Now, as we’ve said, this “insistence” is really common in Perú. Has anyone experienced it before? Does this kind of thing happen in your culture? It would be interesting to find out…

Rodney,
Which expressions in particular are you talking about? I’d be happy to clarify as best I can, if you let me know which ones your talking about.
Saludos,
Joseph

Rodney,

Good questions. With this line, “Tia Lucha: no fastidies, oye, come no más! !No seas chiflado!”, I would say that tere are two main factors that distinguish this as “Peruvian”. 1) the placement of the command “oye” in the middle of the sentence, and 2) “no más”. Now, this is not to say that this would only be understood in Peru, but, on the other hand, if I were to hear someone say it like this, it would definitely make me think that they (or their Spanish) is from Peru.

If I were to rephrase it, I might say something like… “no me hagas rogarte” (don’t make me beg you)…come un poquito más (eat a little more)… “no seas loco” (don’t be crazy).

As for “quisieras repetir” and “quisieras más”, yes, you can definitely use “más” here and be understood, but “repetir” is very common, in Peru, as in most Spanish speaking countries. For example, I could say “me gustó la comida tánto que repetí tres veces” (I liked the mean so much that I had three helpings).

Another expression that comes to mind (I’m thinking of a Peruvian friend who says this) has to do with food that you really like. Let’s say you’re eating “cebiche” and take the first bite. It’s delicious. You can say “este cebiche es repetible”. The word “repetible” literally means “repeatable”, but in this context it means that it’s something that you’ll be happy to have more than one helping of.

And finally, now that you’ve got me talking about food (one of my favorite topics), another expression you can use is “se dejar comer”. This is a really funny one! Literally it means “it let’s itself be eaten”. The humor of it comes from the fact that you’re saying that it’s the food which is the reason why you’re eating so much: it let’s itself be eaten, but not that it’s me who wants to eat so much of it. Heheh…

Let me know if you have any other questions. Hope these explanations help.

Saludos y suerte!
Joseph

Dejarse comer… let me think… let’s say that you’re at the table in your girlfriend’s house. Her mom has made a very delicious meal, but it’s a meal that not all foreigners like (for example, Cau Cau which is like chillied tripe). And you’re really enjoying the meal. You finish your plate before anyone else, and her mother says to you “Oye, Rodney, parece que tenías hambre” (Hey, Rodney, it looks like you were hungry). Now, one way to respond is “no, señora, de hecho no tenía mucha hambre. Lo que pasa es que se deja comer. ¡Qué rico!” (no, ma’am, in fact I wasn’t really hungry. The thing is that it lets itself be eaten. How delicious!).

A couple of notes: 1) I’ve only every heard this expression in Lima, but, because of the way it’s formed grammatically, I would imagine that other Spanish-speakers would be able to understand the meaning and the humor, even if they don’t say it customarily. 2) I mistyped in my last post: not “se dejar” , but “se deja” for singular and “se dejan” for plural; this is reflexive: it let’s itself, or they let themselves.

¡Provecho!
Joseph