Hola La Maestra,
I did some library research for you this morning. Searched Cassell's Spanish-English English - Spanish Dictionary by Angel Garcia de Paredes and Antonio Gooch, 1978 ed. page 813, and found the following:
I also checked in the Diccionario Moderno Español - Inglés English - Spanish Larousse, 1976 ed. and it also corroborated Cassell's definition for home town as: However, note that both of these dictionaries were published in the 1970's, and a lot has happened to the Spanish language since then.

Since Spanish is a living language and our Spaniards agree that mi pueblo is the correct phrase, we can probably assume that that is the correct form now and not ciudad natal.

Booklady - Who loves reference questions!

[ 11-26-2001: Message edited by: Booklady ]

Fernando, "las especiales" is used here to refer to the specials that stores run for holidays (or to boost sales!) A popular one is the K-Mart Special...you'll have to ask someone with a lot of time to explain this! I think people here near the border use it because WE talk about specials, so they just use it to mean whatever happens to be on sale.

Your comment on the adjective as noun had me slapping my forehead and saying "Duh!" Of course! I have heard all of those! Whatever was I thinking! It's the other way you don't do...use nouns as adjectives, like la mesa madera.

Booklady, thank you so very much! By the way, there is a pretty good chance I'll be the school librarian next year! I don't know how I'll handle the change!

Carole,

Patxi(Euskera)=Paco(short for Francisco)
Francisco is also Paquito, Curro, Currito, Fran, etc....
Spanish names....Now THAT is an interesting subject!!!
Want some examples?:

Lola, Lolita or Dolores=PAINS
Remedios=REMEDIES
Milagros=MIRACLES
Inma or Inmaculada=IMMACULATE
Concha, Conchita or Concepción=CONCEPTION
etc, etc....(these are very common names!)

My name means Dove, one of my sister's name is Rocio=DEW. I think that if I was an English speaking person I'd find this quite amusing. (Sorry if this has been a thread in the past)