Hi México, Let’s Talk!: Haz, Has & As

Camie Fenton
28 jul
2 Min. de lectura

By Francisco J. Báez

It's no secret that Mexicans love parties and celebrations. And among those celebrations we honored the Engineer's Day in Mexico on July 1. In this age of the screens it’s just fitting to talk about one of our most radiant engineers: Guillermo González Camarena (1917 – 1965), a pioneer in the creation of color television and the founder of the Sistema de Telesecundarias (Distance Education program for Middle School students) in our country. Through his discovery, color images could be transmitted by dividing a haz de luz (light beam) into RGB light, creating the illusion of a color image on the television screen.

But the crazy thing is that the same words, haz de luz (light beam) has four other meanings in Spanish. All of these are words are pronounced the same but spelled differently (a.k.a. homophone words). The first two are actually conjugations of the verb hacer (to do): haz (do it! or do that!), in its imperative form. The commands we can use in this case could be: haz lo que te pedí (Do what I asked you to do), haz lo que te de la gana (Do what you will).

The second conjugation is written with an “s” instead of a “z”—has—(sharing the same sound), and it’s the second person in singular (you) of the present indicative of the same verb hacer. The expressions we suggest are: Tú ya has comido mucho hoy (You've already eaten a lot today), ¿Has visto las noticias? (Have you seen the news?), and ¿Has salido de viaje este mes? (Have you gone on a trip this month?).

The next homophone word is as, which also has two meanings: The first is ace, a playing card with a single pip. In this case, we can use the following sentences: El jugador tenía el as de espadas en la mano (The player had the ace of spades in his hand).

The final meaning of as (Ace) is a person who excels in an activity or profession. The sentences we can use here are: El es un as para las matemáticas (He's an ace at math), Ella es un as al volante (She's an ace behind the wheel), and El es un as en la cocina (He's an expert cook). Has-ta la vista baby!