Guide to Costa Rican Spanish

In Costa Rica it is difficult to “keep your bearings” since street signs are few and far between and most houses don’t have numbered addresses. Memorize the Spanish survival phrases below and you should be able to find your way around, located addresses and hopefully not get lost.

¿A qué distancia queda…?  - How far is…?
¿Dónde está…? - Where is…?
Tome la primera calle… - Take the first street
a la derecha - to the right
a la izquierda - to the left
directo/derecho - straight ahead
diagonal - diagonal to
a la par de - next to
¿Hay un…por aquí? - is there a …around here?
Doble a la derecha - turn right
Doble a la izquierda - turn left
una cuadra - a block
cien metros - a block in Costa Rica
cien varas - also a block in Costa Rica
entrada - driveway
la esquina - corner
cerca de - near
lejos de - far
frente a – across the street
en el cruce  - at the intersection
estoy perdido - I’m lost
Me puede dar las señas – Can you give me the directions?
¿Puede enseñarme el camino? - Can you show me the how to get to…?
norte - north
sur - south
este - east
oeste – west
a un costado de – to one side of

Tiquismos of the week:

1) Estar más perdido que el hijo de la Llorona – to be really lost
(2) Vara  is an old measurement which is the equivalent of a meter (2.8 feet). As I stated above “cien varas” and “cien metros” are also used for a city block. I have even heard “una teja” (slang for 100 colones)  used as slang for a city block.

In Spanish some  words are shortened in everyday conversations just like we do in English. For example we often use bike instead of bicycle or frig instead of refrigerator.

Here is the list of the most common shortened words.

El cole – from colegio (high school)
El compa – from compadre (pal)
El cumpli – from cumpleaños (birthday)
El profe – from profesor (teacher)
El celu – from celular (cell phone)
El abue y la abue – from abuelo (grandfather) abuela(grandmother)
El fut – from fútbol (soccer)
La peni – from penitenciaria (penitentiary)
La compu – from computadora (computer)
La bici – from bicicleta (bike)
La moto – from motocicleta (motorcycle)
El presi – from presidente (president)
El hospi – from hospital (hospital)
La tele – from televisión (television)
La U – from universidad (university)
La uni – from universidad (university)
La refri – from refrigerador (refrigerator)
El doc – from doctor (doctor)
La prosti – from prostituta (prostitute)
La muni – from municipalidad (municipality/city hall)
El wicho – from sanwich (sandwich)
El Pana – from Panameño (Panamanian)
El Nica – from Nicaragüense (Nicaraguan)
Guate – from Guatemala (Guatemala)
Por fa – from por favor (please)

Tiquismo or Costa Rican expression of the week: El wachi – from wachimán (watchman) Costa Rican Slang

¡Un toque! - Very quickly
Vacilar – to make fun of someone
Vacilón – fun, funny
¡Varas! - Just kidding
¡vaya jalando! - Get the hell out of here!
Vibra – vibes …like a person has good or bad vibes
Vieras – You should have seen
Vivazo – a smartass or tricky person
Vividor – a freeloader
Volar rabo – to have sex
Volar pata – to walk
Volar plomo – to shoot a gun
Volarse – to eat or drink mandarse is also used
¡Ya voy! - exclamation used for disbelief
Yegua – a stupid person
Yodo – coffee
Zarpe – one for the road or last drink of the night
¡zocale! Hurry up!
Zorra – a woman of dubious reputation
Zorro – a man who chases a lot of women

¡Ojo! (Be careful) If you are a beginning Spanish student or haven’t mastered the present tense yet, then save this series of articles for future reference.

In the previous two lessons I introduced the subjunctive verb endings and told you to memorize the  verb endings for regular AR, ER and IR verbs. In the second lesson I included the most common irregular verb endings.

Now it is time to see how the subjunctive works. I am not going to mention a lot of grammatical terms into order to simplify the process.

I want you to look at this formula which applies to 90% of the cases where you use the subjunctive. The subjunctive has to do with uncertainty. It refers to something that has not happened.

Step 1) A + B = Subjunctive.

What does this mean? In most cases If you have elements A and B in a the first half of a sentence followed by “QUE (that)”,  the verb that comes after QUE HAS TO BE IN THE SUBJUNCTIVE TENSE and refers to an event that hasn’t happened.  Remember this.

Step 2) In our formula above A represents a PERSON (subject) or THING and B represents a VERB. NOT JUST ANY VERB but CERTAIN TYPES of VERBS that affect the outcome of the second half of the sentence after QUE. Confused? I bet you are. Now let’s look at the first situation where we can apply our formula

FIRST USE OF THE SUBJUNCTIVE:

(1) With Verbs of INFLUENCE + que (that). Verbs in the first part of the sentence before  QUE that influence the outcome of what comes after QUE: wanting, desire, ordering, causing, allowing, prohibiting, persuading, requesting, insisting, needing, preventing, advising, etc.

Note: the QUE (that) which separates the two parts of the sentence is seldom translated in the examples in English below.

Example: I want you to buy a car. Yo quiero que usted compre  un carro. (A) Yo + quiero (querer which is a verb of influence (B)  followed by que , so the verb that comes after que, which refers to another person has to be in the subjunctive. In this case it is “compre” from the verb comprar.

Example:

Mi esposa desea (to desire) que yo pinte la casa. (A) My wife (a person) desires (verb of influence) (B) that I (change of subject) paint the house.

More examples:

• Te sugiero que vayas (irregular of IR to go). I (first subject) suggest (verb of influence) that you (change of subject) go.
• La cajera nos recomienda que contemos el dinero. The cashier recommends (verb of influence) (that) we count the money.
• Marta nos pide que salgamos ahora. Martha asks us to leave now.
• El profesor recomienda que estudiemos. The teacher recommends  (that) we study.
• Yo prefiero que esperes. I prefer (that) you wait.
• Insisto en que pintes la casa. I insist you paint the house.

In all of these examples these is one subject using a verb of influence followed by “QUE” to change the out some of affect the subject that comes after QUE

Tiquismo of the week: Ser muy gallo – to be brave or hard working

***Ojo! (Be careful) If you are a beginning Spanish student or haven’t mastered the present tense yet, then save this series of articles for future reference.***

Here is a quick review of last weeks article.

We form the present subjunctive of most “ar, - er, and ir ” verbs by dropping the - “o” of the present indicative tense “yo” form and by adding the subjunctive verb endings.

AR VERB ENDINGS
Add o, as, a, amos, an

ER and IR VERB ENDINGS (note they are the same)
o, es, e, emos (imos), en

Below are some of the most frequently used irregular verbs that don’t follow the rule above. The good news is that ninety-nine percent of the verbs are regular.

Poner (to put or place) - Yo (I) pongo, tú (you familiar) pones, él (he), ella (she) pone, nosotros (we) ponemos, ellos (them-masculine), ellas (them-feminine), Ustedes (plural ..you all) ponen.

Tener (to have) - yo tengo, tienes, tiene, tenemos, tienen.

Seguir (to follow) - yo sigo, sigues, siguen, seguimos, sigan.

Venir (to come) - yo vengo, vienes, viene, venimos, vienen.

Hacer (to do or make) - yo hago, haces, hace, hacemos, hacen.

Dar (to give) - yo doy, das, da, damos, dan.

Estar (to be……location or temporary conditions) - estoy, estas, está, estamos, estan.

Ir (to go) - voy, vas, vá, vamos, van.

Saber (to know a fact) - yo sé, sabes, sabe, sabemos, saben.

Conocer (to know people or places) - conozco, conoces, conoce, conocemos, conocen.

Ser (to be….permanent conditions) - soy, eres, es, somos, son.

*Haber (there is or there are) - Haya (NOTE there is only one form of this verb)

THERE ARE SOME MORE IRREGULAR ENDINGS THAT ARE LESS FREQUENLY USED. WRITE ME OFF LINE IF YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW TO USE THEM.

MEMORIZE THE VERBS ABOVE AND NEXT WEEK I WILL SIMPLIFIY THE USE OF THE SUBJUNCTIVE “MOOD” BY GIVING YOU THE FIRST RULE OF HOW TO USE IT.

Tiquismos of the week

Bochinche is a type of dispute, argument or fight. A person who engages in this behavior is called a bochinchero.
Amarraperros - is someone who doesn’t pay a debt
Caco - a criminal