Vincent Gordon

In Mexican Spanish the child-friendly word for “poop” is popó. Caca is also common and more neutral. As a polite phrase, people say hacer del baño.

In Mexico “I love my family” is Amo a mi familia.

Mexicans say vegano for a man and vegana for a woman. The word covers food, people and products with no animal ingredients, as in comida vegana.

A box in Mexico is a caja. A small box is a cajita, and a cardboard box is a caja de cartón. You use caja for moving boxes, gift boxes and shoe boxes.

The Mexican slang for bro is carnal, meaning a close friend who is like a brother.

The usual word for calm in Mexico is tranquilo, or tranquila for a woman or a feminine noun. The noun is la calma.

To tell someone they smell bad in Mexican Spanish, say Hueles feo or Hueles mal. Apestas is blunter and means “you reek”.

Help is ayuda in Mexico, and the request is ¿Me ayudas? A common casual version is ¿Me echas la mano?, which asks someone to lend a hand.

The word for star is estrella. It names the stars in the sky and also famous people, as in estrella de cine.

In Mexico you say No hay problema for “no problem”. No pasa nada means “it is fine” and works well after an apology.