Monday, April 30, 2012

Y con eso, me queda sin palabras

If you're seeing the verb quedar for the first time you're in a for treat, because this post is going to give your Spanish a huge boost.  For the rest of you, you may be surprised to learn that quedar has more uses than you realized.  And for those of you who are already experts, don't hesitate to comment about things I may have overlooked.

Manos a la obra...let's get to work.

You can use quedar as a synonym for estar when it comes to location.

¿Me ayuda por favor? No sé dónde queda la tienda.
Can you help me please?  I don't know where the store is.

Dobla a la derecha. Ahí queda, junto al banco.
Turn right, it's right there, next to the bank

You could just have easily used estar in place of quedar.  Why use quedar instead of estar?  No reason at all to use one over the other, except for personal or regional preferences.

Quedar can be used to talk about what's left, or what's remaining.

¿Queda más pan?
Is there any bread left?

¿Cuánto tiempo nos queda?
How much time do we have left?

Nos quedan 20 minutos
We've got 20 minutes left

The idea of having something, or even nothing left over doesn't just extend to food and time.

Y con eso, me queda sin palabras
And with that, I'm speechless

Oddly enough, you can also use quedar to talk about your level of understanding.

Gracias por contestar mi pregunta, pero todavía no me queda muy claro.
Thanks for answering my question, but it's still not clear to me.

¿Te queda claro o todavía necesitas ayuda?
Is that clear or do you still need help?

Change the context and your tone of voice and you get a slightly different meaning.

¡Te dije que no!  ¿Te queda claro?
I said no!  Is that clear?

If you need to make arrangements to meet with someone, guess what verb you can use?  Yep, you guessed it, quedar.

¿A qué hora vamos a quedar?
What time are we going to meet?

¿Quedamos a las 8?
Can we meet at 8?

Here's where things can get a little messy.  When you use quedar in the present tense, you're making arrangements to meet, as in the examples above.  But things aren't always quite so clear when you use quedar in the past tense.  Here's an example.

Quedamos ayer.

That could mean one of two things.

Quedamos ayer.
We met yesterday.

Quedamos ayer.
Yesterday we agreed to meet.

So how do you know the difference?  Context.  Here are some less ambiguous examples.

¿Hablaste con Victor?  Sí, quedamos ayer.
Did you talk to Victor?  Yes, we met yesterday.

Ayer quedamos en que vamos a ir a cenar hoy
Yesterday we agreed to go dinner today.

I found this next usage of quedar a little surprising.

Todos los días paso por la heladería porque me queda de camino a casa
Everyday I pass by the ice cream shop because it's on my way home

¿Te queda en camino?
Is it on your way?

I actually posted about this ages ago.  You can read about it here.

OK, time for the next usage.

When it comes to talking about how clothes look and fit on yourself or someone else, quedar is your verb of choice.

Eso te queda muy bien.
That looks good on you.

Te queda preciosa
It's looks great on you

¿Cómo me queda?
How do I look?

Notice I translated queda as look.  The truth is, when it comes to clothing you can translate quedar as "to look" or "to fit" depending on the context.  Honestly, it's just something you have to get a feel for by using it and hearing it used.

Here are some more examples.

No te queda
That doesn't suit you

In this case our sentence could mean  "that's not you" / "that's not your style",  or maybe even  "that doesn't fit".  Context will make the difference in translation.  If you're trying on a bright red suit with yellow shoes and you're generally a conservative dresser, I'd go with "that's not your style".

Here are some more examples.

Creo que la falda que tienes, con esta blusa blanca, quedaría muy bonita.
I think that the skirt you have with this white blouse would look very pretty.

Te queda un poco suelto.
It's a little loose on you.

Te queda un poco ajustado.
It's a little tight on you.

Te queda chica (grande)
It's too small (big)

There's at least one other usage of quedar that I can think of, but but I'll get to that in an upcoming post.  I'll also take a look at the verb quedarse, so stay tuned.

¡Hasta la próxima!



Thursday, April 26, 2012

Dale que viene la guagua


Because I like pictures, and because I also think this picture is pretty cool, here's a guagua:



Dale que viene la guagua
Hurry, the bus is coming

That's right, guagua is another word for bus. Don't ask me about the origins of this word, because I couldn't tell you.  This isn't a universal word for bus, but if you find yourself in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Canarias, Puerto Rico and who knows where else, you're likely hear it.  But a word of warning, guagua doesn't mean bus everywhere, so know your audience.

Surprisingly (or maybe not), there also other names for buses, and each type of bus has it's own name.

This is a  chiva.



Take a trip to Colombia and you'll see them all the time. Why these buses are called chivas is beyond me, but take a closer look at the photo. Notice that the passenger windows have no glass.  According to my amiga from Colombia, that's the trademark of a chiva.

Here's another one.  What we call a city bus, in Argentina would be referred to as a colectivo.  In another country it might be called an ómnibus.  



In Mexico, this would be a colectivo.


There's also the word micro, which in Mexico is technically more of a van, but it would look something like this:


Here's one more, a combi, also from Mexico.  Doesn't look very different from a colectivo does it?



This list isn't meant to exhaustive.  Each country has it's own word for bus or transportation vehicles, but don't worry.  If you ever need to catch a bus in a Spanish speaking country and you don't know the local terms, you can't go wrong with autobús or bus.  The locals will know you're a foreigner and will be happy to help you out.  But you will sound a lot more native and a have a lot more fun if you learn the local terms.

¡Hasta luego!


Monday, April 2, 2012

Tenemos tequileros

During one of my visits to Mexico, I was out looking for a gift for my daughter when I came across the perfect gift, a cobija, or blanket.  After securing the sale of the cobija, the shop owner showed me some of the other merchandise she had.  I really wasn't interested in anything else, so as a last ditch effort, she says to me...

Tenemos tequileros

Say what?  I found myself thinking:

¿Qué rayos es un tequilero?
What the heck is a tequilero?

I had no idea what the heck a tequilero was, but as soon as she showed them to me it all made sense.



That's right, a shot glass is called a tequilero.  A glass made for drinking tequila.

There were even tequileros that were even more, ummm, how shall we say, interesting.



A shot glass can also go by another name you may find surprising.  And that name would be caballito.  If you don't know,a caballito is a little horse, or maybe even horsey.  Don't ask me why it's called a caballito, sometimes you just have to accept things and move on.  But if any of you have the answer I'd love to hear it.   You may also see it referred to as a caballito tequilero.

For those of you who drink, you'll also find it useful to know that you can order your tequila shot by saying...

Cantinero, un caballito de tequila
Bartender, a shot of tequila

You can actually put the liquor of your choice after "caballito de".  

And since we're talking about the word caballito, it also has a few other meanings worth mentioning.  

This is a caballito de mar.


These are also caballitos:

 

Remember those?  Nothing like a flashback to the good old days right?


And lastly, this one should come as no surprise.


That cute little guy hugging his mom is also a caballito.

Well, that's it for today.

Espero que te sirva, chao.