The following words and phrases didn’t make it to our top 10 list here, but you will also hear them in Colombia and certainly not in a formal Spanish class.
The Most Versatile Word in Colombian Spanish: VAINA
Every country has a flag, food and symbols that identify them. But what about a single word? During the 6th International Congress of the Spanish Language (VI Congreso Internacional de la Lengua Española) celebrated in Panama, the blog Papeles Perdidos, created by the newspaper El País, published an atlas of the representative words of Spanish-speaking […]
10 Vulgar Spanish Slang Words and Phrases from Colombia: Infographic
You rarely learn slang terms in class, especially not the extra dirty or harsh ones. Here are 10 Colombian dirty Spanish words and phrases that you won’t hear in any proper Spanish course. I think it’s obvious why your Spanish teacher omitted words like these from the lesson plans. Use them wisely, and sparingly, unless […]
CHONTADURO and SALMUERA: Colombia Spanish Words
This was an interesting word-find for me. I had never heard of chontaduro or salmuera until I ran across this jar of preserved fruit. Good think the jar itself offered translations. Problem is, I don’t know what a “palm fruit” is in English either. Hopefully I can taste one soon. As for salmuera, which means […]
6 Inverse Colombia Spanish Slang Words
One of the particularities you can get in the slang of a country is the phenomenon of creating new words by inverting or changing the order of the original. These new inverted words keep the same meaning as the original one. Argentina was the first country where Jared identified 24 inverted words and dedicated a […]
palanca
pull, influence or authority to make another person to get accepted as a member of an institution through irregular procedures