While pedo alone means fart, when the word is paired with virtually any preposition and put into any other context, it means something different. Keep in mind that some of these are country-specific, while others can be used in almost any Spanish-speaking country.

Pedo #1: Que pedo. In Mexico this will normally be asked as a question, meaning ‘What’s up?’. In other places it would be said as an exclamation for laziness, as in ‘Wow, how lazy..’

Pedo #2: Al pedo. This is another form dealing with laziness. To be al pedo is to not have anything to do.

Pedo #3: En pedo. To be en pedo is to be totally smashed. Drunk. Plastered. It is most often paired with the verb ponerse. Example: yo me puse en pedo (I got drunk).

Pedo #4: A los pedos. Tengo que ir a los pedos means that you have to rush—you’re in a hurry.

Pedo #5: Hasta los pedos. When you are hasta los pedos, you are super-busy. You could say estoy hasta los pedos.

Pedo #6: Es todo un pedo. It’s all messed up. Similar to es un quilombo, which is another slangy way of saying that it’s a big mess.

Pedo #7: Tener un pedo con alguien. Translation: to have a pedo with someone. In this form, pedo means some sort of an issue. Have a problem with your boss? Tenés un pedo con tu jefe.

Alright, that’s enough pedos for now. But remember that there are loads more ways of using this word, and the usage will vary from country to country, so your best bet is to ask a local if it makes any sense. Part of language learning is asking the questions that make us uncomfortable, right?

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Luckily, you generally have to worry about only two of three, as tú and vos are both the informal and usted is formal. Some countries use tú, some use vos, and some use both. Check out the map of Voseo from Wikipedia to see what is used where.

Our rule of thumb is that if you’d call someone by their first name in English, you can use tú or vos in Spanish. If you’d normally add a Mr., Mrs., etc. then you use usted. Here are a few other types of people you’d used usted with:

• Someone older than you
• Someone you don’t know well
• An authority figure
• Anyone to whom you wish to show respect

Tú and vos are used for anyone who you are more familiar with. A friend, colleague, relative, child, etc.

Here in Argentina, we use vos for everyone – the word usted is seen in ads and sometimes heard when someone is referring to a much older person, but it’s not like Mexico, for example, where the distinction between tú and usted is much clearer and both are used often.

If you’re ever in doubt about whether to use the formal or informal, stick with the formal. No one will ever get angry at you for addressing them formally, they’ll just think you’re ridiculously polite. And seeing as how you’re a Gringo in a Spanish-speaking place, you’ll probably be used to being ridiculous, anyway. Want to minimize the ridiculosity? Grab Bueno, entonces…Learn Spanish before you leave and our Spanish classes will have you speaking and understanding native Spanish in five weeks. Become a fan on Facebook and you’ll not only learn Spanish phrases everyday, but you’ll also save $50 on our Learn Spanish Levels I & II program!

A few things:

1) The term ‘habrá sido‘ is in the future perfect tense, meaning it hasn’t happened – the jackass who’s hitting on you is referring to the pirate who will lose this treasure. He hasn’t lot anything yet.
2) El pirata: although it has a feminine word ending [piratA] (which means they’re generally supposed to have the feminine article ‘la‘) but instead, it is paired with ‘el‘ when talking about a male pirate. If there were a female pirate, we’d put ‘la pirata‘. The adjective that follows this particular nouns pairs with the gender of the article (el/la) and not the feminine word ending.
3) The word ‘perdió‘ is in the preterite tense, which means it is in the past – a done deal.
4) We’ll have a blog post soon on the difference between ‘esta‘ ‘este‘ and ‘ese‘ in the future. For now, ‘este‘ means ‘this’ and that is all you need to know.

If you’d like to find out more ways to interact with the locals – with words and phrases they actually use – we recommend you ponete las pilas and start learn Spanish now. If you’re a Bueno, entonces…Facebook Fan, you get $50 off of our program, and you get to join the community of over 5,000 Spanish learners!

Now, what could that jumble of words possibly mean? Let’s break it down…

Tres tristes tigres = three sad tigers. Alright, that’s easy enough.

Tragaban comes from the verb tragar, which means to swallow. Tragaban is in the past tense form of ‘them’ (referring to the tigers). What do they swallowed? They swallowed trigo, which is wheat.

Okay, so far we have three sad tigers swallowing wheat.  Continuing on: en un trigal means in a wheat field (trigo. trigal. See the connection?).

And finally, en tres tristes trastos—in three sad dishes. Whew.

The second bit of the trabalenguas is the same phrase, but reversed, so we aren’t going to bother with another translation.

Tres tristes tigres tragaban trigo en un trigal en tres tristes trastos. 
En tres tristes trastos tragaban trigo tres tristes tigres.

Try saying that one ten times fast!

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Amigos falsos, or what we like to call cog-nots, are words in Spanish that look like an English word, but actually mean something completely different. Example: Carpeta doesn’t mean carpet, it mean’s folder. They’re nasty little words that no one likes, but you’re just going to have to learn to deal with them. Here, we will give you fair warning of a few amigos falsos that you might come across in your Spanish studies.

First and foremost, one of the most common amigos falsos that is notorious for causing embarrassment is… well, embarazada. Estoy embarazada, more specifically. I am embarrassed? Nope. Embarazada actually means pregnant, so when you exclaim that you are ‘so embarazada,’ for something you just did, you’re really just making things worse for yourself.

Secondly, estoy excitado/a does not mean that you are excited. Well, it somewhat does, but in Spanish, excitado/a is typically associated with sexual excitement rather than regular excitement. Instead, you might want to say estoy emocionado/a.

Here are a couple other amigos falsos to be aware of:

Sensible = Sensitive, sensible

Éxito = Success, exit

Actual = Current, actual

Assistir = To Attend, assist

Atender = To Serve/ To Take Care Of, attend

… And the list goes on…

There are loads of amigos falsos in Spanish, but you will learn them as you come across them in your studies. Don’t be too worried about them now, though. Just make sure you’re aware that cognates can also be cog-nots!

To check out David and Jimena’s conversation about amigos falsos, along with the rest of the program, visit the Bueno, entonces…learn Spanish website and become a fan on Facebook to learn useful Spanish phrases. Want to see clips of our Spanish classes to see how they’re set up? Check out our Youtube page!