4 Gestures To Go Native Chilean
The following post is an excerpt from my book Speaking Chileno: A Guide to the Spanish of Chile. Launched in Chile in 2010, this book quickly became a bestseller. Now for the first time it is in print and available outside of Chile. Speaking Chileno: A Guide to Spanish from Chile
. Here is the Kindle version
.
This is the third of three posts on How To Speak Like a Chilean. The first 2 posts, 6 Grammar Tips to Speak Like a Chilean and 6 Pronunciation Hints to Speak Like a Chilean are worth reading before this post.
Speaking like a local is not the whole answer to fitting in. Any culture has mannerisms and gestures that mark you as someone from around the corner, or someone from another world.
Many of these gestures are so natural for locals (I am avoiding using the word natives, as non-native people often pick up the local gestures after being in the new culture for a short time), that most people will not realize that they are using gestures not understood by foreigners.
Here are a few of those gestures that you will no doubt run into (and perhaps copy!) after spending a few days in Chile.
1. Handshake, hug, 3 back-pats and another handshake
This one is obligatory and is probably the first you will learn if you’re a guy. When one male greets another male friend (often after not seeing each other for a few weeks or months) the first step is a quick handshake, immediately followed into a hug (one arm below the other guy’s armpit, and the other arm over his shoulder), three pats on the back using both hands, release the hug, and another quick handshake.
BONUS: To really go native, throw in the phrase ¿Cómo estai po hueón? as you initiate the first handshake.
Continue reading →
Ordering Ice Cream in Spanish
Anyone who knows me is aware of my extreme obsession with ice cream. When I travel, the ability to find and order ice cream is fundamental. There are a lot more words associated with ice cream than I originally thought, so I wanted to share the knowledge I have gained with all of you.
The basics
Helado is the most common word for ice cream, but it’s not the only one. In some countries you will also hear the word mantecado. You also have to be careful with variations on the word helado. A sundae is a copa helada which literally means a frozen cup. If you are ordering soft-serve ice cream, the term would be crema de helado.
The container and amount
Chances are you don’t want your ice cream served into your hands, so you’ll need to know the words for the dish options. While the word bol (bowl) will be understood, it’s not very commonly used with ice cream. If you are in a restaurant and expect to get an actual dish, you’ll want to ask for a copa. However, if you are in an ice cream shop and ordering a to-go container, the proper word would be vaso. The tricky part is that in some countries, there is no distinction between the paper/Styrofoam vaso and the cake-cone (flat bottom) vaso. If you need to distinguish between the two, you can say vaso comestible, which means “edible cone.”
Continue reading →
¡Que Vergüenza! Embarrassing Word Mix-ups: Caliente vs. Atractiva
In English, the word “hot” can refer to temperature, spiciness or to attractiveness. The word for “hot” in Spanish, in reference to temperature is caliente, which also has more than one meaning. Just not the same meanings as in English.
I have a friend, let’s call him Matt. He married an Argentine woman. While his Spanish has improved greatly over the years, it was far from fluent during the beginning of his relationship.
The first time he met his fiance’s parents, he was understandably nervous. They spoke almost no English, so he had no choice but to put his shaky Spanish to the test. In an effort to act casual with his soon-to-be mother in law, he attempted to point out his wife’s attractiveness.
“Ella es muy caliente”
Much to Matt’s surprise, the mother did not seem pleased by this comment. Matt thought he was saying “She is very hot” as in, she is looking good today.
Caliente means horny.
So instead of complimenting this woman’s daughter, he had just informed his mother-in-law that her daughter is a horny person. What Matt should have said is “Ella es muy atractiva.”
Be careful with caliente! It’s a dangerous word!
Have you personally run across any other dangerous word mix-ups?
Using Augmentatives in Spanish
Written by TravelatedRease
Tagged Grammar
Will Ryman sculpture Icon at Fairchild Botanical Garden, Miami. Photo by Diana Caballero.
Just like diminutives, augmentatives have different uses and there are several augmentative endings. These often convert everyday words into local slang. The most common Spanish Suffixes are: ón/ona, ozo/oza, and ote/ota.
In Spanish, augmentatives are used to express large size or great intensity.
Examples:
| Grande – big |
Grandote – huge |
| Perro – dog |
Perrote – big dog |
| Beso – kiss |
Besote – big kiss |
You’ll often hear augmentatives when people are very excited about something, especially when telling stories and wanting to exaggerate size, intensity, enthusiasm, etc. A classic Latin American example is:
| Gol – a goal, in soccer |
Golazo – an amazing soccer goal |
There are some words that change meanings when an augmentative is used. Here are a few examples:
| Caja – box |
Cajón – drawer |
| Calle – street |
Callejón – alley |
| Colcha – bedspread |
Colchón – mattress |
| Rata – rat |
Ratón – mouse |
| Cuchara – spoon |
Cucharón – ladle |
| Silla – chair |
Sillón – armchair |
Can you think of any other augmentative pairs?
Posted in Grammar
|
Tagged Grammar
|
5 Common Spanish Spelling Mix-ups
Overall, spelling in Spanish is pretty straightforward and easy. It’s one of the many reasons I love Spanish. If you can pronounce a word in Spanish, you can generally spell it correctly. However, there are a few common mistakes. Interestingly enough, these are more often made by native speakers than those who study Spanish as a foreign language. The best explanation for this is that native speakers learn orally, and these spelling mistakes cannot be detected orally, while students study through books and see the words written out much more often than they hear them.
Switching up Vs and Bs
The V in Spanish is pronounced basically exactly like the B. In fact, when spelling things out, many people say “b larga” and “v corta” or “uve” to distinguish between the two. It’s common for native speakers to use V instead of B such as huviera instead of hubiera or vendito instead of bendito. Be careful of some V/B situations, like the verbs andar and estar which have conjugations where the word is written with B and other conjugations written with V.
Y and LL
In Spanish, the double L (ll pronounced “elle”) is pronounced just like the Y, so this is the same situation as with the V and B. Due to the fact that they are pronounced the same, it is not uncommon to words written incorrectly such as alluda instead of ayuda or lla instead of ya. You will see that there are more rules for the use of Y than for the LL.
Leaving out the H
Since the H is silent in Spanish, many natives simply omit it when writing. This is not a big deal for words like abía instead of había, but it can occasionally change the meaning. For example, hola means “hello” while ola means “wave”. Of course, context will usually clear up any confusion.
Continue reading →
