Sometimes, even native Spanish speakers can get tripped up by words and phrases used in other countries. A good friend of mine, Jorge is from Colombia but moved to Argentina to go to school. His Spanish and English are both impeccable, so I take great joy in any of his minor slip ups. It just makes him more human. When he first moved to Argentina, he worked in a call center in customer service. … [Read more...] about The Argentina Spanish Street Slang Phrase MANDAR FRUTA

AALRPMQTRP Try saying that three times fast. I bet you didn’t learn the pronunciation rules for that many consonants in a row! Okay, okay, I'll come clean. This is not a Spanish word, it is actually an acronym for the worst Argentine insult you can dish out: Andáte a la re puta madre que te re parió. Roughly, that translates to “Go to the fucking mother fucker that fucking birthed … [Read more...] about The Harshest Argentina Spanish Street Slang Insult: AALRPMQTRP

If you have never been to Argentina, chances are you have never even heard of the vos form. It is not to be confused with the vosotros form, which is native to Spain and also frequently ignored in the classroom. The vos form is native to Argentina and is interchangeable with tú. While Argentinians will understand any use of tú and tú form conjugations, you will rarely hear them use either. For … [Read more...] about Argentina Spanish Lesson: How to Conjugate the Vos Form

The first time my Argentine friend asked me ¿me tenés? I was a little confused. By that time, I was at least used to the vos form conjugation of “tener,” but the direct translation “You have me?” left me drawing a blank. Luckily, I was able to figure this out through context because she was shoving her bag in my face and holding a jacket she wanted to put on in her other hand. I connected the … [Read more...] about Learning Argentina Spanish: ¿ME TENÉS?

Just like in any language, Spanish has many words that have multiple meanings. The word “SUBIR” has several different meanings such as to go up, to get on, to climb up, to raise and many others along the same lines. Usually, you can figure it out from context, but the other day I came across a situation that wasn’t as clear. I was standing on the 13th floor of a 14 story building, waiting for … [Read more...] about SUBÍS: Learning Argentina Spanish for Going Up and Getting On