5 Spanish expressions to make you sound like a Spaniard5th September 2016

Hola, hola amigos, ¿qué tal?

If you’re thinking about buying that dream property in Ibiza, or even just planning on making regular trips to this beautiful island of ours, we believe that you will get so much more out of your time here if you can get by with even just a little bit of the Spanish language (and useful Spanish expressions) up your sleeve.  Ibiza is a wonderfully multi-cultural island and admittedly you are never far from someone that will happily speak in English with you, but, hey, picking up the culture and learning to fit in is all part of the fun of your new life overseas!  We presented ‘5 Spanish phrased to master’ in a previous blog post, and now with these additional expressions in your tool-kit you will making new Spanish friends in no time at all!

Salir de marcha

This expression can be said in many different ways, including salir de fiesta, salir de copasand salir a divertirse. However, salir de marcha is the most universal.

Use marcha to mean “party,” so if you want to know how the nightlife is in a particular place, make sure to ask:

 – ¿Cómo es la marcha allí? / ¿Qué tal es la marcha allí? (How is the nightlife there?)

Coña

This beautiful word, which probably won’t end up being your favourite (or perhaps it will), is used quite often and can mean two different things.

Meaning #1: Estar de coña

We can use this to indicate surprise:

– ¿Estás de coña? (Are you kidding me / joking?)

We can also use it in a positive way to let someone know that you are kidding, especially if they are beginning to take a joke too seriously:

– !No me hagas caso! Estoy de coña (Do not take it seriously! I’m kidding!)

Meaning #2: Ni de coña

In this case, we use coña to mean a big, fat “no.” For example, imagine that you are out with friends and they ask if you are going to the gym tomorrow. A bit weird I know… but isn’t this a perfect example of where someone might want to use a very strong “no”? Here’s an example of a possible response:

– Ni de coña voy al gimnasio mañana (No way am I going to the gym tomorrow).

Vale

I am sure you have heard this word sooo many times before. However, you may not know exactly what it means, especially if you have just started your Spanish journey. In essence, this word is used in the same way that “OK” is in English. But, don’t you want to sound more Spanish? If so, just remember to say vale instead!

Let’s look at an example: if you are meeting a friend on Saturday and he has a great plan and you want to go, you can say:

–  ¡Vale! Suena bien (OK, sounds good).

¡Ser la leche!

You use this when something is really great or hilarious and you would like to recommend it to your friends. For example, if you went to a concert last night and your coworker asks you how it was, you could reply by saying:

– Genial! Fue la leche (Great! It was awesome!)

This will indicate to them that you had a great time (and you might make them a bit jealous too!).

However, be careful! When talking about things, ser la leche always means that something is good. However, if you are talking about or to people it can either mean that they are amazing or that they are a bit different (not as good a meaning, but also not terrible). For example:

– ¿Has arreglado la televisión? ¡Eres la leche! (Have you managed to fix the TV? You are awesome!)

Or

– !No me digas que te has vuelto a olvidar las llaves! ¡Eres la leche! (Don’t tell me you forgot your keys again. You are unbelievable!)

Una caña

This is an important one, so write it down in your notebook because you will definitely use it. Caña means cerveza, and it is a glass of beer. It is not as big as a pint, being that we do not usually drink pints here in Ibiza. Instead, we salimos de cañas (go out for small beers). In most places, you can also get a tapa with your caña. This is actually why we drink cañas: so that we can drink it quicker and then move on to the next bar for the next round of cañas and tapas!

So, when you come to Ibiza, don’t forget to order a few cañas!

Hopefully this has been a useful exercise, come and improve your Spanish in Ibiza!  Thank you very much to Italki.com for large sections of this article.  Italki.com is a fantastic resource for learning languages online with live teachers on Skype, as used by several members of the Charles Marlow team (with varying levels of success!).