Colombian slang: the main expressions for visitors

Colombian slang: the essentials

Colombian culture, like any other, has its own traditions, expressions, and ways of communicating. Colombian music, in general, is a useful gateway to train your ear to make out the way we speak. Here is a list of some of the most-used words and phrases in Colombian slang:

• Bacano: something or someone cool.
• Boleta: it means ‘ticket’, but people use it as slang for something embarrassing or of poor taste.
• Cantaleta: nagging. It also refers to someone who talks incessantly (and annoyingly) about the same thing.
• Chévere: something or someone good, fun, or cool.
• Chicanear: to brag. A person who brags is ‘chicanera/o’.
• Churro: someone who is very good looking.
• Dar papaya: to make yourself an easy target.
• Guayabo: a hangover. To be enguayabado is to be hungover.
• Jartera: what a drag!
• Mamar gallo: to pull someone’s leg. A situation in which people are not being serious or focused is a ‘mamadera de gallo’.
• Mecato: it refers to candy or other small snacks you eat between meals. It is very common to buy mecato on a trip.
• Onces: a snack. Comer onces means to have a snack mid-morning or in the afternoon (a tradition Colombians are very into).
• Oso: although it is the Spanish word for ‘bear’, it is used to talk about feeling ashamed in a social situation. Hacer el oso is to make a fool of yourself. Also, people say ¡qué oso! to express something is embarrassing.
• Rumba: a party.
• Sacar la piedra: to make someone angry. It literally means to get a stone out of you.
• Tinto: black coffee. Chances are you will have many cups of tinto when exploring Colombia.
• Traga: this refers to a person you are very attracted to. Estar tragado is to feel smitten with someone.
• Tusa: a horrible heartbreak.

Colombian slang in specific regions

As mentioned, each region in Colombia has its own way of saying different things. Certain areas have developed this trait to a greater extent and that makes Colombian Slang diverse. Let us explore some of these expressions.

Slang in Antioquia and the Coffee Triangle

Some of the most common expressions used in Antioquia, its capital city Medellín, and around the Coffee Triangle are:

• ‘¡Eh, Ave María, pues!’: you will hear this a lot in this area. It is an interjection used to express intensity, to convey admiration, joy, or anger. It comes from the beginning of the Latin Catholic prayer to the Virgin Mary: ‘Ave Maria, gratia plena’.
• Mañé: an adjective that indicates something or someone distasteful, or tacky.
• Mera vuelta: something difficult to do or accomplish.
• Tirar caja: to be in stitches. It suggests you are laughing so hard you could lose your dentures, or ‘caja de dientes’. The variation qué caja is to describe something as really funny.

Slang in the Caribbean Coast

Colombia’s Caribbean region is made up of many diverse communities. However, they share some terms in their everyday language. When something is good, it can be referred to as ‘bacano’, ‘mono’, ‘teso’, or ‘firme’. On the contrary, if they are bad, it becomes ‘barro’, ‘jopo’, or ‘perrata’.

To make anything more intense, people use ‘cipote’. That incredible lunch you had on the beach? ¡Cipote almuerzo!

One last key expression to know on the Caribbean Coast: barras. Locals trade and haggle in barras, which are non-other than Colombian pesos.