Esposo and marido both mean husband. But where esposa means wife, marida is not a word. There is a custom here for a man to call his wife “mi vieja” and a woman to call her husband “mi viejo”. Literally “my old woman” or “my old man”.

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.

I am not sure if jaque mate is really a Spanish, French or Arabic term. Jaque is used as check in chess. Mate (Spanish pronunciation) is the same word we use as mate in chess. Jaque mate is checkmate. Chess, by the way is ajedrez. Today I went to a tailor to see about having […]

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 […]

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 […]

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). […]