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). [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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. [...]

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.

Niño, hombre, varón are all types of men. Niño is boy. Hombre is man. Varón, you may be less familiar with, in general it means male. But it can also be used to mean a man of authority or respect.