Comments on: Bilingual Musings: The Art of Speaking Spanish

By: Sergio

Sergio — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 19:28:55 +0000

En México es pluma y ocasionalmente bolígrafo. ¡En Chile es “lápiz a pasta”!

By: Tracy

Tracy — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:19:35 +0000

I learned “bolígrafo” in school/Spanish class and I still call it that because that’s always the word that comes to mind – but Carlos, (who is from El Salvador, as you know), always corrects me with “lapicero” because he finds that word weird.

By: Jennifer Brunk

Jennifer Brunk — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 01:49:47 +0000

Of course the “real word” is pluma, but I trained myself to say lapicero (obviously really a mechanical pencil) when I’m with my daughter in Peru. I also have compromised on frejol (frijol), caretera (bolsa), polo (playera), torta (pastel), parlante (bocina) y un sinfín de otras. It isn’t easy, but I could see my daughter’s familia politica rolling their eyes every time we said “In Mexico we say…” I have also decided that we should play cards, not Scrabble to avoid heated discussions. Even if Wordreference backs me up, they seem to hold a grudge…

By: steph

steph — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:33:08 +0000

My family is from Colombia and I was raised in Miami. I use boligrafo or estilografo but am familiar with pluma as well. I think of un lapicero as a mechanical pencil. However I’ve never heard the term birome.

By: Gabriela

Gabriela — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 04:04:19 +0000

En Uruguay tambien se dice birome o lapicera…

By: SOLEDAD POSATTI

SOLEDAD POSATTI — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:54:10 +0000

En Argentina los dos términos utilizados son birome y lapicera. Bolígrafo se utiliza más bien en ciertos ámbitos especializados, como librerías, o distribuidoras de útiles escolares y/o de oficina.

By: Roxana A. Soto

Roxana A. Soto — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:34:20 +0000

Thanks, Rachel! I’ve added “esfero” to the list. Never heard of lapiz pasta… I’ll have to ask my Chilean friends.

By: Roxana A. Soto

Roxana A. Soto — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:32:47 +0000

Así mismo es. Lo más raro del caso es que yo viví en la Argentina dos años cuando era niña y fui a la escuela allá, pero no me acuerdo haber oído esa palabra jamás!

By: suzanne mateus

suzanne mateus — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:04:54 +0000

Pluma (Mexican) for sure. My husband uses lapicero or bolígrafo (Ecuador/Colombia). He says Mexicans have odd terms for things like “change” for mono LOL OR I say calcetines for socks and he says medias. I tell him don’t worry honey our bebita will have 5-6 ways to call one object while monolinguals will have one,maybe two ways but all in one language Then we proceed with our designated terms….LOL

By: Beth Butler

Beth Butler — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:42:13 +0000

Pluma para mi también (Chile)