Ahorita vengo

Ahorita.  One simple word. It's not hard to spell, it's not even hard to pronounce.  But don't let that fool you, because this little word has not only caused problems for gingos like us, but for native born Spanish speakers as well.



In Spanish, the word for now is ahora, which is where the word ahorita is derived from.  Figuring out where ahorita comes from is the easy part.  Figuring out what it means is the hard part.

Ahorita
Right now

Ahorita vengo
I'll be right back

If you frequent Mexican restaurants, you may have heard this:

Ahorita le traigo
I'll bring it right now

Notice that I said Mexican restaurants.  That's because ahorita is primarily a Mexican thing.  Not that other Spanish speakers don't say ahorita, because they do.  It's the meaning of ahorita that not all Spanish speakers agree on.

In some parts of the Spanish speaking world ahorita simply isn't used at all.  In other parts it's interpreted as "later".  Rather then me trying to explain it to you, I'm going to point you to a real life example of the kind of havoc this tiny little word can cause.  Take a look at this YouTube video.  The video is of a young woman talking about how the word ahorita caused the first argument between her and her boyfriend.  It's actually kind of funny and is a mixture of Spanish and English, so it's a good chance for you to put those Spanish ears to work.

And if you can't see the video for some reason, here's the direct link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kelMJeEcn5A

Since we're on the topic of Mexican Spanish, there's yet another Mexican way to say "right now". 

Regreso luego luego
I'll be right back

In fact, I actually wrote a post about "luego luego" a few years ago.  You can read it by clicking here.

If you want to convey the notion of "right now" in standard Spanish that everyone can understand, then you want "Ahora mismo".

¿Se le traigo ahora mismo?
Should I bring it right now?

Since ahorita isn't a 100% reliable way of telling someone you'll be right back, let me give you a few phrases that should work universally.

Ahora (mismo) vuelvo

Enseguida vuelvo

Ya regreso

 Enseguida regreso

Well, that's it for today.  I hope you all found this useful.  If you speak Spanish with enough people, sooner or later you'll hear these phrases and hopefully won't fall victim to the "Deer in headlights" syndrome. 

Hasta la próxima.

Si me toca el gordo, qué hago?

Literally speaking, Tocar el gordo means to touch the fat man. 

So, if you translated this as:

¿Si me toca el gordo, que hago?
If the fat man touches me, what do I do?

You'd be wrong.  Let's find out why.

OK, the truth is, whether or not your translation is wrong depends on context.  "El gordo" does mean the fat man, but it also has another meaning.

"El gordo" is  a colloquial way of referring to "la lotería".  And "lotería" means lottery in case you don't know.  You may also hear it called a sorteo.  Sorteo is also the word you want if you need to talk about a raffle. 

Here are some examples of what a boleto de lotería and a boleto de sorteo might look like:

Where can you buy boletos de lotería?  It's pretty common to see boletos de lotería being sold in the streets.

It's not uncommon for us to refer to the lottery as "the big one", and "El gordo" is the Spanish version of that.  "El gordo" is universal, so you can use this with Spanish speakers from anywhere.

You may have wondered about the use of tocar in this sentence.  Literally "si me toca" translates to "if it touches me", but we wouldn't say that in English.  You could have easily said:

¿Si me gano el gordo, qué hago?
If I win the the big one, what do I do?

As you can see, using the verb ganar (to win) is more of a direct translation.  But using the verb tocar is also a very common way of expressing this.  It's also a good way of flexing your Spanish muscles and impressing your Spanish speaking friends.

And speaking of tocar, it's used in a few other ways you may find surprising.  But I'm not going to tell you what they  are in this post.  In fact, I'm not going to tell you at all, because another fellow blogger has already written a great post about this, so why reinvent the wheel?

My new found internet friend and Spanish aficionado runs the blog Vocabat.com.  Her blog focuses on Colombian Spanish and gives us some great insight on the language and culture of Colombia.  What makes her blog even more informative is that she is reporting directly from the city of Medellin.  I can't even begin to tell you how jealous I am.  Anyway, it's a great blog, check it out.

Here's the link to her post on the verb tocar.  If you're serious about learning Spanish, be sure to read it, because it's both informative, and amusing.  Not to mention it may very well save you some embarrassment.  

¿Me toca o me toco?

That's it for today, ¡hasta la próxima!

¿Has visto mi chamarra?

It's that time again, where I share a bit of Spanish with you that I hope you find entertaining and maybe even useful.

I could explain what a chamarra is, but I'm lazy, so I'll show you a picture instead.

¿Has visto mi chamarra?
Have you seen my jacket?

Yes, a chamarra is what your Spanish book calls a chaqueta.  If you haven't heard this word already, tarde o temprano (sooner or later), you will, especially when you start delving into the world of Mexican Spanish.

So what's so special about the word chamarra in Mexican Spanish you ask?  Other than it's the preferred word for jacket in much of Mexico, nothing.  It just means jacket.  In fact, it means jacket no matter where in the Spanish speaking world you go.  Not everyone uses the word chamarra, but you should be understood.  

This may come as a surprise, but the word that might give you problems in Mexico is the one your Spanish book taught you....chaqueta.

Yes, I'm quite sure you're intrigued about how the word for jacket, chaqueta, could be troublesome, so let me get on with it.

At some point in your learning Spanish career someone is going to tell you"don't use the word chaqueta in Mexico", and they're going to be very emphatic about it, almost to the point where you think you'll be deported from the country if you do use it.  Why you ask?  Because the word chaqueta means  something else in Mexico.  That something else would be "hand job".    Unfortunately, no one ever told me that.  I did know that Mexicans in general preferred the word chamarra, but I had no idea why.  Let me tell you what happened to me when I couldn't remember the word chamarra and went with chaqueta.

I was in Mexico in the month of January, and it was pretty chilly.  I was talking with someone about how cold it was and I said...

Hace frio, per no tengo chaqueta
It's cold, but I don't have a jacket

You won't believe what happened next....

Nothing. 

Yep, absolutely nothing.  Our conversation just went on normally, he didn't bat an eye.  And this is what brings me to a huge pet peeve of mine.  There are people who go around putting fear in gringos about using the word chaqueta in Mexico when it just isn't necessary, so now I'm going to set the record straight.

Chaqueta, in Mexico and any other Spanish speaking country, means jacket.  Feel free to run through the streets of Mexico shouting chaqueta to your hearts content.  People will think you're crazy, but they aren't going to cruxify you.  It just so happens that for whatever reason, chaqueta is used colloquially to refer to the act of self-gratification.   Well, in reality it would be a noun, and the phrase to refer to the act itself is hacerse una chaqueta, for those of you who need to know.   And it applies to both men and women.  

Now, if you're in the company of friends, 13 years olds or construction workers and you say..."Necesito una chaqueta", yes, you're probably going to hear a few chuckles, if not flat out laughter.  I mean, come on, it is kinda funny.  There's nothing wrong with a little toilet/juvenile humor every now and then.   And even better, with this new found knowledge maybe you can make one of your friends the butt of the joke instead of the other way around.

So there you have it.  Yes, chaqueta might have you blushing from embarrassment in the right (wrong?) context, but the truth its totally safe to use chaqueta to refer to a jacket in Mexico.   In fact, in some parts of Mexico it's actually quite common to hear it. 

That's it for today. ¡Hasta la próxima!