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Monday, September 27, 2010

Voy a romper el chanchito

If you don't know what a chanchito is (I certainly didn't) then take a look at this photo:


Cute little devil isn't he?  A pig in Spanish is also known as cerdopuerco, marrano, or cochino.  By the way, chancho is the proper form of chanchito, which is the diminutive form.  chanchito would translate to "little piggy" or "piglet" in English.

If you want to insult someone, you can use any of those terms except chancho.  I always use cochino, because that's what I learned from my Mexican amigos.  It all depends on who you talk to which one is most commonly used.  But rest assured they'll get the point.

Speaking of chanchos, there's also Los Tres Cerditos - The Three Little Pigs.  If you want to read this story to your kids or grandkids, or maybe even for yourself, just click on the link below.


If you're like me, then you'll want to see the video.  Thank goodness for You Tube:


Have fun with those.  Now it's time to get back to business.

Voy a romper el chanchito
I'm going to break the little piggy

Ouch!  Sounds a bit violent, don't you think?  Well, despite the fact it may sound like a wierd way of saying we're having bacon for breakfast, it's not.  I'm going to show you one more photo and then it will all make sense.


Chanchito is also a colloquial way of refering to a piggy bank.  The official term is alcancía.

So now we can accurately translate our sentence:

Voy a romper el chanchito
I'm going to break open the piggy bank

Yes, occassionally you have to resort to using all that loose change we've been stashing away.  And in these tough economic times, we may just have to romper el chanchito to get by.

¡Hasta pronto!

1 comment:

  1. Mira al chanchito. ¡Qué lindo!! Y es chistoso porque estoy rompiendo el chanchito ahora mismo. ...por la primera vez en mi vida :( Así es la vida...si no hay trabajo, no hay dinero. Pero Dios sabe exactamente lo que necesitamos. Los que pertenecen a Él deben creer en Él. Dios nos da capacidad de hacernos ricos; mas nos provee aún cuando no haya nada que se ve por lo natural.

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