Advanced series 2

4: Spain – Jerga de España con Daura

Lis learns some modern Spanish slang with Daura.
Lis Salinas

Lis Salinas

Colombiana

Daura

Daura

Española

Contents

Transcript

Lis Salinas

[00:00:02]
Translation

Welcome to episode number 4 of Latin Voices. In this episode, I continue my conversation with Daura, from Spain. Daura tells us the latest, most popular slang in Spain, which is in fashion. It's a little rude at times, but in this episode you guys can learn with me some of the latest expressions of the language in Spain.

[00:00:33]
Acho is an expression used in the Murcia region of Spain. It doesn’t have any specific meaning, but is often used to get someone’s attention (similar to ‘hey’ in English)
¡Acho!
Bienvenida a España.
Translation

¡Acho! Welcome to Spain [laughs].

Lis Salinas

[00:00:39]
Translation

¡Acho! Hello everyone, here the Colombian, with the Valencian, I'm trying to learn a bit of the Spanish slang that is a bit difficult for me [laughs], but here Daura will tell us a little bit and will explain us about the traditional words of Spanish slang, but the language of friends, as you said right now, not business.

[00:01:10]
Translation

Yes, of course a conversation between friends, not a formal conversation, there aren’t so many conversational fillers, that is the set-phrase, or so many words that really don’t make sense, but that everyone says.

Lis Salinas

[00:01:26]
Translation

Exactly, and that is the language that is difficult to understand sometimes when you are learning a language.

[00:01:32]
Porque cuando aprendes te enseñan lo que está en
The Royal Spanish Academy’ – Spain’s official insitution created to ensure the stability of the Spanish language. It aims to ensure a common standard within Spanish.
La Real Academia,
lo que han puesto en el lenguaje formal-
Translation

Because when you learn they teach you what is in the real academy, what they have put in the formal language-

Lis Salinas

[00:01:41]

[00:01:43]
Translation

– and in each place people speak very differently.

Lis Salinas

[00:01:47]
Translation

Very different. What I have learned from the language of the Spaniards is that, in addition to being, like, a very direct language, they also have many words that they add to the sentences, for example, you said one about, “I sweat it.”

[00:02:09]
Translation

Yes, it's like many phrases or words that you want to add to your conversation when you have nothing more to say.

Lis Salinas

[00:02:21]
Translation

That can have double meaning, that perhaps can sound rude if you hear them literally, but that in the context of Spain is super common and is part of everyday life and nobody is going to say anything to you.

[00:02:36]
Translation

It's just words that if you really think about them, you say, “Lord, what did I just say”, but really in the everyday world they are associated with other things, “I sweat it” that you said is associated with, “I don’t care”, but it has a very rude connotation, it's like, “I don’t care, I don’t care what you say”, but it has grown to include other things, it has been related to less rude things, or more everyday things, more loosely.

Lis Salinas

[00:03:16]
¿Qué tal el,
There is some confusion around hostia and ostia in Spanish. Hostia originally refers to unleavened bread used in Church services, but also has a vulgar use that can refer to a blow, bump, or slap (e.g ¡me dio una hostia! – ‘I just hit myself’). It can have other slang meanings too. Often, Spanish speakers will say ostras to avoid swearing.
“Echar hostias“?
¿Qué significa? ¿De dónde viene? Yo creo que esa es la palabra más española, el hostia y tío.
Translation

How about rhe, “echar ositas”? What does it mean? Where does it come from? I think that is the most Spanish word, the “ostia” and “uncle”.

[00:03:26]
Translation

“Ostia” is used a lot.

Lis Salinas

[00:03:30]
Translation

Is that in all of Spain or is it in particular? Because I also know that regions change a lot.

[00:03:37]
Translation

Of course, the thing about Spain is that each place has its own little things, and there are words that, if two Spaniards get together and maybe those “conversational fillers” are not understood, because it also works in groups, if it becomes fashionable in one area and does not pass to others.

Lis Salinas

[00:04:03]
Translation

The “ostias”.

[00:04:06]
Translation

The “ostias”, there are areas in which it is said more than others. In Spain we get lost (ie, confused) among ourselves because of these conversational fillers, when you want to imitate someone from another region, you use the filler, if you want to imitate someone from the Basque country, you say, “Ahí va a la ostia ”

Lis Salinas

[00:04:28]
Translation

[laughs] Is “ostia” from the Basque country?

[00:04:30]
Translation

Yes, there are a lot of people who say, “Ostia”, but in a different way, “Ahí va a la ostia”, it's like, “Go there,” or there are times people say “I s**t on the ostia”

Lis Salinas

[00:04:45]

[00:04:48]
Translation

“Ostias”, it's like you've remembered something and you say, “There I’ve got it, now I remember,” it’s the same word, but that one uses differently. I, for example, in Valencia the word, “chafar”, is used to mean “step on”, to step on something, “I have stepped on a line”, and I have a friend who is more from the centre who is from Toledo and says “chafar” to mean ruin a plan.

Lis Salinas

[00:05:20]
Translation

When you say, “I've stepped on the line”, what do you mean?

[00:05:24]
Translation

“I’ve stepped on something, you’ve stepped on me, you’ve stepped on my foot”, for example.

Lis Salinas

[00:05:31]
Translation

[laughs] yes.

[00:05:32]
Translation

Of course at the centre it is, “You've screwed up my plan”, in Valencia it would be more, “You've screwed up my plan”.

Lis Salinas

[00:05:41]
Translation

That's the language that you use every day. About “Acho”, where’s that from?

[00:05:50]
Eso es de la provincia de
Murcia is both a region and a city in southeastern Spain
Murcia.
Translation

That's from the province of Murcia.

Lis Salinas

[00:05:52]
Translation

Give me an example of how you use the acho again.

[00:05:57]
Translation

The acho, in Valencia we don’t use it as much, it's like to encompass everything, it's a bit like the “Ostia”.

Lis Salinas

[00:06:08]
Translation

The “Che” of Argentina, they also use in Valencia.

[00:06:11]
Translation

In Valencia, the “Che” is also used a lot, but the “acho” is like, “acho shut up now,” similar to “Uncle”.

Lis Salinas

[00:06:18]
Translation

Where is the “Uncle” born? Because “Uncle” too, when we Colombians try to imitate the accent of the Spaniards, the word, “Uncle and ostia”, that's the only thing we know, but it's like the most representative thing.

[00:06:40]
Translation

Yes … The “uncle” is like … It's really that these words don’t make sense, but it's like referring to someone or not. There are times you say, “Uncle me–”

Lis Salinas

[00:06:54]
Translation

But, no idea where they came from?

[00:06:56]
Translation

It’s not known, “Uncle” is like a representation of someone, someone who is saying, “You're doing something to me”. For example, there is a phrase that is, “Uncle, you are annoying me,” “You are confusing me,” but it is like a figure, not someone specific, but it is, “Uncle, I don’t know what.

Lis Salinas

[00:07:26]
Translation

Yes, make a personal reference, but you add the, “Uncle, aunt.”

[00:07:31]
Translation

“Aunt we are today in such a place”, but it is not, “María, Pepito”, no, it is, “Uncle”, like you.

Lis Salinas

[00:07:37]
Translation

Yes, of course. I think that is the kind of thing that, perhaps, someone who is learning Spanish can find it a bit complex from Spanish from Spain, and the speed is also sometimes fast.

[00:07:54]
Yo, por ejemplo, en Valencia se dice mucho,
We’ll be honest, we’ve never heard this expression and aren’t sure if this is the correct spelling! It’s specific to Valencia, and appears to have a Valencian root.
“Iaou“.
Translation

For example, “iaou” is said a lot.

Lis Salinas

[00:08:00]

[00:08:01]
Translation

“Iaou”, it's like, “And that's it”.

Lis Salinas

[00:08:04]

[00:08:04]
Translation

Yes, it's like you say a phrase, the call is going on a long time, we hang up and “iaou”, we hang up and that's it.

Lis Salinas

[00:08:16]
Translation

That “iaou” comes from Valencian?

[00:08:19]
Translation

I think so, it's influenced, but I really don’t know what it comes from, because it also gets used a lot, and there are people who use it in one way, and there are people who use it in another.

Lis Salinas

[00:08:35]
Translation

I guess you, in your generation of 20s you use it a lot and not the people in their 50s, it is also generational I guess.

[00:08:45]
Translation

Also a lot, “Au”, comes from the Valencian, “Adeu”, “Au”, it's like, “Au vamos”, it's related to, “Vamos”, and in the end it has become “And that's it and it's over, and we're leaving”. Of course, “Au”, there are many people who also say, “Au va”, “Au” is like, “Come on”.

Lis Salinas

[00:09:13]
Translation

There are more words, I love it too, “Cagarla” is not the same in Colombia, but in Colombia we use a lot, “I screwed it up, I screwed it up”, or when you're doing a job and something went wrong like, “Wednesday”, You don’t say, or you say, “Wednesday.” I think those are words that are living here in England, Londoners also say it, so they are expressions that as you said before, aren’t in a business environment, but even so they are very natural, and it's like people tend to say them, so it sounds rude.

[00:10:02]
Translation

Of course, you think once you say it, maybe it sounds a bit rude, but people do not interpret it so… They interpret it as an informal conversation, but not as rude.

Lis Salinas

[00:10:15]
Translation

I think that in Spain that is now more evolved, I think that even in an office environment you say, “Ostias I screwed up”, and nobody says anything, and it’s supernormal and already part of the idiosyncrasies and they are recognized as such.

[00:10:32]
Es, “La cagué” o
Literally, ‘I s**t on everything’
“Me cago en todo“.
Translation

It's, “I screwed up” or “I s**t on everything”.

Lis Salinas

[00:10:36]
Translation

Yes, “I s**t on everything”, it's also very [laughs] strong.

[00:10:40]
Translation

You hear it and it's like very, but a normal person hears it and you say, “I screwed up everything”, and they say, “What have you done?” , it's not “what did you just say”, it is, “What have you done?”

Lis Salinas

[00:10:51]
Translation

Even, on podcast, name it as, “I S88t,” but it's reality [laughs], that's how they talk on the streets and it’s as one wants [to be able to speak]

[00:11:05]
Translation

It's very natural.

Lis Salinas

[00:11:06]
Translation

So you don’t learn it but at least understand what it is and also because these words are related to the emotions and the situation in particular.

[00:11:20]
Translation

I think those words are also changing a little bit because sometimes, “I screwed up”, it was used for “I messed up” but there's also times they use it related to fear, “I’ve s**t myself, I've got scared”.

Lis Salinas

[00:11:42]

[00:11:44]
Translation

Sure, because it comes from when there are times when you crap yourself because of fear that is, “I screwed up”. At least it is used in two ways, “I screwed up”, like “I left it”, “I don’t care”, or I s**t with fear

Lis Salinas

[00:12:03]
Translation

Yes it's true, that part I like very much like the language withinin different languages, like that there is that double standard with the language that you can try to speak, very formal and very decent, but, in reality sometimes the language is more, I don’t know what word to say, “rude”, but more honest when it’s like that, with emotion [laughs]

[00:12:30]
Translation

No more to understand, “I screwed up”.

Lis Salinas

[00:12:32]
Translation

Exactly, and it's clearer than anything else. But there is another one that I also like a lot, “Fliparse”, what is “flipar”?

[00:12:44]
Translation

Something that “blows me away” is something that I love.

Lis Salinas

[00:12:48]
Translation

It's not that you're hallucinating, I'm looking at a newspaper listing here, what's the name of this newspaper? 20 list?

[00:12:56]

Lis Salinas

[00:12:57]

[00:13:00]
Translation

It's like something that blows you away, it's something that amazes you that catches your attention, it's something very big, it's like, “I don’t like it, “me flipa”, I love it “, or, I'm blown away with this thing, it has impressed me”, something you don’t expect.

Lis Salinas

[00:13:22]
¿Parecido a
Slang used only in Spain, meaning ‘cool’
molar?
Translation

Similar to “mola”?

[00:13:25]
Translation

“Mola”, is more like “I like it”, “me mola mucho”, I like it a lot.

Lis Salinas

[00:13:31]
Translation

I like that [laughs]

[00:13:33]
Translation

“Me mola”, is related to, “I like it”, “flipar” is something you don’t expect, it’s like it comes to you, you love it, it impresses you.

Lis Salinas

[00:13:45]
Translation

This is definitely a word from all of Spain.

[00:13:47]

Lis Salinas

[00:13:48]

[00:13:49]
Translation

Yes, you say, “this blows me away,” and in a colloquial conversation, as we have said, it is understood.

Lis Salinas

[00:13:58]
Translation

I’ll carry on, ” Que cojonudo eres”, [laughs] what does it mean?

[00:14:06]
Translation

In that sentence, like, “how cool you are”, how awesome, “How cool you are”.

Lis Salinas

[00:14:18]
Translation

I thought it was negative.

[00:14:19]
Translation

No, in that aspect, no, “You are awesome”.

Lis Salinas

[00:14:24]
Translation

It sounds crazy to me without your explanation, I would have thought that it has to do with “horns”, like a “cornuda”, when someone is “given the horns”, they say in Colombia, “Your husband was unfaithful”

[00:14:42]
The Spanish equivalent, using tochos instead of cachos
Los tochos
en España.
Translation

The “tochos” in Spain.

Lis Salinas

[00:14:45]
Translation

The “tochos”, the “cachos”. So, it’s said, “Cuernudo”, like “cojonudo”.

[00:14:51]
Translation

No, “cojonudo”. Something “cojonudo” is something great, it can be related to a person, an object, something, “It's a hell of a thing, it's a great thing”, but then there's the phrase, “Don’t touch my balls”. Which really is bad, it’s “Don’t bother me”, but the word “cojonuda” is positive, it's a good thing.

Lis Salinas

[00:15:15]
Translation

The “cojones”, what do you mean? Like with feelings?

[00:15:18]
Translation

No, something more physical.\n[risas]\n[laughs]

Lis Salinas

[00:15:22]
Translation

Okay. No, let's go on without so much detail [laughs],

[00:15:26]
Translation

Yes, it’s “don’t bother me”.

Lis Salinas

[00:15:30]
Okay,
Slang specific to Spain, meaning ‘to leave’, or ‘to get out of here’
“Pirarse“.
Translation

Okay, “Pirarse”.

[00:15:32]
Translation

Yes, “Pirarse” is to leave, “Me piro”.

Lis Salinas

[00:15:35]
Translation

“I'm going, I'm leaving,” okay. “Rallarse” we also use it in Colombia, “I scratched myself or that scratched me”, like when something bothers you.

[00:15:47]
Translation

Yes, or, “Don’t scratch me,” like, “Leave me alone This subject is scratching my head or confusing me,” it's like, “to annoy”.

Lis Salinas

[00:16:01]
Translation

Like that, what nice, kind words do you have in Spain?

[00:16:05]
Translation

The thing is, I think the words are more identifying-

Lis Salinas

[00:16:09]
Translation

[laughs] That's the one that was invented.

[00:16:11]
Translation

I don’t know, is that affectionate [words], they are influenced a lot from English, because now many people talk about … like  in the United States.

Lis Salinas

[00:16:30]

[00:16:33]
Translation

But, well, it's that such affectionate identifying words don’t come to mind at all.

Lis Salinas

[00:16:39]
Translation

It's like, “mum, I love you so much.”

[00:16:42]
Translation

Yes, it's very simple. “I love you” and then that’s it.

Lis Salinas

[00:16:49]
Translation

“I hate you.”

[00:16:49]
Translation

Something like that … if you happen to be in love with someone, “Amorcito”, I don’t know, but there are no phrases of these that you say, that’s really related to it.

Lis Salinas

[00:17:00]

[00:17:02]
Translation

“You're really cool, I like you a lot”

Lis Salinas

[00:17:05]
Translation

Any other regional differences? Because I understand that, I have not had the opportunity to travel a lot through Spain but I know that there are marked differences in terms of the slang, how they speak more or less in the south, how they are classified in the language, those in the north, those in the south, those on this side, who speak better [laughs]

[00:17:35]
Translation

The north has an accent like more closed, harder, it's like the strongest words, I don’t know, sounds, like more … There are times when it’s hard to understand them because they talk very closed. Then the south is like the more sung accent, it has a very distinct accent that I like a lot, but it is like everything more synthetic, many letters are eaten, the eses for example, disappear many times.

Lis Salinas

[00:18:11]
Translation

Coincidentally, that happens also in Chile, I was talking with a guy, our friend Sebastián, in some parts of Chile they also don’t pronounce the “s”, on the coast of Colombia also, sometimes they don’t pronounce the “s”.

[00:18:28]
Es como que sintetizan mucho y hay veces que dejan la palabra como
a medias – ‘half done’, ‘half way’
a medias.
Por ejemplo, en el sur dicen mucho,
quillo is used in Andalucía (southern Spain), and comes from chiquillo. It’s simply a way of addressing somebody (similar to tío)
“Quillo“,
es como el, “Tío”, pero lo relacionan con, “Quillo”.
Translation

It's like they synthesize a lot and there are times when they leave the word halfway. For example, in the south they say a lot, “Quillo”, it's like “Uncle”, but they relate it to, “Quillo”.

Lis Salinas

[00:18:42]
Translation

“Quillo”, it's like “Uncle”.

[00:18:43]
Translation

Yes, it's like, everything’s more sung. Then, where I’m from, Valencia, Catalonia is very influenced by the Valencian and it's, like, weird.

Lis Salinas

[00:18:58]

[00:18:59]
Translation

Yes, because it also has sounds that you don’t have in the rest of Spain, in Valencian for example, there are words that end in, “ell”, in two “l”s, two “l”s together.

Lis Salinas

[00:19:16]

[00:19:16]
Translation

That final sound, people from Valencia say it.

Lis Salinas

[00:19:20]
Translation

Can you give me an example of a word?

[00:19:23]
Translation

Yes, “Castell”, then there are people who don’t, for example from Madrid, cannot say that sound, the same one you say, “keys”, the same sound, what happens is that the accent is at the end.

Lis Salinas

[00:19:39]

[00:19:40]
Translation

It's, “Castell”, but you have, “castell”, “fill”, you have a lot, and in Valencia it's like more strange sounds, like fusions, in Andalusia they “eat” the “s”s and there are times in Valencian that there are two “s”s, and that sound is changed to Castilian because I don’t speak Valencian in my day to day life, but those sounds can be noticed at the time of speaking. For example, a word that is used a lot in Valencia is, “Arreu”.

Lis Salinas

[00:20:19]

[00:20:19]
Translation

Yes. That, “Arreu” is like, “Without anything else”, something without thinking.

Lis Salinas

[00:20:24]
Translation

Do they use that “arreu” when people are speaking in Spanish?

[00:20:30]
Translation

Yes, in Valencia, yes, but people from other parts don’t understand it, because it's a filler word. It's like, “I dress y arreu” and I leave, that “arreu” is without thinking, in the centre my friend from Toledo, for “man” she says “little horse”.

Lis Salinas

[00:20:52]
Translation

What is “cabalito”?

[00:20:53]
Translation

“Cabalito” is like just, we are talking about a person and suddenly he appears, “Look cabalito”, we were talking about you, they don’t say that-

Lis Salinas

[00:21:05]
Translation

Interesting, cabalito.

[00:21:07]
Translation

The centre of Spain also has another way of speaking, it's like more, you don’t eat letters and they don’t have sounds like that—everything’s more neutral

Lis Salinas

[00:21:20]
Translation

That's also like a stereotype of the capitals.

[00:21:23]

Lis Salinas

[00:21:24]
Translation

They say that the accent is more neutral.

[00:21:27]
Translation

Yes, stereotypes are another world, because in Spain there are a lot of stereotypes. [laughter] It's like all the autonomous communities, they have their point, of course, we Valencians are the “chulos”, the “chungos”.

Lis Salinas

[00:21:44]
Translation

What's “chungo?”

[00:21:45]
Translation

“Chungo” is like a bad guy.

Lis Salinas

[00:21:50]

[00:21:51]

Lis Salinas

[00:21:52]
Translation

When you say the autonomous communities, what do you mean, like the regions?

[00:21:57]
Translation

Yes, the thing is that Spain is divided into autonomous communities, they are like groups of cities, and each autonomous community has its provinces.

Lis Salinas

[00:22:07]
Translation

I understand, the Valencians are the bad guys.

[00:22:10]
Los valencianos son los chulos, los madrileños son los
Pijo, when used as an adjective, means ‘posh’ or ‘snobby’. Specific to Spain.
pijos.
Translation

The Valencians are the bad guys, the Madrilenians are the posh ones.

Lis Salinas

[00:22:16]

[00:22:18]
Translation

The Andalusians are about the party and the siesta, the lazy ones, they never want to work, the Catalans are the stingy ones, those who look at the money a lot, stingy, that concept you have it-

Lis Salinas

[00:22:33]
Translation

No, but I understand it.

[00:22:35]
Una persona agarrada es una persona que se mide mucho el dinero, que es avaro. Los vascos son los brutos, los rudos, luego los gallegos son los indecisos, que
Literally, ‘to spin things a lot’, it’s used to mean think something over constantly (usually without arriving at a conclusion)
le dan muchas vueltas a todo.
Translation

A stingy person is a person who measures a lot of money, who is miserly. The Basques are the brutes, the rough ones, and the Galicians are the indecisive ones, who think about everything a lot.

Lis Salinas

[00:22:57]
Translation

They don’t know.

[00:22:58]
Los murcianos son a los que más
Meter caña a alguien – ‘to lay into somebody’, (literally, ‘to give the cane’)
caña le meten,
no por qué.
Translation

The Murcians are the ones who get the most flak, I don’t know why.

Lis Salinas

[00:23:03]
Translation

The Murcians, those of Murcia, why?

[00:23:05]
Translation

Everything about “acho”

Lis Salinas

[00:23:06]
Translation

What stereotype do they have? Those of Murcia.

[00:23:10]
Los de Murcia son como muy
Meaning ‘villagers’, in a pejorative sense (ie, ‘simple-minded’)
pueblerinos.
Translation

Those of Murcia are like “villagers”.

Lis Salinas

[00:23:13]
Translation

Those in the field. In Colombia there is also something similar, we also have five regions, but not as specific as there, but I think it is the ones on the coast, because they are on the coast, it’s more about party, life is more relaxed, more calm, more lazy too, the ones from the centre, like what you say, the posh ones, those who work a lot, there is the South that is in Pasto they are called the slow ones, but it is a lie, because actually today they have many good universities, but they are stigmatized for being slow and simple, those of Pasto.

[00:24:05]
Translation

In the way of speaking also in Andalusia they are more relaxed, the accent is like I said more sung, the phrases are like more I don’t know, more of colloquial conversation or more distended everything, so that's why they are seen as calmer people, more like they like party too, flamenco is very big there, that is the Spanish stereotype, in general people expect flamenco and bulls, many people are expect flamenco and bulls and that really is there [in Andalucia]. Those who are most related with flamenco and bulls, they’re also very nationalist, the Andalusians are very

Lis Salinas

[00:24:58]
Translation

Nationalists. What do they say about the Valencians?

[00:25:02]

Lis Salinas

[00:25:05]
Translation

The “chulos”? What do you mean with the “chulos”?

[00:25:11]
Translation

The guys, the bad guys, we're the ones looking for a fight, not so much looking for a fight, but how are they–

Lis Salinas

[00:25:22]
Translation

Like, confrontational

[00:25:23]
Sí, con los que te pueden decir cosas, que te van a
The original meaning of vacilar is ‘to hesitate’, but it has different slang connotations in different countries. In Spain, it can also mean ‘to trick’ somebody, or ‘to deceive’
vacilar,
no si usáis esa palabra, vacilar.
Translation

Yes, with those who can say things to your face, who are going to trick you, I don’t know if you use that word, “vacilar”.

Lis Salinas

[00:25:35]
Translation

“vacilar”, yes.

[00:25:37]
Translation

There are people who are like looking for more commotion.

Lis Salinas

[00:25:44]
Translation

Interesting, I loved this podcast. I will have the opportunity to go to Spain and explore more directly all these cultures, thank you very much Daura for joining us.

[00:25:58]

Lis Salinas

[00:25:59]
Translation

I hope we have another chance.

[00:26:01]
Translation

I hope so, I had a great time, I've been very comfortable.

Lis Salinas

[00:26:04]

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