Friday, December 7, 2007

Madre(s)

The devotion of Mexicans for their mothers is legendary. That appreciation shows in a colorful yet controversial variety of expressions that range from the worst to the best. The word itself does not mean a thing, it just serves as a vehicle to deliver a positive or negative connotation.

  1. ¡Ni madre(s)! (Not even mothers), Hell no!
  2. Me vale madre(s) (It is worth a mother), I don't give a damn
  3. ¡Madres! (Mothers!), Crap!
  4. A toda madre (At full mother), Awesome (oldshool)
  5. De poca madre (Of little mother), Awesome
  6. ¡Qué poca madre! (How little mother!), Bastard!

When used as a verb, madrear, it means to succesfully engage in physical violence against other(s). It's a shortened version of romper la madre, which literally means "to break (someone's) mother".

Si vuelves a salir con mi madre, te madreo => If you go out with my mother again, I kick your ass

As a noun it has two forms. The first is madriza, which is a beat-up.

Le pusimos una madriza a los granaderos en la manifestacion de ayer => We beat the crap out the riot police at yesterday's demonstration

The second is madrazo, which means punch, hit, crash.

¡Qué madrazo me puso mi sobrinito en las partes nobles! => What a punch my little nephew gave me in the family jewells

Vimos un madrazo espectacular en la autopista => We saw a spectacular crash in the tollway

1 comment:

  1. It's important also to point out that many times the use of "madre" is to denote something of poor quality, unpleasant or that the speaker simply doesn't know the name:

    Mi coche se descompuso de nuevo, es una madre! (My car broke down again it's a piece of shit!)

    Ahora que le pasó a esto?? Pinche madre!! (What happened to this thing? It sucks!)


    Como prendo la lavadora?
    Aprietale la madre esa que tiene en un lado! (How do I turn on the washing machine on? Press the "whatever" thing that it has on one side!)

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