Quiero quitarme la llantita

If you don't already know, llantita is the diminutive form of llanta, which means tire.  On it's own, it could be interpreted as a "little tire", but that's not the case in this context, so let's take a look at things and figure this out.

Quitarse means "to take off", and is a quite a useful verb, but maybe we'll discuss quitarse at a later time in more detail. 

Llantita is a colloquial way of refering to what we like to call a "spare tire", and not the kind you keep in the trunk of your car.  Yes, I'm refering to the ever annoying roll of fat that lives around our waist and can be nearly impossible to get rid of. 

Now we're ready to make our translation...

Quiero quitarme la llantita
I want to get rid of my spare tire

You could also refer to your spare tire as a "llanta", or "michelines". 

Another way to talk to about losing your spare tire is to use the verbs eliminar or bajar.

Pan comido, right?

I'm sure none of us like talking about our spare tires, but if you have to, you can now talk about them in Spanish!

Que codo eres!

Que codo eres!

If we interpret that literally, you've just told someone what an elbow they are, because codo means elbow.

But this is another one of those times where a literal translation falls short.

In Spanish, when you call someone codo, you're calling them cheap. So if we revisit our translation...

Que codo eres
You're so cheap

Codo is one of several ways to call someone cheap in Spanish.  There's also tocaño or tocaña although that probably translates more like stingy.

And surprisingly, you can call someone cheap without saying a word.  I think you ladies will appreciate this one. When that guy at the bar refuses to buy you a drink, you can just glance over at your girlfriend and tap your elbow, and she'll get the message.  And so will he, if he's looking.  Keep in mind that when you talk about a third party, you need to say "Que codo es".

Now guys, don't think I've sold you out.  If someone calls you codo, you can reply with...

No soy codo, sino ahorritivo
I'm not cheap, I'm thrifty

Lastly I'll leave you with a tiny bit of culture and a chiste (joke).

In Mexico, people from Monterrey (for whatever reason) are famous for being codo.  So with that bit of information, I think you can appreciate this joke...

¿Qué pasaría si se inunda Monterrey?
What will happen if Monterrey floods?


Se haría una inmensa sopa de coditos.
It'll make a huge elbow soup

Captaste el chiste?
Did you get the joke?

I hope you found this useful and maybe even entertaining.  I've had the fortune (misfortune?) of being called codo, and having this little of information made the situation even more humorous and memorable. 

¡Hasta la proxima!

¡Que buena (mala) onda!

There are actually a few phrases in Mexican Spanish involving the word "onda".  Today we're going to talk about a few of them.

I've already discussed one very important phrase "Que onda", so click here if you missed it.

So let's move right along and get straight to the point (ir al grano), "Que buena onda" is the equivalent of "cool" or "that's awesome".

When would you use this phrase? Well, it 's really straight-forward.  If someone tells you they just got a big raise. You can reply "¡Que buena onda!"

Or maybe your friend just got free concert tickets..."¡Que buena onda!"

I'm sure you get the drift, so let's talk about "Que mala onda".

"Que mala onda" is the opposite of "Que buena onda". This translates to something like "bummer" or "that sucks".

If your friend lost his free concert tickets, you could say "Que mala onda".   This is easy stuff, I think you get the idea, so let's talk about the last usage I'm going to cover.

You can also use the word "onda" to describe people...

Maria es buena onda
Marie is cool/nice

Maria es mala onda
Maria is not nice/cool

I'm sure that the word "onda" can be used in a variety of other ways, but these usages are practically staples of Mexican Spanish, so they're worth learning.
 
¡Hasta la próxima!

¡No te metas conmigo!

The verb "meterse" has many uses, one of which is "to get in".  For example:

Me gusta ir a la piscina, pero no me meto
I like to go to the pool, but I don't get in.


If you're like me, that usage alone was an amazing discovery for me.  But it turns out there's another usage as well.

No te metas conmigo, que no me conoces
Don't mess with me, because you don't know me.

And yes, that can carry a warning or threating like tone.

Here's a few more examples:


No me meto con qualquiera
I don't get involved with just anybody


No te metas con mi hermanita
Don't mess with my little sister

No te metas con drugas
Don't get involved with drugs

No te metas en mi vida
Don't interfere in my life

This pretty straight forward, and you should be able to start using this right away, and if you haven't really noticed it's usage in Spanish before, I imagine you'll start to see it everywhere now.

¡Hasta la próxima!

¡Estoy de fodonga!

I had no idea what this meant when I heard it.  And I've certainly never seen this word in a textbook.  I imagine I never will.

Anyway, all of that aside, let's get to the bottom of this phrase.

Fodonga, or fodongo, basically means to be lazy, messy, have an unkept appearance, or perhaps just a slob.  In English we might say someone looks a mess, in public or private.   A woman who goes to the store with hair rollers in place, maybe even wearing her bathrobe.  The guy who goes out in public looking like he hasn't combed his hair in weeks and is wearing the most wrinkled t-shirt and pants you've ever seen.  Those are good examples of fodongos.

And if you've ever seen any of the 'people in Wal-Mart' emails, you definitely know what fodongo means.

But if you still have some doubts about what 'un fodongo' might look like, I think this photo will give you a good idea:

So if you tell someone...

Estoy de fodonga

That's means you're looking a hot mess right now and have yet to spruce yourself up.  Hopefully you're just sitting around the house, and not out in public. 

Have fun with this one, you can get a lot laughs with it as you and your friends make fun of the crazy looking people you see in Wal-Mart!

¡Hasta la próxima!

Allá viene la combi

Before we can talk about what this phrase means, we need to talk about what a combi is.  Actually, today's post is really about the combi itself, and not so much the Spanish.  Every now and then, despite not living in Mexico, I'm able to learn a little something about the life of the people on that side of the border, so I thought I'd share it with you.

While I've never actually ridden in a combi myself, now that I know what they are, I realize that I've seen plenty of them on my visits to Tijuana.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so here you go:

A combi is nothing more than a van, basically your old school Volkswagon van.   To see more pictures of combi's,  click here. You really should take a look at the pictures, I found them fairly interesting.  In fact, here's one more:

As you can see, not all combi's are created equal.

Anyway, back to the combi.   In Mexico a combi is typically used as a taxi or bus, although as you can see by the photo above, they can serve other purposes.

While the focus of this post was really about the combi, we still need to deciper our phrase: 

Allá viene la combi

There goes the combi

This something you might say as you miss your ride. 

Let me clarify that "Allá viene" literally translates to "there comes", but I chose to translate it as "there goes", because it sounds kind of clumsy in English to say "there comes". Just something I thought I should point out.

There's also another meaning to this phrase, which isn't really very nice.  It's not vulgar by any means, but it's not a very nice thing to say.  If you're interested, you'll have to read about it (click here) in my other blog "No seas pelangoche", which is all about the groserías of Mexican Spanish. 

Let's look at some other ways to use the word "Allá".  You can say things like:

Allá arriba

Up there

Allá abajo

Down there

Vamos para allá

We're going that way

Allá voy

I'm coming

That's it for today.   While this was pretty straight-forward, being able talk to your Mexican friends about combi's will certainly impress them.

¡Hasta la próxima! 

Yo te hablo

Yo te hablo
I'll talk to you

Well, it seems like this one is pretty much an open and shut case.  And it almost is.  Almost.

But don't worry, this phrase really is pan comido.

Yo te hablo is a very informal and colloquial way of telling someone you'll call them back.  However, this may be something exclusive to Mexican Spanish.  With that in mind, let's take a look at some more universal ways of telling someone you'll call them back.

Te regreso la llamada

Te devuevlo la llamada

One thing you never want to say is:

Llamame pa' tras

This is a bit of English translated literally creeping into Spanish, and in some circles may be used to say "Call me back", but it's absolutely incorrect Spanish and I promise you most native speakers will cringe at the sound of this. 

Other than remembering not to use this phrase, the only other thing worth pointing out is that "pa'" is short for "para", and that is something you need to remember, because you'll hear it a lot.
¡Ya!

With these simple but handy phrases, you'll be able to return phone calls in Spanish with ease!

¡Hasta la próxima!