In Mexico, when you want to talk about getting a flat tire, the verb you're likely to hear is poncharse. So if you want to say you got a flat tire, that's where our phrase comes in:
Se me ponchó una llanta
I got a flat tire
If you want to talk about other people who got flat tires, you can say:
Se te ponchó una llanta
You got a flat tire
Se le ponchó una llanta
He/She got a flat tire
Se nos ponchó una llanta
We got a flat tire
Se les ponchó una llanta
They got a flat tire
A flat tire, the tire itself that is, is called a ponchada. And the plural version is ponchadas. You may also hear the word ponchadura.
If you want your tire fixed, you might want to go to a "taller para reperar llantas" - a workshop where they repair tires. These places go by several names:
"ponchaduría", "desponchaduría", "desponchadora", "vulcanizadora" or "vulka".
These workshops aren't your Sears or Wal-Mart tire centers, but instead might look something like this:
In fact, if you take a drive through a Mexican neighborhood, you may see a desponchadora that hopefully isn't as quite as untidy as the one in our photo.
Like always, in the Spanish language there's more than one way to skin a cat. Especially if you're talking about flat tires. Other words to take a look at are pinchar, gomas, and desinfladas to name a few. Wordreference.com is a great place to look if you're interested in alternatives.
Anyway, that's it for today. Be careful not to ponchar any llantas in the near future!
As info, the man who repairs or changes "llantas" is often called a "talachero".
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