Pasame una lana primero, y después arreglamos

So there I was talking with my profesora, and I asked her for something, and this is what she tells me:

Pasame una lana primero, y después arreglamos

I couldn't help but laugh.  Not because I knew what she said, but because I knew it was supposed to be funny, and because yet again I had the deer in headlights look on my face. 

Now let's see if we can figure out what this means.

One word in our phrase you may not recognize is lana. Lana is a colloquial term for dinero, or as we say in English, money.  Plata is another colloquial term you may hear for money.

Arreglar is another verb that may be new to you.  Like so many verbs in Spanish, Arreglar has several meanings:  to fix something, to clean up, and to sort or work things out.  The last definition is the one we're interested in.  And since we're talking about Arreglar, I'll also mention that it's reflexive cousin Arreglarse means to get to ready, or dressed, as well as a few other things.  It's a good verb to learn, I've heard it on more than one occassion.

But let's get back to our phrase.  I think we know enough to make a good translation:

Pasame una lana primero, y después arreglamos
Pass me some money first, and then we'll work it out

When can you use this phrase?  Anytime someone asks you for a favor, big or small, is a perfect time to use this.  I'm sure your amigos will get a good laugh and be impressed with your Spanish as well.  

¡Hasta la próxima!

Hablame al contado no en abonos

What I love about learning Spanish is that I have so much to learn. Everyday I use my Spanish I get the opportunity to learn something new. Today was one of those days.

Before I can explain what "Hablame al contado no en abonos" means, I have to explain a few things first.

"al contado" means to pay for something in cash - one lump sum payment. To pay in "abonos" means you're putting it on layaway, in other words, making payments.

Now that we have that bit of knowledge behind us, we can get down to the business of understanding our phrase.

At some point in time we've all had conversations with someone who stutters or perhaps for some reason is just having a hard time getting the words out. It might go something like this: "Lo que quiero decir es...bueno, es que, pues, este...". By the way, "este" in this context is the equivalent of "ummm...". I think you get the picture. In english we might say something like "just spit it out". In Spanish you could say "Hablame al contado no en abonos".

I'm guessing most of you are pretty quick on the draw and have already figured this out. But let's go ahead and take a closer look at things.

Remember "abonos" means to make payments, one at a time, which is exactly how our unfortunate stuttering friend is delivering his words. We're requesting that he speak to us "al contado" - tell us everything at once, not one painful word at time.

Personally, I found this pretty funny. While it may not be very useful, it will definitely make your Spanish sound very natural and authentic. You'll probably even get a few laughs and surprises out of your friends after you throw this out. I enjoy seeing the look on the faces of my amigos when I surprise them with a bit of Spanish they just aren't expecting to hear.

While I'm not entirely sure, I believe this may be a Mexicanism, but you can always ask your Spanish speaking friends wherever they happen to be from if they've heard this before. Or better yet you can use it and teach them something!

¡Hasta la proxima!