🇦🇷 Argentine (Rioplatense) Spanish
How Argentina says it — Buenos Aires, word by word
Pibe, Joda, Sorbete. 27 everyday things and the word Buenos Aires uses for each, beside what Buenos Aires, Santiago, Medellín, Santo Domingo, Madrid, Mexico City, Lima and San Juan say. Click any row for the full comparison and its sources.
Buenos Aires word by word
| In English | In Buenos Aires | Elsewhere |
|---|---|---|
| a kid informal | pibe | cabro chico pelao carajito chaval chamaco chibolo nene |
| a party / going out | joda | carrete rumba teteo fiesta / salir de marcha peda tono jangueo / un party |
| a straw | sorbete | bombilla pitillo calimete pajita popote cañita sorbeto |
| dude | che | weón parce manín tío güey causa pana |
| what's up? | ¿Qué hacés? | ¿Cómo estái? ¿Qué más? ¿Qué lo que? ¿Qué tal? ¿Qué onda? ¡Habla! ¿Qué es la que hay? |
| a T-shirt | remera | polera camiseta franela camiseta playera polo t-shirt |
| ok / sure | dale | ya po listo ta' to' vale sale ya |
| popcorn | pochoclo | cabritas crispetas cocaleca palomitas palomitas canchita popcorn |
| right away | ya mismo | al tiro de una ahora mismo enseguida ahoritita al toque ahora mismo |
| a job | laburo | pega camello trabajo curro chamba chamba trabajo |
| cool | copado | bacán bacano chévere guay chido chévere |
| gas station | estación de servicio | bencinera bomba bomba gasolinera gasolinera grifo |
| money | guita | plata plata cuartos pasta lana plata chavos |
| the bus | colectivo | micro bus guagua autobús pesero micro guagua |
| a beer with friends | birra | chela una fría una caña chela chela una fría |
| a birthday cake | torta | bizcocho tarta pastel bizcocho |
| a hangover | resaca | la caña guayabo cruda hangover |
| a pen | birome | lápiz pasta lapicero lapicero boli pluma lapicero pluma |
| a traffic jam | embotellamiento | taco taco tapón atasco tapón |
| beans | porotos | fríjoles habichuelas judías / alubias frijoles frejoles habichuelas |
| a banana | banana | plátano banano guineo plátano plátano plátano guineo |
| eyeglasses | anteojos | lentes gafas espejuelos gafas lentes lentes espejuelos |
| a car | auto | carro carro coche coche carro carro |
| a swimming pool | pileta | piscina piscina piscina alberca piscina piscina |
| an apartment | departamento | apartamento piso apartamento |
| avocado | palta | aguacate aguacate aguacate aguacate aguacate |
| sneakers | zapatillas | tenis tenis tenis |
Each row links to the full eight-country comparison with its sources. Grey = the standard dictionary word is the local word too.
Talk like a porteño
The in-app «Talk like a local» guide for Argentine (Rioplatense) Spanish — the words and turns of phrase Buenos Aires's characters use in conversation, so you recognise them when they come at you at speed.
| They say | It means | You'll hear |
|---|---|---|
| palta | avocado (elsewhere: aguacate) | Un tostado con palta, por favor. From Quechua — "aguacate" sounds foreign in Argentina. |
| frutilla | strawberry (elsewhere: fresa) | Un licuado de frutilla, porfa. Ask for "helado de frutilla", never "de fresa". |
| colectivo | (city) bus (elsewhere: autobús) | Tomo el colectivo hasta San Telmo. The everyday word; friends shorten it to "el bondi". |
| subte | subway (elsewhere: metro) | El subte te deja a dos cuadras. Short for "subterráneo" — Buenos Aires' metro, the oldest in Latin America (1913). |
| remera | t-shirt (elsewhere: camiseta) | Me compré una remera de Boca. "Camiseta" in Argentina leans toward a football jersey specifically. |
| pollera | skirt (elsewhere: falda) | Esa pollera te queda bárbara. Everyday Argentine word; "falda" is understood but not local. |
| vereda | sidewalk (elsewhere: acera) | Los cafés ponen mesitas en la vereda. Café-on-the-vereda is half of porteño life. |
| nafta | gasoline (elsewhere: gasolina) | Paramos a cargar nafta. "Gasolina" will get you a puzzled look at an Argentine station. |
| valija | suitcase (elsewhere: maleta) | Dejé la valija en el hotel. Standard in the River Plate. |
| manteca | butter (elsewhere: mantequilla) | Dos medialunas de manteca, por favor. Crucial café vocabulary: medialunas come "de manteca" (buttery) or "de grasa" (lard, flakier). |
Everyday phrases
- Che — hey / hey you The word so Argentine it named Guevara. An attention-getter for friends and peers — not for waiters you don't know.
- Dale — OK / go ahead / deal The porteño "vale" — agreement, a green light, or "hurry up" with the right tone.
- ¿Viste? — right? / you know? Constant conversational glue — invites you to agree.
- Mirá vos — well, look at that / really? Polite surprise or interest; pure voseo in two words.
- Ni hablar — absolutely / no question Emphatic agreement, literally "no need to even discuss it".
- Tal cual — exactly / so true The quick way to co-sign whatever was just said.
Practise it with someone from Buenos Aires
Rioplatense Spanish puts you on «vos» from the first word — vos tenés, vos querés, vení, decime — and turns «ll» and «y» into «sh», so calle comes out «cashe». Óscar has carried the tray at a café notable on Avenida de Mayo for forty-five years, has never written down an order, and leaves you the table as long as you want it: «acá nadie te apura».
Meet Óscar in Buenos Aires →