If you live on la mera esquina, you live right on the corner. The adjective mero means mere, pure or can also mean simple. The whole idea is that it is the pure form of something. Kind of like a simple ingredient, or single ingredient. The purest form.

Nuevo means new. It refers to things that are new, such as a new coat. When the item it is applied to is plural nuevo also becomes plural, zapatos nuevos, literally, shoes news. It of course can be masculine or feminine depending on its object, nuevo or nueva. When you have something to tell it [...]

Cotidiano means daily or every day. I have no idea where this meaning comes from. I head the word last night and realized that I have heard it before, but never knew what it meant. Now that I looked it up, I still don’t know much about it.

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 [...]

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 [...]