Vibeke, our Argentina trip winner from last year, writes about her third day in Buenos Aires, and finds out why we chose Bueno, entonces… as our name.

I’ve had an AHA moment today. My teacher is very cute. His name is Martin and he’s ‘re-argentino‘. That means REALLY Argentino in Argentino. He spent a year in Ireland teaching Spanish last year and he missed Buenos Aires a lot.. We talk a lot about Argentina and about the culture, about the crazy chaos of it all, the subversive attitude of the Argentines towards politics, finance, all that jazz. The Bulgarian likes to talk a lot about the Argentine girls, I don’t blame him. They mainly have very very long hair and are very pretty.
Martin says Bien, Entonces.. a lot. Or Muy Bien, entonces… I ask him why doesn’t he say Bueno, entonces (like the name of the course of course) and he explains that “Bueno,” often is something you say when you’ve had a enough of talking, or have had enough of talking about a particular subject. He explains that when somebody starts going, bueno bueno bueno on the phone, basically they are telling you that the conversation is over and they’ve had enough.
Now I get it! That’s why Jimena always says “Bueno, entonces…” Because she often has enough of David!
Now I’ve got to go because apparently, across town, some more meat is being prepared on a fire and more Malbec is being poured.

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The translation for the Spanish slang word pedo is fart. As hideous of a word as that is (seriously, just typing it makes me cringe), in Spanish there are a bazillion different uses for it. Which ultimately means that there is no way in hell to avoid the word pedo. Ugh.

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? Tení©s 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?

If you’re looking for real world Spanish phrases and vocabulary, check out our program. Learn Spanish like they speak it on the street – in five weeks you’ll be speaking and understanding Spanish that you can actually use!

English speakers have it easy. When we speak directly to anyone, we just have one word to worry about: “You.”
In Spanish, your worry level increases dramatically because you have to make the distinction between whether to use tú, vos, or usted. To make matters worse, each have their own set of conjugations, too. We’ll stay away from that today, though.

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!

Here’s a Bueno, entonces…Learn Spanish review of Class #11 from one of our bloggers, Caroline:

Due to a few computer problems I have listened to today”s class without being able to watch it, and, although I could follow the lesson I have realised how invaluable the Magic Whiteboard actually is! With the whiteboard the class is so easy to follow, and I always know I am getting the correct spelling of some of these crazy Spanish words. I don”t know if programmes like the Rosetta Stone have utilised a whiteboard tool, but Bueno, entonces… has certainly made the most of the idea, because I missed the colour coded words and pictures when I couldn”t see them today.

David seems to be a little ill, (suffering the consequences of the first few weeks of hard and fast living in Buenos Aires I imagine!) so Jimena gives a quick lesson on how to communicate with a doctor, very useful to me, since, if I came down with anysort of sickness I would have absolutly no clue how to descrbe it in Spanish! Every class of Bueno, entonces… has very useful and practial lessons to help with everyday situations, as well as grammar and vocabulary.

BUT, talking of Grammar….I have been terrified by today”s lesson, as I have discovered that there are between EIGHTEEN and FIFTY FOUR verb tenses… what!????!! This is going to be impossible to get my head around…and David seems to feel the same way, although Jimena does not seem overly concerned’ but she ALREADY knows them! Ah well, I have faith in Bueno, entonces…’s ability to teach me!

We’ll admit, the grammar is pretty daunting at first, but it gets easier. Learn Spanish Levels I & II lasts five weeks, and by the end you’ll be understanding and speaking native Spanish speakers, which is really cool. What at first seemed scary and intimidating becomes fun and natural.

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Let’s check this out:

A few things:

1) The term ‘habrí¡ 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 ‘perdií³‘ 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!