¿Por qué estás chiquiteando wey?

Imagine yourself sitting in a bar or a nightclub with toda la banda drinking, laughing and just having a good old time, then all of sudden some asks you:

¿Por qué estás chiquiteando wey?

Before I go into what this means, let's talk about a few other things first.

If you don't know, "la banda" doesn't mean a musical band in this context.  "Toda la banda" is a way of saying you're with all your friends.

"Wey" is a way of saying "dude" in Mexico.  I talked about it before in this post.

Lots of people like to drink to beer, which everyone probably already knows means cerveza.   But what you may not know is that you can also ask for una chela bien fria - a nice cold beer. 

And if you've never been to a bar in Mexico, you may be surprised to find out that beers are commonly sold by the bucket.  Literally.

A bucket is called a cubeta.  It's a really effecient way of ordering chelas.  They sit on ice and the waiter comes by to open them up when you're ready.

Now let's get back to where we left off.

There you are in the bar sipping on your favorite chela, and then your friend asks:

¿Por qué estás chiquiteando  wey?

In this context, chiquitear means "to sip", so your friend wants to know why you're sipping, or as we like to say, nursing your drink.  I certainly hope you have a good explanation. 

I also need to tell you that "chiquitear" has another meaning that I'm not going to go into.  At least not in this blog, because its other meaning is much better suited for my sister blog, No Seas Pelangoche.  I've already posted about that, so if curiosity is getting the better of you then you'll want to click here. 

That's it for today. 

¡Hasta Pronto!

Me pones

The verb ponerse is highly used but rarely talked about in any Spanish book I've seen.  For whatever reason it's non-reflexive cousin poner gets all the glory.

Let's take a look at some ways ponerse is used:

Voy a ponerme guapa
I'm going to go make myself look pretty

Me pongo nervioso cuando estoy con chicas bonitas
I get nervous when I'm with pretty girls

¿Qué me pongo?
What should I put on?

Saber que estas mejorando me pone muy feliz
Knowing that you're getting better makes me happy

Se puso a hacer las maletas
He started packing his suit cases
 
Ponte el cinturón
Put on your seatbelt
 
Se puso enfermo y por eso no pudo ir
He got sick and that's why he couldn't go
 
Quiero ponerme en forma para el verano
I want to get in shape for the summer
 
Using ponerse is actually pretty straight-forward, and mastering it's use will make your Spanish sound very, very natural.  And as you can see from the examples above, you can use ponerse to talk about anything from putting on clothes, talking about your emotions, and even making yourself look nice, so you can see there are many uses of this verb. 
 
Before we wrap things up, there's one other usage I didn't cover.
 
Me pones
 
After looking at the previous examples, you may be tempted to think this is an incomplete sentence, but you'd be wrong.
 
Me pones
You turn me on
 
Mi novio no me pone para nada
My boyfriend doesn't turn me on at all
 
Shakira me pone
Shakira turns me on
 
I bet you didn't see that one coming.  It was a surprise for me too.
 
That's it for today, espero que te sirva.  
 
¡Hasta la próxima!

No veo la hora de volver a verte

In Spanish, when you want to talk about doing something again, your Spanish textbook will mention these two options, "otra vez" and "de nuevo".  

There's absolutely nothing wrong with either of those two options, and you shouldn't hesitate to use them. 

Here's an example:

No te voy a molestar de nuevo
I'm not going to bother you again

Nunca voy a hacer eso otra vez
I'm never going to do that again

This is where things get interesting.   There's a very good chance that you'll never hear a native speaker say either of those.

I wish I could see the deer in headlights look that I'm sure some of you have right now.  I bet it looks exactly like the one I had.  But getting back to the subject at hand, if a native speaker might not say "de nuevo" or "otra vez", then what would they say?

No te vuelvo a molestar
I'm not going to bother you again

Nunca vuelvo a hacer eso
I'm never going to do that again

It's extremely common to use "volver a" talk about doing something again.  Let's look at a some more examples to help you get the hang of it.

Rápidamente lo volví a llamar
I quickly called him back

Por favor, vuelve a introducir tu contraseña
Please enter your password again

No me digas que fuiste por el hielo, las cocas, mas ron y se te volvio a olvidar el limon
Don't tell me you went for the ice, the cokes, more rum and you forgot the lime again?

Cultural tip:  Notice I translated limon as lime.  That's because if you go to any Spanish speaking country and ask for a "limon" you'll get what we call a lime.  I touched on this in another post, which you can read about here.  You'll also learn how to order one of my favorite cocktails in Spanish.

If you don't want to see someone again, loan them money

Decidí volver a llamar
I decided to call again

Nunca más volveré a enamorarme
I will never fall in love again

And at this point I'm guessing you can easily translate the title of this post.  Or at least half of it.

No veo la hora de volver a verte
I can't wait to see you again

"No veo la hora"  might have thrown you for a loop, but if you got it right, you just earned yourself some extra credit.

¡Ya¡  Our work is done for today. 

Hasta pronto.

Ya llovió

I remember being an adolescente (teenager) living in Puerto Rico taking Spanish I & II. 

Ya llovió.

Despite having taken classes, I didn't really learn how to speak Spanish.  Fast forward 22 years later to 2005 and I started studying Spanish again.   

Ya llovió.

I also remember when I started this blog.  I had no idea what I was really going to blog about, nor how long I would keep it up. That was back in July of 2008.  

Ya llovió.

Despite how it sounds, this post isn't about the fact it took me forever to learn Spanish, so let me get down to business.

Ya llovió
It already rained.

While the literal translation is accurate, it doesn't apply here.  Ya llovió is also a colloquial expression that has another meaning. 

Ya llovió
That was a long time ago

This phrase is actually a shortened version of:

Ya llovió mucho desde entonces

"Desde entonces" means "since then".  Here's an example of how to use it:

Han pasado cuatro años desde entonces
It's been four years since then

Let's get back on track.

Ya llovió mucho desde entonces
It's rained a lot since then

I'm not sure what the connection is with rain and the passage of time, but this a colloquial way of saying:

Ya pasó bastante (mucho) tiempo

You may also see this phrase as:

Ya ha llovido desde entonces

That's it!  Whether you choose to say Ya llovió mucho desde entonces or simply Ya llovió, you'll sound like a native.


¡Hasta luego!

¿Te regalo este plato?

You may already know that in Spanish you use the verb Regalar to talk about both giving and receiving gifts.  Here's an example:

Me regaló una falda
He gave me this skirt (as a present)

What you may not know is that you can use regalar in other ways.  Let's take a look at our phrase:

¿Te regalo este plato?

Meseros and meseras will commonly hear this, and contrary to our previous definition of regalar, they aren't being offered an actual gift.  Let's revist out translation.

¿Te regalo este plato?
Can I give you this plate?

Actually, in English we'd say "can you take this plate?", but you get the picture.  Another way to say this is:

¿Puede retirar el plato?

It's nice to have options.

And as you can see, regalar can also mean "to give", like the verb dar in Spanish.  So let's look at a few more examples. 

¿Me regala una caja para llever?
Can you give me a to-go box?

¿Me regalas un besito?
Can you give me a little kiss?

On an unlrelated note, if you'd like a great big kiss, then you can ask for besotote.  Ok, now let's get back to business.

¿Me regalas un hojo (de papel)?

Can you give me a sheet a paper?

That's it! Facilisimo, ¿verdad?

Hasta la próxima.

¿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!

¿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!