Sauces Used in Mexican Restaurants
Some people say that the sauces truly make Mexican dinners special. Choosing an entre is much easier when you know what the Spanish names of the various sauces mean and how various sauces on a restaurant menu taste. Served hot or cold, they’re always spicy.
Mexican moles
Mole (moh-leh), a word used in Mexico, means sauce. Moles are served hot (as in temperature), and have varying degrees of spiciness. These Mexican moles are served with meats and chicken:
Mole negro (moh-leh neh-groh) (black mole) looks black — naturally! — and is made with all toasted ingredients: cocoa, chilies, almonds, onions, garlic, and bread. It can be very spicy or less so.
Mole colorado (moh-leh koh-loh-rah-doh) (red mole) looks red and is made with chilies. It is spicy hot! The sauce is also called coloradito (koh-loh-rah-dee-toh).
Mole amarillo (moh-leh ah-mah-ree-lyoh) (yellow mole) is orange-yellow. You make it with almonds and raisins, among other ingredients. Generally, it is only mildly spicy.
Mole verde (moh-leh bvehr-deh) (green mole) is made with green tomatoes, green chilies (hot peppers), and coriander (cilantro) and looks green. It can be very spicy or mildly hot.
Cold sauces for seasoning
Mexican restaurants also bring some cold sauces to the table to add more spice to your food.
Pico de gallo (pee-koh deh gah-lyoh), which translates as rooster’s beak, is made totally with vegetables. It looks red, green, and white because it’s made with tomatoes, jalapeño peppers, coriander (cilantro), and onions. Hot!
Guacamole (gooah-kah-moh-leh) needs no translation. It’s the dip made with avocado, chili (chee-leh) or hot pepper, coriander (cilantro), lemon, and salt. It’s sometimes spicy hot.
Salsa verde (sahl-sah bvehr-deh) is a green sauce made with green tomatoes, chilies, and coriander. Hot!
Salsa roja (sahl-sah roh-Hah) is a red sauce made with red tomatoes and chilies. Hot!

Spanish Glossary
adjective
A word that describes a noun or pronoun, giving it specific attributes or characteristics.

Spanish Glossary
adverb
A word used to modify a verb, adjective, or another adverb by expressing time, place, degree, and so on. Many Spanish adverbs end in -mente.

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bartering
Giving goods or services in return for other goods and services, as opposed to the exchange of money.

Spanish Glossary
cardinal number
Any number used in counting or showing how many.

Spanish Glossary
comparative
A form of an adjective or adverb which indicates that one thing has some feature to a greater or lesser extent than the thing it is being compared to. Example: slower, more believable.

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conditional
A verb tense that expresses an action that should have, could have, or would have happened if the conditions were right.

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conjugate
To give different forms of a verb according to voice, mood, tense, number, and person. A conjugated verb is a verb that has been changed from its infinitive form to a form that agrees with the subject.

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consonant
Any of the letters b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, ñ, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z; the double letters ch, ll, and rr may also be considered consonants in Spanish.

Spanish Glossary
customs
1. The government agency in charge of collecting taxes or duties imposed on imported and/or exported goods. 2. The common social acts and conventions of a particular area.

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declare
To inform customs officials of any goods you’re carrying that may be taxable.

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definite article
Any one of the words el, la, los, or las used as adjectives to point out a specific noun.

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demonstrative adjective
An adjective that indicates or points out this, that, these, or those people, places, or things to which a speaker is referring.

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demonstrative pronoun
Replaces a demonstrative adjective and its noun.

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diminutive
1. Small. 2. A word that has been altered with a suffix to indicate a degree of smallness, often ending with -ito or -ita.

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diphthong
A complex vowel sound made by gliding from one vowel sound to the next within the same syllable.

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direct object noun
A sentence element that answers the question, Whom or what is the subject acting upon? and may refer to people, places, things, or ideas.

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direct object pronoun
Replaces a direct object noun and agrees with it in number and gender.

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duty
A tax imposed on imports, exports, or manufactured goods.

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future
Verb tense indicating an action to come.

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gerund
A verb form that ends in -ing and works like a noun. Spanish gerunds are also derived from verbs.

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haggling
Negotiations between a seller and a buyer to come to an agreement upon the price of an item for sale. The vendor typically proposes a high price while the buyer suggests a significantly lower price, and, through bartering, the two typically meet somewhere in the middle.

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imperative
A verb mood that indicates a command or request.

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imperfect
Verb tense indicating a continuing, uncompleted, customary, or simultaneous past action.

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indefinite article
Any one of the words un, una, unos, or unas used as adjectives to point out some person, place, thing, or idea, but not a specific one.

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indirect object noun
Answers the question To or for whom is the subject doing something? and refers only to people or beloved pets.

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indirect object pronoun
Replaces an indirect object noun, but is also used when the indirect object noun is mentioned.

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infinitive
The unconjugated form of a verb — dormir (to sleep), for example.

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interrogative adverb
An adverb used to ask a question.

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interrogative pronoun
A word that replaces a noun and is used to ask a question.

Spanish Glossary
market
1. (noun) In Spanish cultures, a traditional market is where vendors gather to sell their goods. Markets may be open or under a roof, and they offer a less formal shopping environment than typical supermarkets or grocery stores. Prices are usually negotiable. 2. (verb) To advertise and sell an item.

Spanish Glossary
mood
1. A characteristic of a verb that indicates the manner in which the action occurs. 2. A characteristic of a person that indicates the overall emotional state of that person.

Spanish Glossary
ordinal number
A number used to indicate order in a particular series.

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past participle
A form of a verb that expresses a completed action or a time gone by.

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possessive adjective
A word that goes before the noun that’s possessed in order to express my, your, his, her, its, our, or their.

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possessive pronoun
A word that replaces a noun and its possessive adjective and indicates ownership.

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preposition
A word that connects nouns to nouns, verbs to verbs, or verbs to nouns/pronouns and shows their relationship to one another.

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prepositional pronoun
A pronoun that serves as the object of a preposition and always follows the preposition.

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preterit
Verb tense expressing a past action or state.

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pronoun
A word that takes the place of a noun in a sentence.

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reflexive pronoun
A pronoun used in conjunction with a reflexive verb to express that an action is performed by a subject on itself.

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reflexive verb
A verb that indicates that the sentence's subject is acting upon itself. Reflexive verbs require reflexive pronouns.

Spanish Glossary
stem-changing verb
A verb that requires an internal change in the vowel before the -ar, -er, or -ir infinitive ending in all the singular and third-person plural forms of certain tenses.

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subject pronoun
A pronoun used as a subject.

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subjunctive
A grammatical mood indicating uncertainty, desire, supposition, hypothetical and theoretical situations, or impersonal opinions.

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subordinate clause
A part of a sentence containing a subject and verb that can’t stand on its own but describes something in the larger sentence.

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suffix
Letters added to the end of a word that change its meaning, give it a different grammatical function, or form a new word.

Spanish Glossary
superlative
A form of an adjective or adverb which indicates that one thing has some feature to a greater degree than anything it is being compared to. Example: greatest, most honorable

Spanish Glossary
syllable
A word or part of a word pronounced with a single sound, usually consisting of a vowel and one or more consonants.

Spanish Glossary
tilde
A mark (~) used in Spanish over an n to indicate the ny sound.

Spanish Glossary
vowel
Any of the letters a, e, i, o, and u. The letter y is never a vowel in the Spanish language, unlike its use in English.