More than 10 Argentinian typical expressions

Argentina, the most famous country for its art of rhetoric -or ‘labia’ colloquially speaking in Spanish- and its commercial attitude, the sympathy of its people and also, we have to say it, its egocentric personality.

If there is a word that defines the Argentine that is ‘intensity’, through which each person seeks perfection in every detail, squeezing to the maximum each moment.

I love a phrase that I learned as a child in my country that says: «do it well or do not do it». That is why we are so demanding, with ourselves and with others.

This is the Argentine, intense to the core, for better or worse.

Through her or his social personality, the Argentine develops a broad vocabulary for rhetoric.

On this occasion, we will see some phrases or expressions characteristic of the natives of this unique and peculiar country.

‘Palacio del Congreso de la Nación Argentina en Buenos Aires’

Peculiarity of the ‘Argentinian’ Spanish

Before seeing the expressions, it is important to remember that in Argentina we use ‘vos’ instead of ‘tú’, and for the plural ‘ustedes’ instead of ‘vosotros’ like in Spain.

In Mexico, they use ‘tú’ and ‘ustedes’.

‘Ustedes’ is also used in Spain, but just for speaking in a formal way.

Generally, the only difference between ‘tú’ and ‘vos’ conjugations is that in the last one’s the emphasis in the word is produced at the end instead of in the middle as in ‘tú’.

You can check the article ‘Are the accents in Spanish really a headache?’ to know about the accentuation in Spanish language.

Examples:

• Tú estudias → Vos estudiás.
• Tú trabajas → Vos trabajás.
• Tú piensas → Vos pensás.

As in the last example, it can be another variation (change), apart from emphasis, especially with irregular verbs as ‘pensar’.

Andá

You will hear this word from somebody that does not believe anything you are telling her or him, as saying ‘andá a contarle cuentos a otro’ (go tell stories to somebody else).

It literally means ‘vete’ (go away).

A Spaniard would say ‘venga ya’, while a Mexican would say ‘no inventes’.

Charlar

Related to the previous one, if somebody tells you something that is not true or like they say in Mexico ‘te intenta ver la cara’ –try to trick you-, in Argentina we say ‘vos me estás charlando, ¿no?’ (you are tricking me, aren’t you?).

‘Charlar’ is defined as ‘chat’, but Argentinians also use it to ‘say false testimonials’.

Cagar

I know it does not sound very well because it means ‘to make poo’, but in Argentina ‘engañar’ is not used, they use ‘cagar’. It is very strange to hear an Argentinian saying ‘me engañó’. In this case, she or he is trying to talk without saying bad words.

‘Me cagó’ we say in Argentina when somebody tricked me. In Spain they say ‘me timó’. It is used ‘timar’ instead of ‘engañar’, as part of the street slang.

Cargar

In Spanish ‘to charge against someone’ is to attack someone, and it is the expression we use in Argentina to say that someone is joking with me.

In Spain you use ‘vacilar’, ‘me estás vacilando’.

Que quilombo

Typical Argentine expression to say ‘what a mess’ when everything is chaos. It is also used when we say ‘se armó el quilombo’, that is, chaos was formed.

Tomatelás

This expression is used when someone is bothering me and we want her or him to leave me alone.

It means the same as ‘andá’, that is, ‘vete’ (go away), but ‘andá’ does not mean ‘disappear from my sight’ like ‘tomatelás’.

Therefore, ‘andá’ is more of a joke and ‘tomatelás’ is more serious.

Hacer la pata, hacer la gamba o hacer una gauchada

‘Gamba’ means ‘leg’ in Italian. In Argentina there are some Italian words that have been Spanishized because of the great migration of Italians that have occurred to the South American country. In another article we will see some.

‘Gauchada’ comes from ‘gaucho’, that is, an action performed by a ‘gaucho’ is a ‘gauchada’.

‘Gaucho’ is the semi-nomadic peasant who inhabits or inhabited the plains of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, southern Brazil, southern Bolivia and southern Chile.

Currently we use the term ‘gaucho’ to say ‘compadre’ or ‘camarada’ (comrade).

So to make a ‘gauchada’ is to ask to do something of comrades, that is, to ask for a favor.

To ask for a favor, we also use the expression ‘haceme la pata’ or ‘haceme la gamba’.

‘Gaucho from 1868’

Dale

A very common expression as we saw in the previous article “More than 10 Mexican typical expressions” compared to the expressions in Mexico ‘ándale’ and ‘venga’ in Spain.

It serves to encourage someone to participate in an activity or action.

Remember that the Mexican expression ‘ándale’ also has other uses.

Sos de madera

We use this expression to qualify a person who is not good for what he is doing.

Therefore, sometimes it may sound a little hurtful.

Ni en pedo

As we saw last week ‘pedo’ can mean:

1. Gas emitted from the rear.
2. Drunkenness.
3. In Mexico it also refers to ‘problem’. Not in Argentina, nor Spain.

Therefore, if you hear an Argentine say ‘ni en pedo’, it means ‘ni borracho’ (not even drunk).

Example: ‘ni en pedo salgo con esta lluvia’ (Not even drunk I am going out with this rain).

Ser cara dura

When we say that someone ‘es un cara dura’ (hard face) it means that she or he does not care. He has a hard face because he is not affected by anything or does not care about anything.

We use it when someone does something wrong without caring about anything: ‘que cara dura’.

In Mexico they would say: ‘le valió’. Do you remember ‘me vale’: ‘no me importa’ (I do not care), that we learned last week?

Another worldwide way of saying it would be: ‘que sin vergüenza’.

Che

Finally, we end with the famous expression ‘che’.

It means ‘man’ or ‘woman’ in a street vocabulary.

Translated into Mexican as ‘güey’, ‘che’ is used to call someone or get their attention as who says ‘hey’, or simply as who says ‘tío’ or ‘tía’ in Spain, that is, ‘man’ or ‘woman’.

‘Tango en la calle’

Try to practice these expressions as a real ‘boludo’ and let me know what you think about it in the comments.