I just thought I would start to consolidate the many ‘chileanismos’ I have come across whilst being in Santiago. Such a special gang of phrases that I literally had NO IDEA of their significance until they were explained to me in depth.
I seek comfort in translating them into scouse, or very poor english to help me understand a situation as a whole, instead of the plethora of slang that is used here.
Here we go:
‘Cachaaaaaaay?’ – pronounced katch-aiiiiiii.
Means do you understand? But is really more of a….”are you onto what I’m saying yeah?”
‘Bacan’ – pronounced as read.
Used for cool, but also found in sentences such as, “that is sickkkkk mate” or “sounds fun!”
‘Weon/weona’ – pronounced wheeeyyy-on/wheeeyyy-on-ah.
At the end of pretty much every sentence, means literally arsehole, but is used like a scouser would use ‘lad’ or english would use ‘mate’. Subject to situation. Should not be used on customers- as I found in my first week by greeting a man with….”Can I help you dickhead?”
‘Wea’ – pronounced wheeey-ah.
Basically means “thing”. Took me sooooooooo long to get onto, and Chileans use it like: “ay arsehole can you pass me that thing so I can go and do my thing at the thing.” Or can be used as “que weaaaaaaaa” which means ‘what the fuck’, or even the more popular “Putaaaaa la wea” which is more ‘fuck this shit’. What hope do I have really.
‘Carrete’ – pronounced carr-et-ay
Chilean word for a anything from a pre-drinks, few beers at a bar or a massive fist pumping night in Bellavista.
‘Cuático’ – pronounced kwat-ik-oh
Means weird. So if someone was to act a bit creepy or out of character, you would throw “que cuático weonnn” out.
‘Ni cagando’ – pronounced Ni cag-aaand-oh
This one means ‘no way’, literally but comes across more like, ‘you can fuck right off’ or ‘are you messing mate’
‘Pajero’ – pronounced pack-her-o
Wanker. Or lazy. But used more as lazy than wanker.
‘Maraca’ – pronounced as you would do those lovely little shaky instruments people who were shit as music used to have to play in the class. In the same category as the triangle.
Slut. Whore. Can be adapted to many female discriminative situations, I for one like to use it when my nail varnish is chipped: “Que maracaaaaa” (how sluttty ewww). Overtakes the more widely used ‘Puta’, as here puta is more ‘fuck’ than slut.
There are so much more. many many many many more. I love it. I try to use these as often as possible and have a bit more banter with whoever I’m talking to. I just need to make sure I compartmentalise them before I get to Sheffield University Languages department or I can definitely wave bye-bye to that 2:1, can’t really see, ‘Yes arsehole, according to this slut, the thing was more popular than the other thing, with the people get smashed and having a sickkkkk time. You onto it yeah?’
CDS 