Everyday Chilean words: cachái, weón, bacán, pololo, fome

Explanation

The keystone is weón (written hueón/güeón, from huevón). Like Argentine boludo it swings from insult to affectionate 'dude' purely on tone: ese weón (that guy), no seai weón (don't be an idiot), weón, ¿cómo estai? (dude, how are you?). It also works as a filler.

Judgments: bacán and la raja and filete mean 'great/awesome'; fome means 'boring/lame'; cuático means 'intense, over-the-top, or weird'; penca is 'crummy'. People and life: pololo/a is a steady boyfriend/girlfriend (pololear = to date), cabro/a chico is a little kid, la once is the evening tea-meal, and carrete is a party (carretear = to party).

Time and manner: al tiro means 'right away', altiro nomás 'right now', and la raja / bacán double as enthusiastic yes. Cachái ('you get it?') punctuates nearly every sentence. A dozen of these plus po and the voseo verb forms and you sound recognizably Chilean.

Examples

Related rules

• Chilean voseo: tú soi, tú cachái — verb voseo with a tú pronoun
• Po: the Chilean sentence-ending particle (from pues)
• Why Chilean sounds so fast: aspirated s, dropped d, clipped endings