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.
The warm-up pack
The words for the plant, the pot, and the fix — said the way you'd actually talk about your own garden.
01 · What you call your plants, not 'the plants'
Tengo muchas matas en el patio.
I have a lot of plants on the patio. (Colombia/Venezuela — 'matas' is the everyday word.)
La mata is warmer and more common in daily talk than la planta — this is what a Colombian neighbor actually says.
02 · The gift that grows
Me dio un gajo de su potus.
She gave me a cutting from her pothos. (Argentina — el gajo for a propagation cutting.)
Plant people trade gajos the way other people trade recipes — knowing the word means you can join that exchange.
03 · The tool you name in full
Necesito las tijeras de podar.
I need the pruning shears.
Las tijeras de podar is precise enough that nobody hands you kitchen scissors by mistake.
04 · The diagnosis before the fix
La tierra está reseca.
The soil is bone-dry.
This exact phrase is how the problem gets named before anyone suggests a solution — the first sentence of every plant rescue.
05 · The routine, said as a routine
Voy a regar cada tres días.
I'm going to water every three days.
Giving the frequency, not just 'regularly', is what turns vague plant advice into something you can actually follow.
06 · How locals say it gets sun
Le pega el sol.
The sun hits it. (The everyday way to say a plant gets direct sun.)
More natural than a textbook 'recibe luz solar directa' — this is what you'll actually hear at a plant stall.
07 · The answer, not the question
A media sombra.
In partial shade.
Said on its own, the way someone answers 'where does it go?' — short and specific, no extra words needed.
08 · Announcing what you planted
Sembré un limón.
I planted a lemon tree. (Mexico — sembrar used interchangeably with plantar.)
Sembrar and plantar overlap constantly in casual speech — don't overthink which one to reach for.
09 · Giving it a trim
Voy a darle una poda.
I'm going to give it a pruning. (Argentina — sounds more natural than the bare verb podar.)
Darle una poda reads as something you do for the plant, not just to it — a small but real difference in warmth.
10 · What good care actually needs
Buen drenaje. El abono.
Good drainage. Fertilizer.
Two short answers to 'what does it need' — drainage and food are the two things every plant question eventually comes back to.
11 · Spotting new growth
Mirá, está sacando cogollo.
Look, it's putting out new growth. (Colombia — el cogollo for the fresh tip growth.)
Mirá (voseo for 'look') plus this word is the exact excited way a plant person points out their plant is thriving.
FLUENT
Finally, someone to talk to in Spanish.
Ten-minute spoken lessons. A teacher who answers back — and gently fixes what you got wrong.
First 10 lessons freeandbefluent.com/spanish/green-thumbRegional 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.
