Tú Or Vos? The Culture Dilemma

English, as we know it today, is a very simple language when it comes to addressing people. You have just one word (you) that can be used for strangers and acquaintances alike regardless of your level of intimacy with them. With Spanish, life gets a bit complicated because depending on where you are and who you are with, you must carefully choose from three different pronouns to sound appropriate. While knowledge of tú and usted is commonplace, it’s vos that’s relatively unknown to most Spanish learners. Here, we will try to explore voseo – the usage of vos – in different cultural contexts throughout the Hispanic world.

Why is it important?

Voseo on a billboard in Buenos Aires: Note “vení” instead of “ven”
Photo credit: Qqqqqq licensed CC BY-SA 3.0

Voseo stands for the usage of vos for the second person singular pronoun. A similar word for the usage of tú is tutear. Although not a part of standard Spanish anymore, vos does have significant currency in certain parts of Latin America where its knowledge is an absolute necessity.

It’s only ironic, however, that it’s now completely extinct in the country of its origin, i.e., Spain. Most courses skip this pronoun simply because the two largest dialects of Spanish, Castillian and Mexican, don’t have it in their inventories. But if the dialect you’re aiming to acquire is, say Argentenean or Uruguayan, you just can’t do without vos.

As mentioned before, voseo is not a global phenomenon. It’s rather dialectical and, more often than not, an aspect of non-standard, regional speech. So, what cultures actually embrace this practice and to what extent? You can take it for granted that regardless of its currency in other countries, voseo is non-existent in Spain and most of Mexico. As for the rest of the Spanish-speaking world, let’s see this one culture at a time.

Cultures with predominant voseo

Voseo at a Nicaraguan airport
Photo credit: Mbhskid520 licensed CC BY 2.0

• Argentina and Paraguay – Tú is practically non-existent in the Rioplatense and Paraguayan dialects, the ones spoken in these countries. In these cultures, usted is sometimes used in some formal settings but vos is the way to go otherwise.
• Uruguay – Uruguay, too, follows the Rioplatense dialect and runs predominantly on vos. In several areas, however, tú is also used albeit with the vos conjugations. Usage of tú with verbs conjugated in the tú form is alien to Uruguay.
• Costa Rica and Nicaragua – Here, just as in Uruguay, vos can be used with verbs conjugated in both vos as well as tú forms. Usage of tú as a pronoun is non-existent in Costa Rica and rare in Nicaragua. Usted is generally used for new acquaintances or strangers but can, in certain parts, be extended to all situations. Unlike Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay, however, tú is still preferred in Costa Rica and Nicaragua when it comes to formal communications, such as media, formal correspondence, or while addressing foreigners.

Cultures with extensive voseo

• Guatemala – Here, vos coexists with tú and usted; however, its usage is generally frowned upon by the older generations and those who come from the upper economic class who see voseo as vulgar or uneducated. Usted is the way to go with the elders; vos is the most intimate form and is used with younger family members or close friends; tú, on the other hand, is a little less intimate. One peculiarity here is that vos is preferred amongst men regardless of their intimacy; two men using tú with each other is seen as a sign of homosexuality. Many couples, despite their intimacy, choose to use the less casual tú with each other as a sign of romance and respect.
• Chile – Here, usage of vos conjugations with tú is spreading rapidly while vos as a pronoun is generally reserved only for very intimate encounters. Usted is the preferred pronoun with strangers and the elders; also, some couples use usted despite their intimacy to show respect for each other out of mutual love.
• Bolivia – Voseo is universally used in the Lowlands of Eastern Bolivia where the population is predominantly mestizo, Criollo, or of German ancestry (e.g., Tarija, Beni, Pando, Santa cruz, and the Lowlands of La Paz). In the Highlands of Western Bolivia, however, where the population is predominantly indigenous (e.g., Potosí, Oruro, Cochabamba, Chuquisaca, and the Highlands of La Paz) tú is predominantly the pronoun of choice albeit with verbs conjugated in the vos form.
• Honduras and El Salvador – Here, vos is the most intimate of the three pronouns showing maximum familiarity and, often, least respect. Usted is preferred with strangers and the elders while tú is the way to go with new acquaintances or not-so-close friends.

Cultures with voseo in some areas

• Ecuador – Voseo is predominant only in certain regions, i.e., the Esmeraldas, the center, and the Sierras.
• Venezuela – Voseo is prevalent in the northwest of the country, especially in Zulia State.
• Peru – Apart from some areas in the north and the south of the country, voseo is also widespread in Arequipa.
• Mexico – Overall, voseo is not a Mexican thing; vos is almost alien to Mexican ears. However, it is widespread amongst the poor indegenous peoples of rural Chiapas. Usage of vos in once-voseo states, like Quintana Roo, Tabasco, and Yucatán, is on the decline.
• Colombia – The Spanish of Colombia is a whole new world. Here, tú must be used with caution, though voseo is not a common feature in this country. Not only is its usage considered gay between two men, it’s also taken as a sign of being flirtatious or romantic if a man uses it with the opposite sex! Generally tú is reserved for family members and strangers (except for the situations just mentioned); for younger people, usted is preferred. Usted is preferred between two men, where tú would sound uncomfortably effeminate. Vos is preferred amongst people from western (Chocó, Nariño, Cauca, and Valle del Cauca), central (Primarily the Paisas of Caldas, Antioquia, Quindío, and Risaralda), and north-eastern (Cesar, La Guajira, and Norte del Santander - Ocaña Region) Colombia.

Conjugations

Before you fret over the thought of having to learn yet another conjugation for a new pronoun, let me assure you that vos conjugations are much simpler than their tú counterparts.

Let’s start with the present indicative tense, for example. All you do here is drop the -r from the verb, replace it with an -s ending, and accent the last syllable. That’s it. And no stem-changing nonsense. Sweet, ain’t it? So, your hablar becomes hablás, vivir becomes vivís, and comer becomes comés.

Now the commands, or in other words, the imperative. Again, simplicity is the name of the game here. Just drop the -r ending and accent the last syllable and you are done. So, vivir becomes viví, andar becomes andá, and comer becomes comé. The only tricky verb in the vos world is ir which cannot be conjugated in this method. Solution? Use the synonym, andar instead! So, the command to go would be andá. Hasn’t this simplicity won you over already?

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Tricks To Instantly Recall The Spanish Imperfect Conjugations

The Spanish language, like its other Romance cousins, is notorious for its myriad spirit-throttling conjugations. The first conjugation set any novice learner memorizes is the one for the simple present tense. While that one was relatively easier, it turns out there are many more such sets to be mugged up – for at least a dozen other tenses – and that’s where it starts to get intimidating. In this article, we’ll see how simple mnemonic cues and tricks can be exploited in committing one such set to memory – the Spanish imperfect tense. This is the tense for habitual or incomplete actions in the past and is quite important.

So what is this imperfect tense anyway?

Imperfect is the tense we invoke in Spanish whenever we are dealing with past actions that were either incomplete or repetitive; basically, anything that could otherwise be expressed into English with a “used to”. Here are some illustrations:

• I went to Yale (what I essentially mean here is that I used to go to Yale for my studies; a repetitive action)
• I was eating street food every day (I used to eat street food everyday; habitual action)
• Juan was sick (he was sick for an undefined period of time; hence, this can be considered an imperfect action like any other statement on feelings or state)
• We were returning when we saw Enrique (the act of returning is imperfect in nature because it’s incomplete)
• My father often drove me to school (my father used to drive me to school; a repetitive action regardless of its frequency)
• Every year, the entire family would come together on the Day of the Dead (This line, again, can be rendered using a “used to” and hence becomes a repetitive action)

Let’s now see how regular Spanish verbs conjugate in this tense. There are two sets of conjugations; one for the -ar verbs and the other for the -ir and -er verbs. The conjugations for the -ar verbs go first (using hablar for illustration):

-aba (hablaba I spoke/used to speak/was speaking)

-abas (hablabas you spoke/used to speak/were speaking)

-aba (hablaba he/she/it spoke/used to speak/was speaking)

-abamos (hablamos we spoke/used to speak/were speaking)

-aban (hablaban they spoke/used to speak/were speaking)

Here are the conjugations for the -er and -ir verbs (using comer for illustration):

-ía (comía I ate/used to eat/was eating)

-ías (comías you ate/used to eat/were eating)

-ía (comía he/she/it ate/used to eat/was eating)

-íamos (comíamos we ate/used to eat/were eating)

-ían (comían they ate/used to eat/were eating)

Now, while we are sure you have quite understood when this tense is exactly to be used, it’s remembering this usage and the associated conjugations that hurts the butt.

The prerequisites for the trick

There is no need to memorize the names of the many tenses you are going to use in Spanish just as there’s no need to remember which tense you are in when you say, “I wish I had eaten that hot dog.” Memorizing grammar terms and labels is the most unrewarding of all language learning activities and serve you absolutely no purpose unless you want to teach a grammar class or write a grammar test. What you should aim at, instead, is to learn to recall what word and conjugation to use depending on the scenario you are in regardless of what the conjugated form is labelled as.

Is it possible to trick your brain into recalling not only the conjugation tables listed above but also the fact that they are to be used only with habitual, repetitive, and continuous actions without cramming up anything? The answer is, yes, provided you already know your simple present tense like the back of your hand. Let’s review the simple present tense conjugations for a while before we get to the mnemonic. Here’s the table for -ar verbs using hablar:

-o (hablo I speak)

-as (hablas you speak)

-a (habla he/she/it speaks)

-amos (hablamos we speak)

-an (hablan they speak)

The trick!

If you remember and can recall the simple present tense table in a blink, you can use the following mnemonic to cement the imperfect to your brain with absolute ease:

When my dad was young, he lived in India and used to listen to ABBA all day

Not that hard to visualize, is it? If you are familiar with ABBA, chances are you know how big they were back in the 80’s. Now, the first thing to note in this sentence is its tense; without any clue about what it’s called officially, you can instantly recognize that we are talking about habitual and repetitive actions in the past. My dad “used to” live in India and he “used to” listen to ABBA all day. So you know whenever we are dealing with such actions, this is the mnemonic to be invoked. No need to memorize that it’s called “imperfect tense” in grammar.

Who knew ABBA could help you with Spanish grammar!
Photo credit: Spensatron 5000 licensed CC BY 2.0

Next thing to notice is the name of the band itself, ABBA. This should give you a cue to the -aba ending for the singular first person conjugation of -ar verbs in this tense, e.g., hablaba. If you can recall hablaba (I spoke/used to speak/was speaking) for hablar (to speak), the rest of the table easily falls in place as everything else follows the pattern of the simple present tense conjugation based on the -aba ending. Take a minute, try it out. Play with a handful of -ar examples, such as cantar, cocinar, viajar, tomar, etc.

If you are now comfortable with the -ar verbs, take a look at the -ia ending in “India” which is in bold. This is a cue to the -ía ending in the singular first person conjugation of the -er and -ir verbs, e.g., vivía (I lived/used to live/was living) for vivir (to live) or ponía (I put/used to put/was putting) for poner (to put. Again, the rest of the table just follows the simple present tense conjugation pattern based on the -ía ending. Try playing with some verbs, like comer, beber, correr, conducir, crecer, subir, etc. If you still need some further reinforcement to this mnemonic, there is a popular Spanish song by the Latin pop group, Camila, just for that!

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Tips On Using The World's Largest Language Learning Community

In the process of acquiring Spanish, we have used and abused an insane amount of free resources both offline and online. It is only with hit-and-trial that you eventually appreciate what works best for you, be it learning Spanish or acquiring any other skill. One of the resources many learners have used quite extensively is Livemocha and this article is going to focus on our experiences – and those of many other Spanish learners all over the world – with it. Having ransacked all that Livemocha has to offer in terms of Spanish, we have managed to put together our own list of strategies around squeezing it for maximum juice.

The social network

This is how Livemocha is modeled
Photo credit: Linda Hartley licensed CC BY 2.0

Livemocha’s model is quite simple and intuitive. It merges social networking with language learning. So, basically you learn new languages using free online lessons, complete drills to assimilate your learning, and make friends with native speakers along the way to reinforce practical language skills. Now, Livemocha isn’t the only such site – you have others like iTalki as well – but being the largest community of learners has its own advantages.

Livemocha offers a free basic membership, much like most other social networking sites. When you join as a free user, you have at your disposal an array of free courses graded in levels along with several exercises and an entire community of fellow language learners to interact and socialize with. These courses have lessons covering every aspects of a wholesome language learning program, i.e., writing, reading, listening, and speaking.

The site has a rating system where you earn points and badges for performing various activities. You earn points not only for successfully completing your lessons but also for contributing to the community at large. For example, you earn points by chatting with other learners, reviewing their exercises, offering them feedback, etc. This is a symbiosis where your exercises are reviewed by those proficient in your target language while you review those of someone who is learning a language you’re fluent in. So, effectively, you are a teacher as well as a student, both at once. A brilliant concept that helped me acquire most of my Spanish skills without a formal teacher! Livemocha also offers a range of paid courses if you are willing to shell out some dough but this article is only going to discuss what comes for free.

Getting started

Just like any other social networking site, you start by creating an account and a profile with some personal details. Well, you don’t absolutely have to load up tons of personal information on this site as you would normally do on your Facebook profile. Almost every field is optional and you are free to decide how much you are comfortable sharing.

However, a profile devoid of any informtion looks pretty much spammy or insincere. Don’t forget that this is a community and the more you are invested in your social endeavors here, the more juice you get to draw. Since your profile is the first impression, it should be reasonably friendly and inviting. A decent mug as your profile picture counts as a necessary PR step.

Do put up a friendly note about yourself and your language learning interests in your “About Me” section as that’s the section that essentially introduces you. The next absolute necessity is telling what languages you speak and what you wish to learn. This will not only help other community members know what you are pursuing and what you know, but will also help Livemocha suggest the most relevant profiles whenever you perform a community search. So, if your profile says that your native tongue is English and you are learning Spanish, Livemocha would suggest to you native Spanish speakers who are learning English.

How to get the most out of it

Once your profile is up, you can immediately start engaging with the vast network of learners and learning resources. In the beginning, however, the whole array of options and tools might get you overwhelmed. So, let my experiences with Livemocha cut right through the clutter and bring to you the 4 most useful tips in order to maximize your benefits:

1. Focus solely on the reading and speaking lessons. A major portion of every course is composed of modules where you click on pictures and listen to an audio telling you what the picture stands for. In my opinion, this module is an utter waste of time and energy as it won’t get you anywhere in terms of either speaking or reading Spanish. Instead, it is best to just skip to the reading exercise where you record yourself reading a given passage in Spanish and submit the recording to the community of native speakers for review. This will help you with pronunciation and diction in the most effective manner.


2. Immediately start helping others with their work. So, if you are a native English speaker learning Spanish, you should immediately start reviewing the drills completed by native Spanish speakers trying to learn English. Don’t procrastinate on this one as helping others will get you more help which you so desperately need. A profile poor in “teacher points” is easily seen as someone selfish and unwilling to help – not the best impression you want the community to have of you. Helping others is the best way of making friends with native speakers and accelerating your learning.


3. Always acknowledge their helpfulness. As you start submitting your exercises, you will start receiving valuable feedback from other community members who review your work. You must get into the practice of rating every feedback in terms on helpfulness and, if possible, offer a comment of acknowledgement. This will not only earn you points but also show your gratitude for their help. Besides, a good rating from you would also add points to the members whose feedback was rated and this would act as an added incentive for them to review your work more often and more sincerely. On the other hand, not-so-helpful reviews are also weeded out organically in this process.


4. Interact with other members. We admit we are no fans of the Java-based chat interface of Livemocha but the activity nonetheless remains integral to your language acquisition program. Real-time interaction can teach you several finer nuances of colloquial Spanish which are otherwise not available on any course. If the interface peeves you, feel free to move over to something else like Skype once you have become reasonably comfortable with the chat-buddy.

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Positive Emotions In Spanish

Expressing one’s emotions is perhaps the single most important aspect of human communication in any language. Almost every real-life communication involves expression of the speakers’ feelings and sentiments, positive or negative, in varying degrees. Hence, it becomes obviously imperative for anyone learning Spanish to learn to be able to express themselves and their emotions efficiently in that language before they set out on any confident conversation with a native speaker. Regardless of circumstances, these expressions often form the pivot of any conversation that goes beyond asking for directions or ordering a cerveza.

Ability to express your feelings is a real empowerment when it comes to learning Spanish. It gives you the confidence to move beyond the boring gracias, bien, and por favor while speaking real Spanish. Now, learning words of expression in any language is a pretty simple idea; there are dozens of word-lists out there on the Internet waiting for you to devour. But again, why would you be here if you could just snatch them off some website and cram them up? There’s got to be a lazier way to get our heads around those alien-sounding words! Is there? Yes, there is. Can we invoke mnemonics to just absorb them in a single scan without repeating them to death? Now we are talking.

Feeling good? Positive feelings

Basta por hoy...estoy contento
Photo credit: GabaGaba licensed CC BY 2.0

If you are like some of us, you probably prefer to start on a high. When there’s good news and bad news, we often tend to start with the good news first. It puts our spirit in the right place, prepared with the confidence required to face the bad news. In this article, we deal with words for some of the happier feelings – the positive emotions. Bits of etymology teamed with some mnemonics and visual cues are your key to instant assimilation.

• agradable (pleasant) – Does this word sound similar to agreeable? Well, when something is pleasant, isn’t it quite agreeable to our senses too?
• alegre (happy) – This word shares a common Latin root with the Italian word, allegro, which stands for a piece performed in a brisk, lively manner. And brisk and lively is quite how you feel when you are happy, isn’t it?
• contento (happy) – When you are happy to have finally done or received what you have been wanting to, you are obviously satisfied and content...and happy.
• enamorado de (in love with) – This one is a straight derivative from the Spanish word, amor, which stands for “love” in English. En carries the sense of “in” thus lending the phrase the meaning of being enamored with, ergo, being in love with.
• feliz (happy) – Remember Feliz Navidad or Feliz cumpleaños? This word comes from the Latin word, fēlīx, which means “happy” in English. Do note that fēlīx was also the source for “felicity” in English which, in a sense, also means “happy”.
• listo (ready) – Easiest way to remember this one is to ask the question: Is the list ready? By the way, this word also means “clever” just so you know.
• lleno (full) – Imagine being in your favorite restaurant and having this conversation with the server: More chicken? I am full; so, no more. The etymology of this word is too complex to be used as a memory cue.
• ordenado (organized) – Anything that’s organized is also ordered as against random and chaotic. Another way to remember this is by seeing anything organized as being pre-ordained.
• seguro (sure) – This one comes from the Latin, secūrus, which gave the English “secure” and “sure”. The Latin word carries a sense of certainty and self-confidence as an extension of security; and it is this sense of certainty or surety that came into Spanish as seguro.

Happiness in Spanish

So, what’s going on with “happy”? Three words in Spanish for one word in English? Not fair. How are we supposed to know which one to use in which situation? Well, cases like these are not uncommon in the life of a language learner. While more than one word can act as pure synonyms, carrying the same meaning in every sense, most often they happen to have some subtle differences. It is these subtle differences that sets the natives apart from the foreign speakers.

Well, the easiest one to sieve out is contento, which means “happy” in a sense of being content or satisfied. You could be contento when you are just done with your favorite dish of mashed potatoes or when you finally meet your family after a long trip abroad.

Este gato es muy alegre!
Photo credit: Paul Lewis licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

Alegre and feliz, on the other hand, have an extremely faint difference. Alegre is “happy” in a cheerful way, well manifested in one’s behavior or appearance, showing external signs such as a smiling face or a jovial attitude. Even objects or events could be described as alegre when their appearance or outlook evoke cheerful emotions, such as a party, a shirt, a house, or a painting. Also, alegre often indicates happiness in a more temporary sense.

Feliz, on the other hand is more permanent in nature, more innate and personal. One can be happy or at peace with themselves without appearing cheerful on the outside. This sense of being internally happy is captured by feliz. It’s a state of being, more about the emotion than about behavior or appearance. An example illustrating this subtle difference between the two word would be: Parece alegre, pero en realidad no es feliz (He appears cheerful but is not actually happy).

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Irregular Spanish Imperative Made Easy With Vin Diesel

Few real-life Spanish language interactions can last meaningfully long without the use of the imperative. This is the quintessential tense you speak in whenever you make a direct request or a command. Hence, it’s imperative that you master this tense quite early on while learning Spanish. While the English imperative is pretty straightforward with a single word for both requests and for commands, both negative and positive, Spanish has different words for each one of them! This article attempts to make it easier to master some of the most heavily used words of command (used with tú) that are also irregular in conjugation.

We all love mnemonics, don’t we? Mnemonics are the magic potion that makes committing seemingly impossible things to memory with little to no effort on our part a breeze. Often, a good mnemonic is the lazy learner’s (unfair?) advantage. And learning Spanish is no exception when it comes to their application. In fact, the number of ways in which mnemonics can enhance your Spanish acquisition capabilities are only limited by your creativity and ingenuity.

The 8 most common verbs in Spanish

Coming back to the subject at hand, it’s the Spanish imperatives, particularly the irregular familiar forms, that we are interested in. Spanish has quite a collection of verbs that go inexplicably irregular in their imperative forms, abandoning whatever pattern they would otherwise follow in other tenses. Let’s see some of the most irregular yet ubiquitous ones:

venir (to come)

decir (to say)

salir (to leave)

hacer (to do, to make)

tener (to have)

ir (to go)

poner (to put)

ser (to be)

Now, these are not the only irregular ones but it won’t take a genius to guess how important these verbs are for regular, real-life conversations regardless of the language. And when it comes to direct commands, instructions, or orders – in a familiar sense – these are the most heavily used words of action. So, mastering their familiar (tú) imperative forms should take care of most of your real-life scenarios in Spanish. And, by the way, we are only discussing the affirmative imperatives (come, go, sit, etc.) here. Negatives (don’t come, don’t sit, etc.) will come at a later time.

The imperative anarchy

Before we even begin with the trick, let’s first review the words that we are dealing with; the familiar, affirmative, imperative conjugations of the verbs listed above. Here you go:

venir – ven (¡Ven aquí! Come here!)

decir – di (Dime. Tell me.)

salir – sal (¡Sal ahorita! Leave right now!)

hacer – haz (¡Hazlo! Do it!)

tener – ten (!Tenlo! Have it!)

ir – ve (Ve a donde quieras. Go wherever you want.)

poner – pon (Ponlo sobre la mesa. Put it on the table)

ser – sé (¡Sé un hombre! Be a man!)

What a persistent pain in the butt, ain’t they? No pattern, no rule, a complete anarchy! Mugging them up appears to be the only option and is perhaps just right if you have to write a grammar test tomorrow morning. But heaven knows what a disaster rote learning is when it comes to learning Spanish for more practical purposes, like speaking with native speakers. So, what would the lazy learner do? Call upon Vin Diesel! Yes, the handsome baldie has just the right weapon to help you assimilate these anarchists with no chances of ever forgetting them again.

Vin Diesel saves your day!

Vin Diesel has ten weapons
Photo credit: _mixer_ licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

The star savior of the day is this mnemonic:

Vin Diesel has ten weapons

Easy-peasy? Well, how hard can it possibly be to imagine the Fast Five star with an arsenal of ten formidable weapons while he is on a mission to save your day? Let’s see how this line actually works:

• Vin – ven (ignore, for a moment, the fact that the two words don’t sound precisely the same)
• Die- – di (this one should be a no-brainer as long as you don’t pronounce the “die” as “hi”)
• -sel – sal (again, ignore the slight difference in the way the vowels sound in the two words)
• has – haz (do remember that the Spanish z sounds like the English s)
• ten – ten (another no-brainer)
• wea- – ve (they do sound almost similar if you try pronouncing the “wea-” with a German accent)
• -pon- – pon (exactly the same!)
• -s – sé (this one will need your efforts – the vowel, that is)

What we have done here is, break up the entire mnemonic sentence into its syllables, every syllable corresponding to one target word in Spanish. The only anomaly is the last syllable, -pons, which is further broken down to give two words, one for pon and the other for sé

See a pattern there? This is the magic of mnemonics. They bring order in what otherwise seems to be a chaos beyond repair. We can bet our last penny that you will now have a very hard time trying to forget these irregular words. Learning Spanish couldn’t get any easier, could it? If only you open up your own cans of imaginations, there are mnemonics for almost anything and everything. There’s a pattern in every irregularity. You just need an open and curious mind to see them!

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Deconstructing A Very Mexican Saying

Mexico is where two worlds have fused together to produce a version of Spanish that is far richer in culture than that of its European birthplace. This richness of the Mexican culture should, to a great extent, explain our bias toward their flavor of the Spanish language. A language this rich in cultural heritage often grows into an interesting stewpot of local refranes (sayings) and proverbs unique to its people. It is said, Mexicans are loaded with a saying for virtually any situation in life, which is what makes them such excellent communicators! The sentence being deconstructed in this article demonstrates just that.

These pearls of wisdom are not only meant to liven up your speech or make life more philosophical for you, they also add a new dimension to learning Spanish by offering you some priceless insight into the cultures and lifestyles of the native speakers! These sayings are laden with some of the most local aspects of the Mexican vocabulary and often hint at some really deeply-rooted facets of Mexico’s pre-Columbian cultures. These features make them excellent subjects for our deconstruction activities and accelerated learning. Here’s our subject for today:

Ponte los huaraches antes de meterte en la huizachera. (Put on the sandals before you enter the thorn-field.)

What the little saying above intends to advise is that you should always take all necessary precautions before you embark on any tricky journey or start a difficult task.

The nuts and bolts

As always, we will attempt to assimilate the Spanish in this sentence by breaking it down into small edibel morsels and then putting those pieces back together in order; more like reverse engineering. Let’s start:

Ponte – The Spanish verb, poner means “to put” in English. The same verb, when used as a reflexive (ponerse) takes on the sense of “putting oneself” or “putting on”. This reflexive verb, when conjugated for the familiar subject (tú), becomes ponte. Note the suffix signifying it’s association with tú. A more formal conjugation would be póngale which, obviously, takes usted as its subject. The little accent mark on póngale is just to ensure you pronounce it exactly the way it’s meant to be: With a stress on “o”. Note again, the -le ending that signifies it’s association with usted as against tú. Coming back to our ponte, the word in this context stands for “putting on” as in “wearing something”.

A breeze-friendly huarache
Photo credit: Wicker Paradise licensed CC BY 2.0

los huaraches – This word comes from the P’urhépecha word, kwarachi, which directly translates into English as “sandal”. This pre-Columbian footwear is made from traditionally hand-woven leather and is a well-known icon of Mexico’s cultural heritage.

Huaraches began to gain popularity in the United States in the 1950s and became known all over North and South America by the turn of this century. If you have ever had the chance to watch Ask The Dust, a Hollywood film set in the Los Angeles of the 1930s starring Salma Hayek and Colin Farrell, you would instantly recognize the rustic sandals worn by Hayek. Hayek is shown to be visibly annoyed when Farrell, perhaps mockingly, mispronounces the word. Most Mexicans would readily concur if you said that few things are more Mexican than a pair of leather huaraches. Want to buy yourself a pair? Head straight for one of those huaracheríos scattered throughout the Mexican countryside.

antes de – This one is easy; simply put, antes de translates into English as “before”. Why de, you ask? We don’t know. These are idiomatic phrases and it’s best to learn them as is without much logic. The antes can, however, be explained; it comes from the Latin word for “before”. The same Latin word has come to form the root of many English words today lending a sense of “before” or “pre”, such as “antebellum” (before the war).

meterte – Meter is a Spanish verb that means “to put in” or “to insert” in English. Used as a reflexive, it means “to put oneself into” or “to enter”. Despite the subtle differences, the context is usually enough to tell which meaning holds. Here, meterte means “you enter”; note the te ending.

A thorn-filled huizachera
Photo credit: Adapting to Scarcity licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

en – This one is a simple preposition which most often translates into English as “in”. In this context it gives a sense of “in” though while translating this sentence, this “in” is just implied and omitted in English.

la huizachera – Huizache is a very thorny legume found all over Mexico, El Salvador, Colombia, and Venezuela. It is regarded as a highly invasive weedy species threatening pastures whose pods are sold in local Mexican markets. The name derives from the Nahuatl word, huitztli (thorn). A huizachera is a field full of this plant.

String’em together

Now let’s bring these small pieces together and see how they lend to the final meaning of the entire sentence. The phrase, Ponte los huaraches means “Put on the huaraches” in the following word-order: Verb (here, familiar imperative of “to put on”) - object (here, “the huaraches”).

The rest of the sentence, antes de meterte en la huizachera translates as “before you enter the huizachera with the following word-order: Preposition1 (here, “before”) - subject (here, omitted but implied to be “you” in the familiar form) - verb (here, “to enter” in the infinitive form) - preposition2 (here, “in” or “into”; not translated into English) - object (here, “the thorn-fields” or “the huizachera”) 

Do note here that the reflexive object is often omitted in English; not so in Spanish. Also, such objects are usually suffixed to the verb if it’s in its infinitive form as is the case here (meterte).

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How To Remember The Conjugations For Ir Using Mnemonics

It’s one thing to acquire Spanish vocabulary effortlessly using mnemonic devices and flashcards and quite another to memorize the conjugations for the myriad Spanish verbs vital to everyday conversation. Most newbies have had a mighty difficult time with the Spanish verb, ir (to go) and its conjugations that seem extremely unrelated from one conjugation to another! Come to think of it, who would expect voy (I go) and fui (I went) to be forms of the same verb in different tenses? Here, we will attempt to nail this conjugation using extremely easy and handy mnemonics. Like we always stress, Spanish is easier than it appears!

I go, you go

Maybe it is plain traditional or maybe it’s the way our learning process has been institutionalized over the years, but the very first tense we hit while learning Spanish conjugations often happens to be present indicative. This is the tense that most closely corresponds to the simple present tense of English and roughly describes habitual or repetitive actions and events, e.g., “I go”, “they eat”, etc.

Here’s how the verb, ir conjugates in this tense:

voy (I go)

vas (you go; familiar)

va (he/she/it goes; also, you go in the non-familiar sense)

vamos (we go)

van (they go, you all go)

Vamos a la escuela
Photo credit: Ratha Grimes licensed CC BY 2.0

Question is, however, how the heck did ir morph into voy? They appear anything but related in any form! Well, honestly we don’t know. What we do know, however, is that mnemonics can be employed to remember that voy means “I go” regardless of its origins.

Since you use this form with the first person singular, which is yo (I), you have a yo in voy although it’s in reverse (“oy”). The only thing this trick won’t help you with is remembering that all forms of ir in this tense start with the letter, “v”. Another visual aid is to imagine yourself as a small boy who goes to school everyday. Note that the words, voy and “boy” sound almost exactly the same.

Now that you are capable of recalling voy, it’s not difficult to recall the rest of the table if you realize that the endings in this tense are pretty much standard and follow the regular pattern, albeit, with the “v” root.

I went, you went

Here’s another tense where the entire conjugated set seems utterly unrelated to the root verb. For instance, the first person singular in this tense is fui (I went) which bears hardly any resemblance with the original verb, ir! Could a little bit of history help us here? Let’s see.

Latin has a word, fugere (to flee) which doesn’t exactly mean the same as the ir of Spanish. But given that both “flee” and “go” have the same innate sense of movement away from one’s original place, the correlation isn’t completely uncanny. It is this Latin verb that gave Spanish its fui. Before we start exploring the mnemonics, let’s first see how the verb conjugates in this tense which, by the way, is officially known as the preterite form:

fui (I went)

fuiste (you went; familiar)

fue (he/she/it went; also, you went in the non-familiar sense)

fuimos (we went)

fueron (they went, you all went)

Now, the question is, how to retain all of this. Let’s start with fui. We have already seen how etymology hints a correlation with the English verb, “to flee” via Latin which should be good enough to explain the “f” root in the entire table. Another trick is to remember that because this form is used with the first person singular pronoun, the “I” form, fui ends in an “i”. Easy? Extend this word to form the plural conjugation as fuimos. We are, in all likelyhood, already familiar with -mos being a standard ending associated with the “we” form.

Likewise, because both “he” and “she” (the third person singular pronouns) end in “e”, the word to be used with them also ends in an “e”, i.e., fue. And it is this word that extends to form the plural in the third person, fueron. We are already familiar with -on as a standard ending in the “they” form, aren’t we?

Finally, the -te ending in fuiste should give you enough hint of its usage in the familiar second person form, the tu form.

We used to go

Grammar calls this the imperfect tense. To us, this is the way we should conjugate a Spanish verb when we are talking about repetitive, habitual, or continuous event in the past. We have also reviewed a Mexican song to help you easily grasp the past tense; it discusses the imperfect a little more at length.

Here’s how we conjugate ir in the imperfect tense:

iba (I used to go)

ibas (you used to go; familiar form)

iba (he/she/it used to go; also you used to go in the non-familiar sense)

íbamos (we used to go)

iban (they used to go)

If you look closely enough, you’d soon realize that these conjugations follow more or less a familiar pattern. the endings in ibas, íbamos, and iban are all well known to us if we have seen regular verbs conjugating in the present tense. The only two things you need to memorize here are the ib- root and the fact that the forms for the first person singular and the third person singular are exactly the same, iba.

The mnemonic I used while learning the root is a stupid visualization that I used to be a good boy who used to go to school everyday without fail. As for the third person singular form being the same as the first person singular one, it’s just one fewer thing to remember and shouldn’t call for any mnemonic innovation in order to stay in your memory.

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