Architect
Describe buildings, styles and materials — and hold a real conversation about them, out loud.
Start with the material words, because they split by region: concrete is el concreto in Mexico but el hormigón in Argentina, Chile and Spain — Mexicans almost never say hormigón. Builders ask for los planos (the blueprints, always plural), everyone asks ¿cómo va la obra? about a build in progress, and the strongest descriptions name a specific element — la fachada de vidrio, la cúpula, los cimientos — instead of staying vague. &Be teaches this vocabulary with no flashcards and no drills: you learn each word by saying it in a live spoken conversation.
Below: the words each lesson puts in your mouth, what locals actually call concrete and facades, and a way to rehearse describing a building out loud.
Say this
Regional Spanish
Textbooks teach one word. Locals use several — pick your region's and stay consistent.
| English | Mexico | Argentina |
|---|---|---|
| concrete | el concreto | el hormigón |
| facade | la fachada | el frente |
| brick | el tabique | el ladrillo |
Watch out
The part no drill site can do
Olivia
Your vocabulary teacher for this pack
There are no flashcards in the Architect pack — you learn the words by using them. Olivia walks you through a city in conversation: she asks you to describe an interesting building you've seen — the style, la fachada, what it's made of — then shifts to a construction project (¿cómo va la obra?) and what your neighborhood needs more of, espacios verdes or zonas peatonales. You answer out loud, in the moment, until words like el andamio and la cúpula stop feeling like vocabulary.
Blank mid-sentence and nothing bad happens — she waits. That's the practice, without unnecessary judgement.
Finish the 6 lessons and Architect is yours — earned, not given.
First 10 lessons free · 10-minute spoken lessons · your AI coaching team remembers you
Quick answers
It depends where you are. Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean say el concreto; Argentina, Chile and Spain say el hormigón. Mexicans almost never say hormigón, so match your region.
El plano is the blueprint — builders ask for los planos, in the plural. La maqueta is the physical scale model, and el boceto is a sketch — though for a rough hand-drawn sketch on site, locals often say el croquis.
Name the style — el estilo gótico, el estilo moderno, el estilo colonial — then tie it to a feature you can point at, like arcos ojivales for Gothic. In Mexico, Peru and Colombia, el estilo colonial is everyday vocabulary locals use on tours.
Both mean sustainable. Spain says sostenible; Mexico and Argentina lean sustentable — so you'll hear diseño sustentable across much of Latin America.
La obra is the construction site or project itself — ¿cómo va la obra? is how everyone asks how a build is going. The person doing the work is el albañil, and in Mexico and Colombia you'll hear tumbar instead of demoler for tearing something down.
