Hay de dos

(sentence starters)
B1 (¡Ya le agarras la onda!)Used EVERYWHERE 🇲🇽MUY informal 💀

🧠 What it means

This chunkety chunk chunk packs a punch! 👊 Here’s what it means: 👉 There are two possibilities... / There are two ways this could go... It’s a neat, compact way to frame a situation as having exactly two outcomes, which is why Mexicans often use it to set up an o … o … construction (either… or…). 💡 You could also say hay dos opciones, but it’s nowhere near as colloquial. 😉

🌪️ When to whip it out

Hay de dos, wey… o lo hacemos bien, o lo hacemos dos veces.
There are two options, dude… either we do it right, or we do it twice.
Hay de dos: o sigues de godín o te lanzas de emprendedor.
You’ve got 2 options: stay in your 9–5 or dive into entrepreneurship.
Hay de dos: o me contestas el WhatsApp o ya no somos amigos.
You have two options: either you answer my WhatsApp or we're no longer friends.

⚠️ Tone

✅ SUPER Mexican.

🚫 DON’T use in business meetings.

🔁 Similar chunks

Hay de dos sopasHay dos opcionesTienes de dosNomás hay de dos

🦜 El Rincón del Cotorreo

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"Seguir de godín"? I swear I learn as much from the little expresiones you throw into those examples as from the title chunks themselves!

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@FutureMexicana Haha, we’ve tried to make the examples as "Mexican" as possible. I will add "godín" to the dictionary at some point; it’s basically an “office worker” or “desk jockey.” And there are loads of other related terms: el godinato (the office-worker crowd), godinesco (the adjective), etc.