BajaNomad

Favorite word of the day

pauldavidmena - 12-12-2022 at 08:42 AM

I like it! I believe the word pairs well with a dry red wine. :)

My favorite Spanish word - for the sheer sound of it - is zanahoria.

Howard - 12-12-2022 at 10:44 AM

Quote: Originally posted by pauldavidmena  
I like it! I believe the word pairs well with a dry red wine. :)

My favorite Spanish word - for the sheer sound of it - is zanahoria.


My 2 favorites are Chuparrosa (hummingbird) and Huachinango (red snapper)

Mulege Canuck - 12-12-2022 at 12:42 PM

“Cruda”

Spanish for hangover

Don Pisto - 12-12-2022 at 01:08 PM

el nomada

pauldavidmena - 12-12-2022 at 02:16 PM

another favorite is susurrar, meaning "whisper" or "murmur".

Jack Swords - 12-12-2022 at 04:35 PM

How about "esposas" for handcuffs? Women don't seem to see the humor in it.

RFClark - 12-12-2022 at 06:19 PM

Then there’s Casado and cansado! That said women and handcuffs do seem to have more than a casual attachment.

verichip - 12-12-2022 at 07:34 PM

"Listen" button

Thanks

DouglasP - 12-26-2022 at 10:38 AM



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surabi - 4-6-2023 at 01:56 PM

Chachalaca

And my favorite place name is Topolobampo.

tomieharder - 4-6-2023 at 02:20 PM

Tartamudo.

surabi - 4-12-2023 at 11:37 AM

Quote: Originally posted by lencho  
Quote: Originally posted by surabi  
And my favorite place name is Topolobampo.

Which is one of the few place names I occasionally hear Mexicans shorten (to "Topo").

I can't recall hearing one say "Todos" or "Pesky" in place of the full name.

They must think Gringos are lazy... :lol:





There's a town north of me called Lo de Marcos. I have Canadian friends who stay there in the winter and they refer to it as "Lodi".
I have never heard any Mexican nor gringo local ever call it that.

SFandH - 5-4-2023 at 10:27 AM

Quote: Originally posted by lencho  
Some words just stand out for their "mouth feel". ;)



"apestoso" is fun to say and always draws a laugh when I use it in conversations with locals.

Don Jorge - 5-31-2023 at 09:14 AM

Quote: Originally posted by SFandH  
Some words just stand out for their "mouth feel". ;)[/rquote] "apestoso" is fun to say and always draws a laugh when I use it in conversations with locals.


Similar and also fun to say, Fuchila.

surabi - 5-31-2023 at 03:12 PM

Some of my favorite Mexican brand names:

Shampoo made by "Grisi".

Candy by "Kranky".

And of course Bimbo bread.

Don Pisto - 5-31-2023 at 06:35 PM

if this doesn't instill confidence.........


surabi - 5-31-2023 at 10:15 PM

Good one.

pauldavidmena - 6-1-2023 at 06:43 AM

As for brand names that instill confidence, who can forget the classic Chevy Nova?

Tacayo - 6-1-2023 at 09:24 AM

Ahora, def. a vague term dealing with time. Could mean now, soon, tomorrow or quien sabe?

surfhat - 6-1-2023 at 10:53 AM

And, who cannot forget the somewhat regular, make that low grade gasoline product Nova. No go, says it all, with octane levels in the low mid 80's, if not the upper 70's.

Could you hear the knock when accelerating. Absolutely. Sometimes adjusting the timing could help. Somewhat. And the lead, oh yea, the leaded fuel.

Not such the good old days after, at least for the engines. We have it pretty good these days with quality fuel everywhere.

Look on the brighter side of life [Monty Python] when you can. Leave your politics off of this sight please. Oh well. Worth a shot. Peace and love [Ringo forever or at least it appears he is ageless. Attitude can carry one far as he shows, year after year, decade after decade.

surabi - 6-1-2023 at 06:45 PM

Quote: Originally posted by Tacayo  
Ahora, def. a vague term dealing with time. Could mean now, soon, tomorrow or quien sabe?


All terms dealing with time are vague in Mexico. Even ones that sound specific, like, "Si, vengo a las 10".

I was once at an office where I had to speak to a specific person. The receptionist told me he was out of the office. I asked when he'd be back (you also have to solicit every piece of information, as "He's out of the office right now, he'll be back at 1", would require giving you all the info efficiently), and she replied, "Un ratito". The dictionary definition of which is "in a little while".

As I wasn't hip to these things then, I sat down in a waiting room chair. After 20 minutes, I asked, "When do you expect him back?", to which she shrugged. I asked if she knew whether he was coming back to the office at all that afternoon, to which she answered no.

Now when someone tells me "un ratito" I ask, "Un ratito como cinco minutos o cinco horas?" I usually get the shrug.

Don Jorge - 6-2-2023 at 07:18 AM

Quote: Originally posted by lencho  
I agree, and inevitably when I say that word, my nose wrinkles up as if something stinks.

Another word which is fun to say and usually involves facial emphasis, Guácala.

pauldavidmena - 6-3-2023 at 07:49 AM

Quote: Originally posted by surabi  
Quote: Originally posted by Tacayo  
Ahora, def. a vague term dealing with time. Could mean now, soon, tomorrow or quien sabe?


All terms dealing with time are vague in Mexico. Even ones that sound specific, like, "Si, vengo a las 10".

I was once at an office where I had to speak to a specific person. The receptionist told me he was out of the office. I asked when he'd be back (you also have to solicit every piece of information, as "He's out of the office right now, he'll be back at 1", would require giving you all the info efficiently), and she replied, "Un ratito". The dictionary definition of which is "in a little while".

As I wasn't hip to these things then, I sat down in a waiting room chair. After 20 minutes, I asked, "When do you expect him back?", to which she shrugged. I asked if she knew whether he was coming back to the office at all that afternoon, to which she answered no.

Now when someone tells me "un ratito" I ask, "Un ratito como cinco minutos o cinco horas?" I usually get the shrug.


I love that "ahorita" is no more precise than "ahora."

surfhat - 6-3-2023 at 08:08 AM

Or mañana.

pauldavidmena - 6-5-2023 at 09:00 AM

Another favorite Spanish word is "malabarista", which translates to "juggler" in English. I see it as how I might prepare lattes and espressos if I worked at Starbucks.

AKgringo - 6-5-2023 at 04:01 PM

I was in an open air restaurant near Zihuantanejo once where there was a parrot that kept calling out "Ahorita!" (Right now!).

Apparently, it was his dinner time.

surabi - 6-5-2023 at 10:41 PM

I find the words that appear to be taken from English, but then, because they are spoken with a Spanish accent,, become a word in Spanish with no word origin basis in Latin languages, to be amusing.

Like "dona". I figure some Mexican came back from the US and said, "They have this yummy pastry there, it's called a dona". (In English, doughnut makes sense- it's made of dough and apparently the first doughnuts were more like a doughnut hole shape- a nut shape rather than a torus)

Once I was working on something alongside a worker, and needed the exacto knife that was next to him, so asked him to please pass me the cuchillo (I wasn't sure what the specific name for an exacto knife was, but figured that was close enough). As he passed it to me, he told me it wasn't called a cuchillo, it was a "cooter", spelled "cuter".
That is obviously a mispronunciation of "cutter" but in Spanish, of course to cut is cortar.

One word I found confusing when learning Spanish was "subir". Because in English, as well as Spanish, "sub" is a prefix denoting something below- submarino, subterraneo, subordinado. Yet subir means to go up.

[Edited on 6-6-2023 by surabi]

surabi - 6-6-2023 at 08:34 PM

Thanks for the new word, navaja. It actually wasn't a knife like that, I don't even know what you call it in English- one of those little knives with long replaceable blades that you slide up and down and can snap off the dull top to get a new sharp cutting end.

That worker had never been in the US- he told me the farthest he'd ever been from here in Sayulita was Acapulco, on some field trip with his church group when he was a teenager. But I'm sure he worked with lots of other guys who had worked up north.

what a roller coaster!

pauldavidmena - 8-6-2023 at 08:29 AM

This isn't so much a question as much as a recent discovery on my part: the Spanish translation for "roller coaster" is apparently "montaña rusa", literally "Russian mountain."

pauldavidmena - 8-7-2023 at 06:07 AM

Quote: Originally posted by lencho  
Quote: Originally posted by pauldavidmena  
This isn't so much a question as much as a recent discovery on my part: the Spanish translation for "roller coaster" is apparently "montaña rusa", literally "Russian mountain."

Wikipedia:

"La montaña rusa debe su nombre a las diversiones desarrolladas durante el invierno en Rusia, donde existían grandes toboganes de madera que se descendían con trineos deslizables sobre la nieve. Irónicamente, los rusos lo llaman Amyerikánskiye gorki (en ruso: Американские горки) o "montaña americana"."


Who knew that amusement parks could be another front in the Cold War?

puzzling...

pauldavidmena - 8-10-2023 at 09:31 AM

Today's word of the day from spanishdictionary.com was "rompecabezas", translated to "jigsaw puzzle" but literally "break heads." Ouch!

Skipjack Joe - 8-13-2023 at 08:34 PM

favorite: boracheria

pauldavidmena - 8-14-2023 at 06:00 AM

Quote: Originally posted by lencho  
Another that's fun to say. And you'll impress all your Mexican friends when you use it. :cool:

Ay, caray, ¡ya nos cayó el chahuiztle!


It took some digging to find a definition for chahuiztle. Very Mexican!

pauldavidmena - 8-14-2023 at 11:50 AM

Quote: Originally posted by lencho  
Quote: Originally posted by pauldavidmena  
It took some digging to find a definition for chahuiztle. Very Mexican!

Mexican indeed (consider the spelling).

But I think we have a failure to communicate: the definition... is right there in the page I linked to above... ¿?


You are indeed right (once I read the article)!
Quote:

una cosa desagradable nos ocurre de repente.

surabi - 10-9-2024 at 11:09 AM

:thumbup:

Cacharrería

lencho - 12-8-2024 at 07:51 AM



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toro.jpg - 215kB

pauldavidmena - 12-8-2024 at 08:22 AM

One of my favorite MythBusters episodes examines how a bull might react in a simulated china shop.

surfhat - 12-8-2024 at 11:13 AM

Mañana has always been the example I appreciate most about our friends south of the border.

Such a mindset could do us all some good north of the border.

Tomorrow? Maybe. I love it.

David K - 12-8-2024 at 01:20 PM

Mañana doesn't mean tomorrow, it just means not today! LOL 😆

Meany - 12-9-2024 at 04:25 PM

I've always like El Lugar.

pauldavidmena - 12-10-2024 at 10:01 AM

I can imagine that aguinaldo is a favorite word during this time of year.

lencho - 12-14-2024 at 09:45 AM

Quote: Originally posted by pauldavidmena  
I can imagine that aguinaldo is a favorite word during this time of year.

Speaking of which, those of you who actually live in Mexico, be sure and catch your trashmen next time they go by and lay some money on them as an aguinaldo.

Besides demonstrating your respect for local culture, you'll probaby discover your service improves.

True story: A place I lived in La Paz, was exactly on the borderline between two different trash pickup zones, with the result that frequently neither of the routes would pick up our trash.

Around December 15th, I when I heard the different routes' trucks coming down the block, I hailed them down and gave each crew a couple of hundred pesos aguinaldo with a smile and expression of appreciation for their service.

Never again did our trash sit out on the street after pickup time. ;D

surabi - 12-18-2024 at 01:52 PM

If giving to the garbage collectors, just make sure you give to the guys who come with the regular garbage truck. There have been reports from some areas of Mexico of scammers coming to people's doors claiming to be garbage collectors, asking for their aguinaldo.

Also, aguinaldo and vacation pay are govt. mandated for any regular employees you have, like cleaners and gardeners. They are calculated according to specific formulas- it isn't a matter of just handing them some amount you think is appropriate. Employers should also get their employees to sign for the aguinaldo and vacation pay. I know several people whose employees filed demandas claiming they never were paid these mandated amounts, and in many cases, their employers were shocked, as the person had been working for them for years, they thought of the employee as a friend, or even "part of the family", who they never would have thought would lie and try to extract more money from them.

Or people have been bamboozled into giving out aguinaldo to workers they have no obligation to. For instance, if you hire an independent contractor who has a crew working for him, the contractor is responsible for the aguinaldo and vacation pay for his employees, not the homeowner.

It's wise, if you own a home in Mexico, to apprise yourself of labor law here so nothing comes back to bite you.

lencho - 12-18-2024 at 02:31 PM

Quote: Originally posted by surabi  
It's wise, if you own a home in Mexico, to apprise yourself of labor law here so nothing comes back to bite you.

Well put. Mexican labor law favors the worker in ways which catch many Gringos unawares.

You can buy the Ley federal de trabajo for about 10 bucks from Amazon Mexico, and it's some of the most relevant Spanish practice an ex-pat can do.