Tinto, parce, qué pena: everyday Colombian words

Explanation

Start with the words that will trip you first because you already know them. Tinto is a small black coffee — order one expecting wine and you will be surprised — and its diminutive tintico is what gets offered in every office. ¡Qué pena! means "how embarrassing" and functions as an apology: ¡qué pena con usted! is "I'm so sorry". Pena in Colombia is embarrassment far more often than sorrow. A mono or mona is a fair-haired person, not a monkey. Un chino in Bogotá is a kid. And dar papaya means to leave yourself open to being taken advantage of, from the saying a papaya puesta, papaya partida — advice about not flashing your phone in the street, not a fruit transaction.

Then the everyday register that marks a speaker as Colombian anywhere in the world. Chévere and bacano both mean great; berraco (also spelled verraco) describes someone tough or impressive, and berraquera the quality itself. Parce or parcero is "mate", out of Medellín and now national. Camello is a job and camellar is to graft. Plata is money, and lucas counts it in thousands. Rumba is a party and rumbear is to go out. Vaina is the all-purpose "thing", from an object to a situation. Pilas! warns you to pay attention, and listo works as "OK, agreed" the way vale does in Spain.

Two things to keep straight. First, this is not one uniform lexicon: the Caribbean coast shares much of its vocabulary with Venezuela and the islands rather than with Bogotá, Antioquia has its own paisa layer, and words like parce spread outward from Medellín within living memory. Second, register varies more than the glosses suggest — chévere and listo are neutral, camello and plata are casual but unremarkable, and some of the coastal and paisa slang is much more informal than a learner's dictionary implies. When in doubt, keep to the neutral end; Colombians will not expect a foreigner to produce the slang, only to understand it.

Examples

Related rules

• Three Colombias: usted inland, vos in Antioquia, tú on the coast
• Un momentico: the Colombian -ico and its stacked diminutives
• Everyday Mexican words: chamba, lana, chavo, antojitos, cruda
• Peninsular vocabulary: coche, móvil, vale — and the coger problem
• Everyday Argentine words: laburo, quilombo, pibe, guita