MEXICAN SPANISH → ENGLISH

Qué lástima.

That’s a shame.

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MEANING & CONTEXT

The words, and when to use them

“Qué lástima.” means “That’s a shame.” in Mexican Spanish. Express sympathy at an unfortunate event.

Situation: Express sympathy at an unfortunate event.

Register: Neutral. Gender form: neutral.

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Topics

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Feelings and Check-ins Keeping a Conversation Going Reactions

Difficulty

Poquito’s learning difficulty bands reflect length, vocabulary, grammar and idiom. These are editorial estimates, not CEFR levels.

Easy

Filters

Usefulness

Essential, High and Normal describe the practical value of learning a phrase. Usefulness is independent of difficulty.

High

Conversation builder

Expressions marked as helpful for opening or extending a conversation.

Yes

Situation specific

Separate broadly reusable expressions from phrases tied to particular situations.

Yes

Your favorites and memorization

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Memorization uses your latest Spanish-first rating.

Why this difficulty rating?

Idiom 8 points: Individual editorial estimate of nonliteral learning effort.
Reuse 0 points: Two-point credit per content family present in at least four reconciled cards, capped at ten.
Length 3 points: 2 spoken words; selected variant only.
Grammar 3 points: Individual editorial estimate retained from phrase review; accounts for structure and pronouns.
Vocabulary 3 points: Project basic/specialized lists and word-family frequency in the reconciled deck; rarity is not obscurity.

Keep the conversation going

Explore related topic →

That feels better.Eso se siente mejor.
“Eso se siente mejor.” means “That feels better.” in Mexican Spanish. Use for an improved sensation or adjustment. For recovery from illness, say Ya me siento mejor.
ModerateHighEnglish first →Spanish first →
He/She passed away.Falleció.
“Falleció.” means “He/She passed away.” in Mexican Spanish. Respectfully report that a previously identified person died.
EasyNormalEnglish first →Spanish first →
I am alone.Estoy solo.
“Estoy solo.” means “I am alone.” in Mexican Spanish. Explain that no other person is present. Female speaker: Estoy sola.
BeginnerHighEnglish first →Spanish first →
That’s scary.Da miedo.
“Da miedo.” means “That’s scary.” in Mexican Spanish. React to a frightening thing or event.
BeginnerHighEnglish first →Spanish first →
That’s boring.Es aburrido.
“Es aburrido.” means “That’s boring.” in Mexican Spanish. Evaluate an activity as boring. Feminine alternative: Es aburrida.
BeginnerNormalEnglish first →Spanish first →
We are together.Estamos juntos.
“Estamos juntos.” means “We are together.” in Mexican Spanish. Say speaker and companions are together in the same group/place.
BeginnerNormalEnglish first →Spanish first →

Technical Specs

Formality and register

How a phrase addresses someone: Neutral, Familiar (tú), or Formal (usted). Politeness also depends on wording and context; tú can be polite.

Neutral

Conversation role

What the phrase does in a conversation. A phrase can have several standardized roles, such as asking, answering or sharing information.

Express feelings or opinions Share information Answer or explain

Situations

The specific setting recorded by the editorial review. Not every phrase has a named situation.

Express sympathy at an unfortunate event.

Gender forms

Explore the grammatical gender forms recorded for each phrase. Grammatical gender is different from the speaker’s identity.

neutral

Who or what gender refers to

Find whether gender wording relates to the speaker, listener, noun or object.

Not recorded

Learning collections

The fixed introductory collection and editorial Core or Expansion placements.

Core

Vocabulary families

Browse recorded word families shared by phrases. These editorial family labels may not be dictionary headwords.

lastima

Vocabulary familiarity

Everyday, less common and specialized vocabulary, considered separately from grammatical difficulty.

Less common

Reusability

Editorial score for how broadly an expression can be reused; higher scores indicate more reuse.

Coverage gap value

Editorial estimate of how much the phrase adds to the collection’s practical coverage.

Ambiguity risk

Editorial score for how strongly meaning can depend on context; higher values indicate more ambiguity.

Confusion risk

Editorial estimate of the chance of confusing the expression with another; higher values indicate more risk.

Spanish word count

Explore shorter and longer expressions using the recorded Spanish word count.

1–3

Usefulness score

The detailed editorial usefulness score, distinct from the three usefulness labels.

Difficulty score

Scores run from 5 to 100. These ten-point ranges show the finer distribution within difficulty bands.

21–30

Vocabulary contribution

Recorded number of vocabulary-family contributions; it is not a learner’s vocabulary size.

1–3

Review dates

When the recorded editorial review was performed.

2026-10-23

Editorial quality

Recorded review status and quality classification.

Reviewed for Spanish (Mexico)

Source batches

Editorial import batches where source information is recorded.

photo-batches-01-15-2026-10-23

Review methods

How the recorded editorial ratings were assigned. These are assessments rather than measured learning outcomes.

Individual editorial meaning/context/grammar review; difficulty-v2 vocabulary/reuse recomputed against reconciled 1414-card deck. Supplemental ratings are editorial estimates, not recall or CEFR measurements.

Difficulty rubric versions

The version of the editorial difficulty rubric used for a phrase.

Introductory speakers

The speaker roles recorded for the fixed introductory dialogue.

Not recorded

Idiom difficulty factor