I thought tintorería was a window tinting shop for a long time. Even though there is a lot of sun here I could not figure out why they needed so many tint shops. Then I found out tintorería is a dry-cleaner’s shop.

I have seen the word abarrotes on many stores. These are typically smaller stores that sell just basic food items. Mostly small neighborhood stores. I thought it meant something like “quick in and out store” but my friend told me the other day she always thought it meant groceries. I looked up the word and […]

Desechables are disposables. Items you would use once then discard, such as paper or plastic plates, cups and bowls or syringes or diapers.

Butaca is an arm chair, or a seat. It can mean theater seating. At our local baseball stadium the seating is divided in four sections. Two of them are called butaca and butaca alta. Butaca would be the field level seating and the butaca alta is the upper deck.

Another, apparently, uniquely Mexican word. Salpicadera is a fender. This can be a fender for a car or a fender for a bicycle/motorcycle. Guardafangos is also used for mudflaps or fenders in Mexico. Argentina uses the word guardabarros.

A subdivision of houses is called a fraccionamiento in Mexico. This is used when a section of town is a “planned” section. Usually houses that are similar or identical in design and probably built by the same company–a housing development. In Argentina they call this a loteo. The word fraccionaminento comes from fraccionar which means […]

I had to go to the bicycle store today to get a patch for my tire. I asked the guy for a parche, unsure of the word. He looked at me as if to say “what else would you call it.” I just was not sure if parche was a patch. It is. That is […]