Storefront Spanish

Driving down Benito Juarez, the main street in Rosarito, can be a Spanish lesson.  At first the barrage of Spanish storefronts was daunting, but over time I’ve learned what most mean.

Flores, copia, licores, dentista, and optica are easy.  Also farmacia.  A favorite is fotografia.  I can easily understand these.  It makes sense to spell “photo” with an “f” rather than “ph”.  Fred, a friend, jokingly signs, Phred.

We know “cerrado” on a door means closed and “abierto” means open.  When you come to a door, don’t push when it says “jale” or pull when the sign says “empujar.”  I associate the “l” in jale with pull and the “pu” in empujar with push.

Some common storefront signs give one pause: carniceria (meat), dulceria (candy), taqueria (taco), and tortilleria (tortilla).  However, knowing that “eria” at the end of a word means “store” opens up a wide variety of words.  For example, a floreria is florist.

But, not all are as simple.  A few memory techniques will help: bread is baked in a pan, bread is pan.  A panaderia is a bakery, a place where pan is baked.  An easy way to remember that joyeria is a jewelry story is to associate it with the “joy” buying jewelry will bring to one’s wife.  Remember that gritty old soap, Lava?  A lavanderia is a laundromat.  Any business with “lava” has to do with cleaning.  Simple.  A ferreteria is a hardware store (Latin root, “ferre” means iron).  And a tapiceria (tapestry) recovers furniture.  A peluqueria is a men’s barbershop; while estetica is a woman’s hair salon.

Need shoes?  Think tap shoes, rhymes with zap.  A zapateria is a shoe store.  Knowing that cerrado means “closed” helps us understand that cerrejeria is a locksmith, while the word “llaves” means makes copies of keys.  A papeleria is a paper or gift-wrapping store.  Usually they have a stack of brightly wrapped packages outside the door.  A regalos is a small gift store, and llanteria a tire repair shop.  Ice cream is helado, but look for neveria, ice cream shop.  Need a window repaired?  Look for a glass shop, a vidrieria.  A vet?  Veterinaria.

Mercardo means market.  Sometimes  a market has a painted sign: abarrotes (groceries) or alimentos (food) or frutas y verduras–fruit and vegetables.  Knowing “mar”  in mariscos means sea helps identify fish taco stands or tacos pescado, simply fish tacos.

A second hand store is a segunda, meaning second.  And schools are sometimes secundaria schools, or secondary.  Colegio resembles college, but in Spanish it simply means school.

And easiest of all is the universal pizza, a pizzeria.  That seems to need no translation. Remember “eria” at the end means “store” — an assist on the road to learning Spanish.