Learning Spanish can be fun. It takes lots of practice and getting corrected as you enunciate. Be sure to learn the pronunciations as clearly as possible. Here are some more useful nouns for you to learn.

abanico — fan (for cooling); in many other countries, “ventilador”

 

baboso — fool, dummy

 

chante/choza — house

 

chozón — big, beautiful house

 

escobillas — “little brooms,” meaning windshield wipers.

 

gana/ganas — wish, desire. “Tengo ganas de comer helados” — “I feel like eating ice cream.” “Haz lo que te dé la gana” — “Do whatever you want.”

 

harina — literally “flour,” this is used to mean money, dough

 

jacha — “face,” typically used of an ugly face, or a face that droops because someone is so drunk. “¡Qué jacha!” — “What a face!”

 

jeta — mouth. “Ay, que jeta” — “What a big-mouth, what a liar.” 

 

jupa — head. “Ay, me pegué la jupa” — “Ow, I hit my head.”

 

lenguón — “person with big tongue,” a liar or a person with a big mouth who talks a lot of crap

 

muchacha — “girl,” also meaning a domestic employee, a cleaning woman

 

ñata — nose

 

ñato — someone with a short nose

 

palabrota — “big word,” meaning a vulgar word

 

paracaidista — “skydiver,” meaning party crasher, someone who shows up uninvited to a private party

 

plata — “silver,” meaning money

 

polvazal — from the word “polvo,” dust, this means a place with lots of dust in the air. “Por falta de pavimento, Nosara es un polvazal” — “For lack of pavement, Nosara is a dust bowl.”

 

presa — traffic jam

 

rojo — “red,” meaning 1,000 colones, after the color of the bill. “Me cobró tres rojos para reparar la llanta” — “He charged me 3,000 colones to fix the tire.”

 

sangrón — an annoying person, a nuisance. “Ese mae es un sangrón que me cae mal” — “That guy is a pain in the ass and I don’t like him.”

 

soplón — “blowhard,” a person who can’t keep secrets, who talks too much about other people’s business

 

teja — “tile,” 100 colones

 

tembeleque — a person who trembles or is weak

 

tucán — “toucan,” 5,000 colones

 

vacilón — a funny person, or a place where a group can enjoy itself, or a place where things aren’t taken seriously. “Nos reímos mucho con Juan Carlos porque es bien vacilón” — “We laugh a lot with Juan Carlos because he’s a real joker.” “Cuando ese bar tiene karaoke, es todo un vacilón” — “When that bar has karaoke, it’s a great time.”

 

zopilote — literally a vulture; used to mean a priest

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