Green Thumb
Name your plants, explain their care, and diagnose a sad leaf — out loud, in Spanish.
Start with what locals actually call a plant: in Mexico a beloved houseplant is la matita, in Colombia and Venezuela it's la mata — tengo muchas matas en el patio. The care verbs are regar (to water), podar (to prune), trasplantar (to repot), and abonar (to fertilize), and the phrase that carries every light conversation is le pega el sol — the sun hits it. When you give advice, be specific: regar cada tres días, luz brillante indirecta, buen drenaje. &Be teaches this vocabulary with no flashcards and no drills — you learn each word by saying it in a real conversation about real plants.
Below: plants, tools, soil, and light lesson by lesson, what gardeners in different countries actually say, and a way to rehearse the whole plant-care chat out loud.
Say this
Regional Spanish
Textbooks teach one word. Locals use several — pick your region's and stay consistent.
| English | Mexico | Colombia |
|---|---|---|
| a plant (affectionately) | la matita | la mata |
| flower pot | la maceta | la matera |
| new growth / a sprout | el retoño | el cogollo |
Watch out
The part no drill site can do
Olivia
Your vocabulary teacher for this pack
Nothing here works like a worksheet. In the Green Thumb lessons you talk plants with Olivia: she asks about your balcony garden and you plan it out loud — what goes in la maceta, where le pega el sol, what needs la sombra. She describes a plant that's struggling and you play diagnostician: la tierra está reseca, so how often should she regar? By the time you're swapping tips — échale abono, dale una poda — the vocabulary isn't a list anymore. It's just how you talk about your plants.
Blank mid-sentence and nothing bad happens — she waits. That's the practice, without unnecessary judgement.
Finish the 6 lessons and Green Thumb is yours — earned, not given.
First 10 lessons free · 10-minute spoken lessons · your AI coaching team remembers you
Quick answers
Affectionately. In Mexico it's la matita — the diminutive people use for any plant they love. In Colombia and Venezuela the everyday word is la mata: tengo muchas matas en el patio.
The verb is regar, but casual speech softens it: Argentines say darle agua a la planta, and abuelas everywhere say echar agüita. A useful diagnostic phrase: la tierra está reseca — the soil is bone-dry.
Technically plantar is to plant and sembrar is to sow, but in everyday Mexican Spanish they're used interchangeably — sembré un limón. For repotting, replantar is just as common in speech as trasplantar.
The key contrast is pleno sol (full sun) vs luz indirecta vs la sombra (shade). The natural way to say a plant gets sun is le pega el sol; at an Argentine nursery you'll hear al rayo del sol and a media sombra.
La tierra and el abono. In Mexico, ask the nursery for la tierra negra — rich potting soil, by name. In Colombia and Venezuela el abono usually means the manure-based kind; the chemical kind is el fertilizante.
