Día de los Muertos: Asking face painter for 'Catrina' design

💬 la means "it" and stands for the Catrina, a feminine word. me and la go before puede and keep that order: me la, never "la me".

🇲🇽 Phrasing it as ¿me la puede...? "could you...?" is the polite way Mexicans ask for a service. A blunt "I want it" can sound pushy.

💬 siéntese is a polite instruction with "yourself" stuck to the end. se attaches like this whenever you tell someone to do something: mírese "look at yourself".

💬 Spanish asks "of what color": ¿de qué color?. Reuse it for any choice: ¿de qué tamaño? "what size?"

🇲🇽 Flowers around the eyes and on the forehead are a classic part of the Catrina look, echoing the cempasúchil "marigold" flowers placed on altars for the dead.

💬 The colors end in -as because they match las flores, which is feminine and plural. For a masculine thing, they'd be rojos y morados.

💬 Spanish says "close the eyes", not "your eyes", for body parts when it's obvious whose they are. Same idea: abra la boca "open your mouth".

💬 The ending -ito makes a word small or gentle: momento becomes momentito. Mexicans add it constantly to soften a request, as in ahorita "in a moment".

💬 quedar here means "to turn out" or "be finished", not "to stay". You'll also hear ¿cómo quedó? "how did it turn out?"

💬 encantar works backwards from English: the thing does the loving to you, literally "it delights me". For several things, the verb changes: me encantan las flores "I love the flowers".

🇲🇽 aquí tiene is the standard polite phrase when handing over money or anything else. Small vendors appreciate exact change, so have small bills ready.

💬 Starting with que turns this into a wish: "may you enjoy". It works the same way in ¡que le vaya bien! "hope it goes well for you!"

💬 A usted puts the stress on "you", like saying "thank YOU" back. With a friend it's gracias a ti.