Yapa
The free extra — the handful the market vendor adds after the scale settles, from Quechua.
Related lesson: Peruvian Spanish: A Survival Guide.
Hear it in context
Caserita, ¿y mi yapa?
Come on, casera — where's my little extra?
Me dio dos plátanos de yapa por ser cliente de siempre.
She gave me two bananas extra for being a regular.
Y de yapa, se malogró la ducha el mismo día de la mudanza.
And on top of everything, the shower broke on moving day itself.
What It Actually Means
La yapa is the small free addition that completes a purchase: the extra banana, the thirteenth bread roll, the splash more juice. De yapa means “thrown in, on top” — and, ironically, “to cap it all” when the extra is misfortune. The word encodes a whole commercial ethic: the yapa is not charity but relationship, the vendor’s acknowledgement that you will be back.
Where It Comes From
From Quechua yapay, “to add, to increase” — one of the everyday Quechua words that Peruvian Spanish absorbed whole, alongside cancha, choclo and palta. The word sailed down the Mississippi too: through Louisiana French it became English lagniappe, the New Orleans term for exactly the same free extra, giving Quechua one of its least probable exports.
How Natives Use It
At the market, ritually: the request ¿y mi yapa? belongs to the script between buyer and casera — the vendor you are loyal to, who calls you casera or caserito right back. Beyond the market it means any bonus (el disco trae dos canciones de yapa) and any unwelcome one (de yapa llovió). Bolivia, Ecuador and Argentina use it too; Peru simply uses it most.
Common Pitfall
Know where the ritual applies: the yapa lives at the feria, the puesto and the corner shop, not at the supermarket checkout, where asking for one is a joke the cashier has no power to laugh at. And note the pairing does the work — yapa without the casera relationship is just asking for free stuff; the extra is earned by loyalty, not requested cold.