This is another situation where literal translations just don't work.
When you tell someone...
Estás en linea
You're telling them they look trim, perhaps athletic and has a nice body in general. In more generic terms you'd say "estás en buena forma".
And there's the expression...
Estás en linea curva
Which means just the opposite. Now you're talking about someone who's not in "buena forma", but instead gordo or gorda (fat).
Since we're on the topic of giving out compliments, let's continue our discussion about hot bods.
Cuerpo means "body", so you could say:
Tienes buen cuerpo
You've got a nice body
But if you're really moved by someone's physique, then you want the word cuerpazo. A cuerpazo is a really great body.
¡Qué cuerpazo tienes!
You've got a really great body
You can use "bien bueno".
Este chico esta bien bueno
This guy is really hot
And for a woman:
Esta chica esta bien buena
This girl is really hot
Now it's time to get gender specific. Ladies, here's a few words for you first.
A galán is what we call a hunk. Most women seem to think Brad Pitt and Denzel Washington are galanes.
There's also papacito. This can be used as a term of endearment as well as saying a guy is a total hunk.
Guys, get ready, it's your turn.
A mamacita is a way of saying a woman is totally hot. Also a possible term of affection.
Mira esa mamacita
Look at that sexy girl
A buenota is also a very attractive woman.
La novia de Juan es una buenota
Juan's girlfriend is super hot
Well, I think that's more than enough to get you started. Keep in mind while none of these phrases are explicit, most of them are meant for you to use with friends. It's like using the word hottie in English, some people will be offended, some won't.
If you're looking for terms a little less colorful, you can also go with hermoso/a, guapo/a, or bonita. And it's my understanding that men are never called bonito.
If you're not familar with hermosísimo/a and guapísimo/a they're another way of emphasizing that someone is really beautiful or handsome. You can also do the same thing with reguapa and rehermosa. When you add the prefix "re", it intensifies the meaning. You can tack on "re" to many words in Spanish, like rebueno. It's not just good, it's really good.
This soup is really good
Esta sopa es rebuena
That's it. Have fun with these!
¡Hasta la próxima!
Monday, November 29, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
¿Vas llegando?
I was having dinner in a great little Mexican-Central American restaurant chatting with the owner. In fact, he actually thought I was Panamanian, I was flattered. I guess all my hard work is paying off. Everything was going well. That is, until he asked me...
¿Vas llegando?
Once again, I had the deer in headlights look. In fact, I couldn't even understand what he said, my gringo ears just weren't able to decipher those two simple words. Oh well, I'm used to that now, so let's just talk about what this means.
The first thing I learned is that "vas llegando" is incorrect, at least grammatically so. But let's remember that even though it's grammatically incorrect, it's important recognize common, colloquial speech. It should be:
¿Vienes llegando?
Are you just arriving?
That's a literal translation, but I think it sounds more natural to translate it as:
¿Vienes llegando?
Did you just get here?
It can also be interpreted as...
¿Vienes llegando?
Are you on your way?
How do you know when to use which translation? Simple, context.
You're driving to visit your mom, and she calls and asks "¿Vienes llegando?" - Are you on your way?
You finally make it to your moms house and your brother walks in 5 minutes after you and asks you ¿Vienes llegando? - Did you just get here?
So with that said, let's revisit my conversation in the restaurant. To be just a little more specific, I told the owner that I was working locally and that I wasn't familar with the city, and that's when he asked...
¿Vas llegando?
In this context, "vas llegando" would be better translated as "Did you just move here?". One phrase, three possible translations. Don't you love Spanish?
Fortunately, the rest of the conversation went well and there were no more "deer in headlights" moments. Thank goodness, I try to keep them limited to one a day.
The actual phrase is "venir llegando", and in general means "to have just arrived (got here)". Here's a couple of examples:
Vengo llegando
I just got in.
Viene llegando
He just got here.
That's it!
Espero que te sirva.
¿Vas llegando?
Once again, I had the deer in headlights look. In fact, I couldn't even understand what he said, my gringo ears just weren't able to decipher those two simple words. Oh well, I'm used to that now, so let's just talk about what this means.
The first thing I learned is that "vas llegando" is incorrect, at least grammatically so. But let's remember that even though it's grammatically incorrect, it's important recognize common, colloquial speech. It should be:
¿Vienes llegando?
Are you just arriving?
That's a literal translation, but I think it sounds more natural to translate it as:
¿Vienes llegando?
Did you just get here?
It can also be interpreted as...
¿Vienes llegando?
Are you on your way?
How do you know when to use which translation? Simple, context.
You're driving to visit your mom, and she calls and asks "¿Vienes llegando?" - Are you on your way?
You finally make it to your moms house and your brother walks in 5 minutes after you and asks you ¿Vienes llegando? - Did you just get here?
So with that said, let's revisit my conversation in the restaurant. To be just a little more specific, I told the owner that I was working locally and that I wasn't familar with the city, and that's when he asked...
¿Vas llegando?
In this context, "vas llegando" would be better translated as "Did you just move here?". One phrase, three possible translations. Don't you love Spanish?
Fortunately, the rest of the conversation went well and there were no more "deer in headlights" moments. Thank goodness, I try to keep them limited to one a day.
The actual phrase is "venir llegando", and in general means "to have just arrived (got here)". Here's a couple of examples:
Vengo llegando
I just got in.
Viene llegando
He just got here.
That's it!
Espero que te sirva.
Monday, November 15, 2010
¿Vaso o copa?
At some point we all learn the words vaso and copa. Usually we're taught a vaso is defined as a glass or cup, and then we're told if you want a glass of wine, then you need to use the word copa. Easy enough, but they never even bother to explain why, much less what the difference is between a vaso and a copa.
Well, 5 years later, I finally got the answer to that question, which I stumbled across from sheer dumb luck. To be honest, it never occurred to me to the ask the question. Today we're going to talk about copas.
A copa is what we call a wine glass. In Spanish you order (pedir) a "copa de vino", a glass of wine. It might a "copa de vino tinto" red wine, or "vino blanco", white wine. The difference here is in Spanish you're specifically mentioning the type of glass wine is served in, while in English we're fine with just using the generic term "glass".
Let's take a closer look at what a copa actually is. Not that you need one, but here's a photo:
A copa actually consists of several parts:
Recipiente de vidrio - This is the part you drink from.
Cálliz, tallo or pie - The stem.
Base - The base. Remember to use your Spanish pronunciation.
Copas have stems and bases, where as vasos don't. There is actually more than one type of copa, such as:
copa de agua, copa de whiskey, copa ancha, and copa de vino
Those are just a few. Click here if you want to see what other kinds of copas there are. This page is in Spanish, and I found interesting.
Well, I think that's enough about copas. Let's move on to vasos. And technically, a copa is still a vaso. Really, there isn't a whole for me to say about vasos, except that a vaso doesn't have a pie (stem), and like copas, there are many different kinds. Here's a few to get you started:
vaso largo
A tall glass
vaso ancho
A short, wide glass
vaso de plastico
A plastic cup
There are several types of vasos, like a vaso de agua, water glass, but I won't torture you with any more photos. I'm pretty sure you already what these things look like anyway.
Ya! That's it for today!
¡Hasta la próxima!
Well, 5 years later, I finally got the answer to that question, which I stumbled across from sheer dumb luck. To be honest, it never occurred to me to the ask the question. Today we're going to talk about copas.
A copa is what we call a wine glass. In Spanish you order (pedir) a "copa de vino", a glass of wine. It might a "copa de vino tinto" red wine, or "vino blanco", white wine. The difference here is in Spanish you're specifically mentioning the type of glass wine is served in, while in English we're fine with just using the generic term "glass".
Let's take a closer look at what a copa actually is. Not that you need one, but here's a photo:
A copa actually consists of several parts:
Recipiente de vidrio - This is the part you drink from.
Cálliz, tallo or pie - The stem.
Base - The base. Remember to use your Spanish pronunciation.
Copas have stems and bases, where as vasos don't. There is actually more than one type of copa, such as:
copa de agua, copa de whiskey, copa ancha, and copa de vino
Those are just a few. Click here if you want to see what other kinds of copas there are. This page is in Spanish, and I found interesting.
Well, I think that's enough about copas. Let's move on to vasos. And technically, a copa is still a vaso. Really, there isn't a whole for me to say about vasos, except that a vaso doesn't have a pie (stem), and like copas, there are many different kinds. Here's a few to get you started:
vaso largo
A tall glass
vaso ancho
A short, wide glass
vaso de plastico
A plastic cup
There are several types of vasos, like a vaso de agua, water glass, but I won't torture you with any more photos. I'm pretty sure you already what these things look like anyway.
Ya! That's it for today!
¡Hasta la próxima!
Monday, November 8, 2010
Soy muy noviera
When you say "Soy muy noviera (noviero)" it means you like to have a lot of boyfriends, or girlfriends in the case of a guy. It doesn't necessarily imply that you like to have them all at the same time.
But this post isn't exactly about that. Instead, we're going to talk about the different stages of relationships, and it all starts with meeting someone. Once you meet (conocer) someone, you start off as friends, amigos.
If you decide that you like each other's company in that special way, but not enough to be an actual couple, then you're amigos cariñosos or perhaps amigos con derechos. Spanish has a number of ways to describe relationships like this. We say friends with benefits. Just to be clear, friends with benefits is a way of saying you hook up with (ligar) someone just for the purpose of having sex.
Once you decide to become exclusive, an official couple, you're enamorados. We would call this dating, in a relationship, or if you don't mind a high school flashback, going steady. I suppose the correct term would be courting, or the courtship. Although to be honest I can't remember the last time I actually heard someone use those words outside of a movie that takes place in the 1700's.
Once the official peticion de mano (marriage proposal) has taken place, and you have a comprimiso de boda/matrimonio , meaning you've decided to get married, you officially enter the noviazgo phase, the engagement. The official title of a couple at this point is novios, although you'll hear the terms pareja or enamorados.
The interesting thing to note about the words novio and novia is that they mean boyfriend/girlfriend as well as fiancé/fiancée. A more accurate translation for boyfriend and girlfriend would be enamorado/enamorada, but novio and novia are what you'll hear the most. How do you know when novio means fiancé and not boyfriend? The context of the conversation. Or you could simply ask "¿estas comprometido?" - Are you engaged? There's also prometida/prometido which undeniable means fiancé/fiancée, but isn't always used.
Once you take the big plunge and go through with the boda (wedding), you're now in the stage called matrimonio, marriage - and you'll be known as casados, formally known as husband and wife, marido and esposa.
While marido and esposa are the official terms, you'll also hear mujer (woman) as a synomym for esposa, without the negative baggage that the word "woman" carries in English. And esposo is another word for marido. You can even say "mi vieja/viejo" (my old lady/man).
Sadly, sometimes marriage (matrimonio) just doesn't work out, and then you divociar (divorce) and become divorciados (divorced). That is, after you separar (seperate) and become separados (separated). But if you're lucky (suertudo), you reach the final stage of marriage, "till death do us part". Although some people might argue about the lucky part of that.
That's it, a crash course on the in's and out's of the relationship terminology in Spanish.
Espero que te sirva.
I hope this helps
¡Nos vemos!
But this post isn't exactly about that. Instead, we're going to talk about the different stages of relationships, and it all starts with meeting someone. Once you meet (conocer) someone, you start off as friends, amigos.
If you decide that you like each other's company in that special way, but not enough to be an actual couple, then you're amigos cariñosos or perhaps amigos con derechos. Spanish has a number of ways to describe relationships like this. We say friends with benefits. Just to be clear, friends with benefits is a way of saying you hook up with (ligar) someone just for the purpose of having sex.
Once you decide to become exclusive, an official couple, you're enamorados. We would call this dating, in a relationship, or if you don't mind a high school flashback, going steady. I suppose the correct term would be courting, or the courtship. Although to be honest I can't remember the last time I actually heard someone use those words outside of a movie that takes place in the 1700's.
Once the official peticion de mano (marriage proposal) has taken place, and you have a comprimiso de boda/matrimonio , meaning you've decided to get married, you officially enter the noviazgo phase, the engagement. The official title of a couple at this point is novios, although you'll hear the terms pareja or enamorados.
The interesting thing to note about the words novio and novia is that they mean boyfriend/girlfriend as well as fiancé/fiancée. A more accurate translation for boyfriend and girlfriend would be enamorado/enamorada, but novio and novia are what you'll hear the most. How do you know when novio means fiancé and not boyfriend? The context of the conversation. Or you could simply ask "¿estas comprometido?" - Are you engaged? There's also prometida/prometido which undeniable means fiancé/fiancée, but isn't always used.
Once you take the big plunge and go through with the boda (wedding), you're now in the stage called matrimonio, marriage - and you'll be known as casados, formally known as husband and wife, marido and esposa.
While marido and esposa are the official terms, you'll also hear mujer (woman) as a synomym for esposa, without the negative baggage that the word "woman" carries in English. And esposo is another word for marido. You can even say "mi vieja/viejo" (my old lady/man).
Sadly, sometimes marriage (matrimonio) just doesn't work out, and then you divociar (divorce) and become divorciados (divorced). That is, after you separar (seperate) and become separados (separated). But if you're lucky (suertudo), you reach the final stage of marriage, "till death do us part". Although some people might argue about the lucky part of that.
That's it, a crash course on the in's and out's of the relationship terminology in Spanish.
Espero que te sirva.
I hope this helps
¡Nos vemos!
Monday, November 1, 2010
Tantas curvas y yo sin frenos
I thought we'd have some fun today, after all, from time to time we all need a good laugh.
Tantas curvas y yo sin frenos
So many curves and I don't have any brakes
If you're thinking this has anything to do with driving, you are soooo wrong.
This is an example of a piropo. A piropo is can be anything from a cheesy pick up line to a very sweet compliment. And while piropos are typically a man's domain, women can use them too.
If you search for piropos you'll find sites that categorize them as piropos graciosos (funny), piropos romanticos (romantic), piropos groseros (dirty) and a whole lot more.
Let's take a look at a few more piropos.
Dicen que robar es malo, yo nunca lo haría;
pero un beso tuyo, con gusto lo robaría!
They say stealing is bad, I would never do it;
but for one of your kisses, I would gladly steal it.
Las 24 horas del dia yo las divido asi:
9 soñando contigo y 15 pensando en ti
I divide up the 24 hours in a day like this:
9 dreaming of you and 15 thinking about you
Si la belleza fuera un instante, tu serias la eternidad
If beauty were a moment, you would be enternity
Clearly those were examples of piropos romanticos. Now let's look at some piropos graciosos.
Nunca te olvides del número 591
-5 minutos de placer
-9 meses de embarazo
-1 más en la familia
Never forget the number 591
5 minutes of pleasure
9 months of pregnancy
1 more family member
Bailas muy bien, apenas noto tus doscientos kilos.
You dance well, I can barely notice that you weigh 400lbs.
¡¡Mami!! ¡Si tú fueras droga, yo sería un adicto!
Baby, if you were a drug, I'd be an addict
¡Muñeca! ¿De qué juguetería te escapaste?
He doll, what toy store did you escape from?
Bonitos pantalones, quedarían muy bien en el suelo de mi dormitorio.
Nice pants, they'd look great on my bedroom floor
Debes estar cansada hoy,
después de todo lo que hicimos en mi sueño anoche.
You must tired today, after everything we did in my dream last night
We haven't covered piropos groseros, and while I'm far from the politically correct type, I'm not going to post anything overly rude. Here's a sample that's not so bad, just remember that piropos groseros just get worse.
Que lindas piernas, ¿a que hora abren?
Nice legs, what time do they open?
If you want to read more piropos, you can google (googlear, yes, some people actually use this word) piropos. But to save you some time, here's a link:
http://www.piroposcortos.com/
That's it for today. I hope you managed to get a laugh or two.
¡Hasta la próxima!
Tantas curvas y yo sin frenos
So many curves and I don't have any brakes
If you're thinking this has anything to do with driving, you are soooo wrong.
This is an example of a piropo. A piropo is can be anything from a cheesy pick up line to a very sweet compliment. And while piropos are typically a man's domain, women can use them too.
If you search for piropos you'll find sites that categorize them as piropos graciosos (funny), piropos romanticos (romantic), piropos groseros (dirty) and a whole lot more.
Let's take a look at a few more piropos.
Dicen que robar es malo, yo nunca lo haría;
pero un beso tuyo, con gusto lo robaría!
They say stealing is bad, I would never do it;
but for one of your kisses, I would gladly steal it.
Las 24 horas del dia yo las divido asi:
9 soñando contigo y 15 pensando en ti
I divide up the 24 hours in a day like this:
9 dreaming of you and 15 thinking about you
Si la belleza fuera un instante, tu serias la eternidad
If beauty were a moment, you would be enternity
Clearly those were examples of piropos romanticos. Now let's look at some piropos graciosos.
Nunca te olvides del número 591
-5 minutos de placer
-9 meses de embarazo
-1 más en la familia
Never forget the number 591
5 minutes of pleasure
9 months of pregnancy
1 more family member
Bailas muy bien, apenas noto tus doscientos kilos.
You dance well, I can barely notice that you weigh 400lbs.
¡¡Mami!! ¡Si tú fueras droga, yo sería un adicto!
Baby, if you were a drug, I'd be an addict
¡Muñeca! ¿De qué juguetería te escapaste?
He doll, what toy store did you escape from?
Bonitos pantalones, quedarían muy bien en el suelo de mi dormitorio.
Nice pants, they'd look great on my bedroom floor
Debes estar cansada hoy,
después de todo lo que hicimos en mi sueño anoche.
You must tired today, after everything we did in my dream last night
We haven't covered piropos groseros, and while I'm far from the politically correct type, I'm not going to post anything overly rude. Here's a sample that's not so bad, just remember that piropos groseros just get worse.
Que lindas piernas, ¿a que hora abren?
Nice legs, what time do they open?
If you want to read more piropos, you can google (googlear, yes, some people actually use this word) piropos. But to save you some time, here's a link:
http://www.piroposcortos.com/
That's it for today. I hope you managed to get a laugh or two.
¡Hasta la próxima!
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