Spanish Slang

As in many European countries nowadays, slang is becoming commonplace within everyday conversation and technology and the speed at which it grows is both inevitable and confusing! Not only do youths seem to speak a completely different language to the Spanish you may or may not have learnt before arriving in Spain, but certain words also tend to creep into everyday speech between adults, on TV and in books. Of course, in other languages we are constantly inventing and reinventing words of different meaning, emphasis and register, yet in a completely different culture these are much harder to pick up on (and much easier to get wrong!).

The best thing to do is leave slang until you feel at least completely comfortable with your spoken Spanish, no matter how tempting it is! However, understanding the basics of slang for your arrival is a necessity if you want to grasp what many people are saying to you, as well as being able to distinguish a friendly phrase from a serious insult. Many words and phrases tend to stick around for a while whereas some can come and go before you’ve even grasped what they actually mean.

Keeping up to date with the media or taking part in intercambio are some of the best ways to get to grips with the everyday Spanish language, especially because most text books tend to focus solely on educational Spanish rather than street talk.