CHILEANISH PART 3

MORE LESSONS in CHILEANISH

The word for “only” taught in schools in the U.S. is “solamente.” No one uses that here though. They either say, “no más” (no more) or “nada más” (nothing more) depending on the context. However, because of the accent they just sound like “noma” or “nadama” and to the untrained ear, they are hard to comprehend.

Also, they say “harto/a” instead of “mucho/a,” something that was never explained to me and I finally figured out after a month. I thought they were saying “alto” for a long time. For example:

-“¿Como fue la carrete anoche?” (How was the party last night?)

-“Rico, po, había harta gente en el club.” (It was good, there were a lot of people in the club.)

But since I thought they were saying “alto,” to me it sounded like they were saying “It was good, there were TALL people in the club,” which seemed very strange to me (especially since I’ve only seen one Chilean over 6 ft).

Huevon – said like “wayon”, this can either mean “dude” or “motherFer” depending on the context. Everyone under 40 says it, but only when not in the presence of people over 40. For instance, my Chilean sister (in her 30s) never uses it in when our parents are around, but as soon as they are out of hearing range, the “huevon”s start flying out.

UPDATE: I just learned today that they say “wayon” a lot in any social situation, but when they say “HUEVON” with all of the syllables and letters, it becomes very vulgar.