Why do some Spanish speakers use adaptations of certain English terms when there’s already a perfectly good word for the same thing in Spanish? Sometimes the result is called “Spanglish.” For example, Spanish cuentas means “bills,” but some Spanish speakers now use the word biles, which sounds like the English equivalent. Similarly, camión means “truck,” but some have adopted the similar-sounding troca, and replaced almuerzo, or “lunch,” with lonche. This is part of a complete episode.
We’ve previously discussed when pigs fly and other idioms expressing profound skepticism that something will occur. That prompted an email from Guillermo in Tucson, Arizona, who shared a Spanish phrase that conveys a similar idea: cuando la...
Ray, a teacher at a bilingual elementary school near Dallas, Texas, shares the Spanish term his family uses for gossiping after a party: saca garra. Spanish garra means “claw” or “talon,” and sacar la garra is used on either...
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