History UsefulNotes / SpanishLanguage

Even the United States has representation since 1985 by the North American Academy of the Spanish Language. Which makes sense--by total number of speakers, the United States is the fifth-largest Spanish-speaking country. More Americans speak Spanish (about 42 million) than there are Venezuelans in total (about 32 million).

-->-- Spanish poet '''Azorín'''

Even the United States has representation since 1985 by the North American Academy of the Spanish Language.

* ''Güey'': A Mexican corruption of ''buey'', which means "ox", in reference of being dumb like an ox. Being "güey" means being dumb, incompetent or ignorant; "hacerse güey" means pretending to not know about something. Also used in Mexico as a pronoun or an interjection, in which case it's usually slurred into "wey": "me voy con este wey" means "I'm going with this guy", and "¡AY WEY!" means "HOLY SHIT!". This word was popularized by standup comedian and entertainer Adal Ramones, who found out that this word was not blacklisted by official censorship rules, and as a result proceeded to abuse the hell out of it during his TV performances.

** We'd be remiss if we didn't mention here the order of the Venezuelan general and hero of the Wars of Independence José Antonio Páez in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Las_Queseras_del_Medio Battle of Las Queseras del Medio]], in which he "officially" gave his cavalry the order "about face" (''¡Vuelvan caras!'') but ''probably'' actually told them "Go back, for fuck's sake!" (''¡Vuelvan, carajo!'').

** We'd be remiss if we didn't mention here the order of the Venezuelan general and hero of the Wars of Independence José António Páez in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Las_Queseras_del_Medio Battle of Las Queseras del Medio]], in which he "officially" gave his cavalry the order "about face" (''¡Vuelvan caras!'') but ''probably'' actually told them "Go back, for fuck's sake!" (''¡Vuelvan, carajo!'').

* ''Chingar'' = "fuck". Almost an exact synonym for joder. It is used most often in Mexico, whereas joder is practically a comma for the Spanish. ("Chingón" is a particularly sterotypically Mexiacan term that means, roughly "fucker", but frequently admiringly, the way a crochety old man from [[UsefulNotes/NewJersey Newark]] might say it--"A Mario, como está el viejo chingón?" translates roughly to "Whaddabout Mario, how is the old fucker?").

* ''Chingar'' = "fuck". Almost an exact synonym for joder. It is used most often in Mexico, whereas joder is practically a comma for the Spanish. ("Chingón" is a particularly sterotypically Mexiacan term that means, roughly "fucker", but frequently admiringly, the way a crochety old man from Newark might say it--"A Mario, como está el viejo chingón?" translates roughly to "Whaddabout Mario, how is the old fucker?").

* ''Chingar'' = "fuck". Almost an exact synonym for joder. It is used most often in Mexico, whereas joder is practically a comma for the Spanish. ("Chingón" is a particularly sterotypically Mexiacan term that means, roughly "fucker", but frequently admiringly, the way a crochety old man from Newark might say it--"A Mario, como eso viejo chingón?" translates roughly to "Whaddabout Mario, how is that old fucker?").

* ''Joder'' = "fuck" (used rather like it is in English; ''estamos jodidos'' means "we're fucked."). Almost never conjugated in anything but past participle (The expletive "fuck!" would simply be ''joder!'' and "That fucking test" would be ''Ese jodido examen'', although most would say ''puto'' or something similar instead). "Fuck you!" would be translated as ''¡Jódete!'' or ''¡Que te jodan!''. It is also a vulgar word for ''bother'' (compare "fuck with").
* ''Chingar'' = "fuck". Almost an exact synonym for joder. It is used most often in Mexico, whereas joder is practically a comma for the Spanish.

Having fun yet? And that's just one tense out of ''seventeen'', which are divided in three categories: Indicative (''indicativo'', which has ten tensese), Subjunctive (''subjuntivo'', which has six) and Imperative (''imperativo'', which has only one). Every single tense has a table like this. Oh, and to add to the fun, in the Rioplatense dialect (Argentina, Uruguay, etc.) the pronoun ''vos'' has its own separate conjugation! So instead of ''hablas,'' it's ''vos hablás.'' If you're really curious, here are the full conjugation tablets for the three verbs above: [[http://www.spanishdict.com/conjugate/hablar hablar]], [[http://www.spanishdict.com/conjugate/comer comer]], [[http://www.spanishdict.com/conjugate/vivir vivir]] (we have to confess, though: half the conjugations are composed forms and a few aren't even used).

Gender is quite a bit more intuitive than in many languages as well; in most cases, a noun's gender is clear from its ending; ''-o/-an/-aje/-ón'' is almost always masculine, whereas ''-a/-ión/-ad/-ud'' is almost always feminine... though not to say that there aren't exceptions[[note]]like ''la mano'' ("hand") or ''el idioma'' ("language").[[/note]]. Masculine nouns are more common than feminine ones, so if you're really lost, guess masculine. Plural nouns that contain both masculine and feminine elements are mostly referred to as masculine; ''los gatos'' could mean "the [male] cats" or "the [male and female] cats," while ''las gatas'' can only refer to "the [female] cats."[[note]]In recent years this usage has become quite controversial in a few Spanish speaking countries, Spain included, since some people are starting to consider it sexist, and promote the use both the plural masculine AND plural feminine together to be inclusive. Which creates the problem of making sentences much longer and arguably impractical, which has led some others to suggest possible gender-neutral forms...which in turn leads to traditionalists accusing everyone else of poluting the language. Let us say, it's a debate that has no clear end in sight. That said, given the relative simplicity of Spanish grammatical gender compared to other Romance languages, several observers have suggested that Spanish might simply more or less drop the whole concept by the 22nd century. (It would likely be the first Romance language to do so--not counting Romance creoles--but hardly the first Indo-European language, English merely being the most prominent.)[[/note]]

Gender is quite a bit more intuitive than in many languages as well; in most cases, a noun's gender is clear from its ending; ''-o/-an/-aje/-ón'' is almost always masculine, whereas ''-a/-ión/-ad/-ud'' is almost always feminine... though not to say that there aren't exceptions[[note]]like ''la mano'' ("hand") or ''el idioma'' ("language").[[/note]]. Masculine nouns are more common than feminine ones, so if you're really lost, guess masculine. Plural nouns that contain both masculine and feminine elements are mostly referred to as masculine; ''los gatos'' could mean "the [male] cats" or "the [male and female] cats," while ''las gatas'' can only refer to "the [female] cats."[[note]]In recent years this usage has become quite controversial in a few Spanish speaking countries, Spain included, since some people are starting to consider it sexist, and promote the use both the plural masculine AND plural feminine together to be inclusive. Which creates the problem of making sentences much longer and arguably impractical. Let us say, it's a debate that has no clear end in sight.[[/note]]

* '''Agudas (Acute)''': They have the accent on the last syllable. Are marked when they end in ''n'', ''s'', or vowel. Examples: Calor, Beber, Sudor, Lombriz, Camión, Jamás, Rubí, Café
* '''Llanas/Graves (Graves)''': They have the accent on the second-to-last syllable. Are marked when they end in consonant different than ''n'' or ''s''. Examples. Guerra, Gato, Radio, Flores, Lápiz, Árbol, Cárcel, Difícil, Azúcar.
* '''Esdrújulas (Em... [[ElNinoIsSpanishForTheNino Esdrujulas?]] Well, at least it's better than the English name for it, which is ''proparoxytone'')''': They have the accent on the third-to-last syllable. They are always marked. Examples: Brújula, Bélgica, Séptimo, Máximo, Ejército, Hígado, Pájaro.

* ''Tomar'' = Latin American slang for drinking spirit; literally, "take" (Spain just says ''beber'', i.e. "drink", with no real slang word for it). Completely innocuous for most situations, such as photography (tomar unas fotos). An important exception would be taking a person to a place, for which the verb "llevar" is used. "Tomé a mi hermana al prom", for example, means you and your sister have some explaining to do.

* ''Arrecho'': Unused in Spain, it means horny in some other countries. In Venezuela and Colombia, however, it means "furious" when applied to people, and "spectacular" when applied to objects (to wit. "Estoy arrecho": I'm furious, "Soy arrecho": I'm awesome).

On ''vosotros'' and ''ustedes'' (the plural 2nd person pronouns) meanwhile, ''vosotros'' is used '''only''' in Spain, and following the same rule of thumb as with ''tú'' and ''usted'' (as in ''vosotros'' in casual speech and ''ustedes'' in formal speech). If you use it in Latin America, at best it sounds like "tally-ho, guvnah!" in the United States, but for the most part, it will usually sound like saying [[YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe "forsooth, ye art thou!"]] in Modern English. You can get away with it as a nonnative speaker, but try to stick to ''ustedes'' even if you're in full-blown ''ceceo'' mode (more on that later as well). Also in Spain itself people will always understand you (although it may sound a little weird to them if you manage to make friends with them) so it's a safe bet.

Spanish, also known as "Castilian"[[note]]This is the actual original name of the language. The country we know today as Spain was formed in the late XV century, when Castile and Aragon, the two main Christian kingdoms of the Iberian peninsula, finished the [[UsefulNotes/MoorishSpain Reconquista]] and expelled the Muslims that had occupied it for 800 years. Both kingdoms were united thanks to the marriage of their respective kings, Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon. Castilian was, obviously enough, the language from Castile, which eventually became the dominant language of the territory, and the one that was exported to the American colonies. "Castilian Spanish", or just "Castilian", are very common terms to refer to the Spanish language as it's spoken in Spain, specifically[[/note]], is an Ibero-Romance language, and the second most natively spoken language in the entire world (after Mandarin Chinese) due to the enormous expanse of the Spanish Empire in its heyday. It's the national or official language of 21 countries, as well as one of the official languages of the UN and 13 other international organizations. Even in the United States alone there are over 50 million Spanish-speakers, which is more than the entire population of most Spanish-speaking countries, Spain itself included[[note]]And if you look below, there's even a native dialect of Spanish in New Mexico and Colorado![[/note]]. In short, this is a '''big''' language. It's the most widely spoken language in the Western Hemisphere.

* '''Esdrújulas (Em... [[ElNinoIsSpanishForTheNino Esdrujulas?]])''': They have the accent on the third-to-last syllable. They are always marked. Examples: Brújula, Bélgica, Séptimo, Máximo, Ejército, Hígado, Pájaro.

* '''Esdrújulas (Em...[[ElNinoIsSpanishForTheNino Esdrujulas?]])''': They have the accent on the third-to-last syllable. They are always marked. Examples: Brújula, Bélgica, Séptimo, Máximo, Ejército, Hígado, Pájaro.

The nature of semantic drift naturally ensures that [[InMyLanguageThatSoundsLike "false]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_friend friends"]] will arise. Probably the most famous, as shown above, is ''molestar'', which is a perfectly innocent and mundane word in Spanish meaning "bother," but obviously means something more... extreme in English. This really isn't that difficult, but an English speaker who's sort of half-listening may still be caught off guard by a phrase such as, ''Aunque él me molestaba, yo le amaba todavía.'' ("Even though he '''bothered''' me, I still loved him." We're not talking StockholmSyndrome here). Funnily enough, this can also happen with Spanish speaking natives when trying to speak English ("Teacher, teacher! He's '''molesting''' me!")

And on top of that, we have ''region-specific false friends'': "bizarro", according to the RAE, actually means either "brave" or "generous"... but that's only in Spain, because in Latin America, where the language is influenced by American English, "bizarro" ''is'' usually taken to mean "bizarre"! In TheNewTens, this meaning started to spread to Spain as well.

* ''Carajo'' = An interjection roughly equivalent to damn, fuck, or in some cases hell ("vete al carajo" can be half-literally translated as "go to hell"). In Venezuela, along with the interjection use, is also used as a sightly more vulgar equivalent of "dude", even having a female and a diminutive version to refer to women and small children. "Estar del carajo", however,. means that something/someone is doing very well. May or may not also mean dick in some places.

* ''Pendejo''= "pubic hair", roughly idiot or jackass, with an added connotation of willful incompetence. Almost exclusive to Latin America, with Spaniards only using it whenever they want to invoke popular Latin stereotypes. It's a derogative word for a young person in Chile and Argentina, and for a particularly dumb or mean person in Mexico. There was a scandal in Venezuela when the late politician and intelectual Arturo Uslar Pietri used the word on a TV interview in 1989 to refer to honest everymen, not because the meaning but because at the time the word was considered too strong for broadcasting (while in real life it is relatively mild).

* ''¿Qué diablos?'' or ''¿Qué demonios?'' = What the hell? (Lit. "What devils?" or "What demons?"). It's an archaic expression that over time became a bit of GoshDangItToHeck, so it is pretty unusual to hear today. A related word that is even more archaic is "demontre", also vaguely meaning demon. All of them can also be used as an interjection ("¡demonios!" = roughly "holy shit!").
* ''Maldito/a'' = (God)damn (again, rather used like in English; can be either an interjection or adjective). Very unlike the English equivalent, this word and its religious relatives (like "infierno", meaning literally "hell"; "vete al infierno" = "go to hell") are actually considered pretty tame in Spanish, almost to the point of GoshDangItToHeck. Also, although not archaic, they carry a certain old-fashioned vibe that makes them rare to hear in the street. It is soft enough to be used in television for the youth slot in Spain and most Latin American countries.

* ''Malparido/a'' = Something like saying the person wasn't born right or in the right way. Similar in the usage to the English word "Bastard". Somewhat archaic, it is quite uncommon in modern Spain.
* ''Malnacido'' = same as before, but a bit more common nowadays in Spain.

* ''Coño'' = CountryMatters. Although not nearly as offensive as that word is in English (ESPECIALLY in North America), it's never used to describe a person, but rather as an interjection. "¿Qué coño ___?" equates to "What the fuck ___?" in peninsular Spanish (see note below on profanity in Spain). Saying that a person is "un coño de madre/un coño de su madre" means not that they're ''that'' part of their mother anatomy, but that the person is a bastard, and the expression "¡El coño de tu madre!" ''is'' a direct insult, in some places being even worse than calling the person "hijo de puta". There is also the derivate word "coñazo", that in Spain means something among bothersome or annoying (as in "esa persona es un coñazo", that person is very annoying) but in Venezuela means "beating" (te voy a meter un coñazo = I'm going to hit you hard). Nowdays, Spain is the only country that still uses the word on its original sexual context: the rest of the Spanish speaking countries simply see it as another vulgar interjection.
* ''Culo'' = Ass, used in pretty much the same situations as in English and then some more. ''De mi culo'' is "my ass" in some Latin American countries. In those, a father of a teenage daughter, when she says where she goes with her date, may say ''"'Vamos al cine' de mi culo."'' ("'We're going to the movies' my ass."). In Spain it's also used in the construction "de culo" for "screwed"; ''"Vamos de culo"'' can mean "We're screwed." Venezuelan males also use the term to refer to a one-night stand or someone they have a superficial sex-based relationship (but never saying it in front of the person); "ese un culo que me levanté anoche" means "a girl I picked up last night".

* ''Gilipollas'' = One of the most common insults in Spain, and nowhere else. It doesn't have a literal translation, but the "-pollas" at the end comes from where you think it comes from. It would be a rough equivalent to "dumbass", although its usage is somewhat more offensive, akin to "asshole". This word also has a tamer UnusualEuphemism version in "gilipuertas", which subtitutes "pollas" ("dicks") with "puertas" ("doors"). In Catalonia (North East of Spain) it's also used the short form ''"Gilí"'', which is considered a kinda "softer" version of the word. Said shorter version may be the origin of the even shorter ''"Gil"'', which is used in Argentina to mean "dumbass".

See SpanishLiterature for literature originally written in the Spanish language. Naturally, this overlaps with LatinAmericanLiterature due to the fact that most Latin American countries are Spanish-speaking countries. For accents and dialects of the Spanish language, see UsefulNotes/SpanishAccentsAndDialects.

Judaeo-Spanish (''djudeoespanyol''), also known as Ladino, is derived from Old Spanish and is the diaspora language of Iberian (Spanish and Portuguese) Jews. It has influences from the old Iberian languages - Old Aragonese, Astur-Leonese, Old Catalan, Galician-Portuguese and Mozarabic -, as well as Ottoman Turkish, Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic (in religion, law and spirituality), French and Italian (for modern concepts), and Greek and South Slavic languages (because most Iberian Jews lived in the Balkans).

It is spoken by about 60,000-400,000 people worldwide, and it's considered an endangered language.

[[VulgarHumor Overtly agressive or profane]] swearing ([[UpToEleven even moreso than these latter examples]]) is possible, but rare and mostly used in derivative works for comedic effect, such as "Te voy a sacar los putos ojos y me voy a mear en los agujeros para que te escueza"[[labelnote:*]]"I'm going to gouge your fucking eyes out and piss in the holes till it burns[[/labelnote]]. Spaniard are perceived as more profane than Latin Americans, not because this is fundamentally true, but because there is more swearing on Spanish TV (sometimes even on family-oriented shows on occassion), while most Latin American countries [[MoralGuardians enforce cleaner language]] on media to very ridiculous extremes (where even GoshDangItToHeck can be considered too much).

Truly offensive peninsular profanity relies a lot on blasphemy and creativity. Spain is a country with deep Catholic roots, but its society in the last centuries evolved gradually into a heartfelt disdain for Christianity and religion in general (another consequence of the Franco regime, though the attitude was already present in the times of UsefulNotes/TheSpanishInquisition and several Church-sponsored absolute monarchies), so there is a ton of swearing based on religious imagery, a bit like the Québecois. ''Hostias'', or "host" (as in sacrament) is somewhat more offensive than "joder", while ''Me cago en Dios y las tetas de la Virgen'' (I shit upon God and the Virgin's tits) means you probably just amputated something.

* S: In Latin America this sounds just like in English, while in European pronunciation it may sound like "sh" at first, but it actually is a sound between "s" and "sh" that takes some time to learn to make. However, in most Latin American dialects (Mexico, Guatemala and Costa Rica being notables exceptions) as well as in southern Spain, "s" is often turned into an "h" sound, or even omitted entirely, when it comes before a consonant or at the end of the a word.[[note]]As in, "[[Disney/TheLittleMermaid Tú cre' que en otro' lado' lah alga' ma' werde' son...]]", or in Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador's famously attributed quote, "¡Ehto é un compló!"[[/note]]

* ''Follar'' = synonym for "fuck" as a verb, although only when it refers to the specific biological act of intercourse. Extremely vulgar and not usually heard outside of Spain, since most swear-worthy situations are covered by ''joder'' or ''chingar''. ''"¡Que te follen!"'' would be an alternative translation for "Fuck you!".
* ''¿Qué diablos?'' or ''¿Qué demonios?'' = What the hell? (Lit. "What devils?" or "What demons?"). It's an archaic expression that over time became a bit of GoshDangItToHeck.
* ''Maldito/a'' = (God)damn (again, rather used like in English; can be either an interjection or adjective). Unlike the English equivalent, this word is considered very tame in Spanish, almost to the point of GoshDangItToHeck again. It is soft enough to be used in television for the youth slot in Spain and most Latin American countries.
* ''Maldición'' = Literally "malediction" or "curses", but more commonly translated as "damnit" or similar. Also soft enough for TV.

* ''Polla'' = Literally it would mean female chick, but it is used as a synonym of "dick" and should never be used for anything else unless you want to risk ofending someone (at least in Spain). ''¡Chupame la polla!'' means "Suck my dick!"

* ''Pinche'': Originally used to refer to a kitchen helper, in Mexico this word has evolved into an interjection to emphasize something, similar to "fucking" in English: "una pinche cerveza" means "a fucking beer".

* ''Verga'': "Dick" in Mexico, Venezuela and Spain (though rarer to hear in the last). When this word is inappropriate, some radar-safe alternatives include "vaina" (common in Venezuela, known but less common in Mexico), "vértebra", "verdura" (vegetable), "Bergen" (German for "mountains") and "versh" (cf. Youtube animated comedy channel [[https://www.youtube.com/user/vetealaversha Vete a la Versh]]).


An interesting note about Spanish is the frequency of ClusterFBomb in common speech, particularly in Spain. Spanish speakers tend to use stronger swear words and use them more often. The prevalence of this in Spain is said to be due to the Franco regime's oppressive enforcement of clean-mouthed-ness; when that regime fell in the late 1970s, people began cussing left, right, and center. By far the most common word is "joder", the proper inflection and placement of which takes practice, said by everybody from chavales (boys, preteens), to abuelitas (little old ladies).

Truly offensive peninsular profanity relies a lot on blasphemy and creativity. Given the country's deep Catholic roots, there is a ton of swearing based on religious imagery, a bit like the Québecois. ''Hostias'', or "host" (as in sacrament) is somewhat more offensive than "joder", while ''Me cago en Dios y las tetas de la Virgen'' (I shit upon God and the Virgin's tits) means you probably just amputated something.

And on top of that, we have ''region-specific false friends'': "bizarro", according to the RAE, actually means either "brave" or "generous"... but that's only in Spain, because in Latin America, where the language is influenced by American English, "bizarro" ''is'' usually taken to mean "bizarre"! In TheNewTens, this meaning has started to spread yo Spain as well.

* ''Cojones''[[labelnote:*]]Not "cajones", although non-native speakers sometimes confuse the two. Saying that someone has a lot of cajones means that they have a lot of drawers.[[/labelnote]]= Spain only. The more profane word for balls, the usual, milder ones being ''huevos'' (which is also the word for eggs) and ''pelotas'' (which actually means "balls"). Quite a few expresions arise from this one: the verb ''acojonar(se)'' means "to (get) scare(d)" and is generally used to remark how much of a coward the guy who got scared is (it's in fact a deformation of ''acongojar(se)'' due to phonetic similarities, but the original verb is now only used in formal situations, by extremely polite people or people with extreme aversion to curse words). ''Cojonudo'' roughly translates to "fucking good". The expression ''tocar los cojones'' (literally "touching the balls") can either mean "to be a lazy fuck" or "to piss someone off" depending on whether the metaforical balls belong to the person touching them or not. Calling someone a ''mosca cojonera'' (balls-y fly) implies that they are as annoying as, well, having a fly in the balls.
* ''Carajo'' = An interjection roughly equivalent to damn, fuck, or in some cases hell. In Venezuela, along with the interjection use, is also used as a sightly more vulgar equivalent of "dude", even having a female and a diminutive version to refer to women and small children. "Estar del carajo", however,. means that something/someone is doing very well. May or may not also mean dick in some places.
* ''Cabrón'' = "big goat", but meaning "cuckold", equates to asshole, fucker or bastard. Can be used casually among friends, but not with strangers.

* ''Pendejo''= "pubic hair", roughly idiot or jackass, with an added connotation of willful incompetence. Rarely used in Spain, and much, much stronger in Latin America. It's a derogative word for a young person in Chile and Argentina, and for a particularly dumb or mean person in Mexico. There was a scandal in Venezuela when the late politician and intelectual Arturo Uslar Pietri used the word on a TV interview in 1989 to refer to honest everymen, not because the meaning but because at the time the word was considered too strong for broadcasting (while in real life it is relatively mild).
* ''Joder'' = Fuck (used rather like it is in English; ''estamos jodidos'' means "we're fucked."). Almost never conjugated in anything but past participle (The expletive "fuck!" would simply be ''joder!'' and "That fucking test" would be ''Ese jodido examen'', although most would say ''puto'' or something similar instead). "Fuck you!" would be translated as ''¡Jódete!'' or ''¡Que te jodan!''. It is also a vulgar word for ''bother'' (compare "fuck with").
* ''Chingar'' = Fuck. Almost an exact synonym for joder, but used most often in Mexico, whereas joder is practically a comma for the Spanish.
* ''Follar'' = Synonym for "fuck" as a verb, although only when it refers to the specific biological act of intercourse. Extremely vulgar, not usually heard outside of Spain, since most swear-worthy situations are covered by ''joder'' or ''chingar''. ''"¡Que te follen!"'' would be an alternative translation for "Fuck you!".

* ''Maldito/a'' = (God)damn (again, rather used like in English; can be either an interjection or adjective). Unlike the English equivalent, this word is soft enough to be used in television for the youth slot in Spain and most Latin American countries.

* ''Puto/a'' = The female form "puta" means "whore", or more generally "bitch"; "hijo de puta" equates to "son of a bitch." Beware of this in Spain, since it's the worst insult you can say to a person (one of the six traditional ''palabras mayores'', or "major words", the only one directed against females, although only married, and one of the four that's still in use now). The male form "puto", on the other hand, is a very offensive word for "gay" (think "faggot") when applied to people, and something more akin to "goddamned" when applied to objects or situations.

* ''Cagar'' = The verb form of "shit". Often used to construct colorful oaths like ''¡Me cago en la leche!'' ("I shit in the milk!"), ''¡Me cago en la puta!'' ("I shit in the bitch!"), or even more colorful (only in Spain, and not commonly used), ''¡Me cago en la puta de oros!'' (which is a reference to Spanish playing cards, and when adapted to English cards, it would be something like "I shit in the Jack of Diamonds!"). ''Mecagüen!'' and ''Me cahis en la mar!'' are the GoshDangItToHeck versions of this. If you want to use these oaths to insult a person in particular, you can use ''me cago en la cara de tu padre!'' ("I shit in your father's face!"), ''me cago en tu puta madre!'' (I shit in your fucking mother!") or ''me cago en todos tus muertos!'' ("I shit in all of your dead relatives!"). ''Cagada'' means "shitty" or "full of shit". In some Latin American countries also a slang word for "reprimand", ex: "''El profe me cagó por lo del comedor''" meaning "The teacher reprimanded me for the cafeteria incident". In Spain, a ''cagada'' is something embarrassing, normally used to describe something someone has said with the intention of being funny (but isn't). This is different from "''cagarse en alguien''" which literally means "to shit on someone" and which basically means to insult somebody with all you've got, and also from "''cagarse''" which is slang for being scared in some countries. ''Me cago en Dios'' ("I shit on God") is still heard in certain areas of Spain, even by religious people, but it's better not to say it if you're in front of someone who is really religious and might get seriously offended.

* ''Culo'' = Ass, used in pretty much the same situations as in English and then some more. ''De mi culo'' is "my ass" in some Latin American countries. A father of a teenage daughter, when she says where she goes with her date, may say ''"'Vamos al cine' de mi culo."'' ("'We're going to the movies' my ass."). In Spain it's also used in the construction "de culo" for "screwed"; ''"Vamos de culo"'' can mean "We're screwed." Venezuelan males also use the term to refer to a one-night stand or someone they have a superficial sex-based relationship (but never saying it in front of the person); "ese un culo que me levanté anoche" means "a girl I picked up last night".

* Imperative (''imperativo''): Used to give commands. This is actually an incomplete tense; commands can obviously only be given to a "you," or as a "let's [do something]." For the ''tú'' and ''vosotros'' forms, there are actually two forms, affirmative and negative.

Another difference of Spanish punctuation is their disuse of quotation marks. Dialogue is denoted by long "em" dashes (—), and quotes and phrases are surrounded by «comillas angulares.», or angular quotes, used in most Romance languages. If you're from the Americas this might come as a bit of a surprise for you, because despite being the actually correct ones as specified by the RAE, «angular quotes» are in practice pretty much exclusive to Spain; in Latin America, everybody uses American English "quotation marks".

* ''Cojones''[[labelnote:*]]Not "cajones", although non-native speakers sometimes confuse the two. Saying that someone has a lot of cajones means that they have a lot of drawers.[[/labelnote]]= Spain only. The more profane word for balls, the usual, milder ones being ''huevos'' (which is also the word for eggs) and ''pelotas'' (which actually means "balls"). Quite a few expresions arise from this one: the verb ''acojonar(se)'' means "to (get) scare(d)" and is generally used to remark how much of a coward the guy who got scared is. ''Cojonudo'' roughly translates to "fucking good". The expression ''tocar los cojones'' (literally "touching the balls") can either mean "to be a lazy fuck" or "to piss someone off" depending on whether the metaforical balls belong to the person touching them or not. Calling someone a ''mosca cojonera'' (balls-y fly) implies that they are as annoying as, well, having a fly in the balls.

* ''Capullo'' = "cocoon" and (amusingly enough) slang for "prepuce" or "foreskin". In Spain, it's a tamer synonym for "Cabrón", although "¡Eres un capullo!" would more accurately translate to "You're a dick!".

* ''Puto/a'' = The female form "puta" means "whore", or more generally "bitch"; "hijo de puta" equates to "son of a bitch." Beware of this in Spain, since it's the worst insult you can say to a person. The male form "puto", on the other hand, is a very offensive word for "gay" (think "faggot") when applied to people, and something more akin to "goddamned" when applied to objects or situations.

An interesting note about Spanish is the frequency of ClusterFBomb in common speech, particularly in Spain. Spanish speakers tend to use stronger swear words and use them more often. The prevalence of this in Spain is said to be due to the Franco regime's oppressive enforcement of clean-mouthed-ness; when that regime fell in the late 1970s, people began cussing left, right, and center. By far the most common word is "joder", the proper inflection and placement of which takes practice, said by everybody from chavales (boys, preteens), to abuelitas (little old ladies). Truly offensive peninsular profanity relies on blasphemy and creativity. ''Hostias'', or "host" (as in sacrament) is somewhat more offensive than "joder", while ''Me cago en Dios y las tetas de la Virgen'' (I shit upon God and the Virgin Mary's tits) means you probably just amputated something. (In this sense, Spaniards are like the Québecois, whose primary form of swearing is listing items from church.) [[VulgarHumor Overly agressive or profane]] swearing ([[UpToEleven even moreso than these latter examples]]) is possible, but rare and mostly used in derivative works for comedic effect, such as "Te voy a sacar los putos ojos y me voy a mear en los agujeros para que te escueza"[[labelnote:*]]"I'm going to gouge your fucking eyes out and piss in the holes till it burns[[/labelnote]]. Spaniard are perceived as more profane than Latin Americans, not because this is fundamentally true but because there is more swearing on Spanish TV (even on family-oriented shows), while most Latin American countries [[MoralGuardians enforce cleaner language]] on media to very ridiculous extremes (where even GoshDangItToHeck can be considered too much).

The nature of semantic drift naturally ensures that [[InMyLanguageThatSoundsLike "false]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_friend friends"]] will arise. Probably the most famous, as shown above, is ''molestar'', which is a perfectly innocent and mundane word in Spanish meaning "bother," but obviously means something more... extreme in English. This really isn't that difficult, but an English speaker who's sort of half-listening may still be caught off guard by a phrase such as, ''Aunque él me molestaba, yo le amaba todavía.'' ("Even though he '''bothered''' me, I still loved him." We're not talking StockholmSyndrome here). Funnily enough, this can also happen with spanish speaking natives when trying to speak english ("Teacher, teacher! He's '''molesting''' me!")

And on top of that, we have ''region-specific false friends'': "bizarro", according to the RAE, actually means either "brave" or "generous"... but that's only in Spain, because in Latin America, where the language is influenced by American English, "bizarro" ''is'' usually taken to mean "bizarre"!

* ''Cojones''[[labelnote:*]]Not "cajones", although non-native speakers sometimes confuse the two. Saying that someone has a lot of cajones means that they have a lot of drawers.[[/labelnote]]= Spain only. The more profane word for balls, the usual ones being ''huevos'' (which is also the word for eggs) and ''pelotas'' (which actually means "balls"). Quite a few expresions arise from this one: the verb ''acojonar(se)'' means "to (get) scare(d)" and is genrally used to remark how much of a coward the guy who got scared is. ''Cojonudo'' roughly translates to "fucking good". The expression ''tocar los cojones'' (literally "touching the balls") can either mean "to be a lazy fuck" or "to piss someone off" depending on whether the metaforical balls belong to the person touching them or not. Calling someone a ''mosca cojonera'' (balls-y fly) implies that they are as annoying as, well, having a fly in the balls.

* ''Cabrón'' = "big goat", but meaning "cuckold", equates to asshole, fucker or bastard. Can be used casually among friends, but don't use it with strangers.
* ''Capullo'' = "cocoon" and (amusingly enough) slang for "prepuce" or "foreskin". In Spain, it's practically synonym for "Cabrón", although "¡Eres un capullo!" would more accurately translate to "You're a dick!".
* ''Pendejo''= "pubic hair", roughly idiot or jackass, with an added connotation of willful incompetence. Rarely used in Spain, and much, much stronger in Puerto Rico. Also a derogative word for a young person in Chile and Argentina, and for a particularly dumb or mean person in Mexico. There was a scandal in Venezuela when the late politician and intelectual Arturo Uslar Pietri used the word on a TV interview in 1989 to refer to honest everymen., not because the meaning but because at the time the word was considered too strong for broadcasting (while in real life it is relatively mild).
* ''Joder'' = Fuck (used rather like it is in English; ''estamos jodidos'' means "we're fucked."). Almost never conjugated in anything but past participle (The expletive "fuck!" would simply be ''joder!'' and "That fucking test" would be ''Ese jodido examen'', although most would say ''puto'' or something similar instead). "Fuck you!" would be translated as ''¡Jódete!'' or ''¡Que te jodan!''. It is also a vulgar word for ''bother'' (compare "fuck with"), specially in Latin América.

* ''¿Qué diablos?'' or ''¿Qué demonios?'' = What the hell? (Lit. "What devils?" or "What demons?"). It's a bit of GoshDangItToHeck .
* ''Maldito/a'' = (God)damn (again, rather used like in English; can be either an interjection or adjective). Unlike the English equivalent, this word is soft enough to be used in Television for the youth slot in most Latin American countries.

* ''Malparido/a'' = Something like saying the person wasn't born right or in the right way. Similar in the usage to the English word "Bastard".
* ''Tomar'' = Slang for drinking spirit; literally, "take" (only used in Latin America: Spain just says ''beber'', i.e. "drink", with no real slang word for it). Completely innocuous for most situations, such as photography (Tomar unas fotos). An important exception would be taking a person to a place, for which the verb "llevar" is used. "Tomé a mi hermana al prom", for example, means you and your sister have some explaining to do.
* ''Puto/a'' = The female form "puta" means "whore", or more generally "bitch"; "hijo de puta" equates to "son of a bitch." Beware of this in Spain, since it's the worst insult you can say to a person. The male form "puto", on the other hand, is a very offensive word for "gay" (Think "faggot".) when applied to people, and something more akin to "goddamned" when applied to objects or situations.

* ''Cagar'' = The verb form of "shit". Often used to construct colorful oaths like ''¡Me cago en la leche!'' ("I shit in the milk!"), ''¡Me cago en la puta!'' ("I shit in the bitch!"), or even more colorful (only in Spain, and not commonly used), ''¡Me cago en la puta de oros!'' (which is a reference to Spanish playing cards, and when adapted to English cards, it would be something like "I shit in the Jack of Diamonds!"). ''Mecagüen!'' and ''Me cahis en la mar!'' are the GoshDangItToHeck versions of this. If you want to use these oaths to insult a person in particular, you can use ''me cago en la cara de tu padre!'' ("I shit in your father's face!"), ''me cago en tu puta madre!'' (I shit in your fucking mother!") or ''me cago en todos tus muertos!'' ("I shit in all of your dead relatives!"). ''Cagada'' means "shitty" or "full of shit". In some countries also a slang word for "reprimand", ex: "''El profe me cagó por lo del comedor''" meaning "The teacher reprimanded me for the cafeteria incident". In Spain, a ''cagada'' is something embarrassing, normally used to describe something someone has said with the intention of being funny (but isn't). This is different from "''cagarsele a alguien''" which literally means "to shit on someone" and which basically means to insult somebody with all you've got, and also from "''cagarse''" which is slang for being scared in some countries. ''Me cago en Dios'' ("I shit in God") is still heard in certain areas of Spain, even by religious people, but it's better not to say it if you're in front of someone who is really religious and might get seriously offended.
* ''Coño'' = CountryMatters. Although it's not nearly as offensive as that word is in English (ESPECIALLY in North America), and it's never used to describe a person, but rather as an interjection. "¿Qué coño ___?" equates to "What the fuck ___?" in peninsular Spanish (see note below on profanity in Spain). Saying that a person is "un coño de madre/un coño de su madre" means not that they're ''that'' part of their mother anatomy, but that the person is a bastard, and the expression "¡El coño de tu madre!" ''is'' a direct insult, in some places being even worse than calling the person "Hijo de puta". There is also the derivate word "coñazo", that in Spain means something among bothersome or annoying (as in "esa persona es un coñazo", that person is very annoying) but in Venezuela means "beating" (Te voy a meter un coñazo = I'm going to hit you hard). Nowdays, Spain is the only country that still uses the word on its original sexual context: the rest of the Spanish speaking countries simply see it as another vulgar interjection.

* ''Pajero'' = Wanker/douchebag/jackoff. Mitsubishi fortunately avoided [[BiteTheWaxTadpole biting the wax tadpole]] on this one and sold their model as "Montero" (mountaineer) in Latin America. In Chile it's also a pejorative term for a lazy and/or slow person: "Apúrate, pajero!" would mean "Hurry up, stupid slouch!"
* ''Polla'' = Literally it would mean female chick, but it is used as a synonym of pene "dick" and should never be used for anything else unless you want to risk ofending someone (at least in Spain). ''¡Chupame la polla!'' means "Suck my dick!"
* ''Gilipollas'' = One of the most common insults in Spain, and nowhere else. It doesn't have a literal translation, but the "-pollas" at the end comes from where you think it comes from. It would be a rough equivalent to "dumbass", although somewhat more offensive akin to "asshole". This word also has an UnusualEuphemism version in "gilipuertas", which subtitutes "pollas" ("dicks") with "puertas" ("doors"). In Catalonia (North East of Spain) it's also used the short form ''"Gilí"'', which is considered a kinda "softer" version of the word. Said shorter version may be the origin of the even shorter ''"Gil"'', which is used in Argentina to mean "dumbass".
* ''Arrecho'': In some countries, it means horny. In Venezuela and Colombia, however, it means "furious" when applied to people, and "spectacular" when applied to objects (to wit. "Estoy arrecho": I'm furious, "Soy arrecho": I'm awesome).

* ''Verga'': "Dick" in Mexico and Venezuela. When this word is inappropriate, some radar-safe alternatives include "vaina" (common in Venezuela, known but less common in Mexico), "vértebra", "verdura" (vegetable), "Bergen" (German for "mountains") and "versh" (cf. Youtube animated comedy channel [[https://www.youtube.com/user/vetealaversha Vete a la Versh]]).