bush

Andarse por las ramas is an idiomatic expression. 

Here's a few more examples:

Te andas por las ramas
You're beating around the bush

Nunca me ando por las ramas
I never beat around the bush

Enjoy this one, I'm sure you will have many chances to use it, and something that's probably even more amazing, for once no me andé por las ramas - I didn't beat around the bush,  in one of my entradas (posts).

¡Que tengan un buen día!

¿Quién es tu gallo?

This is a gallo:

We call it a rooster, not that I needed to tell you that.  And at this point I bet you already know what a gallina is.  You guessed it, a hen.  And a pollito is a baby chicken, or chick.  Of course, once one of these tasty critters make it onto to your plate, it offiically becomes pollo - chicken.    

Now that we've got all that out of the way, I can tell you that todays phrase has nothing to do with chickens.

¿Quién es tu gallo?

Who's your rooster?

Clearly this makes no sense in English, so let me explain.

¿Quién es tu gallo?

This is an informal way of asking the question "Who do you think is going to win?  or "Who's your pick".  You get the point.

You can say things like:

¿Miami vs Pittsburgh, quién es tu gallo?‎

¿Quién es tu gallo para el partido?

This phrase is really easy to use, and will have you sounding like a native.  You can use it for any type of contest or game, not just boxing.

The only potential caveot with this is I think it's a Mexican expression.  But don't hesitate to use it even if your friends aren't Mexican.  You can explain what it means and find out their version of this expression, and then come back at share it with me.

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