Learn Latin American regionalisms
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Jessi: Hi, everyone. I'm Jessi. |
| Karen: And I'm Karen. A Spanish Miracle. Hola Jessi, ¿cómo estás? |
| Jessi: Muy bien gracias, ¿Y tú Karen? |
| Karen: Muy bien. |
| Jessi: So, Karen, what are we going to learn in this lesson? |
| Karen: In this lesson, we are going to learn about Latin American regionalisms. |
| Jessi: Where does this conversation take place and who is it between? |
| Karen: The conversation takes place on the streets and it's between Samuel and Paco. |
| Jessi: So, the conversation is between friends? |
| Karen: Yes. So, they’ll be speaking informally. Okay, let's listen to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUES |
| De nuevo en la calle. |
| Samuel: ¡Quiubo Paco! |
| Paco: ¡Qué milagro, Samuel! ¿Qué haces por acá? |
| Samuel: Pues, es fin de semana. |
| Paco: Eso sí. Vamos a dar un rol. |
| English Host: Let’s listen to the dialogue one time slowly. |
| Samuel: ¡Quiubo Paco! |
| Paco: ¡Qué milagro, Samuel! ¿Qué haces por acá? |
| Samuel: Pues, es fin de semana. |
| Paco: Eso sí. Vamos a dar un rol. |
| English Host: And now, with the English translation. |
| De nuevo en la calle. |
| On the street. |
| Samuel: ¡Quiubo Paco! |
| Jessi: What's up, Paco? |
| Paco: ¡Qué milagro, Samuel! ¿Qué haces por acá? |
| Jessi: Samuel, what a miracle! What are you doing here? |
| Samuel: Pues, es fin de semana. |
| Jessi: Hey, it's the weekend. |
| Paco: Eso sí. Vamos a dar un rol. |
| Jessi: Indeed it is. Let's go hang out. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Jessi: Okay. So, Karen, we came across some slang in this dialogue. |
| Karen: Yes, we did. |
| Jessi: And actually, later on in the lesson focus, we'll talk more about Latin American regionalisms in general. But for now, let's talk about the differences in Spanish in general. |
| Karen: Sure. I think that Spanish regional differences are really interesting. I mean, I'm from Peru and I'm a native Spanish speaker, but I wouldn't say some of the words that they used in the dialogue. |
| Jessi: Ah, things like quiubo and stuff. |
| Karen: Right. |
| Jessi: Yeah, I think a lot of people know about the major differences between say, Spanish spoken in Spain and Spanish spoken in Latin America, but one thing that’s surprising is all of the differences just among Latin American Spanish varieties. |
| Karen: Definitely. There are so many different countries, though, with different cultures, so it's natural that they all develop their own words and phrases. |
| Jessi: Right. Sometimes, native speakers from different countries don't even understand each other. |
| Karen: That's true. I was born and raised in Peru and I moved to California where there were mostly Mexican-Spanish speakers, and I couldn't understand their slang at all. |
| Jessi: Wow, that different then, huh? |
| Karen: It was surprising. It took me a while to get used to the way they speak. |
| Jessi: So listeners, if you're planning to go to a certain country in Latin America, it probably wouldn't hurt to pick up a phrase book for Spanish used in that country. |
| Karen: I think that's a really good idea. Just to kind of give you a head start. |
| Jessi: Right. Okay, let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Jessi: The first one is… |
| Karen: por acá [natural native speed] |
| Jessi: around here |
| Karen: por acá [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Karen: por acá [natural native speed] |
| Jessi: Next is… |
| Karen: ¡Qué milagro! [natural native speed] |
| Jessi: What a miracle! |
| Karen: ¡Qué milagro! [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Karen: ¡Qué milagro! [natural native speed] |
| Jessi: Next, we have… |
| Karen: quiubo [natural native speed] |
| Jessi: What's up? How's it going? (Mexican slang) |
| Karen: quiubo [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Karen: quiubo [natural native speed] |
| Jessi: Next is… |
| Karen: pues [natural native speed] |
| Jessi: so, so then |
| Karen: pues [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Karen: pues [natural native speed] |
| Jessi: Next stop is… |
| Karen: rol [natural native speed] |
| Jessi: role, list |
| Karen: rol [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Karen: rol [natural native speed] |
| Jessi: Next word is… |
| Karen: fin de semana [natural native speed] |
| Jessi: weekend |
| Karen: fin de semana [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Karen: fin de semana [natural native speed] |
| Karen: eso [natural native speed] |
| Jessi: that |
| Karen: eso [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Karen: eso [natural native speed] |
| Karen: vamos a (+ infinitive) [natural native speed] |
| Jessi: we're going to (+infinitive) |
| Karen: vamos a (+ infinitive) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Karen: vamos a (+ infinitive) [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Jessi: Let’s have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is? |
| Karen: quiubo |
| Jessi: “What’s up?” |
| Karen: Quiubo, is a word used mainly in Mexico and Costa Rica. |
| Jessi: And possibly some other countries. It’s kind of hard to tell how far it spreads. And like I said, it means, “What’s up?” |
| Karen: Yes, and it comes from the phrase, ¿Qué hubo? |
| Jessi: Now, let’s keep in mind that this word and the phrase it comes from are used only informally. |
| Karen: That’s important to know. Never use it with older people or your boss. That is a big NO. |
| Jessi: Okay, let’s look at another one. Our next phrase is? |
| Karen: ¡Qué milagro! |
| Jessi: This one is simple, it means, “What a miracle!” |
| Karen: Right. Milagro is of course “miracle” and qué means “what,” and it’s often used in phrases of surprise like in English. |
| Jessi: Right, like, ¡Qué bonito! “How pretty!” things like that. |
| Karen: Yes. So ¡Qué milagro! is just “What a miracle!” |
| Jessi: And I find that sometimes it’s used in a sarcastic or funny way. |
| Karen: Yes, yes. For example, Trabajaste, ¡qué milagro! |
| Jessi: And that means, “You did some work. What a miracle!” |
| Karen: It has kind of a playful jab to it. |
| Jessi: And next we have? |
| Karen: Por acá |
| Jessi: It means, “Around here.” Por, meaning “around” and, acá, meaning “here”. |
| Karen: Yes, and we can also say, por ayá, which means, “around there” or “that way.” |
| Jessi: Next is? |
| Karen: pues |
| Jessi: Pues, this one means, “well” or sometimes “then.” It can even be used as “um" or “let’s see.” In the dialogue though, it’s pretty close to “well.” |
| Karen: Pues, es fin de semana. |
| Jessi: Well, it’s the weekend. |
| Karen: Now, pues, is a colloquialism and it’s used a lot. |
| Jessi: A lot and you’ll find that when it’s said really quickly, it turns into pus or even just like “psss” sound. |
| Karen: Yes, yes, I think you’re right. |
| Jessi: And lastly we have? |
| Karen: rol |
| Jessi: Now, in the dialogue, we heard it used in the phrase Dar un rol and this is a slang that’s used in Mexico and it means “hang out” or “go around.” |
| Karen: Now, something that you need to know is that the real meaning of rol is something totally different. Rol originally means “list, role, role,” as in to play a role, et cetera. |
| Jessi: But the usage we saw in this conversation was, of course, totally different, but we’ll get a little more into that in the next section, right? |
| Karen: Yeah. |
| Jessi: Okay, so with that, let’s move on to the lesson focus. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Jessi: In this lesson, we will look at some Latin-American regionalisms, particularly those from Mexico. |
| Karen: That’s right. We’ll take a look at dar un rol, quiubo, and others. |
| Jessi: In Spanish, there are a lot of regionalisms that are used really frequently. |
| Karen: Definitely, so it helps to know them. |
| Jessi: And slang is also a lot of fun to learn too, so let’s get to it. Let’s look at the first one. We touched on it briefly in the vocab section. Dar un rol means “go around somewhere.” |
| Karen: Dar is an -AR verb that means “to give,” and the literal meaning of, rol, is role or list. |
| Jessi: Yes, the literal meaning is completely different. Anyway, how was it used in dialogue? |
| Karen: Samuel says, “It’s the weekend” Es fin de semana . And Paco says, Eso sí, vamos a dar un rol. |
| Jessi: Indeed it is, let’s go hang out. Let’s give another example of this phrase. |
| Karen: Hola Juan, vamos a dar un rol por la playa. |
| Jessi: “Hey Juan, let’s go around the beach.” |
| Karen: Not that hard, right? I think rol is relatively easy to use. |
| Jessi: Now, let’s look at quiubo. |
| Karen: This one is also used in Mexico mainly but in Costa Rica, it’s used as well. |
| Jessi: Yes, and this means, “What’s up?” |
| Karen: Yes, and it’s informal. You say it with friends, but never in formal situations. |
| Jessi: How was it used in the dialogue? |
| Karen: Samuel says, Quiubo Paco. |
| Jessi: “What’s up, Paco?” So basically, you just use it as a greeting. |
| Karen: Yes, that’s right. It’s a combination of the words, qué, “what,” and, hubo, “there was.” So literally, it means “What was there?” But now, it just means “What’s up?” or “What’s going on?” ¡Quiubo! |
| Jessi: Again, remember that this is not widespread throughout all Spanish-speaking countries. |
| Karen: Right. Now, I know, mande is not in the dialogue, but I think it’s important to mention since we’re talking about Mexican regionalisms. |
| Jessi: I agree because mande is used a lot in Mexico. |
| Karen: Okay listeners, mande really comes from the verb mandar which means “to send.” It’s a command. |
| Jessi: But in Mexico it means “yes” in a polite way. So if, for example, I go to a store and I say, “Excuse me,” the salesperson might say, ¿Mande? |
| Karen: Right. |
| Jessi: It can also be used to mean, “Excuse me” or “Sorry” when you didn’t catch something that was said. |
| Karen: Oh, yeah, like where you will usually use ¿Cómo? |
| Jessi: Right. In Mexico, you can say ¿Mande? You will hear this a lot too. If you use it outside of Mexico though, people will probably notice and say, “Oh, Mexican-Spanish.” |
| Karen: Yes, that’s right. You can tell right away. |
Outro |
|---|
| Jessi: Okay, well, listeners, let us know if there are any Spanish slang terms that you know. |
| Karen: Definitely. You can leave us a comment in the comment section of this lesson. |
| Jessi: That’s going to wrap it up for today. Until next time. |
| Karen: Hasta luego, adiós. |
Comments
Hide