Small talk with coworkers: Chatting about the weekend on Monday morning

💬 padre normally means "father," but in ¡Qué padre! it means "cool" or "great." This usage is very Mexican.

🇲🇽 This is the go-to friendly reaction among Mexican coworkers. It's casual but perfectly fine at work.

💬 hicieron is the plural "you" (ustedes), because the coworker went with family. In Mexico ustedes covers any group of "you," formal or casual.

🇲🇽 Puebla is famous for mole poblano, so this is the classic thing to mention after a trip there.

💬 el centro is how Mexicans refer to a town's historic downtown. pasear por means to stroll around a place: paseamos por el parque "we strolled around the park."

💬 Past-tense "we" verbs end in -amos or -imos. These look identical to the present tense, so context tells you when.

💬 There's no word for "it" here: suena alone means "it sounds." Swap in other words the same way: Suena divertido "Sounds fun."

💬 quedarse needs me in front to mean "to stay": me quedé "I stayed." Without me, quedé usually means "I arranged" or "I ended up."

💬 Past-tense "you" verbs end in -aste or -iste: descansaste, hiciste, comiste "you ate." Don't add an extra s at the end, as in hicistes.

💬 The accent on descansé matters. Without it, descanse is a different form meaning something like "may he rest."

💬 Spanish uses el where English uses "on" for days: el domingo "on Sunday." Make it plural for habits: los domingos "on Sundays."

💬 jugar becomes jugué with a u added to keep the hard g sound. Mexico spells it futbol, with no accent, and stresses the last part: (foot-BOL).

💬 darle means "to get going" or "to get stuck in." Use a darle con "let's get going on" with any task: a darle con el reporte "let's get going on the report."

🇲🇽 Saying this is a friendly way to end the weekend chat and head back to your desk.

🇲🇽 ni modo is the very Mexican shrug for something you can't change. Here it's a good-humored groan about the workweek starting.

🇲🇽 al rato is vague in Mexico. It can mean in a few minutes or much later in the day, so don't read it as a promise of timing.