I went to high school with two Chilean kids and one year I spent Christmas Eve with their families. I ended up learning some Chilean Spanish expressions. Here are some interesting ones:
¿Cachai? – Do you understand? Get it?
Agarrar p’al hueveo/leseo/chuleteo – make fun of someone
Al tiro – right away, immediately
Año de la pera – many, many years ago
Cabra/o – girl; boy
Cabra/o chica/o – young girl/boy
Chupar – to drink (alcoholic beverages) a lot
Colarse – to crash a party
Copucha – gossip
Cuico/a – snobbish high-class person
Guagua – baby
Guata – belly
Huevón – jerk, idiot
Llorar a moco tendido – to cry one’s eyes out
Lolo – young man
Mijito – Chilean way of addressing someone (it comes from Mi hijito, “my little son”.)
Pajarón – absent-minded
Pisco – a kind of aguardiente
Pololo/a – boyfriend/girlfriend
¡Por la cresta! – Holy cow!
Poto – buttocks
If you have advanced Spanish read this article about Chilean Spanish on La Página del Idioma Español (http://www.elcastellano.org/espachil.html).
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6 Comments
Good day,
I’m taking a conversational spanish class in the state of Washington, USA. The instructor is lots of fun and has given us a spanish phrase to translate into english for extra credit. The phase is” Koo Tayp Wn.” I suspect it is slang, or a shortened Chilean phrase. Purhaps someting used for online chart?
It would fun to find the translation. Any help is appreciated.
Thank you, Gary
I’m afraid that doesn’t sound like Spanish at all. Even considering the hypothesis for SMS or IM abbreviations, K, Y, and W are low-frequency consonants, and never appear in combination with the other consonants and vowels around them. This could very well be some sort of local slang. Even though I’m a native Spanish speaker, the phrase would be completely wasted on me. Please let us know what it means when you do find out, since I’m quite puzzled by it.
David,
Thank you your reply. I have found the word “Koo” used on a Chilean wesite but was not able to understand it’s meaning from the context. I have also found the abbreviation “wn” used for the word weon. Weon seems to translate into the english word “buddy” although I have read the term may also be derogatory. I have yet to find a rereference to the word “Tayp”
I think “Koo Tayp Wn” could be “Como estai poh weon” with estai being a deformation of estar. In that case the translation would be “how are you buddy”. Assuming that weon is used in an amicable way. If not, you can replace buddy with stupid or idiot
I`m sorry for my poor english, I`m Chilean
Muchas gracias por la información, Víctor. Tu comentario ha sido muy útil. No te preocupes por tu inglés, ya que es bastante bueno.
Un saludo.
Victor,
Thank you very much! Your english is perfectly written. I hope to be able to comminicate in spanish as well as you do in english.
Gary