Spanish Word of the Day: menudo

I guess you’ve heard this word a time or two already, but just have been too lazy to look it up (doesn’t matter, I’m like you most of the time, hehe). If you’d look menudo up in the dictionary, you still wouldn’t know why Spaniards use the word so often. That’s because, often, it has nothing to do with its real meaning.

Literally, menudo means “slight” or “small”. But as an adjective it’s mostly used to give nouns more ‘power’, especially when those nouns are used in exclamations. Like you may expect, it can change form from used as an adjective (so menuda when used with a feminine noun).

Extra: when used with a (a menudo) it means “often”.

Sentences

¡Menudo golpe me di!
What a bump I had!

¡Menudo lío!
What a mess!

¡Menudo cochazo!
That’s some car!