Saturday, February 28, 2009

Ropa: camisa vs camiseta vs playera

Every Spanish book I've ever looked at has called a shirt a camisa. And I guess in a generic sense that's correct, but there are actually different words for different types of shirts.

This shouldn't come as a surprise (although it did), as we certainly have our own collection of words for the various styles of shirts in English. In this post I'm going to share what I learned from my amigos Mexicanos.

If you're referring to a button up shirt with a collar, then camisa is the right word. It can be a camisa con mangas cortas (short sleeve shirt) or con mangas largas (long sleeve shirt).

The only other word I had ever heard for shirt was camiseta, which all my books defined as a t-shirt. A camiseta is actually an undershirt, with or without sleeves.

What we call a t-shirt in English would be called a playera in Mexico. A playera can have long or short sleeves. You can also referer to a playera con mangas largas as a jersey. Be sure to say it using Spanish pronunciation.

And of course we can't forget about Polo shirts. The official name for a Polo shirt is a playera estilo Polo. But it's commonly referred to as una Polo.

There's also the turtleneck shirt - cuello tortuga. A sweatshirt is a sudadera.

There you have it. While camisa is a universal Spanish word, the others are mexicanismos, and may or may not be used and/or recognized by Spanish speakers from other countries.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

¿Te llegó?

I was exchanging text messages with a friend when the question came...¿Te llegó? I was like "huh?".

It occurred to me that mi amigo must be asking me if I got his last message. Turns out I made a lucky guess, because that's exactly what he was asking.

"¿Te llegó....?" is a way of asking "Did you get/receive [something]?

So with that in mind you can say...

"¿Te llegó el mensaje?" - Did you get the message?

"¿Te llegó el paquete?" - Did you get the package?

"¿Te llegó la carta?" - Did you get the letter?

You can reply using a simple "sí" or "no", but if you want to flex your Spanish muscles, you can reply using the same structure...

"No me llegó" or you can be more explicit "No me llegó tu mensaje".

¡Ya esta! Es pan comido, ¿verdad?

Monday, February 9, 2009

Banano-Banana-Guineo-Plátano

I love bananas. They're probably my favorite fruit. Naturally I would want to know how to ask for them in Spanish. And until recently, I thought I did.

It turns out that things are a little trickier than you might think. I remember reading in my Spanish dictionary (or somewhere) a long time ago, and saw that the word for banana is plátano. I thought "Hey, that's pan comido", and I never gave it a second thought. Until today.

I was talking with Jorge, my Colombian amigo, asking him if he had eaten lunch already. He said "No, I'm going to need about 30 minutes to finish up a few things". So I said "Voy a comer mi plátano hasta entonces". And he says "you mean your banano". I immediately gave him the deer in headlights look. At this point he must think I was born with that expression.

So, the next question I asked was "is that Colombian slang?" Well, long story short, we looked in his encyclopedia and browsed around in WordReference, and we both learned that the word for banana depends on where you are.

In Colombia a banana is a banano, and banana (or bananita) is a piece of hard candy. A plátano is a plantain. To find out what what a banana is called in other countries, look at this thread in WordReference.

And just as an FYI, banano can also be a banana tree, and banana the fruit of the tree. Quite honestly, I was surprised to hear about the number of variations Spanish has for banana. Nonetheless, there's no sense in letting this stuff drive me bananas.

Finally, here's another post you might enjoy:

¿Tostones o los amarillos?


Me cayó el veinte

This is a very Mexican expression that means you finally realized or understood something.

For example: "Hoy me cayó el veinte de que te extraño" - Today I realized that I missed you.

This expression actual originates from using public telephones in Mexico. There's a 20 centavos moneda (coin) that people use for pay phones. That's where the veinte comes in.

Now, if you've ever used public phones with any frequency (tú sabes, back when you could find one on every corner) you know that sometimes you put in your coins, and they don't "catch". After 3 or 4 attempts, the money finally "catches" and you can make your call. And that's where the rest of the phrase "cayó el veinte " comes from. The money finally catches (or falls, if you prefer a more literal translation) and you can make your phone call. Make sense?

Hmm, pay phones are getting harder and harder to find, and me cayó el veinte that I'm giving away my age by admitting to the fact that I was around when public phones were on every corner in the US!

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Es pan comido

To say something is "pan comido", is to say that it's really easy. It's like saying something is "easy as 1-2-3" or "a piece of cake".

I love it when I come across a bit of Spanish so easy to learn it's "pan comido", like this little tidbit. Enjoy it while you can, because the next lesson may not be so easy!

Ya caigo

Ever have someone tell you a joke and but you don't quite get the punchline? And then two seconds later you blurt out, "Oh, I get it". Of course you have.


Well, when that happens to you in your next Spanish conversation, you can shout out "¡Ya caigo!"


Anytime you would use "I get it" in English, you can use "Ya caigo" in Spanish. And if you need to say "I don't get it" you can say "No caigo".