Slang words in Spanish are called jerga. These expressions are very popular when we speak with our friends, when our kids text with their mates and even when criminals boast about their “achievements”.

These terms are very appreciated by our advanced students on Spanishviaskype.com. There are many types of slangs words in Spanish: social, professional, technological and street talking. Today we’re going to focus on this last one.

Slang Words in Spanish: money, money…

Money is such an important part of our lives that it has many ways to be called. As it happens in English with words like ‘bucks’, ‘dough’ or ‘greenbacks’, we also have funny words:

  • La pasta: in ancient times, the molten metal that was used to mint coins was called pasta. So, it has nothing to do with spaghetti.
  • La plata: coins were made with silver (plata in Spanish), mainly.
  • La guita: in the past, people used to keep their coins in leather bags, tied with a cord called guita.
  • Las perras: an old Spanish coin had a lion on one of their sides. The design was so bad that it seemed a dog.

 

The death in slang

Death is a serious question. Many people would be very offended if you would use a slang word to refer to this concept. However, la muerte is full of slang words in Spanish. We hope you won’t need them, but here they are:

  • Estirar la pata: when people die, their body suffer ‘rigor mortis’, a kind of stiffening. That’s what the verb estirar means.
  • Irse al otro barrio: if we can consider Earth as a neighbourhood, heaven must be another one. So, it’s better not to move.
  • Palmarla: originally, this verb meant ‘give something by force’. When we die, isn’t it giving your life by force?
  • Diñarla: with a similar origin, the verb diñar used to mean ‘to give’; again, it’s not a good idea to give your life.
  • Cascarla: when we use this verb, an image comes right away to our minds: an egg being broken. We’re sure you don’t need more explanation.

Slang Words in Spanish: drugs and dealers

If we talk about street language, we need to refer to the world of drugs. They have many names and slang words in Spanish. In case you hear any of these, you better be aware.

  • Volcanes or micropuntos: they are some kind of acid.
  • Grifa, goma or mierda: some names for cannabis.
  • Caballo, jaco or potro: Different names for the same animal and the same drug: heroin.
  • Chutarse, meterse un pico: the first one is a phonetical adaptation of the verb ‘to shoot’ in English. It’s the action of injecting drugs.
  • Camello: it’s a dealer, not the ‘big man’, but the street pusher.
  • Mula: similar to English, we have the equivalent in Spanish: it’s the person who transports drugs in order to evade police controls.

As you can see, we have many slang words in Spanish. Learning these kind of expressions is a good way to sound natural speaking Spanish. If you want to put them in practice, reserve a conversational lesson with us. Do you want to try a trial lesson first? Of course, just click here and start speaking Spanish from the very first moment.