This is an odd word. It means an outline and is used very much like we would use the word in English. It would be a rough draft to a drawing or it could be a word list that you would use as a prompt while giving a speech or it could be the first […]

Monte means mount or mountain…most of the time. It can also mean woods, brush or weeds. The second meaning is most common where we live. Since there are no rises much above a few feet in the Yucatán Peninsula, people just use the word to refer to brush or weeds. My first encounter with the […]

Whenever I see the word costumbre I automatically think costume because of the beginning of the word. But that is not the meaning of costumbre. Costumbre means a habit, custom or tradition. Something you do because you always have is a costumbre. In Mexico Chiles en Nogada in September is a yummy costumbre. Costume is, […]

Monto means amount. It is an accounting term and is often seen where you could substitute the word total, but not always. The phrase “monto original de la inversión” would be translated “original amount of the investment,” or, “initial investment.” Total would be the summary of everything added and subtracted at the end, which can […]

I was explaining the biblical definitions of the words mercy and grace one time to a group of young people. These were completely new words for them; therefore, they did not catch the error that I wrote on the paper I handed them. Mercy is misericordia. Grace is gracia. The problem came when I wrote […]

Tarea is the word for task, job or assignment. It is also the word used for homework. As I thought about homework in relationship to this word, tarea, I thought it was a bit odd that the word really just means any task…not necessarily something that is brought home from school for completion. Have you […]

The word propaganda has always carried the idea government brainwashing for me. The word means very much what it looks like–ideas that are propagated. This can be via print, video, audio or any other medium. In Spanish the word simply means advertising. While this could be any medium, I have only heard the word used […]