Today I was reminded of the word lagaña as we stood in the eye doctor’s office. It was the first funny Spanish word I remember learning as a teen. We were making a trip across the border into Mexico and we taught a friend to say “soy lagaña” and told him it meant “I’m handsome.” […]

When students bring their books to school they usually use a backpack as a book bag. They call them mochilas. I was curious as to whether mochila was a very common word, or if it is one that changes from country to country. It seems, from my research on the net, that it is very […]

To say future in Spanish you can just use futuro, but a much more interesting word is porvenir. I have heard it used mostly when talking about someone’s future as opposed to the future in general. In the dictionaries I have seen they do not make a distinction between the meanings of the words futuro […]

If you are in a building in an emergency and you are looking for the éxito to get out, you won’t find it. Éxito means a success. What you want, the way out or exit, is salida.

In English this word means to be acquainted with, but in Spanish it is to be related to. The word means a family member or having to do with a family. There is another Spanish word that also means the same thing, it is pariente. Familiar as stated above is a noun, but there is […]

Of course we know that cámara (fotográfica) means camera. Both words come from a Latin root which means chamber. In Spanish the word can be used for room, loft, house or even a legislative body. But most interesting to me is that it is also the word used for an inner tube on a bicycle […]

Huelga is the noun for the word strike, as in a hunger strike or a strike from work. There is not much to say about the noun other than to know its definition. It is used the same way we would use the word strike in English. What is interesting though is the verb holgar. […]