In Mexico we used the word chango to mean a monkey. I think that the use of chango in this way is a Mexican thing. They also use the word mono, which is what the rest of the world uses for monkey. I was quite surprised when we first moved to Argentina to see a cage [...]

I have heard bronca used to mean various things from a slight annoyance to a knock-down-drag-out fight. I would guess that it depends on context if the meaning is a small argument between friends or a scolding that ends up in a quarrel.

A couple of weeks ago I heard someone talking about chistes verdes. I did not know what that expression meant, but I gathered from the way it was said it meant off-color jokes, or dirty jokes. What little research I did on this phrase (I have to admit I really did not want to find [...]

We are having a shortage of certain food products in Argentina right now. The price of sugar has gone up considerably and stores are limiting how many bags of sugar (and now other products) a person can buy. This is called an escasez. The paper today says because of a shortage, escasez, there will soon [...]

Canoso is grey-haired or white-haired. It is an adjective that describes a person, therefore it can be masculine or femenine; i.e., canoso or canosa.

Today in Argentina all the gas stations shut down and would not sell gas for 4 hours. This was a nationwide ban on the sale of gas in the country. According to the newspaper the gremio of the gas producers is who put the ban on the sale of gas. Gremio is a union. Gremio [...]

Pochoclo is the word used for popcorn in Argentina. It seems to be uniquely used here. In the rest of Latin America (as far as I know) the word for popcorn is palomitas.

A chancho is a pig. This seems to be a uniquely Latin American word. Another common word for pig is cerdo.

I saw the word furgón in relation to a train boxcar, but it can also be used to mean semi-truck trailer. An armored car is a furgón blindado.