These two words, harina and arena, give me fits. Although they look very different, their pronunciation is very close, the difference of an i and an e. Harina is flour and arena is sand. I don’t know how many times, no matter how hard I try, I have ordered sand tortillas.

Don’t you just love dimples? They are so cute. But the word in Spanish, hoyuelo, doesn’t seem to me as cute as the dimples. Hoyuelo is dimple. I read that in Chile they also use the word margaritas to mean dimples.

Rótula is the kneecap. It can also be used for any ball and socket joint. I learned this word when I needed to replace a sway arm bushing on my car. I took the old rótula to the transmission shop next door. I wasn’t needing them to change it for me, I just needed them [...]

Admirar can mean admire, but it also has a surprising meaning. It is to astonish or amaze. But it is with the idea of to startle.

This last week I had my bicycle worked on and I heard the word chicote for the second time. The first time was a couple of weeks ago a man was talking about the accelerator cable on his car. On my bicycle the mechanic was talking about the brake and gear cables. When I looked [...]

Culto is a word that has a few different meanings. Cultured or educated. This would refer to someone who is learned or knowledgeable about many different subjects. Service. Culto can be a service as in a church service, or it can be someone’s service to a cause. Cult. The obvious use of the word culto [...]

Tocar means to touch. One would say tocar la puerta to indicate knock on the door. Also when you play an instrument you tocar el instrumento.