Osprey87
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- Nov 22, 2013
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There's nothing wrong, in Argentina, with asking: "Tienes huevos?" because it literally means, do you have eggs? In Argentina, they don't use huevos for testicles, that's in Mexico. In Mexico, if you asked, tienes huevos?, someone would probably punch you. But here, you can say hay huevos? or tienes huevos? when you are asking in a store i'd suggest using "disculpe, tienes huevos?" and they may say, "no, no hay huevos" or "Si, alla". and they'll point to where you can find them. But if your in a friend's or family member's house, you might wanna say, "hay huevos?" like hey do you have any eggs?
If you are coming from the U.S. and learning Castellano, FORGET ALL THE SPANISH YOU HERD IN THE U.S. BECAUSE IT'S A TOTALLY DIFFERENT DIALECT! You can use it if you want, and people will still understand, and they do have some words that are universal in most every Spanish, but they might get surprised at first, and some people may laugh. Don't assume that everything in Mexcian means the same in Castellano, and same goes for Spanish from Spain and the Spanish from Puerto Rico, Uruguay, and all other Spanish speaking countries, it's all pretty different, and each country has it's own slang terms, phrases and words that they have made their own, or changed. When in doubt, ask a local what something means or take private Spanish lessons from a professor of English (they will best be able to help you with questions, and can clarify confusion. that's what I'm doing). Don't assume some one from another country will understand words or phrases from Argentina.
As for the "Usted", they don't use it too much here, it's very, very formal, and people here are very relaxed and don't care about those kind of formalities. "Usted" is used when addressing a boss, or when a child addresses an adult. But, like I said, it's a little too formal and mostly reserved for formality in business and for respect of elders. You could use it if you want, but they use "Vos" here to address people (in the form of "You") or if you are talking to a female use "Ella" (esha) or for a male use "El", or if you know their name use it.
And lastly, "Por Atrás" means "the back", like how do we get in? por atras (literally, for the back). "Allá Atrás" is relatively the same, just a way to answer a question or give direction, like "¿Dónde está la leche? Allá Atrás" - where is the milk? it's back there. I think alla atras is not very common place in normal conversation, but in Spanish, it really depends on what you are talking about. There are also many, many ways to say most everything, so i'd learn the most common way and use that until you get a better grasp on the language.
Hope I was able to clear some confusion for you!
