Monday, January 31, 2011

¿Varón o hembra?

I remember the first time I heard the word varón like it was yesterday. 

This was a few year back and I was on an airplane speaking with a woman from Cuba and she used this word.  I was convinced it was some form of Cuban slang because I had never heard it before.  Turns out it wasn't, but I didn't think much about it until I heard it again much later.

Enough chit-chat, let me ir al grano (get to the point).

Varón and hembra officially mean male and female.   However, colloquially these terms are used to mean niño or niña, boy or girl, son or daughter.  Let's look at a few examples:

Tengo una nena y un varón
I have one girl and a boy

Tengo 3 hijos adultos 1 varon y 2 mujeres
I have 3 grown children, 1 son and 2 daughters

¿Vas a tener un varón o hembra?
Are you going to have a boy or girl?

Tengo un varón y una hembra
I have one boy and one girl

When you talk to someone who just recently had a baby and you ask them the sex of the baby, you might hear:

es un varoncito or es una hembra

These terms are also what you use for talking about male or female animals.  And you may also hear the word macho instead of varón.

¿Como diferenciar un gato macho a un gato hembra?‎
How do I tell the difference between a male and female cat?

That's it.  Getting a good handle on how these words are used will have you sounding like a born Spanish speaker.

Ojála que te sirva
I hope this helps!

Monday, January 24, 2011

¿Cuando vas a dar a luz?

¿Cuando vas a dar a luz?
When are you going to give to the light?

Clearly a literal translation doesn't work here. So what does this mean?  Let me say it a different way:

¿Cuándo va a nacer el bebé?

Literally, "when is the baby going to be born", but a more natural translation would be "when is the baby due".  And that's exactly what our our phrase "dar a luz" means.

¿Cuando vas a dar a luz?
When are you going to have the baby?

There's another verb that's used to talk about giving birth, parir

Mi esposa va a parir
My wife is going to have the baby

However, ten cuidado (be careful) with this one.  Many spanish speakers reserve parir for talking about animal births.  It all depends on the country and the region, so I suggest you reserve this one for animals and use the other more standard options.

There's also another very common way to ask someone when their baby is due.

¿Para cuándo esperas?
When are you due?

You could also shorten this to:

¿Para cuándo?

Babies are always fun to talk about, and these phrases are great conversation starters, not to mention just being able to better communicate with your Spanish speaking friends. 

¡Hasta pronto!

Monday, January 17, 2011

Te digo y te digo pero tu no me hagas caso

I've actually taken this little gem for granted, and should have posted about it a long time ago.

There are times when you need someone's undivided attention, and one way to ask for it is with the phrase "prestar atención" or "poner atención".  But another colloquial and very common way to say it is using the phrase "hacer caso".

Te digo y te digo pero tu no me hagas caso
I tell you over and over but you don't pay attention to me

Actually, the literal translation is "I tell you and I tell you...", but I think our translation sounds a little more natural in English.  Anyway, here's some more examples.

No le hagas caso a gente envidiosa
Don't pay attention to envious people

No hagas caso a lo que dice la gente
Don't pay attention to what people say

Let's cover a few basic phrases as well.

No lo hagas caso
No le hagas caso
No la hagas caso

These mean "don't pay attention to it, him, or her", respectively.

That's it.  When you start using this you'll sound like you were born speaking Spanish.  And now there's only one thing left to cover.  Actually, it's more like giving credit where credit is due.


My friend Mexico Bob suggested I post about this topic. He actually suggested it a long time ago, and I'm just now getting around to it. But hey, you know what they say "Más vale tarde que nunca" - better late than never.

Not only did Bob suggest the topic, he basically wrote it. I saw no reason to reinvent the wheel, so I just added a few finishing touches.


A propósito (by the way), if you don't know, Mexico Bob has his own blog, so make sure you check it out, it's one of my favorites - http://mexicobob.blogspot.com/

Thanks again Bob!

¡Hasta la prómixa!

Sunday, January 9, 2011

No me suena

So there I was in Mexico asking the cab driver to take me to a very popular bar, one of my favorites.  I've jumped in many a cab asked this same question.  Only this time I was shocked by the answer.

No me suena

Say what?  I had never heard the phrase before, but the context made the meaning pretty clear.  The real surprise was the fact that he hadn't heard of the bar I was trying to get to.  But my bar hopping habits in Mexico are for another post, so let's get down to business.

No me suena
It doesn't sound familar

You could also think of it as "It doesn't ring a bell".

You can also use this phrase to talk about familar, or not so familiar faces and names.

¿Te suena mi cara?

Do I look familiar?

Me suena tu nombre
Your name sounds familiar

Tu cara me suena
You look familiar

There are other ways to say someone looks familiar:

Me resultas conocido
Me tienes cara conocida
Te me haces conocido

As always, some Spanish speakers use a given phrase more than the other depending on where they come from, but any or all of these should do the trick.
 
And yes, the cabbie eventually realized he did know the bar I was trying to get to.
 
¡Hasta la próxima!

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Me perdí la reunión donde Clara

Break out your pen and paper boys and girls, you'll want to write this one down.

The first time I saw this, I thought it was a typo, it reads like something is missing:

Me perdí la reunión donde Clara
I missed the meeting where Clara

However, when my friend used it a second time, I knew there was something going on I just didn't understand.

It turns out donde has a colloquial usage I never knew about.  In this context, donde means "en la casa de" or  "en casa de".   With that in mind, we could have written this as:

Me perdí la reunión en la casa de Clara
I missed the meeting at Clara's

Who knew?  Let's go over a few more details.

When you say "donde Clara", you're refering to that persons home, regardless of whether they are at home or not. 

Here's another example:

Estoy donde mi amigo
I'm at my friends house

Your friend may not be at home, but that's where you are.  You can also use the construction "en lo de" to say the same thing. 

Me perdí la reunión en lo de Clara
I missed the meeting at Clara's (house)

In a slightly different context, donde can also mean "next to" (‘junto a’ )

El banco está donde el cine
The bank is next to the movie theatre

This usage of donde in these contexts is pretty common and will make you sound like a native speaker for sure.  I recommend you go and use it every chance you get to burn it into your memory.

¡Nos vemos!