Monte means mount or mountain…most of the time. It can also mean woods, brush or weeds. The second meaning is most common where we live. Since there are no rises much above a few feet in the Yucatán Peninsula, people just use the word to refer to brush or weeds. My first encounter with the [...]

To answer a knock at the gate or a doorbell you say, “¡voy!” It means I go and is quite opposite from what we say in English–”Coming!” It has been argued that in English there is a lack of understanding of the proper usage of the words come and go (as well as bring and [...]

Whenever I see the word costumbre I automatically think costume because of the beginning of the word. But that is not the meaning of costumbre. Costumbre means a habit, custom or tradition. Something you do because you always have is a costumbre. In Mexico Chiles en Nogada in September is a yummy costumbre. Costume is, [...]

Besides pedir, another way to ask for something is rogar. This is typically a stronger word in meaning, but they are synonyms of one another. Pedir would be your generic word for requesting something. Rogar is stronger in that it carries the idea of beseeching or begging the other person. It is often used in [...]

Monto means amount. It is an accounting term and is often seen where you could substitute the word total, but not always. The phrase “monto original de la inversión” would be translated “original amount of the investment,” or, “initial investment.” Total would be the summary of everything added and subtracted at the end, which can [...]

One day at church our daughter was wearing some new shoes. Since anything that clean on a toddler would have to be new, someone asked if she was estrenando her new shoes. We had never heard this word before, so they explained when you use or wear something for the first time it is estrenar. [...]

I was explaining the biblical definitions of the words mercy and grace one time to a group of young people. These were completely new words for them; therefore, they did not catch the error that I wrote on the paper I handed them. Mercy is misericordia. Grace is gracia. The problem came when I wrote [...]