Respeto
Mon, Feb 15, 2016
Respect is an important cultural value in Mexico. Here are some examples of the word respeto.
- El respeto se gana. Respect is earned, not given. (a saying)
- Ganar tu respeto. Earn your respect.
- No me faltes el respeto, que soy tu madre. Don't talk to me like that. I'm your mother.
- Más respeto conmigo, eh. Hey, show me some respect.
Respetar la casa
You can see from the following examples that even houses require respect.
- Tienes que respetar esta casa. This is code for: Don't have sex here with your boyfriend or girlfriend. Don't get drunk or fight here. These are things you shouldn't do in casa ajena, someone else's house, to avoid disrespecting it.
- Una falta de respeto a mi casa. A lack of respect shown towards my house.
- No hay ningún respeto. Ninguno. . She disrespected our home by misbehaving here. (movie dialogue)
Con todo respeto
A wise person once told me that you can safely insult someone to their face as long as you preface it with con todo respeto. Con todo respeto, no sabes nada de hombres. With all due respect, you know nothing about men. I haven't tested this theory personally but it sounds reasonable.
- Con todo el respeto (que le tengo). With all due respect (that I have for you — which might not be very much).
- Tu novio está súper guapo, digo, con todo respeto. Your boyfriend is hot, if I may say so. (Telenevola dialogue said by a character to her boss.)
Respecto
The word respecto exists — and note the c, as in the English respect. It is found in various fixed expressions. It is used as a conversational shorthand to refer to a matter under discussion.
- Hacer algo al respecto. Do something about the problem we're talking about.
- No me dijo nada al respecto. He didn't say anything to me about that.
- Con respecto al testamento. Regarding the will. En cuanto al testamento.
Just be sure not to confuse respecto with its c-less cousin, respeto.