![]() ![]() It translates to “Really?” or “Are you serious?”Ī: En dos semanas voy a viajar a Italia para estudiar italiano. This phrase expresses surprise or shock in response to what someone says. If you say this to another person in an argument, it means “calm down.” If you and a friend get into a heated exchange, you can just say ¡ Suave, mae! which means “Take it easy!” 7. (And…? Are you still living in Puntarenas?)Īna: ¿Y su novio? ¿Ya no están juntos? (And what about your boyfriend? Are you not together anymore?) You can almost get a sense of the different meanings in the following exchange between Ana and María:Īna: Diay… ¿Sigues viviendo en El Puerto? These terms are both versatile and can be used in an array of situations, such as a pause in a conversation, a greeting and a prompt for someone to continue speaking. Diay / Idiay - “Um”/Hey/And…?ĭiay and idiay are common Costa Rican slang words that are derived from de ahí (therefore/hence) and y de ahí (and from there/and hence), respectively. (#33) which means “How cool!” or “Awesome!” Tuanis can be used in a similar way to another Costa Rican slang expression on this list: ¡Qué chiva! There’s an interesting theory that tuanis is actually a weird variation on the word bueno (good) that was passed through a process to make it a kind of code word, but it’s also a slightly confusing theory. Tuanis - CoolĪnother very popular Costa Rican slang word is tuanis which is often used to say “cool” or “good.” No matter what the topic, you’ll likely hear mae more than you’ll hear words like “the.” 4. If you don’t believe me, just eavesdrop on a conversation between two Costa Rican guys in their early 20s. For many of them, it’s like the Costa Rican version of the word “like,” “uh” or “um.” For the other 80%, it’s used mostly by young men as linguistic filler. The short-lived online satirical newspaper El Pejibaye even had a column called “Mae of the Week,” which featured fictional mediocre guys who were generally unemployed and living with their grandmothers or sisters.īut that meaning of the word only accounts for maybe 20% of the times you’ll hear mae in Costa Rica. Friends may use it as a jokingly-insulting term of endearment, but if you say it to someone else, it might cause trouble. At best, it’s neutral, but it can often be negative, like the words schlub or schmo in English. Note that, if you call a male a mae, it’s also not terribly flattering. If used to talk about a woman, though, it’s not usually a flattering reference. Mae is generally used by men referring to other men, but it can occasionally be used to refer to a woman. Still, it can be a bit confusing if you’re looking for a business named Pura Vida, since seemingly every second store in the country is named something like Pura Vida Surf Shop, Pura Vida Pet Supplies or Pura Vida Schoolbook Depository. It can be said as a greeting, in the middle of a conversation, after you’ve said or heard someone say something exciting… it’s basically a one-size-fits-all phrase! Every Costa Rican will be delighted to hear you say this. It’s a positive phrase about seizing the moment and enjoying life. You’ll hear pura vida used as a greeting, a goodbye or a way to say “thank you” or “you’re welcome.” It’s basically like the Costa Rican “aloha.” , which is just another way to describe something that’s apparently incredibly tiny. Anyhow, it seems that people in Costa Rica did that so much that this tendency gave them a national nickname. You’ll hear them in Costa Rica, and you’ll also hear things like chiquitico ![]() The point is that, in most places, the suffixes for small things are -ito and -ita. In other Spanish-speaking countries, people may say chiquito This comes from a tendency to make things diminutive by adding the suffix -tico.įor example, the word for small is chico. TicoĪ tico is a Costa Rican man and a tica is a Costa Rican woman. This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that youĬlick here to get a copy.
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