Deconstructing A Very Mexican Saying

Mexico is where two worlds have fused together to produce a version of Spanish that is far richer in culture than that of its European birthplace. This richness of the Mexican culture should, to a great extent, explain our bias toward their flavor of the Spanish language. A language this rich in cultural heritage often grows into an interesting stewpot of local refranes (sayings) and proverbs unique to its people. It is said, Mexicans are loaded with a saying for virtually any situation in life, which is what makes them such excellent communicators! The sentence being deconstructed in this article demonstrates just that.

One sentence, Three Learnings

We have often used sentences, phrases, and expressions from real-life Spanish conversations to learn and teach some of the most annoying and hard-to-grasp aspects of the Spanish grammar and drive home new vocabulary in the process. The philosophy behind this methodology is that you’re more likely (and strongly urged) to use these sentences in your own day-to-day conversations and help yourself get comfortably fluent in the Spanish language without actively memorizing any grammar rules. For this purpose, it’s reasonably important that you include these sentences in your flashcard decks and review them thoroughly and often.

Learn To Recount Your Imagination In Spanish

They say, imagination is the cheapest luxury one can afford. What few realize is that it can also be one of the most effective tool for learning Spanish. Whenever we deconstruct a sentence, we essentially break down an overwhelming behemoth of a sentence into tiny, easily understandable fragments that our minds instantly assimilate. The sentence that we are going to break down here has nothing grand about it but would prove immensely helpful if you ever try relating an account of your dreams and ambitions which in turn would build your Spanish, bit by bit. You see, imagination is also often the cheapest language teacher!

When Incorrect Spanish Is The Preferred Spanish

The sentence deconstructed here will illustrate Mexican colloquialism, the Spanish preterit conjugation of an irregular verb, and a demonstrative pronoun, all at once. For anyone learning Spanish, deconstructing simple sentences and reviewing them whenever possible is always way better than mugging up lists of Spanish words with their out-of-context meanings. We’ll also see here, how deliberately violating those rules of grammar and using incorrect vocabulary creatively could get you in the league of native speakers quickly. Obviously, there must be some method to this madness otherwise you run the risk of sounding naïve.

Fresh Spanish From The Mexican Barrio

The sentence that we are going to dissect today is a typical illustration of how Spanish sounds in the living rooms and the narrow alleys of Mexico. Loaded with not one but two local Mexican Spanish slang words, one of which might as well be the de-facto national expression of the country, it just doesn’t get any more Mexican than this! Other than its rich linguistic content (which is what must matter the most to those learning Spanish), there’s nothing special about this sentence which is neither a witty saying, nor a popular movie line. It is just something off a real conversation between real Mexicans in a real context.

Angry Mom Teaches Spanish

Here comes yet another deconstruction session where we dive right into the belly of the beast in an attempt to understand how the Spanish language really functions. Since, cramming up rules of the Spanish grammar and meanings of Spanish words off a dictionary are passé, we are doing in these sessions what we all did to get fluent and confident with our mother tongues even before we hit our first grade schools. Today’s sentence is an angry reprimand which should make it fun to dissect. Almost often a typical Mexican mother would be heard yelling out this kind of line at her bratty kids when they are being pests at bath-time.

3 Meanings Of Acelerado

Just like in English, words in Spanish can, and often do, take a figurative meaning that is entirely different from what it literally means depending on the context. This is the point today’s very simple yet grammatically rich Spanish-language sentence is going to illustrate. What we are going to dissect today is a construct commonplace in real conversations in Mexican households yet not endorsed by mainstream grammar books. This is exactly what this site aims at anyways – Helping you speak Spanish as spoken by real Latinos and not necessarily as always prescribed by grammar books and constructed by literary characters.

A Bird In Hand Is Good Spanish

Picking a simple sentence, especially an interesting proverb or saying, and performing a grammar autopsy on it is perhaps the easiest way of understanding and learning some practical Spanish grammar without feeling monotonous. The grammar and vocabulary one absorbs this way is practically more sustainable as small sentences are better assimilated than larger bodies of work such as novels. Using small, manageable phrases you assimilate key concepts and become better equipped to produce spoken Spanish without mental translation. With this understanding, today, we will attempt to learn some Spanish using an age-old adage.

Learn Spanish In A Sentence

Acquiring Spanish (read Spanish vocabulary) is most efficient when done in context. The importance of color a context lends to any new word or phrase and its role in long-term retention just can’t be stressed enough. In order to illustrate this today, we will pick a very simplistic yet practical idea which will not only help you learn new words but also make it easier for you to absorb some essential Spanish grammar without memorizing a single dead-beat rule from that spooky grammar tome. All this as you also gradually get a fair understanding of some fun and interesting trivia on Latino culture. Three birds, one stone!