Hacer has a multitude of meanings. When tied together with time, such as, hace tres años, it means since or ago.
I must have missed this lesson in school because I don’t ever remember learning any rules for how hacer is used in this way. It is something you hear often though. It does not take […]

Aguafiestas is from the two words, agua and fiestas. Agua being water and fiestas parties, a wet party. But more properly it is a slang term for a wet blanket, a kill joy, a party pooper, or someone who takes all the fun out.

In Spanish (or Mexico at least), you don’t ask a person if they understand you, you ask them if you are making yourself clear. To ask them if they understand is putting the blame on them if they do not. But by asking if you are explaining yourself then you place the blame on yourself […]

While driving through town the other day I spotted a sign on a house advertising a bufete jurídico.
Now bufete makes me think of lots of food, and it does refer to a table used to hold a lot of food. It also means a desk or the office of a lawyer.
Jurídico means a persons rights […]

Cárcel is a jail. Like in English, there are several words to name a jail in Spanish. Other names are prisión, penal and presidio. Those are dictionary words to describe a place for prisoners.
In English we also have the slang terms slammer, cooler, crowbar hotel, pen, joint and pokey (just to name a few). What […]

If you have ever watched Speedy Gonzales on TV you have heard him say “¡ándale!” From what I have read, this usage of the verb andar is pretty unique to Mexico. It has several meanings.
It can mean “come on, hurry up!”
Or, “That’s it! You got it.”
If used in a whining way while begging it can […]

Fijar is to stick or affix one thing to another. It would be used with cola when you want to stick an item to something else, i.e.: use la cola para fijar el papel en la pared.
An interesting usage of the word though is to pay attention. Literally you tell someone to fix themselves on […]

The word varonilmente has shown up the last few times at church. It is an interesting word. The base word is varón which means man. Varonilmente therefore is literally manly. It is also used to mean valiant.

Sentido is a word that has multiple meanings.
It is the participle for sentir, to feel. It can be used in just about any way we use feel in English. It can mean a physical touch type feel, or a feeling you get when you know something is right or wrong. Such as a perception.
As an […]

Víspera is the eve of something, such as Christmas eve or Thanksgiving eve. Víspera would be the afternoon or evening before an event.
Christmas eve and New Year’s eve have their own special names; nochebuena and nochevieja respectively.