La ropa y las compras
A store is a short conversation with a fixed shape, and four verbs carry almost all of it. ponerse puts something on you, quitarse takes it off you, probarse tries it on before you commit, and quedar tells you the verdict: Me queda bien. Me quedan chicos. Around those you need two words for size that are not interchangeable — la talla for clothes, el número for shoes — the colors, and the handful of phrases that get you from the rack to the register: ¿Cuánto cuesta?, ¿Me lo puedo probar?, ¿Aceptan tarjeta? Clothing is also where the map of the region shows through most, so expect a word per country and learn the one everybody understands.
La ropa: what goes on top
la ropa is the whole wardrobe and it never goes plural: Tengo mucha ropa, never muchas ropas. Inside it, the shirt with buttons is la camisa and the women's blouse is la blusa. The T-shirt is la camiseta, which is understood from Tijuana to Ushuaia, but what you will actually hear depends on where you land: la playera in Mexico, la remera in Argentina and Uruguay, el polo in Peru, la franela in Venezuela. Over that goes el suéter, which you met back in lesson 20, or la chompa in the Andes; a sweatshirt with a hood is la sudadera in Mexico and el buzo in the Southern Cone. la chaqueta is the jacket, and here the map splits properly: Mexico says la chamarra, Argentina and Uruguay say la campera, Peru says la casaca, and the tailored one that goes with a suit is el saco almost everywhere. The heavy winter one is el abrigo. el vestido is a dress and la falda a skirt. Below the waist, el pantalón and los pantalones are both correct, and the singular is a little more common across this region than in Spain; jeans are los jeans, or el pantalón de mezclilla in Mexico.
Zapatos y lo demás
el zapato normally shows up as a pair, los zapatos, and so do most things you wear on your feet. Sneakers are los tenis in Mexico and Colombia, las zapatillas in Peru, Chile and Argentina, los championes in Uruguay. Boots are las botas, sandals las sandalias, and the rubber ones you wear to the beach are las chanclas. Socks are los calcetines in Mexico and Central America and las medias through most of South America, where las medias also covers stockings. For the rest: el cinturón is a belt, la correa in Colombia; la gorra is a cap and el sombrero a hat with a brim; la bufanda is a scarf, los guantes gloves, la corbata a tie. Glasses are los lentes or los anteojos — Spain's las gafas is read here as foreign — and sunglasses are los lentes de sol. Earrings are los aretes. The bag you carry is la bolsa in Mexico, la cartera in much of South America, and la mochila if it rides on your back. One of these is permanently plural, like its English counterpart: los lentes takes a plural verb even when there is only one object on the table — Estos lentes están rotos. los pantalones agrees the same way in the plural, but unlike English it also has a perfectly ordinary singular, el pantalón.
Los colores
Colors are adjectives, so they follow the noun and agree with it: una camisa blanca, un vestido rojo, unos zapatos negros. Some of them have separate masculine and feminine forms — rojo / roja, blanco / blanca, negro / negra, amarillo / amarilla — and the rest have one form for both genders and only add -s or -es in the plural: azul / azules, verde / verdes, gris / grises, plus naranja and rosa, which many speakers never change at all. Brown is where this region and Spain part ways: café is the everyday brown in Mexico, Colombia and Chile — unos zapatos café — while Argentina, Peru and the Caribbean say marrón, and hair and eyes are castaños anywhere. To adjust a shade, hang claro or oscuro on the end, and then the whole block freezes: azul claro, verde oscuro, unos pantalones azul oscuro, never azules oscuros.
La talla y el número
Clothes are measured in tallas and shoes in números, and swapping them is the fastest way to sound like you are translating. The clerk asks ¿Qué talla usa? or ¿Cuál es su talla? about a shirt, and ¿Qué número calza? or ¿Qué número usa? about shoes — calzar is a verb that exists almost entirely for this question. You answer with a letter or a word — talla chica, mediana, grande, or just la M — or with a number, which is metric everywhere in the region: treinta y ocho, cuarenta y dos. Notice chica and not pequeña: on a label and in a fitting room this region says chico and chica. The fitting room itself is el probador, also el vestidor in Mexico, and the two sentences you need at its door are ¿Me lo puedo probar? and ¿Tiene otra talla?
Ponerse, quitarse, probarse
Three reflexive verbs do the physical work, and all three take the pronoun that matches the person: ponerse to put on, quitarse to take off, probarse to try on. Me pongo el abrigo. Se quita los zapatos. Nos probamos las chamarras. probarse changes its stem o→ue in four of the five rows: me pruebo, te pruebas, se prueba, nos probamos, se prueban — and that last row covers ustedes and ellos together, friends and strangers alike. Three details are worth nailing down. First, Spanish uses the plain article where English insists on a possessive: Me pongo la camisa, not mi camisa, because me already said whose it is. Second, with an infinitive the pronoun can sit in front of the conjugated verb or ride on the end of the infinitive, and both are equally good: Me lo voy a probar and Voy a probármelo. Third, in the Southern Cone and the Andes sacarse does the job of quitarse in everyday speech — Sácate la campera — while quitarse is understood everywhere. And keep probar apart from probarse: without the pronoun it means to taste or to test. Prueba la sopa is dinner; Pruébate el suéter is shopping.
Quedar: the verdict verb
quedar answers the question of whether the thing works on you, and it is built like gustar from lesson 14: the garment is the subject and you are an indirect object along for the ride. Me queda bien. Me queda mal. Me queda grande. Me quedan chicos. The verb agrees with the clothes, never with the person — one vestido takes queda, two zapatos take quedan — and the adjective goes plural with them. Learners reliably say yo quedo grande, which describes you rather than the shirt. Ask about it with ¿Cómo me queda? or ¿Cómo me veo?, and expect a compliment built the same way: Te queda lindo, Te queda padre in Mexico, Te queda chévere in Colombia and Venezuela. The verb has two other lives you already met: quedarse with the pronoun is to stay put — Me quedé en la casa — and plain quedar is also to be located, La tienda queda cerca, or to be left over, Solo queda una talla.
El precio, el descuento y la caja
Ask about one thing with ¿Cuánto cuesta? and about several with ¿Cuánto cuestan? — costar changes o→ue, so it is cuesta and never costa. ¿Cuánto sale? is the Southern Cone version, ¿Cuánto vale? is heard in Colombia, and at a market stall the short form is ¿A cómo?: ¿A cómo el kilo? The price itself is caro or barato. When things are marked down, Spain's las rebajas is not what the window says here: this region writes descuento, oferta, promoción — shortened to promo — la barata in Mexico, and liquidación when everything must go. In a sentence: Está en oferta. Todo está con descuento. Hay veinte por ciento de descuento. la caja is the register and el cajero or la cajera the person behind it, though el cajero automático is the ATM. You pay con tarjeta — de crédito or de débito — or en efectivo, and both of those phrases go bare, with no article. You ask the store as a whole: ¿Aceptan tarjeta? — ustedes, not one clerk. Your change back is el vuelto in most of the region and el cambio in Mexico; the receipt is el recibo, la boleta in Chile and Peru, or just el ticket. One last piece of etiquette: regatear is normal at a mercado or a tianguis and out of place in a store, where the price on the tag is the price.
