Algunos Cachivaches

Here's a little song that our teacher taught us to help memorize some of the irregular verbs in the preterite tense:

vi di vine dije fui fui,
hice quise supe puse,
estuve anduve tuve pude,
produje traje cupe

They're all "yo" forms of common irregular verbs (fui is in there twice to remind you that it is the yo form of ir and ser).

The song is sung to the tune of "Ten Little Indians".

Obviously it's a "nonsense song" - since it's just a list of verbs ("I saw, I gave, I came, I said, I was, I went..." etc.)

Here's my attempt at singing it :

Try memorizing it - it may help next time you're struggling to remember one of these irregular verbs in the preterite!!

How did I come up with the name for the blog?

Well, it's Spanish for "some knick-knacks" (at least I hope it is) and that seemed appropriate. Also, my discovery of the word "cachivache" is an example of the kind of thing that this blog will be about.

First of all, I was listening to a podcast from one of my favorite sites:
En La Historia

The podcast was #100

"Un Podcast de 100 y la Historia de un Grillo : Cri-Cri"

"Cri Cri el grillito cantor" (Cri Cri the Little Singing Cricket) was the radio persona of Francisco Gabilondo Soler, a Mexican radio performer famous for singing and composing songs for children.

One of the songs featured in the podcast is "El Ropavejero" (first two verses and chorus) :

El Ropavejero

Ahí viene el Tlacuache
cargando un tambache
por todas las calles
de la gran ciudad.

El señor Tlacuache
compra cachivaches
y para comprarlos
suele pregonar:

Botellas que vendan...!
Zapatos usados...!
Sombreros estropeados,
pantalones remendados,
cambio, vendo y compro por igual!

Click on the player below for a brief clip of the song (as played in Episode 100 of En La Historia).

So there you are! The word cachivaches caught my attention and I looked it up on Word Reference.

I also found this site, Reserva de Palabras which is dedicated to keeping words alive. (Words that have fallen into dis-use). Several people are listed as "sponsors" (padrinos) for the word cachivache. :-) So, I assume that the word is not commonly used any more.