Me fui pa' Chepe

I've been traveling again, and this time I headed back to Costa Rica.  I had some unfinished tourism there.  That and my wife told me that's where we were spending our vacation.

The good news is this time around I was really able to explore a bit more of the country and picked up on quite a bit more Spanish as well.

Let's jump right into things.

I'm going to share the Costa Rican slang that I picked up, so let's start off with the word pachuco.

So what does pachuco (or pachuca) mean in Costa Rica?

Pachuco is nothing more than the name for Costa Rican slang.  Well, ok, I'm over simplifying it a bit, but for the purposes of this blog post, understanding that the word pachuco refers to the slang specifically spoken in Costa Rica is good enough.

Now that we've got that out of the way, let's talk about some actual pachuco terms.

I stayed in the city of Chepe.   What's that?  You don't see it on the map?  Well, that's because chepe  is the nickname for the capital city of Costa Rica, which happens to be San José.

Me fui pa' Chepe 
I went to San Jose

Voy en camino pa' Chepe. Vamos a ver que tanta presa habrá
I'm on my way to San Jose.  We'll see how much traffic there's going to be

By the way, that pa'  is short for para.

You can find the sign above on Avenida Central in San José,  and if you're wondering, SJO is the airport code for the Aeropuerto Internacional Juan Santamaría in Chepe.

Here's another word I found interesting.

Tucas

Tucas are logs, as in trees that have been cut down.

But I'm sure that my faithful readers already know I didn't post that term because I find cut down trees interesting.  However, I will say that the word tucas may only carry that meaning in Costa Rica.

Now let's look at the definition of the word tucas that qualifies it for this blog.

In Costa Rican Spanish tucas means legs,  especially if they're a pair of good looking legs.

¡Qué tucas tiene esa mujer!
That woman's got some nice legs!

You can use the word tucas to refer to men or women, like your buddy the body builder who has legs like tree stumps.  But more than likely you'll hear this used to refer to a woman with nice legs.

¡Que tucas tienes huevon!
You got some legs on you dude

By the way, be careful with the word huevón.  I translated it as dude, but it's actually one of those bad words that you can use to refer to someone you have a really good relationship with.  So if you're not best buddies or you're not absolutely positive the person you're talking to won't take offense,  I suggest you use that one with caution.  You may also see it spelled as guevón.

Tucas is a very informal word, so keep that in mind while your chatting with your Costa Rican pals.


While I've been to Costa Rica a few times, this is the first time I've noticed the usage of the verb ocupar.  Ticos use the verb ocupar as a synonym of the verb necesitar.   I've run into this in Mexico as well.

Let's take a closer look.

No ocupo nada
I don't need anything

¿Se ocupa algo?
Do you need anything?

Si ocupas ir al baño vas a necesitar la llave
If you need to go the bathroom you're going to need the key

¿Un cajero ocupa?
You need an ATM ?

By the way, cajero is short for cajero automatico.  Oh, I almost forgot.  I wrote about how to use an ATM in Spanish a while back.   recommend you read it, it's called Marque su pin.

Did you notice the word ticos a few sentences back?  If you don't know what a tico is, let me explain.

A tico is a person from Costa Rica.  A guy from Costa Rica to be exact.  A woman from Costa Rica would be a tica.  If you're looking for a more formal word to describe someone from Costa Rica then you want the word Costarricense which is the official term for a person from Costa Rica.


¿Eres tico?
Are you Costa Rican?

Soy más tico que el gallo pinto
I'm more Costa Rican than a spotted rooster

Well, that last one doesn't make a lot of sense does it?  What does a spotted rooster have to do with being Costa Rican? 

First things first.  When you hear someone in Costa Rica talk about gallo pinto, more then likely they aren't referring to a spotted rooster, but rather a very traditional Costa Rican dish.  In fact, it's considered the national dish.

A traditional gallo pinto might look something like this:

I love a good plate of rice and beans, so you can't keep me away from gallo pinto when I'm in Costa Rica.

Ok, let's switch gears completely.

This may come as a surprise, but Chepe has it's share of traffic as well.  Let's learn a little about how to talk about traffic in Costa Rica like a real tico.

Presa is the de facto word ticos use for traffic.   In fact, there are actually at least 7 Ways to say traffic in Spanish, but for now let's take a look at a very Costa Rican expression.  Well, two of them to be exact.

Chupar presa and comer presa.

Comer presa  literally means to eat traffic.   And chupar presa means to suck traffic.  Clearly the literal translations don't do us any good.

Let's look at some examples.

Si va por ahi se va a chupar toda la presa
If you go that way you're going hit all the traffic

Se va a comer toda la presa
You're going to run into all the traffic

You can also say something a little less slangy like:

¿Hay mucha presa?
Is there a lot of traffic?

Toss those phrases around and you're going to raise more than a few eyebrows because now you're sounding super tico.

Let's keep going.

I saw a few zaguates running around the streets of San José.  And if you have no clue what a zaguate is, don't feel bad, I didn't know either.

Zaguates are stray dogs or dogs that are not pure breed.  Apparently ticos have a love of dogs because they have a few pieces of artwork dedicated to zaguates on Avenida Central.   By the way, Avenida Central is the main street in downtown Chepe.

Here's another word I found interesting that you'll definitely need to know if you're chatting with the locals.

¿Hay campos?

A campo in Costa Rica can refer to a place to sit, like an empty seat.  I went to the cine (movies) and the person working the counter told me:

Todavía hay campos
There are still seats

Honestly, that took me by surprise.  If they hadn't showed me the seating chart, I would have been at a complete loss.  It actually wasn't until a day or two later when a friend filled me in on the use of the word campo and then I was finally able to put it all together.

Here's one last example:

No hay campos
There are no seats

You can also safely translate that as "there's no place to sit".

Another interesting phrase I picked up is a cachete.  So what does a cachete mean?  Here are some examples.

¿Cómo estás? A cachete mae
How are you?  It's all good

In this context, a cachete could also be translated as awesome or great.  But why hear it from me when you can hear it first hand from a tico?

If you can't see the video, here's the direct link:  https://vimeo.com/249425415


A Cachete | Tico Slang from Brett Campbell on Vimeo.


Here are a few more examples.

¿Cómo te fue en el examen?  ¡A cachete! 
How did you do on the exam?  Great!

Este carro está a cachete mae
This car is awesome dude

The other context I heard a cachete in had to do with food.

My amiga ordered something or another, I don't recall exactly what it was, and when the waitress asked what she wanted on it, she replied:

a cachete
With everything

Con todo would be a more neutral way to respond.

Wow, we've talked about a lot of stuff.  I'm going to cover one more thing and then we'll get this wrapped up.

I did a little shopping while I was in Chepe and there were a couple of things that jumped out at me.

While I was looking at a few shirts the attendant said to me:

Puede medirselo
You can try it on

I'm accustomed to using and hearing the verb probarse to talk about trying on clothes, but apparently medirse works as well.

¿Me lo puedo probar?
Can I try it on?

¿Me lo puedo medir?
Can I try it on?

I was in search of a camisa de la sele.  The sele is the short way of referring to the national soccer team of Costa Rica,   La Selección de Fútbol de Costa Rica.   Now you know why it's simply referred to as la sele.

Camisa just means shirt.   So a camisa de la sele refers to a soccer jersey of the national soccer team.

Add a few more inches around the middle and I look just as good in my camisa de la sele as the mannequin does.

Finding my camisa de la sele was no easy task.  Well, not for someone who doesn't want to pay full retail for an official jersey.  I was looking for a quality knock off at a reasonable price.  And for that I had to find una china.

Una china is una tienda de chinos, or as we would say, a Chinese store.   They're everywhere in downtown Chepe.  It took a bit of searching but I finally got my camisa de la sele.

And with that we're finally done.  Now you're ready to impress some folks with your Costa Rican Spanish.

If you want or need to learn more Costa Rican slang, I found these lessons on Costa Rican Spanish to be of great help.  They do a great job of zeroing in on the most common terms.  You can also find several books on Costa Rican slang at Amazon.

I've got a few more things to share about my trip, so stay tuned for more!  You can also read my other posts on Costa Rican Spanish.

¡Hasta la próxima!

Qué pichudo mae

Today we're going to look at a thank you note for a wedding gift I gave to my tico friend that just recently got married.  By the way, if you're wondering what the word tico means, it's an apodo (nick name) for the people of Costa Rica, or costarricenses.  And tica would be used for a woman.

He knows how much I love learning colloquial Spanish so he wrote the thank you note in pure Costa Rican slang.  Needless to say translating it kept me busy for several hours and I enjoyed every minute of it.   This little note certainly put my Spanish skills to the test.

I thought you all would enjoy the Spanish I learned, especially since I've already done all the hard work.

We're going to take a close look at this card, so here it is.

I'm not sure what was harder, deciphering his handwriting or the slang.  But with that said, let's examine this note line by line.

Qué pichudo mae

Let's start with the easy stuff, the word mae

Mae is the de facto Costa Rican word for dude, and you'll hear it constantly walking up and down the streets of San Jose and most likely all of Costa Rica.  Guys use it, girls use it, it's everywhere.  You can also use it to refer to a person in general.

Ese mae no me cae bien
I don't like that guy

Mae, ¿Dónde estás?
Dude, where are you?

Now, as always exercise some caution because you may just run across the one person who doesn't like the word or is offended by it.  Or takes offense at you (a.k.a a gringo) using it, but the word itself is perfectly safe.  Just remember it carries this meaning in Costa Rica.  In another country it may not exist at all or possibly be offensive.  Know your audience.

Next we get to pichudo.  Pichudo is another very Costa Rican word meaning genial or buenísimo in standard Spanish.   In English it would be something along the great, cool or awesome.

So our translation would be something along the lines of:

Qué pichudo mae
How awesome dude

Translating slang isn't an exact science, but this conveys the idea.

The next line is a bit trickier and I actually needed help with this one.

Mae, demasiados tenquius por esa harina

If you're looking at the word tenquius and can't figure out what it means or how to pronounce it, don't feel bad, you're not alone.  I searched the internet far and wide for the meaning of that one to no avail.  It turns it out it means "thank you's", but it sounds like "tank youz".  Go figure.

The next word, harina, is a lot easier.  The dictionary meaning is flour, but in Costa Rican Spanish it's money.  In fact, the currency of Costa Rica is called colones, but I'll write more about that in another post.

The literal translation "Too many thank you's" just doesn't sound right to my English ears, so I'm going with the below instead.

Mae, demasiados tenquius por esa harina
Dude, thanks so much for the money

Moving on the next line, this is something else I would never have figured out with my friends help.

Esta en tuas!

This actually has a bit of history to go with it and you will totally impress your Costa Rican friends with your knowledge of this one.  Or at least the one's old enough to remember this.

The first thing you need to know is that this phrase, when written in proper Spanish, is actually

Está en todas

And unlike the vast majority of the Spanish phrases I learn, I was actually able to learn the origin of this one.  Or least how it become popular.

These may look familiar to you.

Yep, they look like M&M's don't they?

Our phrase, estás en todas, became a popular saying as a result of an 80's commercial.   Thanks to the magic of YouTube, we get to watch this too.

If you don't see the video below, here's the direct link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zbqXBrBXUM

¡Con teens estás en todas!

Now, this is the hard part, translating our expression.   I'm thinking it's somewhere along the lines of you're awesome or really cool.

Moving right along we get to the next line.

Fue un placer contar con teus en esa tafies tan memorable

Keeping with our tradition of tackling the easy words first, tafies is a fiesta, or party in English.

Teus is a bit trickier.  My amigo tico told me that this simply means usted in pachuco.  Great, now we have to figure what pachuco is.

Pachuco is a very informal and slangy form of Costa Rican Spanish, which according to Google has it's roots in Mexican Spanish used in the days of zoot suits.   I can't really tell you much about it but a Google search will give you enough info to keep you busy if you're really interested.

And if you don't know, everyone in Costa Rica speaks with usted.  It's just what they do.

Fue un placer contar con teus en esa tafies tan memorable
It was a pleasure to have your support in this memorable occasion

As I mentioned earlier, tafies means party, but for translation purposes occasion or celebration seems to fit better.

Me comprare una chema y la guila unas chanclas

Chema is Costa Rican slang for a shirt.  And just so you know, they use the word cachos for shoes.  I mentioned that in some of my earlier posts about Costan Rican Spanish.


Next we get another very, very common word in Costa Rican slang.  Guila.

Here's a well written definition in Spanish I found.

Guila should actually be written as güila, and it can be used to refer to a guy or a girl in general, or your girlfriend or boyfriend.  It's always written as güila, so to specify the gender you  say el güila or la güila.  In informal writing it's nearly always seen written with a regular u and not ü (with the diaeresis).

Mae, esa güila es muy bonita
Dude, that girl is really pretty

¿Como está su guila?
How's your girlfriend?

Es un queque, right?  That's tico for "it's easy, right?"

Moving on.

Chanclas, are flip flops or sandalias (sandals).  Generally speaking, chanclas and sandalias are synonyms, with the exception that chanclas also refers to flip flips, while typically sandalias does not.

The word chancla generally refers to any flat sandal, but that's not a strict rule.  Various styles of sandals can be referred to as chanclas.

Me comprare una chema y la guila unas chanclas
I'm going to buy myself a shirt and my girlfriend some sandals

And we're finally getting to the end.

Espero que se le haga un nudo en la jupa desentrañando mi mensaje escrito en lenguaje de tiquicia.

Jupa means cabeza, or head.  And Tiquicia is nothing more than an affectionate reference to the country of Costa Rica itself.

Espero que se le haga un nudo en la jupa desentrañando mi mensaje escrito en lenguaje de tiquicia.
I hope you tie a knot in your head trying to figure out my message written in the language of Costa Rica.

And there you have it.  Go forth and impress your tico (Costa Rican) friends with this new bit of Spanish you've learned today.

If you want or need to learn more Costa Rican slang, I found these lessons on Costa Rican Spanish to be of great help.  They do a great job of zeroing in on the most common terms.  You can also find several books on Costa Rican slang at Amazon.

Of course the best thing to do to learn some Costa Rican slang is to make friends with some ticos or hop on a plane to Tiquicia, but if you can't do either one of those then the options I gave you above aren't bad either.

¡Hasta la próxima!

¡Feliz Día del Guajolote!

If you want to tell your Spanish speaking friends Happy Thanksgiving, then this is the phrase you want:

Feliz Día de Acción de Gracias
Happy Thanksgiving

That's all fine and dandy, but it gets old and it's not very much fun.  Lucky for you there are a few other ways to say it that might impress your Spanish friends.

But before we get to those, let's talk about a few words you may not be familiar with.  The first one is pavo.

Here's a pavo:

That's right, it's a turkey.  And unlike with fish, pavo is the same word for seeing one in the wild and eating it on your plate.

Como preparar un sandwich de pavo
How to make a turkey sandwhich

That piece of information is probably not a big surprise, I'm sure many of you already know the word pavo.  But you may be surprised to hear that pavo isn't the only word for turkey.

In Mexico a pavo is also called guajolote.  In Guatemala it's a chompipe.  Cuba?  guanajo.  There are probably even more words for turkey, but I think you get point.

So what does any of that have to do with Thanksgiving you ask?

I'm sure nearly all of my American readers know have heard the phrase "Happy Turkey Day".  Well with your new found Spanish vocabulary for turkey you can now say the equivalent in Spanish.

Felíz día del pavo
Happy Turkey Day

That's pretty generic and should be understood anywhere.  Now if you want to impress your Mexican friends, you can say:

Feliz Día del Guajolote

Got Guatemalan friends?  Wish them Happy Thanksgiving with this:

Feliz Día de Chompipe

Well, that's it for today!  Except for one last thing:

¡Chao!

Eres todo un potro

Let's have some fun today.

One day you may find yourself wanting to express to someone how attractive they are, and while Spanish has words like guapa, guapo, bonita, atractivo and the like, it can be way more fun using "slangier" words.

There's going to be some good stuff in here for both guys and gals, so let's get started.

Ricky Martin es todo un galán
Ricky Martin is a complete hunk

A galán is basically your classic movie star, telenovela type of handsome.  You'll see this word used quite a bit in entertainment news.  While this isn't slang, it's definitely a word to boost a man's ego.  If you're really trying to sweep a man off his feet, this is a good choice.

Next we have guapetón, or guapetona.

Mira que guapetón es mi novio
Look at how handsome my boyfriend is

Quiero presentarte a mi amiga, es bien guapetona
I want to introduce you to my friend, she's really pretty

Now, I translated guapetón and guapetona as handsome and pretty, but the truth is, that's not quite right.  Guapo or guapa would translate to handsome or pretty.  Guapetón and guapetona are a step above plain old handsome and pretty.  It's like saying someone is incredibly handsome or pretty.  So if you happen to be on the receiving end of this word, you can hold your chin high and walk with your chest poked out.

You could also substitute the words hermosisimo or hermosisima above, which is a variation on the word hermoso.   It's like multiplying hermoso times two.  You're saying this person is drop-dead gorgeous.  This will definitely win you some bonus points.

In English you can tell someone they have the body of a God or Goddess.  Spanish is no different.

Tienes cuerpo de un dios griego
You have the body of a Greek god

Eres una diosa
You're a Goddess

FYI, when some refers to a woman as a diosa, they're typically talking about the total package, a great body and a beautiful face.

While we're on the subject of nice bodies, you could also say:

Tienes buen cuerpo
You have a great body

And that's a great compliment, but if you're trying to say you think someone has a really great body, then go with this one:

Que cuerpazo tienes
You have an incredible body

Here's another one to compliment a pretty face.

Hola preciosa
Hey gorgeous

For a guy, you'd say precioso.

You're probably very familiar with the next few Spanish words, they've practically been assimilated into English.

Hola mamacita
Hello baby

Calling a woman mamacita implies that you find her attractive, not only physically, but sexually as well.  Depending on who you're talking to, this may not be taken kindly.  Think of it as calling a woman a hot mama in English.  It could be considered just plain disrespectful.

Eres todo un papacito

Literally, papacito translates as little daddy, but that's nowhere near accurate.

At the moment I can't think of an appropriate word in English for papacito.  But the translation isn't really important, what's important is she digs you.  If a woman calls you a papcito, she's thinking you're pretty hot.  Charming, sexy and attractive could be words running through her mind.

You may also here the word papi, which is really a term of endearment.

Hola papi
Hi baby

Let's keep going, we're almost done.

Eres una yegua

A yegua is actually a female horse, or a philly, as we say in English.  It's another way of saying a woman is good looking, a  voluptuous or sexy woman.  But be careful, in some places calling a woman a yegua can be an insult.

Fear not ladies, you also have a way of comparing a man to a horse.  And no, that's not what I'm talking about.  Kudos to those of you who get that.

Eres todo un potro
You're a stallion

Officially a potro is a male horse, or stallion.  At this point do I even need to say what it means unofficially?

Here's a joke for you.


¿En qué se parece el hombre a los caballitos de mar?
How are men like seahorses?

En que se creen potros y son unos pescados
They think they're stallions but they're just fish

Sorry, Let's get back on track and wrap this up.

You can tell someone:

Estás buenisima
You're hot

Buenisimo for a guy.  Buenisima can have a sexual connotation, so be careful.  In fact, the remaining things I'm going to share all have a sexual connotation.


Estas bien buena
You are really hot

Again, bueno for a man.

These are even more forward.

Te ves deliciosa
You look delicious

Yeah, I think you get it.

Te ves bien rico
You look delicious

Rico or rica typically applies to food, but as you can see it applies to people as well.  I did mention this can have a sexual connotation right?

Wow, that's it for now.  There are probably dozens of other ways to compliment someone informally, but this is more than enough to get you started.

¡Chao!

Pasame una lana primero, y después arreglamos

So there I was talking with my profesora, and I asked her for something, and this is what she tells me:

Pasame una lana primero, y después arreglamos

I couldn't help but laugh.  Not because I knew what she said, but because I knew it was supposed to be funny, and because yet again I had the deer in headlights look on my face. 

Now let's see if we can figure out what this means.

One word in our phrase you may not recognize is lana. Lana is a colloquial term for dinero, or as we say in English, money.  Plata is another colloquial term you may hear for money.

Arreglar is another verb that may be new to you.  Like so many verbs in Spanish, Arreglar has several meanings:  to fix something, to clean up, and to sort or work things out.  The last definition is the one we're interested in.  And since we're talking about Arreglar, I'll also mention that it's reflexive cousin Arreglarse means to get to ready, or dressed, as well as a few other things.  It's a good verb to learn, I've heard it on more than one occassion.

But let's get back to our phrase.  I think we know enough to make a good translation:

Pasame una lana primero, y después arreglamos
Pass me some money first, and then we'll work it out

When can you use this phrase?  Anytime someone asks you for a favor, big or small, is a perfect time to use this.  I'm sure your amigos will get a good laugh and be impressed with your Spanish as well.  

¡Hasta la próxima!

¡Chócalas!

If you're shaking your head trying to figure out what ¡Chócalas!   means,  then I feel a whole lot better because I had no idea what it meant either.   The good news is the translation is both simple, fun and surprisingly universal...it's not just for México.   

It means.....High five!

You can actually say this a few different ways...

¡Dame esos cincos!

¡Chócala!

¡Choca esos cinco!

Technically speaking, chócalas implies that you'll high-five with both hands, while chócala only uses one.  But my always helpful Spanish tutor informs me that you'll hear chócalas even if you only high-five with one hand.

Now you're well prepared to go watch a game of futbol and celebrate that goal the right way!

¡Hasta luego!