Taller in Spanish has nothing to do with height. Taller is a workshop. One of the common jokes around here to tell visitors is that when they see a “Taller Mechánico” sign it means that they have a mechanic that is tall enough to work on four wheel drive vehicles. But it really just means [...]

In a country where the vast majority of the construction is blocks and concrete, there is a great need for albañiles. An albañil is a mason or bricklayer. It is a very basic job that does not pay much. But just because everyone can do the work of an albañil does not mean everyone does [...]

Esposo and marido both mean husband. But where esposa means wife, marida is not a word. There is a custom here for a man to call his wife “mi vieja” and a woman to call her husband “mi viejo”. Literally “my old woman” or “my old man”.

Rendirse means to surrender, tire out or give up. This is a reflexive verb that actually makes sense to me. Rendir (without the se) means to conquer, overcome, tire out (them not me) or to produce. If one is doing it to themselves they are surrendering or giving up. If one is doing it to [...]

Yesterday I was inviting a man to a special meeting at our church. We are using the fact that we have applied new paint and bought new items for the church to invite the people from the neighborhood. They saw us painting the outside of the building, now we want to give them an opportunity [...]

In its most benign form bien means good. ¿Como está? (How are you?) Bien. (Good, fine.) Bien can also mean muy. Those shoes are bien feo (very ugly). Make it plural, bienes, and you have goods, material possessions.

I am not sure if jaque mate is really a Spanish, French or Arabic term. Jaque is used as check in chess. Mate (Spanish pronunciation) is the same word we use as mate in chess. Jaque mate is checkmate. Chess, by the way is ajedrez. Today I went to a tailor to see about having [...]