You would not want someone calling you prepotente. While it is not a curse word or anything like that, it is an adjective that describes someone who is overbearing, arrogant, or a bully.

Hispanohablante simply means a Spanish speaking person. That one is not too hard to figure out. An English speaking person is called an angloparlante.

Cubierto is an adjective which means covered or filled. While there are different usages of the word cubierto, the one I find most interesting is the meaning of a place setting of silverware. When asking for silverware at a restaurant you ask for cubiertos. It means cutlery.

As an athlete I often hear people talk about alto rendimiento. I gathered an idea of what it meant by the way it is used. The meaning I extracted had to do with getting the most you can out of your abilities. Yesterday while browsing through the clothing section of Wal-Mart I saw a shirt [...]

Spanish cartoons have helped my children learn most of their Spanish. Me too. One such cartoon introduces a little girl and says she is graciosa. Graciosa or gracioso can mean what it looks like gracious or graceful but it also means funny. And this is how it is used in reference to the girl.

Taller in Spanish has nothing to do with height. Taller is a workshop. One of the common jokes around here to tell visitors is that when they see a “Taller Mechánico” sign it means that they have a mechanic that is tall enough to work on four wheel drive vehicles. But it really just means [...]

Yesterday I was inviting a man to a special meeting at our church. We are using the fact that we have applied new paint and bought new items for the church to invite the people from the neighborhood. They saw us painting the outside of the building, now we want to give them an opportunity [...]

In its most benign form bien means good. ¿Como está? (How are you?) Bien. (Good, fine.) Bien can also mean muy. Those shoes are bien feo (very ugly). Make it plural, bienes, and you have goods, material possessions.

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 [...]