Six Words That Rule The Streets Of Mexico

Having more Spanish speakers than any other country on the planet, Mexico naturally holds the lion’s share in vernacular creativity. Mexican slang lexicon is not only matured and complex but also as colorful and diverse, if not more, as any of its counterparts. Given the proliferation of Mexicans in not only entertainment but rather every aspect of life and trade in the Western world, we already enjoy a healthy exposure to its slang vocabulary. Although an exhaustive study of any country’s colloquialism would be overkill, learning some of the most common expressions is mighty fun and useful. Here, we explore six of them from Mexico.

So Many Ways “To Pull” In Spanish!

Languages don’t always work in predictable ways. They have rules and they break their own rules. They have more than one word for the same thing and the same word for more than one thing. This makes them frustratingly complex and it is this complexity that makes them beautiful. This complexity is the very hallmark of an organic language setting them apart from the likes of Klingon and Dothraki. One such fun aspect of Spanish is its translation for the English verb “to pull.” If you’ve just started out with the language, it’s a no-brainer: halar. But there’s more than meets the eye. Turns out, Mexicans and their neighbors don’t even like the word!

Show Off Your Spanish Skills This Thanksgiving

This post is for our American friends learning Spanish. Thanksgiving is just around the corner and we just can’t wait for the big turkey dinner with friends and family. Now, although the occasion isn’t exactly observed by the Spanish-speaking world, a fiesta is a fiesta. Let’s face it, Thanksgiving is all about food and so are the Latinos! So, now would be as awesome a time as any to brag about your Spanish before an audience of clueless folks. The millions of Spanish-speakers who call America home enjoy the day as much as you do if not more. And why not! A day off is a day off, after all. And the turkey dinner. So let’s dive in and get it over with.

Fun Age And Birthday Expressions Phrase Books Never Teach You

Read this article at the PeppyBurro blog.

Throw A Coyote And Take A Nap

Spanish speakers, for whatever reason, love their afternoon siestas. Or any siesta for that matter. Quick naps are always a welcome break from the rigors of a busy hardworking life. That’s why it’s imperative that you learn early on how to not only do it but also talk about it. At the very least, you want to be able to say, “I’m going to take a quick nap,” without sounding awkward. Perhaps you already know how to. But most likely that’s not going to cut it if you plan on impressing your buddies from Mexico or other Spanish-speaking countries. Think of it as saying “Latinos are good,” when you could say “Latinos kick ass.” See what I mean?

Colombian Spanish – Street Speech From Shakira’s Homeland

While the jury is still out on which Spanish is The Absolute, an overwhelming number of both native and non-native speakers hold the Colombian flavor in high regard. This ambiguous claim might, and often does, spawn a heated debate amongst Spanish speakers for every nationality has reasons to take their Spanish as “standard” Spanish. Nevertheless, if you have set your heart on the Colombian variant, it won’t hurt to learn about some of its most defining features and nuances. The Spanish spoken in Colombia differs from the others in more ways than a few and this article discusses some of the most salient ones of all.

The 4 Keywords Of Argentinean Spanish Other Than Che

The Argentineans could practically go on for hours at a stretch with anyone who’d care to listen! And, naturally, this overdose of spoken Spanish is bound to spawn an entire jargon of local slang and idiosyncrasies that could catch even a master of Spanish off-guard. Even someone who can’t say, “My name is Bill,” in Spanish would know that che is what the Argentineans live and breathe. What many don’t know, however, is that Argentinean life doesn’t start and end with just che. A dialect of Spanish as rich as Argentinean ought to do much better than that; here, we explore 4 words from Argentina that you just can’t do without.

The Spanish Object Pronouns – Leísmo, Laísmo, And Loísmo

The Spanish language has object pronouns just like its other Romance cousins. However, to us English speakers, they often seem alien because English doesn’t stress on them as much as Spanish does. Many rookie learners doing Spanish get thoroughly confused with the multitude of rules surrounding these pronouns and this article intends to clear the air once and for all. Actually, the only confusing bit happens to be the third person forms that seem deceptively simple – La, lo, and le. In keeping with the essence of simplicity that our articles feature, we will try to steer clear of grammatical nomenclature as far as possible.

Mexican Spanish – Órale, Híjole, And Others

It’s almost impossible to spend some time in Mexico and yet never get to hear some of those exceptionally Mexican words that typically end in “-le” and sound alien even to a native Spanish speaker from outside of Mexico. Words such as órale, híjole, ándale, etc. are as authentically Mexican as mezcal, taco, or piñata and are yet absent from most Spanish language dictionaries. If you don’t understand these words, making sense of most street conversations in Mexico would be nothing short of a challenge as they are generously peppered all over the fabric of Mexican Spanish. This article tries to make sense of this jargon for you.

Fresas And Nacos: The Preppies And The White-Trash Of Mexico

No linguistic study of any human culture can ever be complete without a fair understanding of that culture’s social stereotypes. Yankees, redheads, hicks, yuppies, preppies, Valley Girls...you can’t fully understand the Americans unless you understand their clichéd stereotypes. In a similar fashion, if you are learning Mexican Spanish, it won’t hurt to get acquainted with the stereotypes that define their lifestyle and culture. While stereotypes are rightly frowned upon for their prejudices, using them without being judgmental can immensely help understand some of the most colorful and interesting aspects of a culture.

Tú Or Vos? The Culture Dilemma

English, as we know it today, is a very simple language when it comes to addressing people. You have just one word (you) that can be used for strangers and acquaintances alike regardless of your level of intimacy with them. With Spanish, life gets a bit complicated because depending on where you are and who you are with, you must carefully choose from three different pronouns to sound appropriate. While knowledge of tú and usted is commonplace, it’s vos that’s relatively unknown to most Spanish learners. Here, we will try to explore voseo – the usage of vos – in different cultural contexts throughout the Hispanic world.

Some Costa Rican Words For Your Private Organs

Regardless of who you are and how you are learning Spanish, one of the first things that strike you as irresistibly interesting is the glossary of naughty words. There are known to be countless learners, quite unsurprisingly, who have researched and assimilated the vulgar and taboo vocabulary even before they learn how to say, “¡Buenos días!” in Spanish! Even some us might as well be one of them. And this is only human; anything forbidden charms us more. Going against the grain is human nature, more so when it comes to acquiring a language. And Spanish has on offer an extremely rich glossary when it comes to vulgarism!

Jacket Vs. Hand-Job!

Like all other tongues, the Spanish language too has its own share of regional quirkiness and the one from Mexico, in particular, is no different. In fact, it is this quirkiness of Mexican Spanish that makes it one of most learners’ top favorites amongst all known dialects of Spanish. Let’s explore this quirkiness in something as simple as a “jacket.” We all know it translates to la chaqueta in Spanish. What makes it so special here is that this seemingly innocent word for a piece of clothing has an embarrassing, far-from-innocent, kind of perverted connotation in the streets of Mexico and you must be careful when using it!

Taking A Bath Or Taking A Shower?

Two words one picks up pretty early in their Spanish-learning program are ducharse and bañarse. If you are one of them, you already know what grammar has to say about their meanings – that ducharse means “to shower” and bañarse means “to bathe”. Simple, isn’t it? Unfortunately, you are in for a little bit of disappointment if you spent countless hours cramming up these meanings off the dictionary. Why? Well, because the streets of Latin America have a slightly different way of talking about bathing. This is another of the several classic examples of how the Spanish language has evolved differently in different cultures.

Does Messi Speak The Spanish Of The Illiterate?

Most textbooks claiming to teach easy Spanish would have you believe that the letters “y” and “ll” are pronounced the same in this language and that the sound they carry is that of “y” in “yellow” in Latin America and that of “llio” in “bullion” in Spain. But in reality, native Spanish language is far from this simplistic picture. This language was not born with similar-sounding “y” and “ll”; on the contrary, early Spanish mandated that “y” be pronounced as the “j” in “jug” and “ll” be pronounced as “y” in “yellow”. Centuries of permutation and combination meant that this distinction blurred almost completely – almost.

Che Beyond Guevara

For most of us lesser mortals who don’t have Spanish in our blood, the word, che, stands for Ernesto Guevara of Argentina and little else. However, now that we are learning Spanish with dreams of becoming one of them someday, it is interesting as well as essential to know that che is to the Argentineans what güey is to the Mexicans, a word with no particular meaning yet ubiquitous all over the country, more so than probably any other vernacular expression. If you are in Buenos Aires, you’d hear this word spoken almost twice every minute and this is no exaggeration of this word’s dominance over the Argentinean lifestyle.

23 Local Names For “Bus” In Spanish

From Bogotá to Barcelona and from Guadalajara to Granada, the streets of the Spanish-speaking world are a familiar sight and buses must, undeniably, be the single most prominent fixture in those pictures. Now, buses are everywhere but those in Latin America are strikingly different – strikingly Latino. Here, we’ll see how diversity in Spanish dictates diversity in what these vehicles are called by the locals just as different regions have different Spanish words for “boy”. Clad in psychedelic colors and intriguing graffiti, these are nothing short of Hispanic culture on wheels and are every bit worth capturing on film!

111 Spanish Slangs From The Streets Of Peru

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Spanish In The Streets – Local Words For “Boy”

During my early days of learning Spanish, I would often wonder if there were any way to understand the various Spanish words for the English word, “boy”. Per my sketchy knowledge of this language at that point in time, niño was one way to refer to a male child. But then, it turns out there is a whole jargon of Spanish colloquialism that represent the regional and cultural variations in the way young men and women are referred to in different parts of the Spanish-speaking world, niño being just one of them. A study of these subtleties make for an interesting insight into how local culture impacts the language on the streets.

Bitching In Spanish Like A Latino

Ever reflected on how all of us, as language learners, have secretly fancied being able to unleash the choicest of insults in the target language? I don’t know about you but I know most Spanish learners who have and that includes me. Though, being members of an allegedly civilized society, we might never even need to use any such derogatory words for anyone, it’s fun to learn them and be able to use them anyways. Just remember that while it’s fun knowing them, actually using them should be avoided under all circumstances. Knowledge of such terms is to only serve the purpose of recognizing when someone else is using them.