My Spanish Notes

Encontramos de nuevo nos

2012-01-30T04:38:00.009-05:00

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

2012-01-23T04:51:00.010-05:00

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!

2011-12-26T12:52:00.000-05:00

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

2011-11-28T04:30:00.002-05:00

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?

2011-11-21T04:31:00.005-05:00

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!

¿Has visto mi chamarra?

2011-11-14T20:43:00.001-05:00

It's that time again, where I share a bit of Spanish with you that I hope you find entertaining and maybe even useful.

I could explain what a chamarra is, but I'm lazy, so I'll show you a picture instead.

¿Has visto mi chamarra?
Have you seen my jacket?

Yes, a chamarra is what your Spanish book calls a chaqueta. If you haven't heard this word already, tarde o temprano (sooner or later), you will, especially when you start delving into the world of Mexican Spanish.

So what's so special about the word chamarra in Mexican Spanish you ask? Other than it's the preferred word for jacket in much of Mexico, nothing. It just means jacket. In fact, it means jacket no matter where in the Spanish speaking world you go. Not everyone uses the word chamarra, but you should be understood.

This may come as a surprise, but the word that might give you problems in Mexico is the one your Spanish book taught you....chaqueta.

Yes, I'm quite sure you're intrigued about how the word for jacket, chaqueta, could be troublesome, so let me get on with it.

At some point in your learning Spanish career someone is going to tell you"don't use the word chaqueta in Mexico", and they're going to be very emphatic about it, almost to the point where you think you'll be deported from the country if you do use it. Why you ask?  Because the word chaqueta means something else in Mexico. That something else would be "hand job".    Unfortunately, no one ever told me that. I did know that Mexicans in general preferred the word chamarra, but I had no idea why. Let me tell you what happened to me when I couldn't remember the word chamarra and went with chaqueta.

I was in Mexico in the month of January, and it was pretty chilly. I was talking with someone about how cold it was and I said...

Hace frio, per no tengo chaqueta
It's cold, but I don't have a jacket

You won't believe what happened next....

Nothing.

Yep, absolutely nothing. Our conversation just went on normally, he didn't bat an eye. And this is what brings me to a huge pet peeve of mine. There are people who go around putting fear in gringos about using the word chaqueta in Mexico when it just isn't necessary, so now I'm going to set the record straight.

Chaqueta, in Mexico and any other Spanish speaking country, means jacket.  Feel free to run through the streets of Mexico shouting chaqueta to your hearts content. People will think you're crazy, but they aren't going to cruxify you. It just so happens that for whatever reason, chaqueta is used colloquially to refer to the act of self-gratification.   Well, in reality it would be a noun, and the phrase to refer to the act itself is hacerse una chaqueta, for those of you who need to know.   And it applies to both men and women.

Now, if you're in the company of friends, 13 years olds or construction workers and you say..."Necesito una chaqueta", yes, you're probably going to hear a few chuckles, if not flat out laughter. I mean, come on, it is kinda funny. There's nothing wrong with a little toilet/juvenile humor every now and then.   And even better, with this new found knowledge maybe you can make one of your friends the butt of the joke instead of the other way around.

So there you have it. Yes, chaqueta might have you blushing from embarrassment in the right (wrong?) context, but the truth its totally safe to use chaqueta to refer to a jacket in Mexico.   In fact, in some parts of Mexico it's actually quite common to hear it.

That's it for today. ¡Hasta la próxima!

Si tuere dominicano dale like

2011-10-31T05:07:00.002-04:00

Si tuere dominicano dale like

This sentence could confuse you for multiple reasons, so let's get started.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the word "tuere" might have some of you saying "what the heck is that?". Don't bother looking it up in your dictionary, you won't find it.

The reason you won't find "tuere" in your dictionary is because it isn't one word, it's two. "Tuere" is really "tu ere". Well, that's not entirely true, it's "tu eres". However, when you "quita la s" - drop the "s" and say it really fast, it becomes "tuere". Dominicans (among other Spanish speakers) are famous for dropping the s when they speak and even more famous for speaking incredibly fast.

So we've solved our first mystery. That leaves us with "dale like". You may have already guessed the meaning of this one, but if you haven't, here's a clue:

Yes, "dale like" means to "to like" something in FaceBook. Now we can make our translation:

Si tuere dominicano dale like
If you're Domican, "like" this

And since we're on the subject of FaceBook, let's talk about that. That's really what this entrada (post) is about anyway.

Primero lo primero (first things first), FaceBook in Spanish is simply refered to as "FaceBook".

Mandame un mensaje por facebook
Send me a message on FaceBook

You can also simply refer to FaceBook as "el face". This may be regional, but everyone will know what you're talking about.

If you use FaceBook, you're a feisbuqero, or feisbuquera.

When you're using FaceBook, you're feisbuqueando.

q peedo we q haces?? ps nada aki....feisbuqueando
What's up dude, what are you doing? Nothing, I'm just on FaceBook

Notice the cryptic lanugage. People really write like that. Let me translate it for you.

q peedo we q haces?? ps nada aki....feisbuqueando

Qué pedo wey, qué haces? Pues nada aquí....feisbuqueando

Who would have ever thought you'd have to translate from Spanish to Spanish? But let's get back to our conversation about FaceBook terminology.

If you want to tell your friends to add you to their page...

Agrégame en FaceBook
Add me to your FaceBook page

If you want them to take you off their page...

Borrame de tu Facebook
Take me off your FaceBook page

You may also need this one, I certainly did:

Te borré sin querer de mi Facebook
I accidently removed you from my FaceBook page

You can also tag people in photos.

Te voy a etiquetar en unas fotos
I'm going to tag you in some pictures

Or you can go with something perhaps a bit more cool:

Te puse tag en el Face
I tagged you in FaceBook

Oye te puse tag en un par de fotos
Hey, I tagged you in a couple of photos

If you want to poke someone, you can "Dar un toque". Although, while poking around on the web (ok, ok, bad joke, I promise not to do it again) I discovered that the opinion of many Spanish speakers is that "Dar un toque" is a bad translation. But, that's what's FaceBook uses, so there we have it. And you should always be polite and "Devolver el toque" - poke them back.

Lastly while we did talk about how to "like" something, you have a few more options as well. You can "pon un like" or "pon un me gusta" as well.

That's it! This certainly isn't the end all be all of feisbuqueando in Spanish, but it should get you started. Also, check out this page for some good examples of "FaceBook speak". If you start feisbuqueando with your Spanish friends, you might need it.

http://gringationcancun.wordpress.com/2010/04/10/how-to-speak-like-a-mexicano-im-down-with-the-kids-and-the-facebook/

¡Hasta luego!

Ayudita porfis

2011-10-24T05:00:00.002-04:00

One of the first things you learn in Spanish is how to say "please". And that's a good thing, because you can never be too polite.

And just in case you don't know, "por favor" is Spanish for "please".

However, once you go beyond your text books and actually start communicating with real people, you quicly learn there's more than one way to say please.

Un cafecito, porfa
A coffee, please

Vengan a mi fiesta por favorcito
Come to my party please

Préstame tu cel para hacer unas llamaditas plis
Loan me you phone so I can make some quick calls please

Ayudita porfis
A little help please

Remember that all of these versions of por favor are interchangable. I will point out that porfis is along the lines of "pretty please". And "plis" is a bit of Spanglish slipping into the language. It sounds almost exactly like "please" in English.

Also remember that for formal occassions you'll want to stick with "por favor". It's also possible that one version is a little more regional than the other, but everyone will still understand you.

Too bad we don't have all these options in English. Anyway, don't be afraid to try to try these out with your amigos, they make your Spanish sound just a bit more natural.

¡Hasta luego!

Bien Benidos

2011-10-15T04:27:00.013-04:00

No, you aren't going crazy. You read it correctly. "Bien Benidos". And yes, it's wrong. It should read "Bienvenidos".

I took this photo myself on my way home from one of my favorite taquerias. So what does this photo have to do with the price of tea in China you ask? Nothing. I just couldn't believe it when I saw it and had to take the picture. Now I have the over whelming desire to share the photo and my disbelief with someone, and that's where you guys come in.

And in case you're wondering, this mistake happens quite often. A quick search in Google reveals that this alternative spelling is hardly rare.

One thing this photo did do (besides entertain me) is make me think about some of the things that have surprised me the most about Spanish. And that's what I'm going to talk about today.

For the past 7 years, I've been learning Spanish. OK, I'll be honest, I've been obsessed with learning Spanish, but that's an entirely different conversation. Anyway, I've bent over backwards trying to learn the proper Spanish words for everything. This lead me to the surprising discovery that even though Spanish speakers have their own words, they also like to use ours.

Let me share some of the things I've seen and heard with you.

No tengo cash, tengo que pagar con tarjeta
I don't have any cash, I have to pay with a card

¿Te gusta mi nuevo look?
Do you like my new look?

Tengo que dar el goodnight a mi hijo
I have to tell my son goodnight

¿Mi camisa es cool, no?
My shirt is cool, isn't it?

Hace mucho que no voy al cine y no es que no salgan buenas movies
I haven't been to the movies in a long time, and it's not because no good movies have come out

¿Qué hiciste anoche? ¿Fuiste de party?
What did you do last night? You went out partying?

¿Me das un ride?
Can you give me a ride?

I remember the first time I bought a hot dog while walking the up and down the streets in Mexico. I asked my friend how to say hot dog in Spanish. His answer: "hot dog". With a Spanish accent of course. He then went on to explain that it's actually "perro caliente" , but everyone says hot dog.

Another shock came when that same friend answered his phone with "Hello?". Go figure.

Spanglish has even made it's way into advertising. This is where I'm going to send you off on a "field trip" to one of my favorite blogs written by a young lady named Laura who is kind enough to share her experiences with life in Cancun. She has two great posts about this very topic, and a picture that you just have to see.

http://gringationcancun.wordpress.com/2010/10/18/how-to-speak-like-a-mexicano-american-slang-part-2/

The topic of Spanglish is an interesting one. You may think Spanglish is mostly prevalent in the US and and perhaps Mexican border towns where Spanish and English are bound to collide, but it's worldwide. From Mexico to Spain, Miami to Cuba, Spanglish is alive and well.

For a long time I thought there must be a method to the madness. But it turns out there really isn't. Some English words catch on and are "in style". This is something you'll get accustomed to the more you interact with Spanish speakers and immerse yourself in the culture. You may even find yourself doing it after a while.

¡Hasta la próxima!

Ahí viene la marimacho de María

2011-10-03T21:54:00.000-04:00

Marimacho is a word that I just recently added to my bag of Spanish tricks. I probably won't need to use it often, but I found it to be pretty interesting, so I thought I'd share it with you.   Besides, you never know when these things pop up. It seems like once I learn a new word I hear it everywhere. Anyway, let's get on with it.

Ahí viene la marimacho de Diana
Here comes that tomboy Diana

As you can see marimacho means tomboy, but that's just the tip of the iceberg and it's not as straight-forward as you might think, so let's dig into things a little deeper.

If you're in Spain, marimacho is your word of choice when it comes to talking about tomboys, and there's also the word chicazo.  But this is Spain. In Mexico marimacho might have a very different meaning, depending on who you talk to.

In Mexico marimacho can be a bit strong, carry a negative connotation, and be associated with lesbians (lesbianas) or possibly even a transvestite (travestí).  And you're actually quite likely to hear marimacha instead of marimacho. So when you talk to your Mexican friends you might want to use the word machetona, which seems to be more of a direct translation for tomboy.

One more thing about the word marimacho. You can also use it to talk about someone you can't quite tell if they're a girl or a guy, or a woman who looks more like a guy than a girl. I believe we call a woman like that butch.

And like always, there's more than one way to skin a cat. There are several other words you can use for tomboy: machona, machote, varonera, hombruna and machorra.

What's the difference between all these words you ask?

Well, quite honestly, the biggest thing is location. Some countries prefer one word, some prefer another. Some people consider certains words offensive, others don't. One word may be commonplace in one country and unheard of in another. There are no hard and fast rules us gringos can follow to guide us.

Consider this entranda (post) a loose roadmap to help you navigate a road that has a lot of twists and turns. Asking your friends what they use and how they interpret these words is the best way to keep yourself out of trouble. And of course, learn something new.

Well, that's it for today, short and simple.

¡Hasta luego!

Qué es chilango?

2011-09-19T06:00:00.027-04:00

Before I can explain what "chilango" is, there's something else I need to tell you first. Let's take a walk back to an earlier time, a time when I was very, very happy, and extremely drunk.

I was in a bar in Mexico (Baja California) talking to someone who told me they were going to see a concert in Mexico. If you're a long time follower of my blog, you already know the look I had on my face, the deer in headlights look. While I didn't want to feel any dumber than I already did, I had to ask the question...

Aren't we in Mexico?

Luckily, my new friend didn't laugh at me, but instead explained to me what was going on.

If you don't know, the capital of Mexico is La Ciudad de México, or el Distrito Federal. The people of Mexico sometimes refer to it as the "D.F." Don't forget to use your Spanish pronunciation.

Even more interesting, sometimes it's even refered to as México. So when someone tells you they're from México, you may want to ask "¿El D.F?" to clear things up.

Now we can talk about the word chilango.

Chilangos are people from México. Or should I say La Ciudad de México to avoid confusion. And of course my faithul readers already know sometimes the things I talk about in my blog aren't that straight forward. This is one of those times.

Don't worry, it's not that bad. It's no where near as complicated as asking for a banana.

You see, there's some confusion over who is a chilango and who is not. Some people define a chilango as someone who moved from a another city and now resides in the D.F. Others say a chilango is someone who was born in the D.F., whose parents were also born in the D.F.

While everybody has their own opinion of who is a chilango and who is not, everyone agrees that a defeño is definitly someone born and raised in the D.F.and is a synonym of capitalino, another way of refering to a person born and raised native of the D.F.

And let's not forget that it becomes chilanga, defeña and capitalina for women. BTW, chilangos live in Chilangolandia, yet another name for La Cuidad de México.

Now pay attention (Fijense bien), this is import.

The term chilango can be offensive to some. Don't ask me why, but some people really don't like chilangos and use the term in a pejorative fashion. I guess it's kinda like how we refer to New Yorkers. Sometimes we call them New Yorkers affectionately, and sometimes not.

I don't think you need to be paranoid or scared to call someone a chilango, consider this more of an FYI than a warning.

Despite the fact that I've given you the quick and dirty on what and who chilangos are, I think it's best if you hear it first hand from true chilangos. Clean the wax out of your ears and get ready, because our chilango friends are speaking in Spanish.

¿Qué es chilango?

That's it for today. Take your new found knowledge and go impress your Mexican friends.

¡Hasta la próxima!

¿Así?

2011-09-12T04:13:00.008-04:00

One simple word, comprised of just three letters. It's amazing how something that seems so simple can be so deceptive.

To be honest, I really don't remember learning much at all about the word así in any of my Spanish books. It's (yet another) one of those words that I picked up somewhere along the way. With that said, let's take a closer look at the word así.

By itself, así can have several meanings:

¿Como lo hago? ¿Así?
How do I do it? Like this?

You could also just simply say:

¿Así?
Like this?

Here's where things can get a little tricky. ¿Así? Doesn't always mean "Like this".

It can also mean "Like that".

¿Como lo hago? ¿Así?
How do I do it? Like this?

Sí, así.
Yes, like that.

No me hablas así
Don't talk to me like that

No seas así
Don't be like that

No hablas así de mi novia
Don't talk like that about my girlfriend

If you're in the throws of passion, así will definitely come in handy.

Asi me gusta papi
That's how I like it baby

Así papi, así
Like that baby, like that

But wait, there's more.

Manuel no puede ir al cine, está castigado
¿Asi?

Manuel can't go to the movies, he's grounded
Really?

Not surprisingly, you can pair up así with other words to make it take on whole new meaning. What may actually come as a surprise is that you can pair así with itself.

¿Cómo estás?
Así así. Me duele la cabeza

How are you?
So-so. I've got a headache.

¿Cómo estuvo la comida?
Así así.

How was the food
So-so

Así así isn't known by all Spanish speakers, but at some point you might hear it. Mas o menos is universal and has the same meaning.

There's also así es.

Me dijieron que compraste una casa nueva
Así es

They told me you bought a new house
That's right

There's así de.

Estuvo así de cerca de comprar un iPhone
I was this close to buying a iPhone

Solo oprimes esta tecla. Así de fácil
You just press this key. It's that easy.

You could also say:

Asi de simple
It's just that simple

If you like to go fishing and you need to convince your friends of exactly how big that trout was, you can say:

Te lo juro, era así de grande
I swear it was this big

Let's not forget así que, which means "so".

No tengo dinero encima asi que necesito ir al banco
I don't have any money on me so I need to go the bank

Ya. That's it. There are probably even more ways to use así, but if you master these you'll have people thinking you were born speaking Spanish.

¡Hasta luego!

Favor de no tirar las canastillas

2011-09-05T04:20:00.013-04:00

Once you start your Spanish studies, it doesn't take long to learn that "basura" means trash. But that's where our Spanish book seems to stop. But don't worry, I'm going to pick up where your Spanish book left off.

I'm going to translate this for you, on the off chance you don't already know what it means. But you should know by now I'm go to take the scenic route to arrive at our translation.

Let's start with canastillas.

First of all, canastilla is a diminutive form of canasta. And here's a picture of a canasta.

Yes, a canasta is a basket. Although a search for pictures of canastas will bring up all kinds of baskets, not just the kind Yogi Bear likes. And if you don't know who Yogi Bear is, the only thing I can say is enjoy your youth.

Getting back on track, now that we know a canasta is, here's a picture of a castanilla, or a little basket.

Technically, that's called a canastilla botanera. At some point you've probably been served food in one of these things. And if you have an overwhelming curiosity to know the names of restaurant supplies, take a look at this site:

http://www.bregosa.com/Hoteles-y-Restaurante.html

I actually found that site kind of interesting and bookmarked it. But then again I'm a nerd with an unhealthy obession for Spanish.

So now that we've covered that, let's move on to the verb tirar. Among other things, tirar is used to talk about throwing out the trash.

Tira la basura
Throw out the trash

Now we can translate the message in our picture:

Favor de no tirar la canastillas
Please don't throw out the baskets

Pan comida right? You probably figured out what the translation was once you saw the picture of the canastilla. But this post is about more than canastillas, so let's keep going.

We've already learned that you can use tirar to ttalk about throwing out the trash. But if you want to take out the trash, you need the verb sacar.

Tengo que sacar la basura
I have to take the trash out

There's also emptying the trash, using the verb vaciar.

Vacía la basura
Empty the trash

So now we have three options for getting rid of the trash, but guess what? We're not done yet.

No botes las bolsas plásticas de las compras, úsalas para botar la basura

Botes comes form botar, which is yet another way to talk about throwing out the trash.

Let's translate this.

No botes las bolsas plásticas de las compras, úsalas para botar la basura
Don't throw out the plastic shopping bags, use them to throw out the trash

There's one more thing we need to talk about. Most of you have probably already guessed what the missing link is, now I just have to tell you what it's called. Here's a picture:

We know this as a trash can, and in Spanish this is known as a bote de basura, or bote for short. Just like trash cans come in all shapes and sizes in English, it's the same in Spanish. If you search for pictures of "botes de basura", you'll find all kinds of great pictures.

Depending on what country you're in and who you're talking to, a trash can may also be known as a basurero, or cubo de basura. I almost forgot papelera, which may be used to refer to your office trash can. I can tell you that paperla is definitely what your deleted email folder will be called in Google Mail.

There's one last thing I need to tell you about the word basura. It works as an insult just like it's English counterpart.

Eres una basura
You're a piece of trash

Hey, you never know when you need to tell someone off. And if you watch telenovelas, you're probably very familar with this insult.

That's it for today. Now you can go yell at your kids to take out the trash in two languages. It probably won't help though.

Mandale un calambrón a mi esposa candy x ke se levanto tarde

2011-08-29T04:37:00.035-04:00

Not too long ago, one my lectores (readers) asked me about the phrase "Te mando un calambrón...". I had no idea what it meant, so I thought I'd take upon myself to find out. I figured I'd learn something new and do a good deed at the same time.

I asked several Spanish speakers about this, some I knew, some I didn't. The ones I didn't know looked at me like I was crazy. My first breakthrough came when I was told that this expression is used in Nothern Mexico, but I still didn't have a definate translation. But it was clear this expression is very Mexican.

A co-worker ended up asking her mom what it meant, and she got an answer within 10 minutes. I had been looking for days.

Enough chit-chat, let's get on with it.

First of all, "calambrón" is augmentive form of calambre. A calambre is a cramp, and calambrón is a big cramp. At this point I could go on and on with my typical long winded explanations, but instead I'm going to post the explanation provided by my friends mother. After all, it's good to give credit where credit is due. Here's what she wrote:

To send someone a "calambron" is an Idiom.

There is no such word, can't really be translated.

Y mandale un calambron a mi esposa candy x ke se levanto tarde
Punch her in arm or something, put a little hurt, because she woke up late.

y ponle un calambron al Antonio prq esta bien dormido
Punch him, shake him up, because he's out cold. Or in a deep sleep.

Example of another idiom.

Pura madre. Translated is "pure mother"
But used as an idiom, means hell no!

Voy pura madre. Hell no I'm not going.

You may have noticed you got a bonus expression, "Voy pura madre". It was translated as "hell no", but I suspect it's probably stronger than that. Anything involving the word madre usually is. If you're really curious about bad words in Spanish, then check out my "No Seas Pelangoche" blog.

Now that we know what a calambrón is, let's revist our examples because there's a few things I want to point out.

Y mandale un calambrón a mi esposa candy x ke se levanto tarde
y ponle un calambrón al Antonio prq esta bien dormido

I'm sure you noticed the "x ke" and the "prq". This is text speak in Spanish. Like us, they too have an abbreviated language. "X" is short for "por". The ke, "que". Putting them together gives you "porque". "prq" in our second example is just a variation.

I could dedicate an entire post to text speak in Spanish, and in fact, there are already many articles written on it. Maybe one day I'll address this topic, but for those of you who are impatient or maybe you just need to know right now, go to http://www.google.com.mx/ and look up "diccionario sms" or "texteando".

Don't be afraid to send a "calambrón" to someone who deserves it.

¡Hasta la próxima!

¿Tostones o los amarillos?

2011-08-22T05:10:00.004-04:00

So there I was, trying out a local puerto-rican restaurant for the first time. I ordered the lunch combo, fried fish, rice and plantains. When I ordered my plantains, that's when "la pregunta del millón" (the million dollar question) question came up.

¿Tostones o los amarillos?

Great. Now what? There I was thinking "what the hell is he talking about?". Once again, Spanish has left me dazed and confused. Only this time I think I had every right to be, I just didn't know it yet.

Luckily, this story did have a happy ending, I got what I wanted, some very delicious plantains. It also started me down the path of a Spanish lesson that didn't end for a few months.

Here's what I ordered from that Puerto-rican restaurant:

We know them as plantains. In the Spanish speaking world they're known as platanos. Sort of.

Let's go back to my restaurant adventures for just a minute. If you recall, I was offered two choices when I asked for platanos. Los amarillos o tostones. It only took about 3 more visits to the restaurant for me to burn into my brain which is which.

Los amarillos are the delicious plantains shown in the photo above. And at some point they were even refered to as los dulces. Now here's a picture of tostones.

While I do enjoy this style of plantain, they aren't my favorite. Not that you care. Anyway, with my new found knowledge I later went to another Puerto-rican restaurant and proudly ordered "amarillos" with that confident, smug look on my face. It disappeared quite quickly when the waitress made it clear she didn't know what I was talking about. I also tried "los dulces". That didn't work either. This story ends with me not getting my amarillos, but instead I got tostones. By the way, tostones are also called patacones.

Needless to say, I was completely confused. And it got worse before it got better.

Today I'm hoping this blog post will help save you from the confusion I suffered. With that in mind, let's take a step back and talk about what a plantain is.

Here's a picture of a plantain, or plátano. OK, two platanos.

Notice one is green and one is yellow. While they're both platonos, the green one is called a platano verde (a green plantain) and the other plátano maduro (a ripe plantain). Simple, right? Oh wait, in Mexico the plátano verde is also called a plátano macho.

This is where things get tricky. This is also a plátano:

No, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. That is what we call a banana. Definitely not a plantain. Also remember that the very first picture I showed you was also of platanos. Aside from being called a plátano, it's also called a banano. In Venezuela, it's called a cambur. You may also hear it called a guineo. Got all that straight? Oh, did I forget to mention you might also hear this called a banana? With a Spanish accent of course.

I still find it hard to keep everything straight, I just hope I see something I recognize on the menu and pray for pictures. I'm hoping you'll have better luck than me. And if you're looking to me for advice on how to order the type of plátano you want, that's probably a bad idea, I'm batting about 50-50. But I'll try to help you anyway.

In general, if you want the sweet plantains, ask for platanos maduros or platanos dulces. For the other kind, go with tostones, especially if you're in a Puerto-rican restaurant. And don't be afraid of giving me advice, I've already admitted to only batting 50-50. Clearly I need all the help I can get.

The last thing I'll leave you with is a link to an interesting article discussing this very subject, but it has the added bonus of several Spanish speakers chiming in. They provide some great insight into what is what in they're respective countries. It's in Spanish, so you can get some good practice in.

http://www.marioberges.com/blog/2007/04/platano-y-guineo/

¡Hasta la próxima!

Va

2011-08-15T04:53:00.001-04:00

Sometimes it's the simple words that get you. And this one definitely got me.

If you don't know what this means, don't feel bad. It's not your fault, your Spanish book failed you. But that's good news, because otherwise I wouldn't have anything to write about.

So what does "va" mean? Let me give you an example.

Paso por ti a las 8
Va.

I'll pick you up at 8.
Ok.

Pretty simple eh? Of course the proper way to say this is "Esta bien", or even OK.  The good news is there's even more ways to say OK. And yes, Spanish speakers actually say "OK".

Vale

Vale also means OK. It's very popular in Spain, and works equally well in Mexico. And speaking of Mexico, there's the word sale. Sale also means OK.   And if that wasn't enough, in Mexico you can say "sale vale", which is the equivalent of okie-dokie.

Wait, I'm not done yet, there's more. If' you're tired of saying "sí " all the time, then here's a couple of words to mix things up.

Mexican spanish offers us two more options, sip and simon. Simon is like yeah, and sip is along the lines of yep.

Everything we've looked at today is informal, but sip and simon are really informal, so be sure to save those for your compas (buddies).

Well, that's it for today.  ¡ Hasta la próxima!

O sea, comprate un bosque y piérdete

2011-08-08T05:45:00.021-04:00

O sea, comprate un bosque y piérdete
Like, buy yourself a forest and get lost

This is a pretty nifty phrase, and I'm sure we've all been in situations where this phrase would have come in handy. At least now you have it for future situations. This phrase is pretty commonly used in Mexico, so use it without fear. But there's one potential caveot that comes with it. You might be mistaken for a fresa. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but if you can trick them into thinking you're not a gringo, then you might be mistaken for a fresa. But I digress.

In my last post we talked about nacos. This time we're going to take a look at what it means to be a fresa.

You can read about fresas in the Urban Dictionary by clicking here, but I'm going to give you the condensed version.

Fresa's are usually stuck up, have expensive clothes, cars, are usually middle high or high class, and talk different than everyone else.
Stuck up Spanish girls or boys that have picky tastes, are extremely spoiled and always get their way, have little concern for the needs of others, and are snob, rude, and overly obnoxious.

Here in the states we call them "preppy".

So what makes a fresa a fresa? One trademark of a fresa, quite possibly their signature trademark, is the use of the words o sea and guey (wey, wee). Here's a few classic fresa expressiones:

O sea,¡Vales mil!
(Eres importante)
Like, you're really important to me

O sea, mi fresh y tú cool
(Soy mejor que tú)
Like, I'm better than you.

O sea, omítete
(Desaparece de mi vista)
Like, get out of my site

While reading about something is good, seeing it action is always better. And for that, we'll turn to YouTube.

Okay, they aren't real people, but our friends in this video are definitely fresas.

Guys can also be fresas. In fact, someone took the time to make an entire blog dedicated to nacos and fresas. In the video I'm about to give you the link to, you'll get to hear a naco and a fresa have conversation and hear the differences in their speech. Here's the link:

http://nacoyfresa.blogspot.com/2006/07/naco-y-fresa-episodio-3el-niuyor.html

This video will definitely be good practice for your Spanish.

Hopefully you learned something from my this and my naco post, and maybe even got a few laughs. To be honest, I've barely scratched the surface of nacos and fresas, not that I'm any kind of expert on the subject to begin with. My goal of these posts is to simply entertain you and introduce you to these two cultures. Take the time to talk with your Mexican friends about the subject or do some searches in Google or YouTube and you'll not only get a chance to practice your Spanish, but also get to know a little bit more about our Mexican neighbors and realize that we really aren't that different after all.

¡Hasta la próxima!

Ser naco es chido

2011-08-01T06:01:00.004-04:00

In Mexico you might see someone wearing a playera (t-shirt) with this image on it.

So what is "naco"? Urban Dictionary defines naco as:

Naco (fmn. naca) is a pejorative word often used in Mexican Spanish to describe bad-mannered and poorly educated people. A naco is usually associated with lower socio-economic classes, but could also sometimes include the nouveau riche.

In English you can relate this to being "ghetto", or "poor white trash". More generically, it means you come from the wrong side of the tracks. The term isn't always used in a negative manner, but you really gotta know when, where, how, and more importantly who you can use it with it. If you're familiar with the usage of ghetto and poor white trash, you've got a leg up on how the word naco is used and what it represents. For women, it changes to naca.

Several definitions for Naco have been posted at Urban Dictionary, it's worthwhile to take the time to read them all.

Now that we've gotten definitions out of the way, what sort of things are considered "naco"? The video below is going to help us out with that. Pay close attention, you'll see lots poorly written (mal escrito) signs (letreros) and the classic bathroom graffiti that's really pretty rude but usually makes us laugh anyway. This footage in this video is from somewhere in Mexico.

I found this video to be pretty entertaining, and is a good test of your Spanish. Some of the errores (mistakes) in the signs can be a bit tricky to figure out. It took me a minute on some of them. But then again, I also had help from my maestra.

Enough talk, here's the video.

Why don't you leave a comment about your favorite letrero in the video? If there was something you didn't understand, leave a comment and maybe I can help you out.

I almost forgot. We still need to translate our phrase.

Ser naco es chido
It's cool to be ghetto

You can't talk about being naco without talking about being a fresa, but in this entrada (post), I'm only going to cover naco. In another post we'll find out what "fresa" is and step a little deeper into the culture of "naco vs fresa".

Amar Te Duele is a decent movie that place in Mexico and is the classic love story between two teenagers from different worlds, naco and fresa. Sort of a modern day Romeo and Juilet story.

I hope you enjoyed the video, I got qute a few laughs myself.

Hasta la próxima.

¡Orillase a la orilla!

2011-07-20T18:25:00.001-04:00

In Mexico, these words can be cause for extreme laughter, and by the end of this post you'll know why. But for now, let's start with orilla.

Here's a picture of la orilla de la playa.

Orilla can be translated as the shore, river bank, or the edge.

La orilla de la playa
The seashore

La orilla del mar
The sea shore

La orilla del rio
The river bank

Me gusta caminar a la orilla del mar
I like to walk along the seashore

Orilla can also apply to more than the water's edge:

La orilla de la cama
The edge of the bed

It can also be used to say that you want to move something to the side.

Pon este florero en una orilla para que pueda pasar la gente

Put this vase to the side so the people can get by

Let's move on to Orillar. It means to pull over to the side of the road.

Juan orilló el coche
John pulled the car over

There's also orillarse, which also means pull over. If you need the person driving you around to pull over, this is the verb you need.

Orillate
Pull over

Orillate con cuidado
Pull over carefully

Orillate a la derecha
Pull over to the right

If you happen to be driving a little to fast, You'll also hear this from the police. They'll tell you to "orillase" - pull over. But what makes this post interesting is that in Mexico you may hear:

¡Orillase a la orilla!

If you remember, I told you that this phrase may just cause people to start laughing. Why? Because it's redundant and makes the police sound pretty stupid when they say it.

Orillase already means pull over. So when you say "Orillase a la orilla", what you're actually saying is something like:

Pull over by pulling over to the side.

Say what?

Sounds just as silly in English doesn't it? But orillase isn't the only phrase famous for that sort of redundancy. Here's a few more popular ones:

Metete Para Adentro
Put in by putting it inside

Salte Para Afuera
Leave by going outside

Subete Para Arriba
Go up by going up

Bajate Para Abajo
Come down by coming down.

A search for these examples in Google will land you on pages that might be titled "frases de estupidez", with lots of people laughing about them.

If you try hard enough, you can use these at just the right time to get a laugh out of your Spanish speaking friends.

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

Estoy a dieta, pura vitamina "T"

2011-06-20T05:08:00.008-04:00

Most of have been a diet at sometime or another, even if it was just the classic "seafood diet - I see food, I eat it".

Well, we Americans aren't the only ones with a special diet. Mexicans have their own special diet called "vitamina T".

What is a diet of "vitamina T" you ask. Simple...

TORTAS, TACOS, TAMALES, TORTILLAS, TLACOYOS, TELERAS, TOTOPOS, TOSTADAS

Needless to say, if you're familar with Mexican food, you already know that you're not going to lose weight on this diet.

Let's talk take a look at what these foods are.

In many Spanish speaking countries, a torta is a cake. But in Mexico, a torta is a sandwich. But not just any kind of sandwich:

Tortas are delicious. You can find them at any authentic Mexican restaurant. And if you're wondering what a cake is called in Mexico, it's pastel.

Is there anyone who doesn't know what a taco is?

You might be surprised by this picture, because it's not the classic hard yellow taco shell Taco Bell and Old El Paso made famous. Every taco I've ever ordered in Mexico (or even an authentic Mexican restaurant here in the US) serves tacos like the one in the foto. Squeeze a little lime juice on it, and yummy, se hace la boca agua (it makes your mouth water).

Tamales are pretty straight-forward:

Tortillas. If you don't know what these are you really have been living under a rock.

While I've never eaten (or seen) a Tlacoyo, thanks to the internet I can still show you a photo:

Teleras:

While Totopos may seem like a fancy name, you already know what these are. Impress your waitress by asking for "más totopos" the next time you go to your favorite Mexican place.

And finally, tostadas:

When someone tells you they're on a diet of "pura vaitamina T", they may be "subiendo peso" (gaining weight), instead of "bajando peso" (losing weight). Colloquially that's a very common way of talking about gaining and losing weight, but the official verbs are Adelgazar and Engordar(se).

Well, that's it. I don't know about you guys, but all this talk of food has made me hungry!

¡Voy a engordarme!

Creo que me pone los cuernos

2011-06-13T05:26:00.006-04:00

Let's start with the word cuerno, just in case you don't know what that is. And since "una imágen vale más que mil palabras" - a picture is worth a thousand words, here's a cuerno:

Yes, a cuerno is a horn. Now we can translate our sentence.

Creo que me pone los cuernos
I think he's putting the horns on me.

Well, that didn't help much, did it? Let me explain.

In Spanish, when you "put the horns on someone", "Ponerle los cuernos a alguien", that means you're cheating on your significant other. Let's take a look at some examples of how to use this.

Creo que me pone los cuernos
I think he's cheating on me

¿Por qué me pusiste los cuernos?
Why did you cheat on me?

Su novia le ponía los cuernos
His girlfriend was chearing on him

Before I forget, there's the word "curnudos". That's the term given to the parties involved in the affair.

Like always, there's more than one way to skin a cat. You can use the verb engañar as well, "engañarle a alguien".

Creo que mi esposa me engaña
I think my wife is cheating on me

Mi novia me engaño
My girlfriend cheated on me

¿Me estás engañado?
Are you cheating on me?

¡Me engañaste!
You cheated on me!

Lastly, you can talk about being loyal to your significant other with the words fiel and infiel, which mean to be faithful and unfaithful, respectively. You'll want to use the verb Ser - Ser fiel/infiel

¿Eres fiel a tu pareja?
Are you faithful to your partner?

Fui infiel a mi pareja en mi despedida de soltera
I was unfaithful to my partner at my bachelorette party

Well, I think that about covers it for today.

¡Hasta la próxima!

Este gabacho habla bastante español

2011-05-30T04:55:00.001-04:00

Although I had heard the term gabacho before, it had never been directed at me. But don't worry, it wasn't an insult.

I've also heard the term gabachita, which stems from gabacho. I heard this when a waitress I was talking to in Mexico pointed to her friend (another waitress) and told me her co-worker, "la gabachita" spoke really good Spanish. She eventually confessed that her friend wasn't a gabacha, but in fact a Mexicana, and was just pulling my leg.

Ok, at this point I guess I need to get on with it and explain what a gabacho (gabacha) is.

The truth is, you already know what a gabacho is. Gabacho is often used instead of gringo. And gabachita is just a variation of gabacha. You see, the waitress I was speaking with at the bar called her co-worker a gabachita because her co-worker looked more like a a red-blooded American than a Mexican. And that's exactly how the term is used, to refer to Americans, just like gringo.

Bolillo is another term. It's actually a kind of white bread that you can probably find in your local Wal-Mart, and it's used to specifically refer to white Americans.

If you're wondering whether or not the words gabacho, gringo or bilillo are offensive, well, the answer is a definate maybe.

You see, while many Spanish speakers will be familar with these words, who considers what to be offensive various tremendously, so becareful. When in doubt ask. Although I suspect you're not likely to use them as much as you are to hear them.

¡Hasta la próxima!

¿Verdad que mocoso?

2011-05-23T05:10:00.003-04:00

I thought I'd do something a little different for a change. I'm going to share a video with you all that I got a pretty good kick out of.

Actually, it's a video series, called Huevocartoones, los huevos for short. They're actually quite popular in Mexico. In fact, last time I was there I rode with a cabbie who proudly displayed a sticker of them.

The cartoons often make a play on words, because the word "huevo" can have so many different meanings in Mexico (not all of them are polite) so there's a lot of opportunity for jokes, like the episode called "Huevos Rancheros" which is really about cowboys, but "Huevos Rancheros" are actually a very popular breakfast dish. Not all the references are that innocent, but all in all, I find the videos just plain funny, especially the parodies of Star Trek, "Huevos en espacio".

But today we're going to take a look at the episode "En el Taller del Huevo Santa".

Before we get to the video, let me point out some interesting vocabulary you'll hear.

Huevo Santa affectionally calls the children "mocoso" and "mocosa". I'm not sure just how affectionate he really is, because mocoso means brat. And mocosa is of course for girls. You'll also hear him use escuincle and escuincla, which are alternate ways of saying niño/niña. And be careful with escuincle, it can be disrectful depending on the tone. You probably don't want to follow Huevo Santa's example. And while you don't hear them in this video, there's also chamaco and chamaca to refer to kids.

Santa admits to being paid a buena lana (good money) to take the mocosos (brats) on a recorrido (tour) of his taller (workshop).

Speaking of Santa's workshop, "está todo tirado", a complete mess, because his "vieja", wife, or better stated, old lady, isn't around.

You'll also see the word "chelas" - beers.

Well, that's it, you're on your own with the rest! Enjoy the video, I got some good laughs out it. Thank goodness this Santa doesn't service my part of town.

Pan con lo mismo

2011-05-16T04:57:00.003-04:00

"Bread with the same".

That's the literal translation of today's phrase. You may be tempted to think this is a handy phrase you can use the next time you're dining out at your favorite latin restaurant, but you'd be wrong.

So what does this mean? Let's find out.

Have you ever had someone ask you "How's it going?" and then responded "Same as always"? Well, this is where today's expression comes in handy.

The next time someone asks you:

¿Cómo va todo?
How's everything going?

And if you have nothing new and exciting to tell them about, you can simply say:

Pan con lo mismo
The same as always

There are probably many ways to express this idea, but here's another one that's very Mexican:

Atole con lo mismo
The same as always

If you don't know what atole is, here's a picture:

Well, now you know what it looks like, but if you want an explanation of exactly what it is, you can read about it here, or if you prefer, here, in Spanish. There is actually more than one recipe for atole, you can googlear it (yes, this is a real verb, te lo juro. Click the link and see for yourself) and find quite a few.

I'm pretty sure Mexicans aren't the only one's who use this phrase, but you will definitely impress some people with this one.

If you want something a little less slangly and more universal, you can go with:

Lo mismo de siempre
The same as always

And there you have it. We didn't talk about anything earth shattering, but these phrases will make you sound a little less like a gringo and more like a native speaker.

¡Hasta la próxima!

¿Cómo va la chamba?

2011-05-09T05:20:00.001-04:00

I remember the first time I heard the word chamba. I also have very vivid memories of the first I used it, because I got laughed at. Don't worry, the laughter turned out to be a good thing. My amigo was impressed with my knowledge of Mexican slang.

Enough patting myself on the back. Let's get to the task at hand.

¿Cómo va la chamba?

If you don't know what this means, let me rephrase it.

¿Cómo va el trabajo?

I'll be you know what it means now. That's right, chamba is simply a colloquial way of saying 'job'.

Tengo demasiado chamba
I have too much work

Busco chamba
I'm looking for work

¿Cómo va la chamba?
How's the job going?

Jale is another word for work.

¿Cómo va el jale?

Jale also means "pull", and it's common to see this on doors in Mexico.

There's also the verb chambear. Wanna guess what it means? If you're thinking it means to work, then you're 100% correct.

Estoy chambeando, te llamo luego
I'm working, I'll call you later

¿Tienes que chambear hoy día?
Do you have to work today?

¿Chambeaste ayer?
Did you work yesterday?

There's also chambeador and chambeadora. Or trabajador and trabajadora. Both of which mean a hard working person.

Se solicita mecanico chambeador y responsable
Looking for a hard working and responsable mechanic

Remember, these terms are coloquial. If you actual find yourself looking for work in Spanish, the word you want is empleo, and stick with the more formal term trabajar.

These words are pretty straight forward and easy to use. If you never noticed them before, I'll bet you start noticing them all the time now. At least that's what usually happens to me when I learn something new.

¡Hasta la próxima!

Estoy hasta el tope y apenas es lunes

2011-05-01T05:00:00.001-04:00

This is one of those expressions you'll find yourself using a lot. At least, if you're like me you will.

Before we get started, there are a few interesting words you may not be familar with, so let's talk about those before we cover the entire phrase.

Let's start with tope. Tope can be translated as "the upper limit", "to the top" or maybe "to the rim". So you can say something like:

Llene el vaso hasta el tope
Fill the glass to the rim

Apenas, at least in this context means barely.

Apenas te conozco
I barely know you

"Hasta el" or "hasta la", can generally be translated as "until".

Camina hasta la esquina y dobla a la derecha
Walk until you get to the corner and turn right

¿Cuanto tiempo te vas a quedar? Hasta el lunes
How long are you going to stay? Until Monday

Now we're ready to look at our phrase.

You may have already put some of this together, but let's talk about it anyway.

When you say "Estoy hasta el tope", you're literally saying your filled to rim. Clearly this makes no sense. But figuratively it means "I'm fed up".

Estoy hasta el tope con el trabajo
I'm fed up with my job

Interestingly enough, if you change "con" to "de", the meaning changes rather drastically.

Estoy hasta el tope de trabajo
I've got a ton of work

Consider that one a bonus. Let's get back to the task at hand.

"Hasta el tope" is just one option. Here's another one.

Estoy harto de mi trabajo
I'm fed up with my job

Estoy harto de tí
I'm fed up with you

Or simply...

Estoy harta
I'm fed up

Notice I used "harta" this time. Ladies you'll want to use "harta".

That's it. Pan comido, ¿verdad?

¡Hasta la próxima!

¿Cómo que cómo?

2011-04-25T05:15:00.002-04:00

This is an expression you'll want to be familar with.

Don't try to come up with a literal translation, it just won't work. This is something you'll have to memorize.

Let's look at a simple conversation to figure out what this means.

Esposa: Amor, ¿puedes lavar los trastes?
Esposo: Bueno, pues, es que no sé como lavar los trastes.
Esposa: ¿Cómo que no sabes lavar los trastes?

If you don't know, "trastes" are dishes. And "lavar los trastes" is to wash the dishes. So what does washing dishes have to do with today's phrase you ask? Let's get back to our conversation to find out.

The key to this is the last sentence in our dialog:

¿Cómo que no sabes lavar los trastes?
What do you mean you don't know how to wash the dishes?

This is clearly an unexpected surprise to our beloved wife. But she could have expressed her surprise a little differently:

¿Cómo que cómo?
What do you mean you don't know how?

¿Cómo que cómo? is just a shortened way to express surprise.

Someone asks a question you just can't believe:

¡Cómo es posible que preguntes eso!

You can shorten that to...

¿Cómo que cómo?

You can use this same structure to ask:

¿Cómo que qué?
What do you mean "what"?

¿Cómo que dónde?
What do you mean "where"?

¿Cómo que cuándo?
What do you mean "when"

¿Cómo que para qué?
What do you mean "for what"?

That's it! Pan comido right?

¡Hasta la próxima!

¿Cuánto vale?

2011-04-18T05:25:00.001-04:00

I remember the first time I heard this, I was in a book store in Mexico looking for a Spanish dictionary. Oddly enough, I had a hard time finding a pure Spanish dictionary at home. But I digress.

I took my dictionary to the counter and asked "¿cuánto cuesta?" just like my Spanish book taught me. That's when the attendant looked at me and said "¿cuánto vale?" Then she proceeded to tell me the price of the book.

At first I thought I said something wrong and found myself pretty confused for a few seconds. Luckily it wasn't hard to figure out what it meant, but I was stuck with the feelings of confusion and doubt until I got back home and my Spanish tutor got me all straightened out.

It turns out that "¿cuánto vale?" is just another way to ask the price of something. It's used universally, not just in Mexico, so you're likely to hear it somewhere down the line.

There are a few other ways to ask the price of something, so let's take a quick look at them.

¿Cuánto sale?
How much does that come out to?

¿Cuánto es?
How much is it?

¿Cuánto le debo?
How much do I owe you?

Since we're on the subject, I talked about costar before, and you can click here to read about that. It's used in a very common expression and has a another usage that you definitely want to know about, so be sure to take a moment and look over that post.

¡Hasta pronto!

Sí o sí, voy a aprender español

2011-04-11T05:01:00.030-04:00

Today's post is going to help you in two ways. Number one, you're going to learn something new. Well, at least I hope so. Number two, and perhaps the most important thing, is I'm going to save you from making the same mistake I did.

Let's start with #2, not making the same mistake I did.
It all started when I said to my friend "Si me mata, voy a aprender español".

The she politely said "¿Cómo?". We were in a slightly noisy restaurant so I thought she didn't hear me, and I said it again a little louder. Unfortunately, I got the same response. That's when I started to get suspicious. Well, that and the confused look in her face.

I was close, but no cigar. The correct way to say this is:

voy a aprender español aunque eso me mate
I'm going to learn Spanish even if it kills me

You also have a few other options: "aunque me muera" or "así me muera".

voy a aprender español aunque me muera

OR

voy a aprender español aunque así me muera

In these last two examples the translation is actually "even if I die", instead of "if it kills me", but it works just the same.

No it's time to move on to #1, learning something new.

Things got a little more interesting when I found out there's another option that was just as good, if not better to express what I wanted to say- "sí o sí".

Yes or yes

This is another one of those times where a literal translation is a little clumsy. A better translation would be "no matter what". "

So with that in mind....

Sí o sí, voy a aprender español
No matter what, I'm going to learn Spanish

Here's a few other examples I dug up you may find useful:

El informe hay que terminarlo sí o sí
The report has to be finished no matter what

Necesito esas facturas sí o sí mañana a primera hora
I need those bills first thing tomorrow morning no matter what

It never surprises me how many little things like this there are to learn that will help your Spanish sound just a little more natural.

Hasta pronto

¿Por qué estás chiquiteando wey?

2011-03-22T20:34:00.023-04:00

Imagine yourself sitting in a bar or a nightclub with toda la banda drinking, laughing and just having a good old time, then all of sudden some asks you:

¿Por qué estás chiquiteando wey?

Before I go into what this means, let's talk about a few other things first.

If you don't know, "la banda" doesn't mean a musical band in this context. "Toda la banda" is a way of saying you're with all your friends.

"Wey" is a way of saying "dude" in Mexico. I talked about it before in this post.

Lots of people like to drink to beer, which everyone probably already knows means cerveza. But what you may not know is that you can also ask for una chela bien fria - a nice cold beer.

And if you've never been to a bar in Mexico, you may be surprised to find out that beers are commonly sold by the bucket. Literally.

A bucket is called a cubeta. It's a really effecient way of ordering chelas. They sit on ice and the waiter comes by to open them up when you're ready.

Now let's get back to where we left off.

There you are in the bar sipping on your favorite chela, and then your friend asks:

¿Por qué estás chiquiteando wey?

In this context, chiquitear means "to sip", so your friend wants to know why you're sipping, or as we like to say, nursing your drink. I certainly hope you have a good explanation.

I also need to tell you that "chiquitear" has another meaning that I'm not going to go into. At least not in this blog, because its other meaning is much better suited for my sister blog, No Seas Pelangoche. I've already posted about that, so if curiosity is getting the better of you then you'll want to click here.

That's it for today.

¡Hasta Pronto!

Me pones

2011-03-14T04:26:00.002-04:00

The verb ponerse is highly used but rarely talked about in any Spanish book I've seen. For whatever reason it's non-reflexive cousin poner gets all the glory.

Let's take a look at some ways ponerse is used:

Voy a ponerme guapa
I'm going to go make myself look pretty

Me pongo nervioso cuando estoy con chicas bonitas
I get nervous when I'm with pretty girls

¿Qué me pongo?
What should I put on?

Saber que estas mejorando me pone muy feliz
Knowing that you're getting better makes me happy

Se puso a hacer las maletas
He started packing his suit cases

Ponte el cinturón
Put on your seatbelt

Se puso enfermo y por eso no pudo ir
He got sick and that's why he couldn't go

Quiero ponerme en forma para el verano
I want to get in shape for the summer

Using ponerse is actually pretty straight-forward, and mastering it's use will make your Spanish sound very, very natural. And as you can see from the examples above, you can use ponerse to talk about anything from putting on clothes, talking about your emotions, and even making yourself look nice, so you can see there are many uses of this verb.

Before we wrap things up, there's one other usage I didn't cover.

Me pones

After looking at the previous examples, you may be tempted to think this is an incomplete sentence, but you'd be wrong.

Me pones
You turn me on

Mi novio no me pone para nada
My boyfriend doesn't turn me on at all

Shakira me pone
Shakira turns me on

I bet you didn't see that one coming. It was a surprise for me too.

That's it for today, espero que te sirva.

¡Hasta la próxima!

No veo la hora de volver a verte

2011-02-21T05:00:00.008-05:00

In Spanish, when you want to talk about doing something again, your Spanish textbook will mention these two options, "otra vez" and "de nuevo".

There's absolutely nothing wrong with either of those two options, and you shouldn't hesitate to use them.

Here's an example:

No te voy a molestar de nuevo
I'm not going to bother you again

Nunca voy a hacer eso otra vez
I'm never going to do that again

This is where things get interesting. There's a very good chance that you'll never hear a native speaker say either of those.

I wish I could see the deer in headlights look that I'm sure some of you have right now. I bet it looks exactly like the one I had. But getting back to the subject at hand, if a native speaker might not say "de nuevo" or "otra vez", then what would they say?

No te vuelvo a molestar
I'm not going to bother you again

Nunca vuelvo a hacer eso
I'm never going to do that again

It's extremely common to use "volver a" talk about doing something again. Let's look at a some more examples to help you get the hang of it.

Rápidamente lo volví a llamar
I quickly called him back

Por favor, vuelve a introducir tu contraseña
Please enter your password again

No me digas que fuiste por el hielo, las cocas, mas ron y se te volvio a olvidar el limon
Don't tell me you went for the ice, the cokes, more rum and you forgot the lime again?

Cultural tip: Notice I translated limon as lime. That's because if you go to any Spanish speaking country and ask for a "limon" you'll get what we call a lime. I touched on this in another post, which you can read about here. You'll also learn how to order one of my favorite cocktails in Spanish.

Decidí volver a llamar
I decided to call again

Nunca más volveré a enamorarme
I will never fall in love again

And at this point I'm guessing you can easily translate the title of this post. Or at least half of it.

No veo la hora de volver a verte
I can't wait to see you again

"No veo la hora" might have thrown you for a loop, but if you got it right, you just earned yourself some extra credit.

¡Ya¡ Our work is done for today.

Hasta pronto.

Ya llovió

2011-02-14T05:09:00.002-05:00

I remember being an adolescente (teenager) living in Puerto Rico taking Spanish I & II.

Ya llovió.

Despite having taken classes, I didn't really learn how to speak Spanish. Fast forward 22 years later to 2005 and I started studying Spanish again.

Ya llovió.

I also remember when I started this blog. I had no idea what I was really going to blog about, nor how long I would keep it up. That was back in July of 2008.

Ya llovió.

Despite how it sounds, this post isn't about the fact it took me forever to learn Spanish, so let me get down to business.

Ya llovió
It already rained.

While the literal translation is accurate, it doesn't apply here. Ya llovió is also a colloquial expression that has another meaning.

Ya llovió
That was a long time ago

This phrase is actually a shortened version of:

Ya llovió mucho desde entonces

"Desde entonces" means "since then". Here's an example of how to use it:

Han pasado cuatro años desde entonces
It's been four years since then

Let's get back on track.

Ya llovió mucho desde entonces
It's rained a lot since then

I'm not sure what the connection is with rain and the passage of time, but this a colloquial way of saying:

Ya pasó bastante (mucho) tiempo

You may also see this phrase as:

Ya ha llovido desde entonces

That's it! Whether you choose to say Ya llovió mucho desde entonces or simply Ya llovió, you'll sound like a native.

¡Hasta luego!

¿Te regalo este plato?

2011-02-07T05:19:00.002-05:00

You may already know that in Spanish you use the verb Regalar to talk about both giving and receiving gifts. Here's an example:

Me regaló una falda
He gave me this skirt (as a present)

What you may not know is that you can use regalar in other ways. Let's take a look at our phrase:

¿Te regalo este plato?

Meseros and meseras will commonly hear this, and contrary to our previous definition of regalar, they aren't being offered an actual gift. Let's revist out translation.

¿Te regalo este plato?
Can I give you this plate?

Actually, in English we'd say "can you take this plate?", but you get the picture. Another way to say this is:

¿Puede retirar el plato?

It's nice to have options.

And as you can see, regalar can also mean "to give", like the verb dar in Spanish. So let's look at a few more examples.

¿Me regala una caja para llever?
Can you give me a to-go box?

¿Me regalas un besito?
Can you give me a little kiss?

On an unlrelated note, if you'd like a great big kiss, then you can ask for besotote. Ok, now let's get back to business.

¿Me regalas un hojo (de papel)?

Can you give me a sheet a paper?

That's it! Facilisimo, ¿verdad?

Hasta la próxima.

¿Varón o hembra?

2011-01-31T05:22:00.008-05:00

I remember the first time I heard the word varón like it was yesterday.

This was a few year back and I was on an airplane speaking with a woman from Cuba and she used this word. I was convinced it was some form of Cuban slang because I had never heard it before. Turns out it wasn't, but I didn't think much about it until I heard it again much later.

Enough chit-chat, let me ir al grano (get to the point).

Varón and hembra officially mean male and female. However, colloquially these terms are used to mean niño or niña, boy or girl, son or daughter. Let's look at a few examples:

Tengo una nena y un varón
I have one girl and a boy

Tengo 3 hijos adultos 1 varon y 2 mujeres
I have 3 grown children, 1 son and 2 daughters

¿Vas a tener un varón o hembra?
Are you going to have a boy or girl?

Tengo un varón y una hembra
I have one boy and one girl

When you talk to someone who just recently had a baby and you ask them the sex of the baby, you might hear:

es un varoncito or es una hembra

These terms are also what you use for talking about male or female animals. And you may also hear the word macho instead of varón.

¿Como diferenciar un gato macho a un gato hembra?‎
How do I tell the difference between a male and female cat?

That's it. Getting a good handle on how these words are used will have you sounding like a born Spanish speaker.

Ojála que te sirva
I hope this helps!

¿Cuando vas a dar a luz?

2011-01-24T05:05:00.005-05:00

¿Cuando vas a dar a luz?
When are you going to give to the light?

Clearly a literal translation doesn't work here. So what does this mean? Let me say it a different way:

¿Cuándo va a nacer el bebé?

Literally, "when is the baby going to be born", but a more natural translation would be "when is the baby due". And that's exactly what our our phrase "dar a luz" means.

¿Cuando vas a dar a luz?
When are you going to have the baby?

There's another verb that's used to talk about giving birth, parir.

Mi esposa va a parir
My wife is going to have the baby

However, ten cuidado (be careful) with this one. Many spanish speakers reserve parir for talking about animal births. It all depends on the country and the region, so I suggest you reserve this one for animals and use the other more standard options.

There's also another very common way to ask someone when their baby is due.

¿Para cuándo esperas?
When are you due?

You could also shorten this to:

¿Para cuándo?

Babies are always fun to talk about, and these phrases are great conversation starters, not to mention just being able to better communicate with your Spanish speaking friends.

¡Hasta pronto!

Te digo y te digo pero tu no me hagas caso

2011-01-17T06:00:00.001-05:00

I've actually taken this little gem for granted, and should have posted about it a long time ago.

There are times when you need someone's undivided attention, and one way to ask for it is with the phrase "prestar atención" or "poner atención". But another colloquial and very common way to say it is using the phrase "hacer caso".

Te digo y te digo pero tu no me hagas caso
I tell you over and over but you don't pay attention to me

Actually, the literal translation is "I tell you and I tell you...", but I think our translation sounds a little more natural in English. Anyway, here's some more examples.

No le hagas caso a gente envidiosa
Don't pay attention to envious people

No hagas caso a lo que dice la gente
Don't pay attention to what people say

Let's cover a few basic phrases as well.

No lo hagas caso
No le hagas caso
No la hagas caso

These mean "don't pay attention to it, him, or her", respectively.

That's it. When you start using this you'll sound like you were born speaking Spanish. And now there's only one thing left to cover. Actually, it's more like giving credit where credit is due.

My friend Mexico Bob suggested I post about this topic. He actually suggested it a long time ago, and I'm just now getting around to it. But hey, you know what they say "Más vale tarde que nunca" - better late than never.

Not only did Bob suggest the topic, he basically wrote it. I saw no reason to reinvent the wheel, so I just added a few finishing touches.

A propósito (by the way), if you don't know, Mexico Bob has his own blog, so make sure you check it out, it's one of my favorites - http://mexicobob.blogspot.com/

Thanks again Bob!

¡Hasta la prómixa!

No me suena

2011-01-09T05:36:00.004-05:00

So there I was in Mexico asking the cab driver to take me to a very popular bar, one of my favorites. I've jumped in many a cab asked this same question. Only this time I was shocked by the answer.

No me suena

Say what? I had never heard the phrase before, but the context made the meaning pretty clear. The real surprise was the fact that he hadn't heard of the bar I was trying to get to. But my bar hopping habits in Mexico are for another post, so let's get down to business.

No me suena
It doesn't sound familar

You could also think of it as "It doesn't ring a bell".

You can also use this phrase to talk about familar, or not so familiar faces and names.

¿Te suena mi cara?

Do I look familiar?

Me suena tu nombre
Your name sounds familiar

Tu cara me suena
You look familiar

There are other ways to say someone looks familiar:

Me resultas conocido
Me tienes cara conocida
Te me haces conocido

As always, some Spanish speakers use a given phrase more than the other depending on where they come from, but any or all of these should do the trick.

And yes, the cabbie eventually realized he did know the bar I was trying to get to.

¡Hasta la próxima!

Me perdí la reunión donde Clara

2011-01-08T19:15:00.000-05:00

Break out your pen and paper boys and girls, you'll want to write this one down.

The first time I saw this, I thought it was a typo, it reads like something is missing:

Me perdí la reunión donde Clara
I missed the meeting where Clara

However, when my friend used it a second time, I knew there was something going on I just didn't understand.

It turns out donde has a colloquial usage I never knew about. In this context, donde means "en la casa de" or "en casa de". With that in mind, we could have written this as:

Me perdí la reunión en la casa de Clara
I missed the meeting at Clara's

Who knew? Let's go over a few more details.

When you say "donde Clara", you're refering to that persons home, regardless of whether they are at home or not.

Here's another example:

Estoy donde mi amigo
I'm at my friends house

Your friend may not be at home, but that's where you are. You can also use the construction "en lo de" to say the same thing.

Me perdí la reunión en lo de Clara
I missed the meeting at Clara's (house)

In a slightly different context, donde can also mean "next to" (‘junto a’ )

El banco está donde el cine
The bank is next to the movie theatre

This usage of donde in these contexts is pretty common and will make you sound like a native speaker for sure. I recommend you go and use it every chance you get to burn it into your memory.

¡Nos vemos!

¿Quiubo parcero?

2010-12-27T21:39:00.002-05:00

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?

2010-12-20T22:25:00.001-05:00

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

2010-12-14T20:39:00.001-05:00

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?

2010-12-09T19:40:00.001-05:00

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!

Estás en linea

2010-11-29T07:00:00.016-05:00

This is another situation where literal translations just don't work.

When you tell someone...

Estás en linea

You're telling them they look trim, perhaps athletic and has a nice body in general.  In more generic terms you'd say "estás en buena forma".

And there's the expression...

Estás en linea curva

Which means just the opposite.  Now you're talking about someone who's not in "buena forma", but instead gordo or gorda (fat).

Since we're on the topic of giving out compliments, let's continue our discussion about hot bods.

Cuerpo means "body", so you could say:

Tienes buen cuerpo
You've got a nice body

But if you're really moved by someone's physique, then you want the word cuerpazo.  A cuerpazo is a really great body.

¡Qué cuerpazo tienes!
You've got a really great body

You can use "bien bueno".

Este chico esta bien bueno
This guy is really hot

And for a woman:

Esta chica esta bien buena
This girl is really hot

Now it's time to get gender specific. Ladies, here's a few words for you first.

A galán is what we call a hunk.   Most women seem to think Brad Pitt and Denzel Washington are galanes.

There's also papacito. This can be used as a term of endearment as well as saying a guy is a total hunk.

Guys, get ready, it's your turn.

A mamacita is a way of saying a woman is totally hot. Also a possible term of affection.

Mira esa mamacita
Look at that sexy girl

A buenota is also a very attractive woman.

La novia de Juan es una buenota
Juan's girlfriend is super hot

Well, I think that's more than enough to get you started. Keep in mind while none of these phrases are explicit, most of them are meant for you to use with friends. It's like using the word hottie in English, some people will be offended, some won't.

If you're looking for terms a little less colorful, you can also go with hermoso/a, guapo/a, or bonita. And it's my understanding that men are never called bonito.

If you're not familar with hermosísimo/a and guapísimo/a they're another way of emphasizing that someone is really beautiful or handsome.   You can also do the same thing with reguapa and rehermosa. When you add the prefix "re", it intensifies the meaning. You can tack on "re" to many words in Spanish, like rebueno. It's not just good, it's really good.

This soup is really good
Esta sopa es rebuena

That's it. Have fun with these!

¡Hasta la próxima!

¿Vas llegando?

2010-11-23T18:39:00.000-05:00

I was having dinner in a great little Mexican-Central American restaurant chatting with the owner. In fact, he actually thought I was Panamanian, I was flattered. I guess all my hard work is paying off. Everything was going well. That is, until he asked me...

¿Vas llegando?

Once again, I had the deer in headlights look. In fact, I couldn't even understand what he said, my gringo ears just weren't able to decipher those two simple words. Oh well, I'm used to that now, so let's just talk about what this means.

The first thing I learned is that "vas llegando" is incorrect, at least grammatically so. But let's remember that even though it's grammatically incorrect, it's important recognize common, colloquial speech. It should be:

¿Vienes llegando?
Are you just arriving?

That's a literal translation, but I think it sounds more natural to translate it as:

¿Vienes llegando?
Did you just get here?

It can also be interpreted as...

¿Vienes llegando?
Are you on your way?

How do you know when to use which translation? Simple, context.

You're driving to visit your mom, and she calls and asks "¿Vienes llegando?" - Are you on your way?

You finally make it to your moms house and your brother walks in 5 minutes after you and asks you ¿Vienes llegando? - Did you just get here?

So with that said, let's revisit my conversation in the restaurant. To be just a little more specific, I told the owner that I was working locally and that I wasn't familar with the city, and that's when he asked...

¿Vas llegando?

In this context, "vas llegando" would be better translated as "Did you just move here?". One phrase, three possible translations. Don't you love Spanish?

Fortunately, the rest of the conversation went well and there were no more "deer in headlights" moments. Thank goodness, I try to keep them limited to one a day.

The actual phrase is "venir llegando", and in general means "to have just arrived (got here)". Here's a couple of examples:

Vengo llegando
I just got in.

Viene llegando
He just got here.

That's it!

Espero que te sirva.

¿Vaso o copa?

2010-11-15T07:00:00.002-05:00

At some point we all learn the words vaso and copa. Usually we're taught a vaso is defined as a glass or cup, and then we're told if you want a glass of wine, then you need to use the word copa. Easy enough, but they never even bother to explain why, much less what the difference is between a vaso and a copa.

Well, 5 years later, I finally got the answer to that question, which I stumbled across from sheer dumb luck. To be honest, it never occurred to me to the ask the question. Today we're going to talk about copas.

A copa is what we call a wine glass. In Spanish you order (pedir) a "copa de vino", a glass of wine. It might a "copa de vino tinto" red wine, or "vino blanco", white wine. The difference here is in Spanish you're specifically mentioning the type of glass wine is served in, while in English we're fine with just using the generic term "glass".

Let's take a closer look at what a copa actually is. Not that you need one, but here's a photo:

A copa actually consists of several parts:

Recipiente de vidrio - This is the part you drink from.

Cálliz, tallo or pie - The stem.

Base - The base. Remember to use your Spanish pronunciation.

Copas have stems and bases, where as vasos don't. There is actually more than one type of copa, such as:

copa de agua, copa de whiskey, copa ancha, and copa de vino

Those are just a few. Click here if you want to see what other kinds of copas there are. This page is in Spanish, and I found interesting.

Well, I think that's enough about copas. Let's move on to vasos. And technically, a copa is still a vaso. Really, there isn't a whole for me to say about vasos, except that a vaso doesn't have a pie (stem), and like copas, there are many different kinds. Here's a few to get you started:

vaso largo
A tall glass

vaso ancho
A short, wide glass

vaso de plastico
A plastic cup

There are several types of vasos, like a vaso de agua, water glass, but I won't torture you with any more photos. I'm pretty sure you already what these things look like anyway.

Ya! That's it for today!

¡Hasta la próxima!

Soy muy noviera

2010-11-08T07:00:00.002-05:00

When you say "Soy muy noviera (noviero)" it means you like to have a lot of boyfriends, or girlfriends in the case of a guy. It doesn't necessarily imply that you like to have them all at the same time.

But this post isn't exactly about that. Instead, we're going to talk about the different stages of relationships, and it all starts with meeting someone. Once you meet (conocer) someone, you start off as friends, amigos.

If you decide that you like each other's company in that special way, but not enough to be an actual couple, then you're amigos cariñosos or perhaps amigos con derechos. Spanish has a number of ways to describe relationships like this. We say friends with benefits. Just to be clear, friends with benefits is a way of saying you hook up with (ligar) someone just for the purpose of having sex.

Once you decide to become exclusive, an official couple, you're enamorados. We would call this dating, in a relationship, or if you don't mind a high school flashback, going steady. I suppose the correct term would be courting, or the courtship. Although to be honest I can't remember the last time I actually heard someone use those words outside of a movie that takes place in the 1700's.

Once the official peticion de mano (marriage proposal) has taken place, and you have a comprimiso de boda/matrimonio , meaning you've decided to get married, you officially enter the noviazgo phase, the engagement. The official title of a couple at this point is novios, although you'll hear the terms pareja or enamorados.

The interesting thing to note about the words novio and novia is that they mean boyfriend/girlfriend as well as fiancé/fiancée. A more accurate translation for boyfriend and girlfriend would be enamorado/enamorada, but novio and novia are what you'll hear the most. How do you know when novio means fiancé and not boyfriend? The context of the conversation. Or you could simply ask "¿estas comprometido?" - Are you engaged? There's also prometida/prometido which undeniable means fiancé/fiancée, but isn't always used.

Once you take the big plunge and go through with the boda (wedding), you're now in the stage called matrimonio, marriage - and you'll be known as casados, formally known as husband and wife, marido and esposa.

While marido and esposa are the official terms, you'll also hear mujer (woman) as a synomym for esposa, without the negative baggage that the word "woman" carries in English. And esposo is another word for marido. You can even say "mi vieja/viejo" (my old lady/man).

Sadly, sometimes marriage (matrimonio) just doesn't work out, and then you divociar (divorce) and become divorciados (divorced). That is, after you separar (seperate) and become separados (separated). But if you're lucky (suertudo), you reach the final stage of marriage, "till death do us part". Although some people might argue about the lucky part of that.

That's it, a crash course on the in's and out's of the relationship terminology in Spanish.

Espero que te sirva.
I hope this helps

¡Nos vemos!

Tantas curvas y yo sin frenos

2010-11-01T07:00:00.005-04:00

I thought we'd have some fun today, after all, from time to time we all need a good laugh.

Tantas curvas y yo sin frenos
So many curves and I don't have any brakes

If you're thinking this has anything to do with driving, you are soooo wrong.

This is an example of a piropo. A piropo is can be anything from a cheesy pick up line to a very sweet compliment. And while piropos are typically a man's domain, women can use them too.

If you search for piropos you'll find sites that categorize them as piropos graciosos (funny), piropos romanticos (romantic), piropos groseros (dirty) and a whole lot more.

Let's take a look at a few more piropos.

Dicen que robar es malo, yo nunca lo haría;
pero un beso tuyo, con gusto lo robaría!
They say stealing is bad, I would never do it;
but for one of your kisses, I would gladly steal it.

Las 24 horas del dia yo las divido asi:
9 soñando contigo y 15 pensando en ti
I divide up the 24 hours in a day like this:
9 dreaming of you and 15 thinking about you

Si la belleza fuera un instante, tu serias la eternidad
If beauty were a moment, you would be enternity

Clearly those were examples of piropos romanticos. Now let's look at some piropos graciosos.

Nunca te olvides del número 591
-5 minutos de placer
-9 meses de embarazo
-1 más en la familia
Never forget the number 591
5 minutes of pleasure
9 months of pregnancy
1 more family member

Bailas muy bien, apenas noto tus doscientos kilos.
You dance well, I can barely notice that you weigh 400lbs.

¡¡Mami!! ¡Si tú fueras droga, yo sería un adicto!
Baby, if you were a drug, I'd be an addict

¡Muñeca! ¿De qué juguetería te escapaste?
He doll, what toy store did you escape from?

Bonitos pantalones, quedarían muy bien en el suelo de mi dormitorio.
Nice pants, they'd look great on my bedroom floor

Debes estar cansada hoy,
después de todo lo que hicimos en mi sueño anoche.
You must tired today, after everything we did in my dream last night

We haven't covered piropos groseros, and while I'm far from the politically correct type, I'm not going to post anything overly rude. Here's a sample that's not so bad, just remember that piropos groseros just get worse.

Que lindas piernas, ¿a que hora abren?
Nice legs, what time do they open?

If you want to read more piropos, you can google (googlear, yes, some people actually use this word) piropos. But to save you some time, here's a link:

http://www.piroposcortos.com/

That's it for today. I hope you managed to get a laugh or two.

¡Hasta la próxima!

¿Me escuchas ahora?

2010-10-25T07:00:00.003-04:00

These words will forever be remembered as what was very likely one of the most famous advertising campaigns of the 21st century.

¿Me escuchas ahora?
Can you hear me now?

Thank you Verizon Wireless.

Talking on the phone is really no big deal, unless you're doing it in a second language you're still struggling to learn. At that point it can become terrifying, but today we'll talk about some handy phrases that will surely be helpful when the day comes you have to speak Spanish over the phone.

Talking over a landline (teléfono fijo) isn't usually that bad, but cell phones are a completely different story. Let's discuss some common situations, starting with the most basic:

A cell phone is a celular, or simply cel. You'll probably hear móvil in Spain.

No te escucho
I can't hear you

OK, Oir actually means "to hear", but escuchar (to listen) is a colloquial usage and is very, very common. But if you want to be grammatically correct, you can say:

No te oigo
I can't hear you

And is there anyone who hasn't had these problems when talking on a cell phone?

No tengo recepcion
I don't have reception

No tengo señal
I don't have a signal

Se te escucha cortado
You're breaking up

You can't hear the other person because they're speaking too softly, like a whisper, or, not loud enough:

No te escucho porque tu voz suena muy baja
I can't hear you because your voice sounds low

Now let's talk about technical difficulties.

Se me acabó la batería / Se me terminó la batería / Me quedé sin batería
My battery is dead

Necesito recargar la batería
I need to recharge the battery

You can also use the verb cargar

Necesito cargar la batería
I need to recharge the battery

Ojalá que te sirva. I hope that helps.

¡Nos vemos!

Yo lo enchufo

2010-10-21T20:40:00.001-04:00

Every week I have an intercambio with my amiga from Peru. Well, on this particular occassion while I was setting up my laptop she says:

Yo lo enchufo

Surprisingly, while I didn't understand what she said, my eyes didn't glaze over. I politely said "¿Cómo?", and she repeated it again. That's when my eyes glazed over, because my ears just weren't getting the job done.

Yo lo enchufo
I'll plug it in

She was referring to the power cord for my laptop. It's amazing how after 5 years of learning Spanish it never occurred to me learn how to talk about plugging things in, nor had any book ever bothered to mention it. Oh well.

Let's go into a little more detail.

Enchufar
to plug in

Dame lo para enchufarlo
Give it to me so I can plug it can

¿Puedes enchufarlo?
Can you plug it in?

Well, now we know how to talk about plugging a cord in, but we still don't know how to talk about what we plug the cord into. The word for socket, plug or outlet is enchufe. You can also say tomacorriente.

But this is where things get a little tricky. A search for enchufe fotos returns the following:

As well as:

It turns out enchufe can mean both the wall socket and the actual plug. The search also turned up one other photo:

I just thought that one was kinda funny. Let's get back on track.

If you want to talk about the actual plug without the ambiguity, then use the word clavija.

Now that we've got the thing plugged in, the verb desenchufar means to uplug.

Ya lo desenchufé
I already unplugged it

Está desenchufado
It's unplugged

Puedes desenchufarlo
You can unplug it

So there you go. Next time you need something plugged in or unplugged in Spanish, you'll know exactly what to say.

¡Nos vemos!

¿Qué? ¿Quieres que sea tu chacha?

2010-10-11T07:00:00.010-04:00

Aside from being a very popular dance, "chacha" is a shortened version of "la muchacha".

So if we translate our sentence we come up with something like:

What? You want me to be the girl?

Well, eso no tiene sentido - that doesn't make any sense.   But it will after I give you this key piece of information.

"La muchacha" is way of refering to what we might call a nanny - someone who helps out with the kids and chores around the house (las tareas de la casa).   So let's take a look at our sentence again.

¿Qué? ¿Quieres que sea tu chacha?
What? You want me to be your maid?

Although chacha, or la muchacha, is more acurately defined as nanny, in this context it's best translated as maid. This is something you might hear from a wife or girlfriend who is unhappy about having to constantly clean up after their significant other all the time, which is how I first heard it. I always get a good laugh when I hear the word chacha, because it reminds of my amiga ranting about her novio (boyfriend), who she affectionately calls "el gringo" or "cabrón".

Other terms you can use are empleada doméstica, sirvienta, mucama, or afanadora.   I don't really recommend using sirvienta, because Spanish speakers seem to universally agree that it's a bit disrespectful.

Well, that's it for today. Hasta la próxima.

¡Me dejaste plantado!

2010-10-04T06:00:00.000-04:00

You left me planted!

Admittedly, in English this doesn't make any sense. That's often the problem with literal translations, so let's get to the bottom of this.

First things first. If you don't know, dejar means to leave, as in leaving something behind. Here are some examples.

If someone is giving you a ride:

Déjame en la esquina
Let me out at the corner

You forgot something:

Dejo mis llaves en casa.
I left my keys at home

You don't want to be bothered:

Déjame en paz
Leave me alone

Great, now let's get back to our expression.

In this case, ¡Me dejaste plantado! is an idiomatic expression.

When you dejar alguien plantado that means you've stood them up.

No me dejes plantado
Don't stand me up

¡Me dejaste plantado!
You stood me up

This expression can be pretty useful and is nice to have in your toolbox, especially if one of your friends isn't exactly the reliable type.

¡Hasta la próxima!

Voy a romper el chanchito

2010-09-27T06:30:00.006-04:00

If you don't know what a chanchito is (I certainly didn't) then take a look at this photo:

Cute little devil isn't he? A pig in Spanish is also known as cerdo, puerco, marrano, or cochino. By the way, chancho is the proper form of chanchito, which is the diminutive form. chanchito would translate to "little piggy" or "piglet" in English.

If you want to insult someone, you can use any of those terms except chancho. I always use cochino, because that's what I learned from my Mexican amigos. It all depends on who you talk to which one is most commonly used. But rest assured they'll get the point.

Speaking of chanchos, there's also Los Tres Cerditos - The Three Little Pigs. If you want to read this story to your kids or grandkids, or maybe even for yourself, just click on the link below.

Los Tres Cerditos

If you're like me, then you'll want to see the video. Thank goodness for You Tube:

Un video de Los Tres Cerditos

Have fun with those. Now it's time to get back to business.

Voy a romper el chanchito

I'm going to break the little piggy

Ouch! Sounds a bit violent, don't you think? Well, despite the fact it may sound like a wierd way of saying we're having bacon for breakfast, it's not. I'm going to show you one more photo and then it will all make sense.

Chanchito is also a colloquial way of refering to a piggy bank. The official term is alcancía.

So now we can accurately translate our sentence:

Voy a romper el chanchito
I'm going to break open the piggy bank

Yes, occassionally you have to resort to using all that loose change we've been stashing away. And in these tough economic times, we may just have to romper el chanchito to get by.

¡Hasta pronto!

Cuidado, ahi viene el mero mero

2010-09-20T07:00:00.013-04:00

The vast majority of us have to get up and drag ourselves into work and report to the boss. It sucks, but hey, así es la vida (that's life).

There are several words you can use to refer to the boss in Spanish, like "el jefe" or "la jefa" for a female boss.

Then there's the very Mexican "patrón" and "patrona", which also mean "boss".

But then also there's more informal ways of referring to the boss, like "the big kahuna", "the man", "the top dog", or "the big boss". "El mero mero" is a way of expressing that same concept in Spanish. Mexican Spanish that is.

Cuidado, ahi viene el mero mero
Watch out, here comes the boss

Habla con él, es el mero mero
Talk to him, he's the boss

Mi hija cree la mera mera
My daughter thinks she's the boss

El mero mero can also be used to say something, or someone, is the best.

¡Soy el mero mero!
I'm the best

El blog My Spanish Notes es el mero mero
The blog My Spanish Notes is the best

OK, Maybe I went a little overboard on the last one.

So now translating our expression should be pan comido (easy as pie):

Cuidado, ahi viene el mero mero
Watch out, here comes the big boss

This is a great expression, you can have a lot of fun with, I certainly do.

¡Hasta pronto!

¿Te gustan los jitomates?

2010-09-13T07:00:00.009-04:00

Sometimes Spanish really throws me for a loop. What seems so simple and straight-forward sometimes isn't. Like talking about tomatoes.

For most of the five years I spent learning Spanish, I was happy knowing that tomate was Spanish for tomatoe. And it is. But so is jitomate.

Jitomate is a word you'll hear in Mexico for tomato. The good old round red tomatoes that we know so well. And just for giggles, here's a picture.

Now, there is another type of tomato. You know, what we call cherry tomatoes.

These are called tomatillos.

So there's one more kind of tomatoes we still have to talk about, the green ones.

Guess what these are called? Tomates. Or a tomate verde.

Well, wasn't that interesting? But guess what? It gets better.

These variations on the names of tomatoes vary regionally within Mexico. I found an interesting thread in WordReference that has a very nice discussion about tomates. Check it out:

Jitomate

I would have never thought a discussion on tomatoes would be so complicated. ¡Ni modo!

¡Hasta la próxima!

Las rocolas de mi abuela

2010-09-06T07:00:00.003-04:00

I went out to lunch with a few co-workers to a new Mexican restaurant. It's gran apertura (grand opening) was just 2 weeks ago.

Anyway, I noticed they had a brand new jukebox. It wasn't like the ones I grew up with, it was a modern version that took credit cards. And then it dawned on me, what the heck do you call a jukebox in Spanish?   Lucky for me the waitress told me. A jukebox is called a rocola.

Since we're on the topic of rocolas and music, let's talk about a few more things.

To talk about playing music, whether it be on a rocola or on the radio, you need to use the verb tocar.  Here's a good example:

¿Cómo se llama esa cosa que toca musica?
What do you call that thing that plays music?

That's what I asked the waitress in order find out what you call a jukebox in Spanish.

When you listen to Spanish radio, you'll probably hear:

Tocamos solo éxitos
We only play the hits

You may have noticed our next word, éxitos - hits.  You'll probably also hear things like "los mejores (grandes) éxitos. The best hits. Usually the best hits are pegajoso - catchy, which is what makes them éxitos in the first place.

And just to be thorough, a song is called a cancíon, and the lyrics are called letras.

Now let's take a walk down memory lane. At least it is for those of us old enough to remember the old-fashioned record, or album, known in Spanish as a disco, which you could buy in a disquería.  Which you had to play on a tocadiscos.    But these days we tocar our music on a reproductor de MP3 (MP3 Player).

All of this reminds me of another word I learned, traganíquel.   I learned this from a panameña (a woman from Panama). It's a word they use for jukebox, and if I'm not mistaken, it's used in Nicaragua as well. Traganíquel can also refer to any machine that takes coins (monedas), like slot machines.

That leaves us with one last piece of unfinished business.

Las rocolas de mi abuela
My grandmothers jukeboxes

That's actually the name of a short blog entry talking about old-fashioned jukeboxes. For some of you this will just a be a great opportunity to practice your Spanish, and for the rest of you it wil probably bring back some good memories. Here's the link:

http://peruinside.com/blog/2008/01/17/las-rocolas-de-mi-abuelo/

That's it for today!

¡Cuídense!

No te hagas

2010-08-30T07:00:00.019-04:00

The first time I heard this, it was actually directed at me. Since then it's become one of my favorite phrases.

Essentially, it's a way of telling someone to "stop pretending", "stop acting like..." or "don't act like you don't know".

Let's take a look at how we might use this:

You loan your friend $20, the next day you see him with a pocket full of money, and you say "Great, you can pay me back that $20". He says "What $20?". Your response:

No te hagas (el tonto / el pato)
Don't act stupid/Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about

You may have noticed that you can tack on "el tonto" or "el pato" to this expression. While "el tonto" actually makes sense, because it can mean "fool" or "silly", but I have no idea where "el pato" comes in. Tha's just the way the expression works.

Here are some more examples:

No te hagas el enojado
Stop acting like you should be angry

No te hagas la victima
Don't act like you're the victim

There are other ways to use this phrase, but this will certainly get you started.

¡Hasta la próxima!

YO NO FUI !!!!!

2010-08-23T18:23:00.000-04:00

¡Yo no fui!

You probably learned that that this translates to "I didn't go". And that would be 100% correct.

¿Fuiste el super?
Did you go the supermakert?

No fui.
No, I didn't go.

But as always, phrases in Spanish typically have more than one meaning.

If someone is trying to blame you for something, the second definition of "yo no fui" is something you'll want to remember:

Quien dejó la puerta abierta? - Who left the door open?
Quien quemó el pollo? - Who Burned the chicken?
Quien hizo eso? - Who did that?

¡¡Yo no fui!!
It wasn't me

In fact, I recommend you blame you someone else...

Yo no fui, ¡ fue Anthony!
It wasn't me, it was Anthony

Of course if it’s something good like…

Quien limpio la cocina? - who cleaned the kitchen?

I would say “Fui yo!” - It was me!

¡Hasta Pronto!

Ya se petateó

2010-08-16T07:00:00.003-04:00

This was another one of those expressions that gave me that famous deer in headlights look.

In order to understand this expression, we need find out what a petate is.

There's nothing better than a picture to explain things, so here you go:

A petate is (as you can see) a mat. One of it's uses is for sleeping. Another one of its uses was for burying people (at least that's what the Aztecs did), which is the key piece of information we need to understand our expression. The deceased were wrapped and buried in a petate.

Now we can move on to the verb petatear, which means to die. Consider it a synonym of morir.

At this point you probably don't need my help translate our expression.

Ya se petateó
He's already dead OR
He's dead now

If you want to learn a little more about petates, then click here. I found it pretty interesting, but then again, I'm sort of a geek.

Well, that's it for today.

¡Hasta pronto!

Se me ponchó una llanta

2010-08-09T20:51:00.001-04:00

If you don't know, a llanta is a tire.   And as we all know, tires often go flat. I had a flat two weeks in a row, both at almost midnight. Yeah, it sucked. But I digress.

In Mexico, when you want to talk about getting a flat tire, the verb you're likely to hear is poncharse.    So if you want to say you got a flat tire, that's where our phrase comes in:

Se me ponchó una llanta
I got a flat tire

If you want to talk about other people who got flat tires, you can say:

Se te ponchó una llanta
You got a flat tire

Se le ponchó una llanta
He/She got a flat tire

Se nos ponchó una llanta
We got a flat tire

Se les ponchó una llanta
They got a flat tire

A flat tire, the tire itself that is, is called a ponchada. And the plural version is ponchadas. You may also hear the word ponchadura.

If you want your tire fixed, you might want to go to a "taller para reperar llantas" - a workshop where they repair tires.   These places go by several names:

"ponchaduría", "desponchaduría", "desponchadora", "vulcanizadora" or "vulka".

These workshops aren't your Sears or Wal-Mart tire centers, but instead might look something like this:

In fact, if you take a drive through a Mexican neighborhood, you may see a desponchadora that hopefully isn't as quite as untidy as the one in our photo.

Like always, in the Spanish language there's more than one way to skin a cat. Especially if you're talking about flat tires. Other words to take a look at are pinchar, gomas, and desinfladas to name a few. Wordreference.com is a great place to look if you're interested in alternatives.

Anyway, that's it for today. Be careful not to ponchar any llantas in the near future!

Tengo cosas en el tintero

2010-08-02T00:46:00.004-04:00

Until I heard this phrase, I didn't know what a tintero was. So why don't we start there.

Here's a picture of a tintero...

So now we know what a tintero is. The little bottle that holds your ink. Lucky for us the the ball point pen came along.

As usual, a literal translation won't work. There aren't to many things (cosas) you can put into a tintero. So let's just make our translation:

Tengo cosas en el tintero

I have some things on my mind

I happen to like this expression, don't ask me why. And I learned this from a Peruvian friend, so I really have no idea how universal this is, but don't let that stop you from using this phrase. If the people you're speaking to aren't familar with it, explain it. I bet in return they tell you their version of the expression and it's a win win situation for everybody.

That's it for today, ¡hasta pronto!

Quiero quitarme la llantita

2010-07-26T06:00:00.002-04:00

If you don't already know, llantita is the diminutive form of llanta, which means tire. On it's own, it could be interpreted as a "little tire", but that's not the case in this context, so let's take a look at things and figure this out.

Quitarse means "to take off", and is a quite a useful verb, but maybe we'll discuss quitarse at a later time in more detail.

Llantita is a colloquial way of refering to what we like to call a "spare tire", and not the kind you keep in the trunk of your car. Yes, I'm refering to the ever annoying roll of fat that lives around our waist and can be nearly impossible to get rid of.

Now we're ready to make our translation...

Quiero quitarme la llantita
I want to get rid of my spare tire

You could also refer to your spare tire as a "llanta", or "michelines".

Another way to talk to about losing your spare tire is to use the verbs eliminar or bajar.

Pan comido, right?

I'm sure none of us like talking about our spare tires, but if you have to, you can now talk about them in Spanish!

Que codo eres!

2010-07-19T06:00:00.014-04:00

Que codo eres!

If we interpret that literally, you've just told someone what an elbow they are, because codo means elbow.

But this is another one of those times where a literal translation falls short.

In Spanish, when you call someone codo, you're calling them cheap. So if we revisit our translation...

Que codo eres
You're so cheap

Codo is one of several ways to call someone cheap in Spanish. There's also tocaño, although that probably translates more like stingy.

And surprisingly, you can call someone cheap without saying a word. I think you ladies will appreciate this one. When that guy at the bar refuses to buy you a drink, you can just glance over at your girlfriend and tap your elbow, and she'll get the message. And so will he, if he's looking. Keep in mind that when you talk about a third party, you need to say "Que codo es".

Now guys, don't think I've sold you out. If someone calls you codo, you can reply with...

No soy codo, sino ahorritivo
I'm not cheap, I'm thrifty

Lastly I'll leave you with a tiny bit of culture and a chiste (joke).

In Mexico, people from Monterrey (for whatever reason) are famous for being codo. So with that bit of information, I think you can appreciate this joke...

¿Qué pasaría si se inunda Monterrey?
What will happen if Monterrey floods?

Se haría una inmensa sopa de coditos.
It'll make a huge elbow soup

Captaste el chiste?
Did you get the joke?

I hope you found this useful and maybe even entertaining. I've had the fortune (misfortune?) of being called codo, and having this little of information made the situation even more humorous and memorable.

¡Hasta la proxima!

¡Que buena (mala) onda!

2010-07-12T19:16:00.015-04:00

There are actually a few phrases in Mexican Spanish involving the word "onda". Today we're going to talk about a few of them.

I've already discussed one very important phrase "Que onda", so click here if you missed it.

So let's move right along and get straight to the point (ir al grano), "Que buena onda" is the equivalent of "cool" or "that's awesome".

When would you use this phrase? Well, it 's really straight-forward. If someone tells you they just got a big raise. You can reply "¡Que buena onda!"

Or maybe your friend just got free concert tickets..."¡Que buena onda!"

I'm sure you get the drift, so let's talk about "Que mala onda".

"Que mala onda" is the opposite of "Que buena onda". This translates to something like "bummer" or "that sucks".

If your friend lost his free concert tickets, you could say "Que mala onda". This is easy stuff, I think you get the idea, so let's talk about the last usage I'm going to cover.

You can also use the word "onda" to describe people...

Maria es buena onda
Marie is cool/nice

Maria es mala onda
Maria is not nice/cool

I'm sure that the word "onda" can be used in a variety of other ways, but these usages are practically staples of Mexican Spanish, so they're worth learning.

¡Hasta la próxima!

¡No te metas conmigo!

2010-07-05T15:45:00.011-04:00

The verb "meterse" has many uses, one of which is "to get in". For example:

Me gusta ir a la piscina, pero no me meto
I like to go to the pool, but I don't get in.

If you're like me, that usage alone was an amazing discovery for me. But it turns out there's another usage as well.

No te metas conmigo, que no me conoces
Don't mess with me, because you don't know me.

And yes, that can carry a warning or threating like tone.

Here's a few more examples:

No me meto con qualquiera
I don't get involved with just anybody

No te metas con mi hermanita
Don't mess with my little sister

No te metas con drugas
Don't get involved with drugs

No te metas en mi vida
Don't interfere in my life

This pretty straight forward, and you should be able to start using this right away, and if you haven't really noticed it's usage in Spanish before, I imagine you'll start to see it everywhere now.

¡Hasta la próxima!

¡Estoy de fodonga!

2010-06-28T06:00:00.018-04:00

I had no idea what this meant when I heard it. And I've certainly never seen this word in a textbook. I imagine I never will.

Anyway, all of that aside, let's get to the bottom of this phrase.

Fodonga, or fodongo, basically means to be lazy, messy, have an unkept appearance, or perhaps just a slob. In English we might say someone looks a mess, in public or private. A woman who goes to the store with hair rollers in place, maybe even wearing her bathrobe. The guy who goes out in public looking like he hasn't combed his hair in weeks and is wearing the most wrinkled t-shirt and pants you've ever seen. Those are good examples of fodongos.

And if you've ever seen any of the 'people in Wal-Mart' emails, you definitely know what fodongo means.

But if you still have some doubts about what 'un fodongo' might look like, I think this photo will give you a good idea:

So if you tell someone...

Estoy de fodonga

That's means you're looking a hot mess right now and have yet to spruce yourself up. Hopefully you're just sitting around the house, and not out in public.

Have fun with this one, you can get a lot laughs with it as you and your friends make fun of the crazy looking people you see in Wal-Mart!

¡Hasta la próxima!

Allá viene la combi

2010-06-21T06:01:00.003-04:00

Before we can talk about what this phrase means, we need to talk about what a combi is. Actually, today's post is really about the combi itself, and not so much the Spanish. Every now and then, despite not living in Mexico, I'm able to learn a little something about the life of the people on that side of the border, so I thought I'd share it with you.

While I've never actually ridden in a combi myself, now that I know what they are, I realize that I've seen plenty of them on my visits to Tijuana.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so here you go:

A combi is nothing more than a van, basically your old school Volkswagon van. To see more pictures of combi's, click here. You really should take a look at the pictures, I found them fairly interesting. In fact, here's one more:

As you can see, not all combi's are created equal.

Anyway, back to the combi. In Mexico a combi is typically used as a taxi or bus, although as you can see by the photo above, they can serve other purposes.

While the focus of this post was really about the combi, we still need to deciper our phrase:

Allá viene la combi

There goes the combi

This something you might say as you miss your ride.

Let me clarify that "Allá viene" literally translates to "there comes", but I chose to translate it as "there goes", because it sounds kind of clumsy in English to say "there comes". Just something I thought I should point out.

There's also another meaning to this phrase, which isn't really very nice. It's not vulgar by any means, but it's not a very nice thing to say. If you're interested, you'll have to read about it (click here) in my other blog "No seas pelangoche", which is all about the groserías of Mexican Spanish.

Let's look at some other ways to use the word "Allá". You can say things like:

Allá arriba

Up there

Allá abajo

Down there

Vamos para allá

We're going that way

Allá voy

I'm coming

That's it for today. While this was pretty straight-forward, being able talk to your Mexican friends about combi's will certainly impress them.

¡Hasta la próxima!

Yo te hablo

2010-06-14T06:00:00.002-04:00

Yo te hablo
I'll talk to you

Well, it seems like this one is pretty much an open and shut case. And it almost is. Almost.

But don't worry, this phrase really is pan comido.

Yo te hablo is a very informal and colloquial way of telling someone you'll call them back. However, this may be something exclusive to Mexican Spanish. With that in mind, let's take a look at some more universal ways of telling someone you'll call them back.

Te regreso la llamada

Te devuevlo la llamada

One thing you never want to say is:

Llamame pa' tras

This is a bit of English translated literally creeping into Spanish, and in some circles may be used to say "Call me back", but it's absolutely incorrect Spanish and I promise you most native speakers will cringe at the sound of this.

Other than remembering not to use this phrase, the only other thing worth pointing out is that "pa'" is short for "para", and that is something you need to remember, because you'll hear it a lot.
¡Ya!

With these simple but handy phrases, you'll be able to return phone calls in Spanish with ease!

¡Hasta la próxima!

Traes mucho pegue

2010-06-07T06:00:00.006-04:00

Sometimes literal translations just don't work, and this is one of those times, so we won't even try.

Let's start with "traes". The verb is traer, which means "to bring". Sometimes traer can be used as a synonym of tener. I discussed this in a previous post, and you can read about it here if you like. With that in mind, we can translate "traes" as something to the effect of "you bring" or "you have".

"Mucho" should need no translation, unless you're an absolute newbie to Spanish, but just in case, it means " a lot".

"pegue" comes from pegar, meaning to hit. But since the literal translation doesn't work in this case, just file that bit of information away for some other time.

In this case, we have to look at "pegue" in combination with tener or traer. So the key to understanding this phrase lies in understanding the phrase "tener pegue" or "traer pegue". We're going to talk about "tener pegue", because that's actually the phrase, just keep in mind that you may also hear "traer pegue".

OK, I've drawn this out long enough, let's get to the point. (ir al grano)

"Tener pegue" means to have sex appeal, or charm if you like. It means you've got a way with the opposite sex.

So if someone tells you "Tienes mucho pegue", well, lift your head up high and smile, because they just gave you a very nice compliment. Especially if it comes from a person you're trying to "ligar" (hook up) with.

Tienes (traes) mucho pegue
You got a lot of sex appeal

I've yet to hear this phrase directed at me, but perhaps you all have better luck and more "pegue" than me.

If you want some extra credit, or perhaps a little advice on how improve your sex appeal, check out the link below to get some consejos (advice).

http://guilleybruno.guateblogger.com/2009/10/tips-para-tener-pegue.html

¡Hasta la próxima!

¡Arriba, abajo, al centro, pa' dentro!

2010-05-31T06:00:00.003-04:00

Personally, I consider this piece of Spanish a "must know". Maybe that's because I spend so much time in bars when I go to Mexico, but that's another story, albeit related.

It's pretty much a worldwide custom to make a toast while you have a few drinks friends or celebrate a special occasion. In America, we say "cheers", as you well know. But in Spanish, you say ¡salud!

But personally, I find that particular toast a bit plain, which brings us to the topic of today's post.

¡Arriba, abajo, al centro, pa' dentro!

There's no real translation that I'm aware of, this is just something you memorize and say it right before you slam down your favorite tequila, or whatever your drink of choice is.

So here's how it works, so pay close attention (fijense bien) because the physical mechanics of this toast are crucial. OK, maybe crucial is a bit much, but the motions come with the phrase.

At each step, be sure to "clink" or touch glasses.

"Arriba" (glass held high, you touch the rim of your glass)
"Abajo" (glass held low, you touch the bottom of your glass)
"Al centro" (glass held out in front, touch the middle of your glass)
"Pa' dentro or Adentro" (drink from glass immediately, bottoms up!)

Simple, right? Well, I say you head to the closest cantina (bar) and practice this until you get it right.

¡Cuidense amigos!

Se me antoja un helado de vainilla

2010-05-23T06:00:00.003-04:00

If you ever get the urge to eat something specific, like a piece of cheesecake, or a steak, or whatever, then you've had an antojo, a craving.

To say you have a craving for something, you use the verb antojarse. Actually, you may want to think of it as a desire, or an urge to eat or do something, because you can use it to say you have an urge to do something besides eat. But in this post we're talking about cravings for food.

Se me antoja un helado de vainilla
I have a craving for vanilla ice cream

This is a really easy piece of Spanish you can add to your toolbox. Simply say "Se me antoja de" and add whatever it is you're craving at the end.

You can also say:

Tengo el antojo de una torta de pesacado
I have a craving for a fish torta

You can also "ando de antojo", which means you feel like eating just about everything you see. I often find myself feeling like this.

A person can also be an antojadizo/antojadiza which means that you pretty much "ando de antojo" all the time (todo el tiempo).

Here are some examples:

Soy muy antojadizo
I always have a craving to eat

That's it. Now you can have cravings in both English and Spanish.

¡Adios!

Toda la familía anda domingueando

2010-05-17T06:00:00.011-04:00

As soon I heard the word "domingueando", and found out what it meant, I was in love with it. Not that it's all that special, I just get a kick out of it.

"domingueando" comes from the verb dominguear. And you may have noticed the simularity to the word "domingo" in there. "domingo", meaning Sunday, of course.

So what does it mean to "dominguear"? It means to put on your "Sunday best" as we might say in English. In other words, you're wearing your church clothes. You know, your nice slacks and a fancy shirt, and perhaps a nice dress for the ladies.

So with that bit of basic information we can translate our sentence:

Toda la familía anda domingueando
The whole family is all dressed up

Here's another example:

Hoy me voy a poner mis pantalones de dominguear
I'm going to put on my Sunday pants

And FYI, it doesn't have to be Sunday for you to "dominguear".

It's never a bad thing to "dominguear" de vez en cuando (once in a while), and now you can even talk about it in Spanish!

¡Cuidense!

¡Callate chismolero!

2010-05-10T06:30:00.004-04:00

People say the funniest things when they think no one's listening, or can't understand.

I was checking out of my hotel in Mexico, and the young lady behind the desk was joking around with one of her co-workers.

I didn't catch what he said, but she jokingly replied:

Callate chismolero

Of course I had to laugh.

If you don't know, "callate", it's along the lines of "shut up". I wouldn't say it's that strong, but it's up there.

"callate la boca" would definitely qualify as being rude. You can also say "cierra la boca" which is quite possibly equally strong. Personally, I've avoided using "callarse", because I'm still unsure of just exactly how strong this is. And of course, your tone of voice plays a huge part of how things are inteprepted.

But if you want to ask someone politely to be quiet, you can't go wrong with "Silencio, por favor".

But let's move on to the more interesting word, "chismolero".

I hadn't heard this word before, but I knew that a "chismoso" is a person who likes to gossip, so it wasn't much of a stretch to figure out that a "chismolero" is a synonym.

The verbs chismear and chismorrear mean to gossip, so now you've got all the tools you need to start discussing all the going-ons in your neighborhood with your Spanish neighbors.

¡Cuidense!

Tengo el pelo chino

2010-05-03T06:30:00.002-04:00

Ah yes, this phrase reminds of the deer in headlights look that I love so much.

Tengo el pelo chino
I have Chinese hair

Say what?

Chino means Chinese, and what it is has to do with hair is beyond me. Despite my ignorance of the relationship between hair and Chinese in Spanish, "El pelo chino" is a colloquial way of saying you have curly hair.

A more standard way of saying this would be:

Tengo el pelo rizado
I have curly hair

Since we're on the subject of hair, here are a couple of other interesting things about hair.

Pelo is the word you will almost exclusively use for hair, although there are a few other words (and distinctions) we need to know.

Cabello is actually the hair on your head, and the only place cabello exists. Vello referes to hair anywhere else on your body, such as vello facial - facial har and vello púbico - pubic hair.

Getting back to cabello, or pelo, you can wear your hair down, suelta (loose) or in cola de caballo (pony tail), cola for short.

One last thing...

After a long day of practicing your Spanish, you may need to "suéltate el pelo" (let your hair down), which has the same meaning in Spanish as it does in English, which in this context has nothing at all to do with hair, but insteading relaxing and having a good time.

Well, that's it.

¡Ojala que te sirva!
I hope this helps!

Hay más cachuchas de rosa?

2010-04-25T23:59:00.002-04:00

One Spanish word that practically everyone knows whether they speak Spanish or not is sombrero. I probably don't even need to tell you what this means, but just in case, it means hat. We Americans tend think of a sombrero as the one in this foto:

In reality, a sombrero is not any particular kind of hat, but a hat in general. But today we're going to talk about a specific kind of hat, the good old american ball cap.

A ball cap is more commonly known as a gorra. Like the one in this picture:

There's also a gorro, which we call a beanie, or a skull cap:

The two are very easy to confuse since they differ in name by only one letter, which is why I posted the images, because that's about the only way I can remember which is which.

Now we can talk about what a cachucha is. Actually, we already talked about what a cachucha is. It's a gorra, except cachucha is a Mexican term.

I was doing some voluteer work at a local clinic, acting as a translator. Maybe I'll make another post about that experience, as it was quite a fun, interesting and rewarding experience.

Anyway, they were also giving away goodies like t-shirts and ball caps, and promoting the 2010 census. A señora asked me:

¿Hay más cachuchas de rosa?
Are there more pink ball caps?

I had actually seen this word before, who knows how long ago, and I was suprised that my brain actually processed this word right away. Of course it probably helped that she was looking right at the ball caps when she asked, which undoubtedly jogged my memory.

¡Ya! That's it for today, I hope you learned something new. Try this word out next time you get a chance, it'll help drill it permenantly into your brain, while making you sound muy Méxicano.

¡Cuídense!

Estoy exitado por ti

2010-04-19T00:00:00.004-04:00

I was having a conversation with a young lady who was telling me that she was only a few months away from graduating from nursing school. I thought that was pretty cool, it must be an exciting time in her life.

A quick flashback reminded me of how I felt when I was on the brink of accomplishing something significant in my life, and I decided to tell her that I was excited for her. So I said...

Estoy exitado por ti
I'm excited for you.

Well, while that is what I said, it doesn't quite mean that.

Excitar means to be excited. And emocionado means the same. According to the dictionary, that is.

There's only one problem...some dictionaries neglect to explain one subtle difference.

Emocionado is the word you want to express excitement in this context.

Excitado expresses excitement in a very different context. It means to be sexual excited.

Let's revisit our example:

Estoy exitado por ti
I've got the hots for you.

Well, that sort of changes things a bit doesn't it?

What I should have said was:

Estoy emocionado por ti
I'm excited for you

Lo peor es (the worst thing is), I actually knew about the difference between those two words, but somehow the wrong word slipped out anyway. Oh well, somebody's got to make people laugh, right?

Bueno, that's all for now.

¡Hasta la próxima!

Eres un ocioso

2010-04-12T00:32:00.001-04:00

Ever come across something and thought "This guys got way to much free time"? Sure you have!

Ocio is the word you need to able to express that thought in Spanish.

Ocio means leisure or free time. A person who is an ocioso (or ociosa) has a lot of free time on their hands.

So I think we can translate "Eres un ocioso" safely as "you have too much free time".
And when you see something that was clearly done by an "ocioso", you can say:

Una persona con mucho ocio hizo eso.
Somebody with too much free time did that.

Hmm, the more I think about it, it's quite possible that the author of this blog is an ocioso...

Mis tenis son chafas, son marca patito

2010-04-05T08:00:00.001-04:00

When I first heard this I thought "¿De que hablas willys?" That's the Spanish translation for "Whachu talkin' bout Willis?". I thought those of you who remember "Different Strokes" might get a kick out of that. Surprisingly, the show was titled Blanco y Negro in Spanish.

Anyway, I digress. Back to our tenis.

Tenis is the word you'll want to use for what we call, or at least used to call, sneakers. Any type of "tennis shoe" is called tenis. Be sure to use the Spanish pronunciation.

Chafa means that something is of low quality, poorly made (de muy mala calidad). I believe the word we would use is cheap.

Marca simply means brand, as in a brand name, like Nike. When you say something is "Marca patito" , that means it's not a name brand product. We might say it's a generic or off brand.

So now let's translate the entire phrase:

Mis tenis son chafas, son marca patito
My tennis shoes are cheap, they're an off-brand.

It should be pretty easy to incorporate these new words into your Spanish. You'll sound "muy Méxicano", because these two words are very Mexican, and I doubt you'll hear them from anyone who isn't Mexican or spent a lot of time around Mexicans.

That's it for now,

¡Cuidense!

Pasame una lana primero, y después arreglamos

2010-03-27T00:15:00.000-04:00

So there I was talking with my profesora, and I asked her for something, and this is what she tells me:

Pasame una lana primero, y después arreglamos

I couldn't help but laugh. Not because I knew what she said, but because I knew it was supposed to be funny, and because yet again I had the deer in headlights look on my face.

Now let's see if we can figure out what this means.

One word in our phrase you may not recognize is lana. Lana is a colloquial term for dinero, or as we say in English, money. Plata is another colloquial term you may hear for money.

Arreglar is another verb that may be new to you. Like so many verbs in Spanish, Arreglar has several meanings: to fix something, to clean up, and to sort or work things out. The last definition is the one we're interested in. And since we're talking about Arreglar, I'll also mention that it's reflexive cousin Arreglarse means to get to ready, or dressed, as well as a few other things. It's a good verb to learn, I've heard it on more than one occassion.

But let's get back to our phrase. I think we know enough to make a good translation:

Pasame una lana primero, y después arreglamos
Pass me some money first, and then we'll work it out

When can you use this phrase? Anytime someone asks you for a favor, big or small, is a perfect time to use this. I'm sure your amigos will get a good laugh and be impressed with your Spanish as well.

¡Hasta la próxima!

Como la palma de la mano

2010-03-25T20:43:00.001-04:00

I can't say that I would have known what this expression meant if I hadn't been looking directly at the person using it.

The complete phrase is "conocer algo/alguien como la palma de la mano" . It means to know something, or someone, like the back of one's hand.

The only reason I was able to figure it out (and consequently act like I knew more Spanish than I did) is because they were talking about the city they lived in and pointing to the palm of their hand -- "la palma de la mano".

Here are some examples:

Conozco Miami como la palma de la mano
I know Miami like the back of my hand

Lo conozco como la palma de la mano

I know him like the back of my hand

This phrase works exactly the same in English as it does in Spanish, so you can start using this right away.

¡Espero que te sirva¡

vete tú a saber

2010-03-25T19:58:00.002-04:00

I actually like this nifty little phrase. Sometimes I ask myself where these things come from, and who makes them up? ¿Quien sabe? (Who knows?)

Actually, I just told you what today's bit of Spanish means -- Who knows?

It's a colloquial way of saying "Quien sabe".

Since I've learned this bit of Spanish, I've heard it on several occassions, so it's something you'll want to put in your Spanish toolbox.

You can use it in the exact same way we use "who knows" in English.

As usual, let's look at some examples:

¿Cuál es el sentido de la vida? Vete tú a saber.
What's the meaning of life? Who knows.

¿Cuál es el sentido de la vida? Quien sabe.
What's the meaning of life? Who knows.

Just remember that "quien sabe" is a bit more proper, while vete tú a saber is more informal, but other than that, use which ever one you like!

¡Hasta la próxima!

¡Qué tonto soy!

2010-03-07T12:04:00.000-05:00

Hopefully you won't need to use this expression much. But on occasion, I think we'll all find ourselves using it at some point. In fact, I'm posting about this because I found myself needing it today. But more on that later.

First let's talk about tonto. And I'm not referring to the Lone Ranger's faithful Indian companion. If you don't know who the Lone Ranger is, and don't mind learning a bit about old American TV shows, you can check out this link. Or maybe you just want to take a walk down memory lane. Anyway, I digress.

Let's get back to the word tonto in Spanish, which is what we're here for.

Tonto means silly or dumb, which can be an insult, heavily dependent on the context of how it's used, and your tone of voice. There are a number of phrases that involve the word tonto, like no seas tonto - don't be silly or no te hagas el tonto - don't act stupid. Tonta if you're talking about a woman.

Now that we know something about the word tonto, let's get back to our expression.

¡Qué tonto soy!

I'm so stupid

Our translation sounds a bit harsh, but it's meant to be used in those situations where you make a silly mistake, and you say to yourself "I can't believe I did that" or "I'm so stupid".

Pan comido (easy), right? We're almost done here, just one more thing to talk about.

Remember in the beginning of this post I said I actually needed this phrase today? Well I'm about to tell you why.

I just posted about a very witty phrase "¡Ya llegó para quien llorabas!". Well, that's what I wrote. It should've been "¡Ya llegó por quien llorabas! ". ¡Qué tonto soy!

I corrected the original post, but I want to make sure my faithful readers are aware of my blunder. Learning Spanish is hard enough, and you don't need me to make it any harder for you! If you haven't read about "¡Ya llegó por quien llorabas! ", you can find the entry here.

¡Adios!

¡Ya llegó por quien llorabas!

2010-03-06T21:03:00.001-05:00

I think you'll find this bit of Spanish amusing. So let's get down to business.

The meaning of this phrase seems so obvious now, but when I first heard it, I was lost. Sure, I understood what my amiga told me, I heard each word loud and clear. To bad I still didn't understand what it meant.

Let's take a look at our phrase.

¡Ya llegó por quien llorabas!
The person you've been crying for has arrived now.

Well, that makes everything crystal clear now, right? I'm guessing your answer is no. Literal translations often leave us confused, so let's talk about what this means in plain English.

You probably won't be surprised to hear that this phrase really has nothing to do with crying. It's just a very clever and playful way of saying "I'm here now", or maybe "I'm finally here". I suppose in English we might say something like "you can stop crying now, I'm here", with the same level of playfulness.

A good time to use this phrase is when you have someone waiting on you and you show up a little late, but really, you can use this phrase anytime it seems appropriate.

If you want to say this to a group of people, all you need to do is make a small change:

¡Ya llegó por quien lloraban!

That's it, short, sweet and to the point!

¡Hasta la próxima!

¡Cuba Libre!

2010-03-04T20:48:00.003-05:00

Free Cuba!

You maybe tempted to think this phrase is about making the isla (island) of Cuba a better place. After all, Cuba needs no translation, and libre means free. While that is a great idea, that's not what our phrase "cuba libre", is refering to.

I picked this up in the Dominican Republic after having my second or third "ron y coca" (rum and coke). The bartender was nice enough to tell me that I only need to ask for a "cuba libre", and that everybody knows what this is.

It turns out the bartender was right. I've been to Mexico several times and ordered many a "cuba libre", served with a "limón". Something else I discovered (the hard way), is that the usual translation of "limón" is lemon, but if you ask for a "limón" in Mexico, you'll get a lime. You'll have to ask for a "lima" or a "limón amarillo" if you want a lemon.

If your drink (trago) of choice is a "cuba libre", then your Spanish will sound just a little more authentic when you order your next trago.

¡Hasta la próxima!

¿Mande?

2010-03-02T19:27:00.000-05:00

Today I was reminded of something I learned a long time ago, in México, as a matter of fact.

Every Spanish book I've ever seen says that "¿cómo?" is the way to ask someone what they said, in the event you didn't hear or understand them. Basically, it's the Spanish equivalent of "what?". And indeed it is. Nearly every Spanish speaker I've ever spoken to uses "cómo". But did you notice I said "nearly" every Spanish speaker?

In México, and in fact, Mexicans in general, or at the least all the people I know, tend to use "Mande" instead of "cómo". In fact, I think I was the only person in México saying "cómo". It became blatantly obvious very quickly.

I'll also add that several people have told me that although "mande" has a widespread usage throughout México, "cómo" is what you should really use, as it is in fact proper spanish.

If you find yourself wanting to sound "muy mexicano", then "mande" is definitely for you. It's an immediate indicator that you spent some time around mexicans. To my knowledge, this is exclusive to mexican spanish. You use it exactly the same way you would "cómo".

Hopefully this will save you from the deer in headlights look when you hear it. And if you want to impress your mexican friends or the mesero, don't hesitate to flex your spanish muscles and throw this word around.

¡Hasta Luego!

Con dinero baila el perro y sin dinero bailas como perro

2010-02-27T23:51:00.000-05:00

With money the dog will dance and without money you'll dance like a dog.

I nearly fell out my chair laughing when I heard this one. I love refranes (sayings). This one equates to our "Money makes the world go round". Or at least the first half of it does -- "Con dinero baila el perro".

The second half our refrán "sin dinero bailas como perro" doesn't directly translate to any expression in English that I know of, but I think you get it. If you don't have any money, you're the one taking the orders! Although I find the reference to a dancing dog much more fun and colorful.

There are a montón of refranes in Spanish, a lot which are hard to interpret, because we simply don't have corresponding sayings in English, and because you need a deep cultural understanding in addition to the language aspect.

I will be posting more refranes, but they will be the ones that have a corresponding saying in English, because those will be the ones we can understand and put to use right away.

¡Hasta la próxima!

Me caes bien - (Caer bien )

2010-02-27T23:27:00.001-05:00

I was browsing over an older blog entry about the verb gustar, and realized that I needed to make good on a promise I made, and that promise was to talk about caer bien, which we could say is a close relative of gustar. So today I'm making good on that promise. So without further ado....

Caer by itself means to fall. Caer bien literaly translated means "to fall well". So when we translate our phrase:

Me caes bien
You fall well on me

Great, that doesn't make much sense, does it? Now that we've gotten our literal translation out of the way, which isn't doing us much good, let's talk about what this really means.

In Spanish when you say someone "falls well on you", what you're really saying is that you like them. So let's revisit our example:

Me caes bien
I like you

Great! Now things are starting to make sense.

Here's another example:

¿Te caigo bien?
Do I fall well on you?

Or as we would actually say in English, "Do you like me?"

Now let's move on to something not quite so trivial.

Tu amiga me cae muy bien
I really like your friend

Me caen bien tus amigos
I like your friends

Caer bien works just like gustar, so if you understand how to use gustar, you' re already an expert on caer bien.

And unlike it's cousin gustar, there's nothing tricky here, it just means "To like someone". If you're not familar with gustar or want to know what makes gustar tricky, you can read my entry on gustar by clicking here.

You know, it's sad, but we don't always get along with everyone. And you'll need to know how to say that too. Fortunately, it's pan comido (really easy).

Tu amiga no me cae muy bien
I really don't like your friend

In fact, you actually have a few options to talk about how much you don't like someone.

Tu amiga me cae gorda
I really don't like your friend

And it's gordo if you're talking about a man. This is option actually slang. Something a little more standard would be...

Tu amiga me cae mal
I don't like your friend

And well, if you REALLY don't like someone you can just say "Te odio" - I hate you. Obviously this is rather strong.

Well, that;s it for now. If you've read my entry on gustar as well, you'll be completely prepared to talk about who you find attractive, and who you like as a friend, which is a very important distinction.

¡Chao!

Qué onda güey

2010-02-20T20:54:00.001-05:00

To be honest, I can't believe I haven't posted about this a long time ago.

If you spend any significant amount of time in México socializing with the people, or even here in the US, this is a phrase you can't escape from. It's virtually a staple of Méxican spanish.

When I go to Mexico, I spend 3-5 days in las calles (the streets) and bares (bars) talking with anyone and everyone. And talking to the taxistas (cab drivers) is just as fun, if not more so. But most of the language they teach me belongs on my other blog. But I digress. Getting back to the subject at hand, walking up and down the streets of Tijuana, I can't walk two steps without hearing these words, especially "güey".

Let's start with "Qué onda". It means "what's up?". "Güey" means dude, and you will likely see it written as buey as well. The real definition of "güey" is Ox, as in the animal. "Qué onda" literally is "what wave?". Best to just remember it as "what's up". Both of these are very informal, but very common as well.

"Qué onda" is pretty straight-forward, I only have one other thing to add about the expression. A few hand gestures and a change in the tone of your voice and "Qué onda güey" goes from "what's up" to "You got a problem dude?".

OK, so now let's talk about "güey".

So, who uses the word "güey"? This one's easy, everybody. Guys say it to guys, girls say it to girls, and guys say it to girls. Literally everyone uses this term, regardless of age.

How else can we use the word "güey"? Here's a couple of examples...

Qué pasa güey , qué haces güey, cómo estás güey, llamame güey.

I think you get the picture. You can use it in the same manner as you would "dude" in English.

Now, while it's true a montón (ton) of people use the word "güey", not everybody likes it. My maestra is one of those people, and quite surprisingly, she's only 23. So, like always, exercise a bit of caution.

Well, that's it. Use the words "Qué onda güey", and you are going to sound "muy Méxicano".

¡Hasta la próxima!

Me cuesta un ojo de la cara

2010-02-06T17:33:00.002-05:00

When something is expensive in English, we say it costs an arm and a leg. In Spanish it will cost you an eye "from the face" . I'm not sure where else an eye would come from, but hey, we're not here to criticize.

"Cuesta" is the verb costar, meaning to cost. Aside from costing you money or an arm and leg (or an eye) costar has another use.

If you say "me cuesta" it can mean that something is hard for you. Let's look at it in context:

A: Hola, ¿cómo estás?
B: Muy bien, ¿y tu?

A: ¡Que sorpresa! ¿Hablas español?
B: Si, hablo mucho, pero todavía estoy aprendiendo.

A: ¿Te cuesta?
B: Si, a veces me cuesta mucho, pero vale la pena.

Let's take a quick look our key phrases...

¿Te cuesta?
Is it hard for you?

Me cuesta mucho.
It's really hard for me.

Ya! That's it. After I heard this the first time, I started hearing it everywhere. This is something you'll want to have in your Spanish toolbox.

¡Hasta la próxima!

¿Cómo amaneciste?

2010-01-29T23:18:00.000-05:00

Today I thought I might share some humorous responses to some common questions. There's nothing like being able to add a little humor into your Spanish conversations. So let's get started...

¿Cómo dormiste?
How did you sleep?

Well, you could just reply "bien", but where's the fun in that? Instead try:

En mi estómago

On my stomach

En mi espalda

On my back

¿Cómo amaneciste?

You may not be familiar with this one. Colloquially it's a way of asking "how are you feeling this morning?". Perhaps you went to bed sick the night before, or maybe even a bit tipsy after a long night of partying.

But more literally it means something to the effect of "How did you wake up this morning?". And it's because of this meaning we can have a little fun with our response:

Acostado.
Lying down.

En mi cama.

In my bed.

Crudo.
Hung over

¿A qué hora te despertaste?
What time did you wake up?

No estoy despierto todavía.
I'm still not awake.

¿Quién te dijo que ya estaba despierto?
Who told you I was awake?

Well, that's it. Have fun with these and see if you can get a few laughs.

Hasta la próxima

Habla quedito

2010-01-23T21:15:00.000-05:00

This is a nifty little phrase I picked up. Let me give you a few examples and see if you can figure out what it means:

Habla quedito porque va a empezar la matiné

Habla quedito nos van a escuchar

Pon la musica, pero quedito

You've probably picked up the meaning of our phrase, habla quedito, but let's translate our sentences anyway.

Talk quietly because the show is going to start.

Talk quietly or they're going to hear us.

Put on the music, but not too loud

That's it! Pan comido, right? Don't you wish everything in Spanish was this easy?

¡Cuidense!

Tu y tus peros

2010-01-23T20:58:00.000-05:00

We all know someone who has an excuse for everything...

"I was going to but..."

"I started to do that but..."

"I was going to pay you back but..."

And I'm sure the list goes on. Luckily for us, you can tell them what's on your mind with some very simple Spanish:

Tu y tus peros, siempre con tus peros.
You and your buts, always with your buts.

No me des peros, mejor dime que no quiere salir, y ya.
Stop giving me your buts, it's better for you to tell me you don't want to go out, and that's that.

There's certainly no ground breaking discoveries of the Spanish language here, but it would never have occured to me I could use "pero" in this fashion.

I hope you find this bit of Spanish useful, so until the next time, adios!

No seas pelangoche

2010-01-20T19:18:00.000-05:00

Some people like to use language that's a little more "colorful" to spice up everyday speech. If you haven't guessed, I'm refering to malas palabras (bad words) and Spanish has no shortage of them. Especially Mexican Spanish.

Pelangoche is the word you use to describe someone who swears a lot. Pelangocha if you're talking about a woman.

So our phrase, No seas pelangoche, translates to something like "Don't swear so much" or "Don't be so foul mouthed". There's no exact translation, or at least not one that's coming to me right now, but I think you get the picture.

With that out of the way, I can move on to the next matter at hand. "No seas pelangoche" is also the name of my new blog.

My new blog is completely dedicated to the malas palabras of Mexican Spanish. I take a very close up and personal look at the racier side of Spanish, and share everything I learn with you in a straight-foward, matter-of -fact kind of way. I'm not pulling any punches, so you can expect to see very explicit language in both English and Spanish.

Now that I've gotten the disclaimer out of the way, here's the link to my new blog:

http://pelangoche.blogspot.com/

For those of you interested in that aspect of Spanish, enjoy!

Andar de volada

2010-01-12T20:06:00.011-05:00

I talked about de volada in another post, which you can find here. However, when you combine de volada with andar, you get a completely different meaning.

Speaking of andar, if you're not familiar with that verb, you can read about it here.

But let's move on and start talking about andar de volada.

Esta chava anda de volada conmigo pero no le gusta.
This girl is flirting with me but I'm not attracted to her.

¿Quien es esa chica que anda de volada contigo?
Who is that girl flirting with you?

Another way to talk about flirting is using the verb coquetear, which also means to flirt. I wrote a little about coquetear here in a previous post. That post is a little long, so if you're short on time, just jump to the end of the post to get directly to the stuff on coquetear.

That's it for now. Sooner or later you're bound to overhear someone talking about flirting, or perhaps you'll anda de volada con alguien yourself.

¡Hasta luego!

de volada

2010-01-12T19:31:00.005-05:00

Well, the holidays are over and it's time for me to stop being flojo (lazy) and get back to my obsession with Spanish.

Today we're going to talk about de volada, and luckily for us, it's pretty straight forward.

Pensé que iba a llegar de volada, pero me tarde mucho.
I thought I was going to get there right away, but it took me a long time.

Vente de volada a casa.
Come home right away.

Ya voy para alla de volada.
I'm headed over there right away.

As you can see from the examples, de volada implies a sense of urgency...right away or immediately.

This will definitely make your Spanish sound more natural, so start using it right away and have some fun while you're at it!

Bañarse, ducharse, la tina y la ducha

2009-12-18T23:50:00.009-05:00

Bañarse and ducharse are words you pick up relatively early in your Spanish studies. But just in case these words are new to you, they mean to bath and to shower, respectively.

Here's some quick and simple examples of how to use these :

Voy a ducharme OR Me voy a duchar
I'm going to take a shower

Voy a bañarme OR Me voy a bañar
I'm going to take a bath

But you may not hear ducharse very often. Why is that you ask? Because in some Spanish speaking countries, when people use bañarse, they often mean they're going to take a shower. With that in mind our translation of bañarse changes:

Voy a bañarme OR Me voy a bañar
I'm going to take a shower

So then, if bañarse is used to talk about showering, how the heck do we know when someone is actually talking about taking a bath? That's where "la tina" comes into play. If you wanted to say that you were going to take a bath, you would say:

Voy a bañarme en la tina / Me voy a bañar en la tina

Our example above directly translates to "I'm going to take a bath".

You can also say:

Voy a bañarme en la ducha / Me voy a bañar en la ducha

And you've probably figured out by now that ducha means shower.

FYI, other words for bathtub are bañera and bañadera.

I don't know all the countries that use bañarse and ducharse as synonyms, but I can tell you that México does. You can also expect to hear "la tina" to refer to the bathtub.

Don't worry, no one will look at you like a freak if you use ducharse to say you're going to take a shower. It's standard Spanish that will be understood anywhere you go.

Hmm. Ironically, now that I've finished this post, me voy a bañar.

¡Adios!

Tienes nopal en la cara - Transcripts

2009-12-17T18:17:00.008-05:00

So in my last post, I discussed the phrase "tiene nopal en la cara". If you missed it, you can find it here. I actually discussed the phrase in a video, and as promised here's the transcript:

Hola, que onda, como estan a todas?
Hello, what’s up, how is everybody?

Hoy voy a hablar de una frase. La frase es tiene
nopal en la cara.
Today I’m going to talk about a phrase, and the phrase is tiene nopal en la cara (You have a cactus on your face).

OK, primero voy a explicar que es un, un nopal.
First I’m going to explain what a “nopal” is.

En ingles, nopal significa "cactus". Desde hace mucho,
desde los tiempos de los Aztecas y los Mayas, nopal
se refiere a la gente mexicano.
In English, nopal means catctus. For a long time, since the times of the Aztecs and the Mayas, nopal has been used to refer the Mexican people.

OK, entonces, que signicica "tiene nopal en la cara"? "tiene nopal en la cara" significa que alguien se ve muy, muy, mexicano.
OK, so then what does “tiene nopal en la cara” mean? It means that someone looks Mexican.

OK, les doy un emjemplo. Ella tiene nopal en la cara pero no se hablar espanol.
**I should have said "...no sabe hablar español"
OK, I’ll give you an example. She looks Mexican, but she doesn’t know how to speak Spanish.

Esa frase tal vez no es muy util, pero pense que era muy interesante,
por eso queria compartirlo con ustedes.
This phrase may not be very useful, but I thought it was interesting and wanted to share it with you.

Bueno, ya esta, nos vemos. Hasta la proxima.
Well, that’s it. See you later. Until the next time!

Tiene nopal en la cara

2009-12-16T19:02:00.011-05:00

In today's post I'm bringing you yet another piece genuine Spanish I picked up from a conversation with a native speaker. But this post is going to be a little different.

A few days ago I decided to make a video of myself speaking Spanish and shared it with a few friends. One of those friends recommended that I post the video here on my blog. Well, needless to say I was (and still am) a bit reluctant, but with a little prodding, my amigo talked me into it. So, without further ado...

Tiene nopal en la cara

I hope you enjoy the video. I must say getting in front of the camera was more difficult than I thought. If you like the idea of video entries, let me know, I'm toying with the idea of trying this again.

Also, making a video or audio recording of yourself speaking Spanish is a great exercise for improving your Spanish. It's quite an experience to hear yourself speak Spanish, and hear the mistakes you didn't realize you were making. And speaking of mistakes, I'll be posting a transcript of my video (in English and Spanish) which will correct the errors in my video.

Until then, ¡Hasta luego!

** You can find the transcript for the video here.

México, Méjico y Mexicas

2009-12-14T19:39:00.008-05:00

If you don't know, there are two ways to spell México, with the second way being Méjico.

While I was aware of the difference in spelling, I had no idea why there were 2 spellings, and never really put much thought into it. But thanks to my maestra and Google, the mystery has been unraveled.

The word México is deeply intertwined with the history of the Mexican people, taken from the language of the Nahua Aztec tribe, also known as the Mexicas, who spoke Nahuatl.

In short, the word México comes from the language of the Mexicas (Aztecs), Nahuatl. So now that I've given you a very abbreviated history of the word "México", then where does "Méjico" come from?

Méjico is the spelling given to us by modern day Spanish, although the Real Academia de la Lengua Española does recognize both spellings.

So then the question becomes, which one do I use, or does it even matter?

Mexicans will use México because of the historical and cultural ties, but in Spain the standard is Méjico. Which one you use is up to you. If the Spanish of Spain is going to be your forte, then perhaps going with "Méjico" is your best option.

My explanation here barely scratches the surface of what can be a touchy subject for some people. If you want to know more, here are a few links that might be of interest:

WordReference - México vs Méjico

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Mexico

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexica

I hope you enjoyed this brief history lesson.

¡Hasta luego!

Tienes una cara

2009-12-05T22:31:00.003-05:00

Literally, this translates to "you have a face". Well, doesn't everybody?

But of course, if you've studied Spanish long enough, you know that you can't translate everything literally. So with that in mind, what does this mean?

Well, the expression "Tienes una cara" is used when someone has a look on their face as if something might be wrong, maybe they have something on their mind, they just don't look like they normally do.

This brings us to a very similar expression "por qué esa cara?" - "Why the long face?" might be a good translation. You use it when you see someone is clearly bothered by something. You might also follow up this question with another one..."qué tienes?" - What's wrong?

But let's get back to our discussion of caras.

It turns out there are many different types of caras.

Tienes cara de enojo/enojada/enfadado.
You look angry.

Tienes cara de sueño.
You look sleepy.

¿Por qué tienes esa cara de niño con juegete nuevo?
Why do you look like a kid with a new toy?

¿Por qué tienes esa cara de felicidad?
Why do you look so happy?

Tienes cara de sorpresa.
You look surprised.

There are many, many more types of faces in Spanish, and this is just short list to help you get started talking about them.

¡Hasta la proxima!