When in Rome, you got do what the Romans do, right? Humor me, I am awful with sayings but I know it is something along those lines. Well, when you are in Honduras, you have to talk like a Honduran if you want to convince them you are not just some bourgeoisie tourist passing through. In this blog post, I am going to give a little lesson on Honduran Spanish (at least Western Honduras Spanish…I can’t speak to the other regions).
Important words/expressions to know:
¡Qué barbaridad! Literally meaning: ‘What a barbarity!’ This expression is extremely useful at almost any junction. If you spill milk in the morning, just say ¡Qué barbaridad! and you’re golden. If you find a scorpion on your door frame and it escapes your violent shoe thrashings…. shout ¡Qué barbaridad! and hopefully your host mom will come running with a machete. If an old drunk man is in the street yelling obscene things in your direction, just give him a seriously offended stare and loudly bellow ¡Qué barbaridad! to everyone around and you will most definitely get nods of approval and agreement. The old man will hopefully be too shocked that a gringo has successfully used ¡Qué barbaridad! that he will shut the hell up.
No hombre. Literally meaning: ‘No man.’ To pronounce this expression, you slur the no and the hombre together. Phonetically, I might write it like this: Numb-bray. Another of Honduras’ most useful expressions in terms of conveying surprise, disapproval, shock, disagreement, etc., it is used kind of how Americans use the expression ‘no way.’ This can be used by any man, woman, or child for really any occasion. I would say that my daily average use of this expression probably hovers around 20. Say for example you see that former Honduran President Manuel ‘Mel’ Zelaya is coming back to Honduras, one might say ¡No hombre! to whoever is next to you. Frequently, one will pair the Honduran wheeze of surprise with this expression. To successfully wheeze like a Honduran, you need to suck in your breath dramatically and do it very audibly; then, at the end of the long breath, drop your voice about six octaves and say Numb-bray (No hombre!) superrrrrrr dramatically. BOOM! You will sound so Honduran instantly.
Vaya pues/Vaya. Literally meaning: ‘Go, then.’ Or ‘Go.’ I would venture to guess that these two little gems are the most common phrases in all of Honduran Spanish. I mean, they are basically the equivalent of ‘um’, ‘okay’, ‘so’, ‘good’, ‘fine’, ‘well then’ and ‘alright’. With just the word vaya, you have everything covered. For example, let’s say that the chicken you were going to kill to make soup for lunch escapes and runs off into the woods, you might just say Vaya and huff loudly. Or if you are at the end of a conversation and you need a filler/transition you simply trail off saying vaya pues and walk away. It is also the way that you end phone conversations. However, in this case you need to repeat vaya about twenty times to the other person and raise your voice as you shout vaya into the phone.
No joda/No jodás. Literally meaning: ‘Don’t screw around’ or something even stronger that I don’t want to write here because my grandparents read this. I love using this guy on taxi drivers, annoying young boys, and of course, between friends. If a taxi driver is trying to rip you off because of your gringo origins, you gotta drop the ¡No jodás! (the vos, or informal way of saying it) on him to show him you know what’s up and that you are not going to pay triple the rate that average Hondurans pay. Or, if you are hanging out with your buddies and people start joking around and saying some silly things about your Mom, you have to say ¡No jodás, vos! to set them straight.
Puchica/pucha. Meaning: ‘Shoot.’ Fantastic word, so many uses. You stub your toe, Puchaaaaaaaaaaa. You fall into a muddy puddle on the way to work, Pucha followed quickly by other choice words that don’t translate as nicely as puchica. You want to show that you are impressed by how handsome your neighbor’s horse is: Puuuuucha in a low octave followed by a short expression like: “That is one fine horse you got there, José.” This word is great. You can just throw it in wherever you want.
Hijo de la… Literally meaning: ‘Son of a…’ Another very common phrase used in all sorts of contexts, you usually pronounce this all slurred together kind of like No hombre. It goes like this: ‘whey-de-la…’ because you basically just drop the Hi or ee sound off the beginning. A lot of people will also say: ‘whey-de-la madre!’ which translates as ‘son of the mother’ which is a lot better than saying ‘son of a bitch.’ People frequently say ‘whey-de-la-gran’ which also avoids saying the curse word but gets your point across. This phrase is used in cases of surprise, being impressed, being a little mad, or just needing a filler expression. For instance, if it’s really hot outside you might say ‘Hijo de la…está perro hoy.’ Literally this is ‘Son of a…it’s dog outside today.’ But really you are saying, ‘Son of a…it’s unbearably hot today.’
Comadres/compadres. A comadre is a woman who is either the godmother of your children or you are the godmother of one of her children. Compadre is the word for men. Here, people get godparents (padrinos) for everything: Kindergarten graduation, 6th grade graduation, baptism, first communion, marriage, and who knows what else. So, there are millions of comadres and compadres everywhere. But, I don’t hate it! An example of use in daily life:
Carmen: Is the Comadre Teresa going to go to the church today to pray?
Me: I am not sure, Carmen. She is right outside, though.
Carmen (shouting now): ¡COMADRE! Are you going to pray right now?
Teresa: Why, yes, I am Comadre. Is the Compadre Lito going to pray as well?
Carmen: Yes, we are all going, Comadre.
In this brief scene, Carmen and Teresa are both godmothers of each others’ children and Lito is Carmen’s husband so he is godfather to Teresa’s kids. It is kind of an old school thing to call someone your comadre but I absolutely love it. So, Carrie (sitemate) and I have adopted this word to refer to each other. Although we have zero kids between the two of us, we are each others’ comadres. The Hondurans in our town think we are rather funny for calling each Comadre Carlita and Comadre Carolina so they have also started calling us comadres. My favorite compadre is the Compadre Pedro (my host mom’s oldest brother) because he always just shouts COMADRE to me when he sees me walking down the road. There is no better way to feel integrated into your community than to be called comadre by all the residents.
And now for just a few simple words…
Chucho: dog
Chuco/a: dirty
Amá: Mother (in rural places)
Apá: Father (again, in rural places)
Babosada/papada: Thing/object/unidentifiable whatever it may be…
Patricias/los once: Feet
Sipote/güiro/bicho: kid
Mano: Literally means hand but when used between friends it is just the shortened version of hermano or brother…it is kind of like dude or bro.
Pijinear: To hang out, mess around
Chavacañear: To hang out, do nothing much, joke around
Huevonear: To laze around, not do anything
These are the basics of Honduran vocabulary. Some of these words are not the most appropriate to use in front of your grandma or people to whom you should show respect. However, feel free to use them in front of me!
I love your writing Carly. You are great story teller