• Quintessential Argentinian
• Express Yourself/Explicàte vos
• El Voseo
• Commands (Imperative)
• Street Talk Argentinian Mix

Argentine Slang

Che Argentina Pibe

Argentinians have there own strange way of pronouncing Spanish. Apparently the way they speak is most similar to the Italian spoken in Naples than normal Spanish. So apart from changing the phonetic pronunciation of ‘y’ & ‘ll’ to the French ‘zh’ sound the rest will be just like common Spanish. If you think that Argentinians are nothing more than extreme carnivores and maté addicts they are also very good at sports.

Che This is the Argentinian Flag

Quintessential Argentinian

Che!- man! You’ll be hard pressed finding any word used as much as Che! Usually at the front of the sentence, it is a word that doesn’t really need translation, as, even though it has a meaning, it can be somewhat meaningless.
Often heard ‘Che boludo” meaning “man, you idiot”
Also the form of voseo (you) used in Argentina immediately distinguishes them from other Spanish speakers.

¿Viste?
Put mostly at the end of words, to mean: “understood?”

In Spain this might be a snob zone as stated in this advertisement, but in Argentina this would be a penis zone

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Express Yourself/Explicàte vos

Bárbaro/ Regio/ Bacán
“Great!”, “perfect”

Ché. ¿Quéres un matecito?
Amigo. Do you want a mate (little one)

Dicho y hecho
No sooner said than done.

Diez puntos
(ten points) ok, cool, great

Es broma
Just kidding.

Eso es el colmo
That’s the limit.

Le faltan un par de jugadores
He’s not playing with a full deck’ (He’s missing a pair of (football) players)

Más vale tarde que nunca
Better late than never.

!No hinches!
Stop bugging/hassling me!

Me importa un carajo
I don’t give a damn

Menudo pájaro es ese
I wouldn’t trust him futher than I can throw him.

No cabe duda
There is no doubt.

No entiendo un carajo
I don’t understand a damn thing

No la doy bolilla
I’m ignoring her

No le doy bola
I don’t give a shit

No tengo ni la pálida idea
I don’t have a clue

¡No seas payaso!
Stop acting the clown!

¡No seas pelotudo!
Stop being a complete idiot!

¡Pierde cuidado!
Don’t worry!

¡Probre!
Poor thing!

Quedarse en bolas
Not understand a thing

¿Qué hacés fiera?/¿Qué hacés titán?
What’s up dude/champ?

¿Qué onda vos?
What’s happening?

Che! Queres un matecito? Hey man! Do you want a mate?

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El Voseo

This form of the verb ‘tu/you’ is unique to Argentina and adjoining Uruguay. The 3 forms of you are listed below in order from normal 1.Castellano Español, to the 2.Argentine ‘vos’ form which has it’s own conjugations & lastly the other 3.‘vos’ forms encountered in the Spanish speaking world including parts of Colombia, Venezuela & parts of Spain.

Tú tienes Vos tenés Vos tienes- you have
Tú eres Vos sos Vos eres- you are
Tú vienes Vos venís Vos vienes- you come
Tú dices Vos decis Vos dices- you say
Tú quieres Vos querés Vos quieres- you want/wish/desire/like/love

Argentina-Seeing Is Believing

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Commands (Imperative)

Anda Andá
Come Comé eat!
Ven Vení come here!
Siéntate Sentate sit down!
Sírvete Servite serve yourself!
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Street Talk Argentinian Mix

Argentianians are per capita the heavyweights of Spanish rock music. They have such a huge list of successful performers for such a small population. There is also a great site from Argentina called ZonaIndie where you can see what’s new in the Argentinian indie music scene and also sometimes get some free downloads of some great new Argentinian indie acts.

Some of the popular performers are;

Image via Wikipedia

Los Enanitos Verdes
Andres Calamaro
Los Fabulosos Cadillacs
Vilma Palma e Vampiros
La Mosca
Soda Estereo
Fito Paez

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