Language/Spanish/Vocabulary/Confusing-Expressions

Expressions whose literal translations are misleading like "Ahorita" or "Ya vengo"

Hi everyone!

I am Andrea and I am learning english, I intend to start this wiki and keep working on it to improve my English writing and teach you Spanish in the same time.

My native language is Spanish from Colombia. On the site, I have met some foreigners and they get a little confused with some Spanish words because, sometimes, we don't refer to the exact meaning of a word.

Here is a first example:

Ahorita (now in English)

In spanish if you ask someone a favor like:

• ¿Podrías por favor hacer tu cama?

Could you please make your bed?

• "¿Podrías por favor ir a la tienda y traerme un poco de pan?

Could you please go to the store and bring me some bread?

The answer can be in Spanish:

• "¡Ahorita!".

It does not mean in English "now or instantly" but it means "ok I am going to do it... later...", you see the subtle difference?

Ya vengo

Another one is if I am talking with you and the conversation can be going great and then and I say (ya vengo) and then I left.

What would you think ?

- did I say something wrong?

- maybe I have bad breath.

Maybe you dont know what it happen but then you see me going back to you while I say bye to another person.

I stood in front of you and keep the conversation like nothing happened.

Let me explain, when I said ( ya vengo) while I was having a conversation with you it means that I saw someone that I know and Istopped the conversation, I went to greet that person really quickly and then I went back to you.

This is quite a common thing to do, you can stop that activity that you are doing to greet someone or you can bring that person to the activity as well.

(Cucha) is another way not very respectful to call your mom, but also is a fish that you can have as a pet or you can eat, personally I haver never eaten a Cucha and I think I never will. In my house we had a Cucha for 9 years in an aquarium and also an Oscar he last for 10 years it died 2 weeks ago. So well I know that I will never eat an Oscar or Cucha.

With this type of words usually you can differ from the sentence if they are talking about a fish or about their mom.