¿Qué lleva?

Today I'm going to talk about the verb llevar.  It has many uses, some of which you might find surprising.  This post by no means covers every possible usage of llevar, but I talk about several, so let's get to it.

 

***UPDATE*** 

 

I now have a podcast on the verb Llevar that complements this post quite well, so be sure to check it out, it's free to listen to and also has a written transcript available. 

11 uses of the Spanish verb Llevar no one bothered to teach you

http://helpingyoulearnspanish.com/what-does-llevar-mean-in-spanish/

Now let's get back to the task at hand.

Llevar is the verb of choice when it comes to getting around. 

Llévame a casa

Take me home.

¿Me llevas a mi casa? 

Will you take me home?

¿A donde me llevas?

Where are you taking me?

Te llevo donde quieras

I'll take you where ever you want

¿Quieres que te lleve? 

Do you want me to take you?

Yo te llevo

I'll take you

Have you ever had a friend tell you they're going to eat at your favorite restaurant, go on a dream vacation or something of the like and you really want to go with them?  Well, put on your best puppy dog face and ask:

Will you take me with you?

Surprisingly, you can use the verb llevar to talk about the passage of time, like how long you've been living somewhere or have been doing something.

Llevo 8 años viviendo en Barcelona

I've been living in Barcelona for 8 years

Llevo dos horas esperandote

I've been waiting for you for two hours

Llevo tres años aprendiendo español

I've been learning Spanish for three years

Another usage that took me by surprise is that you can use llevar to talk about what you're wearing.  The expression is llevar puesto.

¿Qué llevas puesto?

What do you have on?

¿De qué color es la camisa que llevas puesta?

What color shirt are you wearing?

Llevo puesta una camisa azul

I have on a blue shirt

You can also talk about what you don't wear.

No lleva gafas

He doesn't wear glasses

Since we're on the subject, at some point you'll hear the verb tener used to talk about what someone is wearing as well.

¿Qué tienes puesto?

What do you have on?

Tengo puesto un blue jeans clarito y unos converse blancos 

I have on light colored blue jeans and white converse shoes

One more thing for you ladies.  If you find yourself wanting to ask a guy the famous question, boxers or briefs, you'll find this useful.

¿Usas boxers o briefs?

Do you wear boxers or briefs?

¿Qué te pones, boxers o briefs?

What do you wear, boxers or briefs?

And if you ladies want to know what he's wearing right now, well, we've already covered that.  

Guys, you're on own your own.  I won't be held responsible for any cachetadas or palmadas (slaps to face) you get from being a little too curious.  Besides, I've already told you everything you need to know, just substitute the appropriate words and you're in business.  

Now let's get back to llevar.

Llevar is also useful for going shopping.  

Compra una camisa y llévate otra gratis

Buy one shirt and get one free

Did the salesperson finally convince you to buy something?  Then you can say...

Me lo llevo

I'll take it.

Here are some more uses of llevar.

¡Cómo pesa este bolso! ¿Qué lleva acá?

This bag is heavy!  What do you have in here?

 ¿Qué llevo en mi maleta?

What should I take (pack) in my suitcase?

Cuando viajo sólo llevo una maleta

When I travel I only take one suitcase 

Llevo mi celular a todas partes

I take my cell phone everywhere

And lastly, llevar also has it's food related uses.

If you want to know what that tasty looking dish in the menu has in it, or you need to make sure it doesn't have anything you're allergic to, you can simply ask:

¿Qué lleva?

What's in it?

Remember, asking qué lleva will get you the list of ingredients of what you're thinking about ordering.  If you want know what comes with it,  then you need to ask:

¿Con qué viene? 

Quite often you'll want to take your food with you for one reason or another, and for that you'll need para llevar.

¿Para aquí o para llevar?

For here or to go?

¿Me lo puedes poner para llevar?

Can I get this to go?

Una caja para llevar por favor

A to go box please

Lo quiero para llevar

I want it to go

As you can see llevar is a very flexible verb.  Everything I talked about you'll hear on a regular basis and needs to become part of your everyday vocabulary if you're serious about your Spanish.  

That's it for today, and don't forget to check out the my podcast on Llevar on as well.

 

 11 uses of the Spanish verb Llevar no one bothered to teach you
http://helpingyoulearnspanish.com/what-does-llevar-mean-in-spanish/

 

¡Chau!

Conversación con una chapina

I enjoy meeting Spanish speakers from different parts of the Spanish speaking world because I always learn something new.  I especially like to learn words or expressions unique to their region and culture.  People are always pleasantly surprised when you understand their local language and customs.

It was just a few short weeks ago when I made a new friend who happens to be from Guatemala.  The people of Guatemala are called guatemaltecos, guatemalteco for a male and guatemalteca for a female.

Needless to say, I took full advantage of this opportunity to learn some new words, so I'm going to share what I learned with you.  There was no rhyme or reason to our conversation, I asked my new amiga guatemalteca to share some of the colloquial words they use in Guatemala, and I found them rather interesting.

You probably know this cute little doggy as a perro, but in Guatemala you may also hear him referred to as a chucho.


¡Que lindo chuchito!
What a pretty dog!

Hoy por poco me mordia un chucho
Today I almost got bit by a dog


Notice the use of chuchito, the diminutive form of chucho.

Perros aren't the only animals with a special name Guatemala.

Commonly known as a pavo, or turkey, it also goes by chumpipe in Guatemala.

Chumpipe es una palabra indígena, peculiar de Guatemala, que significa pavo ó guajalote
It's an indigenous word peculiar to Guatemala that means turkey

You actually get a two for one here, as guajaote is another word that means turkey in Mexico, which is also indigenous coming from the náhuatl language.  I'm not sure what indigenous language chumpipe comes from.

We're done with the animal kingdom, so let's move on to food.

Does this look familiar?

Yeah, that doesn't look very appetizing, I agree.  How about this photo?

That's better.  We know it as oatmeal, or avena in Spanish.  In Guatemala it's also known as mosh.

Normalmente el desayuno en Guatemala está compuesto de uno o dos huevos. Otros tipos de desayuno son los cereales con leche, o el mosh
Normally breakfast in Guatemala is composed of one or two eggs.  Other kinds of breakfast are cereal with milk, or oatmeal

I'm not a big fan of mosh, regardless of what country it comes from.

Chuchitos are a whole different story.

Chuchitos are very similar to Mexican tamales.  I've yet to try them, but trust me, I'm on on the look out for a Guatemalan restaurant and will report back as soon as I get my hands on some of these tasty looking things.

Guatemala also has musica punta which is from Honduras, Guatemala y Belize and appears to popular in El Salvador as well.  Here's a sample of musica punta.

If you want to see how to dance punta, check out this video.

One last word about musica punta.  Make sure you enunciate, not getting that "n" right could lead to an embarrassing mistake.  There's a huge difference between punta and puta.

We also talked about the word patojo.  Patojo is a synonym for chamaco, or in standard Spanish, niño.  

¡Vení para acá patajo!
Come over here kid!

If you don't recognize the word "vení", don't worry.  It's a conjugation of vos.  You don't really hear much about vos, but it's used in several Spanish speaking countries, like Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and probably much of Central America.  What is vos you ask?  It's just another set of verb conjugations like usted, tú and vosotros.  A quick search in Google will provide you with the vos conjugation chart.

And since we're on the topic of vos, my amiga guatemalteca explained to me that vos is more informal than tú.  Or at least it is in Guatemala.

Lastly, I've been referring to my amiga as guatemalteca, but there's another word I could have used, chapina.

Guatemaltecos are also known and chapines.  Chapin refers to a man and chapina refers to a woman.

And that my friends, is what I learned in my conversación con una chapina.

 ¡Hasta la próxima!

Mamajuana

The Dominican Republic is famous for its beaches and food. It's also famous for something called Mamajuna.

Mamajuna is a mixture of various herbs, plants, roots and other ingredients.  You just add rum and maybe some red wine and you're ready to go.  There are numerous recipes for Mamajuna, all you have to do is find the one that works for you and have at it.  I sampled a bit and it wasn't bad.

You can also buy Mamajuna premixed and save yourself a lot of trouble.

Now that I've told you Mamajuana is a famous trademark of the Dominican Republic, let me tell you why.  Better yet, a few photos will explain everything.

Notice the sign says "para vigor sexual".  Translation probably really isn't necessary, but just in case, it means "for sexual vigor".

That's right, if you want a little extra something in your sex life, stock up on Mamajuana.  Ladies, it will work for you too.   If you click on the photo above you can read a little more about what else it cures.  

Here's a closer look at the label of a Mamajuana bottle.

Remember I said that all you need to do is mix a little rum with your Mamajuana?  Well, in the Dominican Republic there's a very good chance that rum will be Brugal.

Brugal is the national rum of the Dominican Republic.  It's a perfect companion for your cuba libre.   A cuba libre is nothing more than a rum and coke.  In fact, I wrote a brief post about this a long time ago.  

¡Cuba Libre!

Let's get back to Brugal.  I decided to try it for myself, so I ordered my cuba libre with Brugal.  It was good, although it was a little stronger than I expected.   In fact, Brugal's potency has led to a very well known saying in the Dominican Republic about Brugal.  

El que toma Brugal pelea o rapa

Whoever drinks Brugal either fights or fucks

Sorry to be so vulgar, but hey, that's what it means and I'm not going to give you a watered down translation that will put you into an embarrassing situation later, or even worse get you in trouble.  

Rapa comes from the verb rapar, and in standard Spanish means to cut.  But clearly in certain contexts in Dominican slang it also has another meaning.

There's one more national Dominican drink you should know about.

Presidente is the national beer of the Dominica Republic.  I have to admit, I liked it.  Make sure to give it a try if you go.

Well, that's it.  That pretty much wraps up my Dominican experience.  It was definitely fun and I hope to do it again someday.

¡Hasta la próxima!