Christmas Day: Offering second helping of food or drink

🇪🇸 Spanish hosts offer more food several times, and it's a sign of generosity. They will often serve you a second helping even before you've finished the first.

🇪🇸 A first no is often taken as politeness, and the host will insist. Adding de verdad and repeating it is how you show you really mean it.

💬 A woman says Estoy llena. The ending matches the person speaking.

💬 hombre literally means "man", but here it's just for emphasis. It gets said to women too, so it doesn't refer to anyone's gender.

💬 The -ito ending makes things smaller and softer: poco becomes poquito. Notice the c changes to qu to keep the hard k sound.

💬 vale is the standard "OK" in Spain. In Latin America you'll more often hear bueno or okey instead.

🇪🇸 This is the classic way to give in after the host insists. Accepting a token amount keeps everyone happy without overeating.

💬 toma literally means "take", so it's a command form of tomar, not a noun. With someone you address formally it becomes tome.

💬 Spanish uses the plain present for plans, as English does with "I'm driving later". The "I" form of conducir gets an extra c: conduzco.

💬 In casual speech, que at the start of a reason means "because" or "since". For example: No, que estoy lleno "No, I'm full, you see".

🇪🇸 Turrón is the nougat-like almond sweet found on every Spanish Christmas table. Saying this is a friendly nudge to leave room for dessert.

💬 trocito comes from trozo "piece" plus the small-making -ito. The z becomes c before i in writing.

🇪🇸 Spaniards say this to anyone they see eating, even strangers in a restaurant as they walk past. At the table, it's said as everyone starts the meal.