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Notebook entry · Vocabulary

Vocabulary Notebook: Market, Bus, and Pharmacy Words

The everyday nouns that textbooks skip and that you actually need on a Tuesday afternoon

Posted on March 14, 2024 · Filed under vocabulary, errands, city life

Produce market stall with handwritten price signs and paper bags

Most vocabulary lists teach you how to describe a sunset and not how to ask for change at a fería. I noticed this the first time I tried to buy tomatoes and ended up pointing at things like a tourist with a broken phrasebook. So this entry collects the words I actually reach for when buying vegetables, topping up a SUBE card, or explaining a headache at the pharmacy.

Each term comes with a short note on register, because some words are fine with a friend and odd with a pharmacist. I also mark the ones that differ between Rioplatense and Dominican Spanish, since I keep both in my head and they do not always agree. The list is not finished, and that is part of the point.

At the market

I kept saying verdulería when I meant the stall itself, and feria when I meant the weekly street market. Both are correct, but they are not the same place. The word I use most is bolsa for the paper bag, and vuelto for change, which is where I still hesitate: in the Dominican Republic I grew up saying devuelta, and the first time I asked for it in Buenos Aires the vendor smiled and repeated it back to me.

On the bus

SUBE is the card, colectivo is the bus, and boleto is the fare. I once asked for a pasaje and got a blank look, because that word belongs to long-distance travel here. The verb is cargar for topping up, not recargar, which is what I kept saying out of habit from phone balance back home.

At the pharmacy

Farmacia is the same in both countries, but pastilla and comprimido split by register: the first is what you say to a friend, the second is what the pharmacist writes on the box. For a headache I say me duele la cabeza, and I had to stop translating "I have a headache" word for word, because tengo un dolor de cabeza sounds heavier than I mean.

I keep adding to this page whenever a word fails me in public. If you are building your own list, the useful part is not the translation but the note next to it: who you can say it to, and where it sounds wrong.

More entries in the notebook: all posts · study routine that survives work

Words from this entry

  • feria — weekly street market, not the same as a shop.
  • vuelto — change. In Dominican Spanish I still reach for devuelta.
  • colectivo — city bus. Boleto is the fare, pasaje is for longer trips.
  • cargar — to top up a SUBE card, not recargar.
  • comprimido — what the pharmacist writes; pastilla is what you say to a friend.

Margin note

Register matters more than translation. A word that works at the kiosco can sound off at the counter, and the only way I learned that was by getting it wrong in front of someone patient enough to correct me.

Notebook entries

Mistakes I keep repeating, and the corrections taped next to them

These are the lines that come back in real conversations: a verb ending that slips, a phrase translated word for word from English, an expression that lands well in one country and sounds off in another. Each entry pairs the slip with the fixed version and a short note on why it happened.

Grammar notes Vocabulary Study routines
Open notebook with handwritten Spanish grammar notes and a pen on a wooden desk

Grammar note

Rioplatense Voseo: When to Say Vos Instead of Tú

A working note on the pronoun shift that trips up almost every learner in Buenos Aires

Voseo is not a regional curiosity you can skip if you actually want to talk with people in Buenos Aires or Montevideo. This note walks through the present-tense endings that change, the small set of verbs that behave irregularly, and the moments where switching to tú sounds stiff or foreign. It also covers how vos interacts with imperatives, since that is where most learners freeze mid-sentence. The examples come from real conversations at kioscos, in class, and over mate, with the corrections I had to write down twice before they stuck.

Read the note
Produce market stall with handwritten price signs and paper bags

Vocabulary

Vocabulary Notebook: Market, Bus, and Pharmacy Words

The everyday nouns that textbooks skip and that you actually need on a Tuesday afternoon

Most vocabulary lists teach you how to describe a sunset and not how to ask for change at a fería. This entry collects the words I actually reach for when buying vegetables, topping up a SUBE card, or explaining a headache at the pharmacy. Each term comes with a short note on register, because some words are fine with a friend and odd with a pharmacist. I also mark the ones that differ between Rioplatense and Dominican Spanish, since I keep both in my head and they do not always agree. The list is not finished, and that is part of the point.

Read the note
Student desk with a planner, sticky notes, and a cup of coffee in morning light

Routine

A Study Routine That Survives Work and University

Twenty focused minutes a day, built around a commute and a shared kitchen

The advice to study two hours a day assumes a life most students do not have. This entry describes the routine I actually keep: a short morning review of yesterday's notes, a podcast segment on the bus, and a fifteen-minute writing prompt before bed. I explain why I stopped trying to learn new grammar at night and why reviewing old mistakes is the part I refuse to skip. There is also a short section on what happens when the routine breaks for a week, because it does, and the plan needs to survive that.

Read the note
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