What does “la prepa” mean in Mexican Spanish?
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A2 Spanish listening practice · Mexican Spanish · Picked for people who know a little
La prepa is everyday short for la preparatoria, the Mexican school stage that comes after secundaria (middle school) and before university — roughly grades 10 through 12, ages 15 to 18. In the clip, después de la prepa empecé a trabajar means “after high school I started working,” the normal way a Mexican speaker marks that transition into adult life.
Mexico’s school ladder runs primaria (grades 1–6), secundaria (7–9), then preparatoria or bachillerato (10–12) before university. Clipping a long word down to its first syllables — prepa, profe (profesor), compu (computadora), tele (televisión) — is a common move in casual Mexican Spanish. Other countries slice the same stage differently: Spain and much of South America call it bachillerato, and some use liceo or colegio for parts of it.
How common are the words?
How common are the words in this A2 Spanish listening practice video?
How common in written Spanish
How common in spoken Spanish
Harder words in this video
These words are harder than A2. Here is what they mean.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-ESP 2011 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.