Thursday, November 28, 2013

¡Feliz Día del Guajolote!

If you want to tell your Spanish speaking friends Happy Thanksgiving, then this is the phrase you want:

Feliz Día de Acción de Gracias
Happy Thanksgiving

That's all fine and dandy, but it gets old and it's not very much fun.  Lucky for you there are a few other ways to say it that might impress your Spanish friends.

But before we get to those, let's talk about a few words you may not be familiar with.  The first one is pavo.

Here's a pavo:


That's right, it's a turkey.  And unlike with fish, pavo is the same word for seeing one in the wild and eating it on your plate.

Como preparar un sandwich de pavo
How to make a turkey sandwhich

That piece of information is probably not a big surprise, I'm sure many of you already know the word pavo.  But you may be surprised to hear that pavo isn't the only word for turkey.

In Mexico a pavo is also called guajolote.  In Guatemala it's a chompipe.  Cuba?  guanajo.  There are probably even more words for turkey, but I think you get point.

So what does any of that have to do with Thanksgiving you ask?

I'm sure nearly all of my American readers know have heard the phrase "Happy Turkey Day".  Well with your new found Spanish vocabulary for turkey you can now say the equivalent in Spanish.

Felíz día del pavo
Happy Turkey Day

That's pretty generic and should be understood anywhere.  Now if you want to impress your Mexican friends, you can say:

Feliz Día del Guajolote

Got Guatemalan friends?  Wish them Happy Thanksgiving with this:

Feliz Día de Chompipe

Well, that's it for today!  Except for one last thing:



¡Chao!

No me baja

If you don't know what a regla is, it's a ruler.  But that's not the only definition of regla, nor is it the definition we're here to talk about.

When you hear someone refer to la regla, it's a way of referring to the menstruation cycle, or el ciclo menstrual.  You can also say periodo menstrual.

La regla me vino por primera vez con 15
My period came for the first time when I was 15

No me viene la regla
My period didn't come

But just like in English, there's more than one way to skin a cat.

Estoy en mis días
I'm on my period

Ando en mis días
I'm on my period

Está con la regla
She's on her period


 I'm on my period, don't talk to me

When it comes to talking about when "la regla" did or didn't arrive, you can use the verb venir like the examples above but there's also another very common option using the verb bajar.

No me baja
My period didn't start

Me bajó hace una semana
My period started a week ago


Me debía de haber bajado desde el día 21
My period should have started on the 21st


If you have 52 seconds, want to practice your listening skills and want a good laugh, then this video is for you.  Be sure to listen for the phrases we just talked about.



That's it for today!  I hope you all learned something and got a good laugh from the video.  And if for some reason you don't see the video on the page, click here to watch it in YouTube.

¡Hasta la próxima!