Cuban Spanish Posted by Adir on Mar 12, 2009 in Spanish Culture, Spanish Vocabulary
Today we’ll have a look at some typical vocabulary used in Cuba. Check them out!
Amarillo – a coward person. Aquel hombre es un amarillo. (That man is a coward.)
Caballo – friend. ¿Cómo estás, caballo? (How are you, my friend?)
Curralo – work. Voy pa’l curralo. (I’m going to work.)
Embori – a snitch, a rat. Ten cuidado con ese tipo, es embori. (Be careful with that guy, he’s a rat.)
Facho – theft, robbery. El facho fue anoche. (The robbery happened last night.)
Fardo – pants. ¿Cuánto costará este fardo? (I wonder how much these pants cost.)
Fuca – a gun. Cuando la policía llegó al local del crímen, la fuca ya se había desaparecido. (When the police arrived at the crime scene, the gun was already gone.)
Gao – house. Aquel gao se está cayendo. (That house is falling down.)
Güiro – a party. El sábado habrá güiro en la casa de Ana. (On Saturday there will be a party over at Ana’s.)
Jama – food. Ven ya, que la jama se enfría. (Come quickly because the food is getting cold.)
Lima – a shirt. ¿Te compraste una nueva lima? (Did you buy a new shirt?)
Macri – a white man. Ese macri no es de aquí. (This white man is not from here.)
Nébole – a friend, a buddy. ¡Hace cuánto que no te veo, nébole! (I haven’t seen you for so long, buddy!)
Pincha – work. Está muy dura esta pincha. (This work is very hard.)
¡Qué bola! – How are you doing?
Tacle – deceit, swindle. Con tacles no me vas a convencer. (You won’t convince me with deceits.)
Teque – a long-winded speech. No me vengas con teques, chico. (Don’t give me your long speeches, boy.)
Yira – Money. Estoy sin yira. (I’m broke.)
Take a look at this video of a boy speaking in typical Cuban accent, vocabulary and speed!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYWdy1dMkuY&feature=related
Nos vemos prontito!
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About the Author: Adir
English / Spanish teacher and translator for over 20 years. I have been blogging since 2007 and I am also a professional singer in my spare time.
Comments:
Aliza Hausman:
Holy smokes. I’m Dominican and I only understood like a third of that. Proving once again that even though we’re all considered Hispanic and Spanish speakers at that, we’re not even speaking the same language. Meanwhile, Cuba Libre!:)
david carmona:
Indeed. I’m a Spaniard, so I got even less than that!
Christopher:
I was in Habana in 2001 and hung out with this one 18 year old guy.
It was *impossible* to understand what this dude was saying… he was super friendly and took me around and showed me some of the city but man… completely unintelligible, though my Spanish wasn’t perfect by any means jajaja…
Great post as always Adir!!!
Ruby Oteng:
iim nt even spanish but ii luv the language so ii didnt even understand anything. But when ii grow up ii want to live in Cuba. So if any of youlot come from Cuba let me know
Spanish Dilettante:
This is great! Thanks for posting it.
Yosbel Buscaron:
Simply CUBANAZO!
Thank you for the great article I am going to put it on my website if you don’t mind.
http://www.quebola.info/
Is that O.K.?
Juan Pedro:
I am Cuban and I didn’t understand half the words even though my parents have lived in Havana most of their lives and I speak to them in Cuban spanish everyday in other words I doubt the popularity or even validity of those words in speech of the typical Habanero.
Robert Alfonso:
I am a Cuban-American living in Miami and i disagree with this post. I have heard of maybe 2 or 3 of those slang words. Please do not post what is not true because it sends the wrong message.