Learn Spanish for Real: Spanish Slang, Colloquialisms, & Cursewords Archives

Learn Spanish for Real: Spanish Slang, Colloquialisms, & Cursewords

Here I’ll teach you Spanish slang, colloquialisms, and even naughty words from all around the Spanish-speaking world! Learn conversational Spanish and talk like native speakers do every day. I use real-life examples from my own travels and interactions with native speakers from Spain, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico and Chile as well as TV shows, movies, YouTube videos, books, news stories, and more. Like what?

How about a common expression from Spain that means that something is very far away: “estar en el quinto pino” (literally, “to be at the fifth pine tree”)? It originates from the early days of the city of Madrid when one of the main avenues, the Paseo del Prado, had a line of pine trees down the median, and the fifth one was on the very outskirts of the city and was where people would go for secret meetings, either those involving business or politics, or those between lovers, either those without the approval of their parents or those who were having affairs. That’s “Learn Spanish for Real” number six, scroll down and click on it to learn more!

Learn Spanish for Real #9: Four Ways to Say Somebody Is Naked!

by Andrew | Jun 13, 2017 | Learn Spanish for Real: Spanish Slang, Colloquialisms, & Cursewords, Spanish

1. En pelotas This literally means “in balls” (hence the photo) per the modern definition of “pelota”, but that’s not what it refers to at all (it’s not using the modern definition of “pelota”). Contrary to what many...

Learn Spanish for Real #8: “That rings a bell / sounds familiar!” and “sonar”/”resultar”

by Andrew | Oct 11, 2016 | Learn Spanish for Real: Spanish Slang, Colloquialisms, & Cursewords

Awkward title, but accurately descriptive. We’re going to talk about the ways you can say essentially the same thing in Spanish: “That rings a bell” or “That sounds/looks familiar”. This is going to revolve around two verbs:...

Learn Spanish for Real #7: “Pain in the neck/ass”

by Andrew | Sep 18, 2016 | Learn Spanish for Real: Spanish Slang, Colloquialisms, & Cursewords, Spanish

I remember talking with a language exchange partner years ago and I wanted to say that something was, as we colloquially say in English, a “pain in the neck”, so I made the mistake most inexperienced language learners make in such situations and just...

Learn Spanish for Real #6: “Estar en el quinto pino” / “Donde Cristo perdió la zapatilla”

by Andrew | Sep 1, 2016 | Learn Spanish for Real: Spanish Slang, Colloquialisms, & Cursewords, Learn Spanish from Spain, Spain, Spanish

It’s two-for-one day here on How to Learn Spanish! We’re going to cover two phrases in one Learn Spanish for Real post, primarily because they both mean the same thing: something is really far away. For the curious, this is from the Sochi Winter Olympics,...

Learn Spanish for Real #5: “¡Es un atraco a mano armada!”

by Andrew | Aug 31, 2016 | Learn Spanish for Real: Spanish Slang, Colloquialisms, & Cursewords, Learn Spanish from Spain, Spanish

Literally, it means “this is an armed robbery”, or more colloquially, “this is a stick-up”. An “atraco” is a robbery or hold-up, “mano” as you likely know means “hand” (but note that it’s feminine, so...

Learn Spanish for Real #4: “Cogerse un cabreo de cojones” | Slang, Expressions, and Curse Words

by Andrew | Aug 19, 2015 | Learn Spanish for Real: Spanish Slang, Colloquialisms, & Cursewords, Learn Spanish from Spain

Have you ever heard the expression “throw a shit-fit”? Well, regardless, you do now know how to say that in Spanish! …and apparently it’s available in t-shirt format, as you can see there on the left (that’s what “cabreo de...

Learn Spanish for Real #3: “Llorar como una magdalena” – from Spain! | Slang, Expressions, and Curse Words

by Andrew | Jul 6, 2015 | Learn Spanish for Real: Spanish Slang, Colloquialisms, & Cursewords, Learn Spanish from Spain

Real quick I just thought I’d share with you an interesting new expression I learned today from one of my Spanish tutors, Silvia (she’s very good, check her out if you’re in the market!), when I realized it would make a great 3rd installment in our...

Learn Spanish for Real #2: “Carajo”

by Andrew | Nov 16, 2014 | Learn Spanish for Real: Spanish Slang, Colloquialisms, & Cursewords, Learn Spanish from Spain

Welcome to the second installment of a category of posts I do called Learn Spanish for Real: Spanish Slang, Colloquialisms, and Curse Words! This post will be a sort of continuation on the first one in that we’ll be examining the same sentence from the same...

Learn Spanish for Real #1: “Berraco / Berraca”, from Colombia! | Slang, Expressions, and Curse Words

by Andrew | Nov 5, 2014 | Learn Spanish for Real: Spanish Slang, Colloquialisms, & Cursewords, Spanish

This is the first in a new series of posts I’m going to be doing called “Learn Spanish for Real” where I’ll teach the sort of Spanish that’s commonly used, that you need to know in order to be able to speak like and with a native, but...