🇨🇱 Chilean Spanish
How Chile says it — Santiago, word by word
Cabro chico, Carrete, Bombilla. 27 everyday things and the word Santiago 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.
Santiago word by word
| In English | In Santiago | Elsewhere |
|---|---|---|
| a kid informal | cabro chico | pibe pelao carajito chaval chamaco chibolo nene |
| a party / going out | carrete | joda rumba teteo fiesta / salir de marcha peda tono jangueo / un party |
| a straw | bombilla | sorbete pitillo calimete pajita popote cañita sorbeto |
| dude | weón | che parce manín tío güey causa pana |
| what's up? | ¿Cómo estái? | ¿Qué hacés? ¿Qué más? ¿Qué lo que? ¿Qué tal? ¿Qué onda? ¡Habla! ¿Qué es la que hay? |
| a T-shirt | polera | remera camiseta franela camiseta playera polo t-shirt |
| ok / sure | ya po | dale listo ta' to' vale sale ya dale |
| popcorn | cabritas | pochoclo crispetas cocaleca palomitas palomitas canchita popcorn |
| right away | al tiro | ya mismo de una ahora mismo enseguida ahoritita al toque ahora mismo |
| a job | pega | laburo camello trabajo curro chamba chamba trabajo |
| cool | bacán | copado bacano chévere guay chido chévere |
| gas station | bencinera | estación de servicio bomba bomba gasolinera gasolinera grifo |
| money | plata | guita cuartos pasta lana chavos |
| the bus | micro | colectivo bus guagua autobús pesero guagua |
| a beer with friends | chela | birra una fría una caña una fría |
| a birthday cake | torta | bizcocho tarta pastel bizcocho |
| a hangover | la caña | resaca guayabo resaca resaca cruda resaca hangover |
| a pen | lápiz pasta | birome lapicero lapicero boli pluma lapicero pluma |
| a traffic jam | taco | embotellamiento tapón atasco embotellamiento embotellamiento tapón |
| beans | porotos | fríjoles habichuelas judías / alubias frijoles frejoles habichuelas |
| a banana | plátano | banana banano guineo guineo |
| eyeglasses | lentes | anteojos gafas espejuelos gafas espejuelos |
| a car | auto | carro carro coche coche carro carro |
| a swimming pool | piscina | pileta alberca |
| 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 santiaguino
The in-app «Talk like a local» guide for Chilean Spanish — the words and turns of phrase Santiago's characters use in conversation, so you recognise them when they come at you at speed.
| They say | It means | You'll hear |
|---|---|---|
| guagua | baby (elsewhere: bebé) | La Javi tuvo guagua en marzo. THE TRAP. In Chile a guagua is a BABY (from Quechua "wawa") — and always "la guagua", even for a boy. In Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Cuba the very same word is the BUS. So "me subí a la guagua" is an ordinary commute in San Juan and something alarming in Santiago. Chile's bus is "la micro". |
| micro | (city) bus (elsewhere: autobús) | Tomo la micro en Irarrázaval. Feminine: "la micro". Never "guagua" here (see above) and never "colectivo" — that is something else in Chile too. |
| colectivo | shared route taxi (elsewhere: taxi compartido) | Del metro me voy en colectivo, sale mil quinientos. A black car with a lit route number on the roof, fixed route, fixed fare, four strangers inside. In Argentina "colectivo" means the city bus — a second false friend on the same trip. |
| pega | work / a job (elsewhere: trabajo) | Salgo de la pega a las seis. The everyday word; "pegarse" it isn't — the verb is just "trabajar". Argentines say "laburo" for the same thing. |
| plata | money (elsewhere: dinero) | No me alcanza la plata hasta fin de mes. "Dinero" sounds like a bank form. Everyone says plata. |
| luca | 1,000 pesos (elsewhere: mil pesos) | Sale ocho lucas el kilo. How prices are actually said out loud: "veinte lucas" is 20.000 pesos. Learn it or the feria will quote you numbers you can't parse. |
| palta | avocado (elsewhere: aguacate) | Un completo con harta palta, porfa. From Quechua, shared with Argentina and Peru — "aguacate" marks you as Mexican or Spanish instantly. |
| la once | afternoon tea-supper (elsewhere: merienda) | Vente a la once a las siete, hay pan amasado. Tea, bread, palta, ham, cake — around 6–9pm, and for many families it replaces dinner entirely. "Tomar once" is a whole social institution, not a snack. |
| completo | loaded hot dog (elsewhere: perrito caliente) | Dos completos italianos y una bebida. A hot dog buried under palta, tomato and mayonnaise. "Italiano" describes the colours (green-red-white), not the recipe. |
| taco | traffic jam (elsewhere: atasco) | Llegué tarde, había un taco terrible en la Costanera. Nothing to do with the Mexican taco you eat. "Hay taco" means the traffic is stopped. |
| guata | belly / stomach (elsewhere: barriga) | Me duele la guata, comí mucho. From Mapudungun. "Guatón/guatona" is the matching nickname — affectionate from a friend, rude from a stranger. |
| pololo / polola | boyfriend / girlfriend (elsewhere: novio / novia) | Vine con mi polola. The verb exists too: "pololear" is to be dating someone. A "pololo" is also a small side job — context tells you which. |
Everyday phrases
- ¿Cachái? — you get it? / you know? The most Chilean sentence-ender there is. From "cachar", to catch/understand — and it is already the voseo form: "tú cachái", not "tú cachas".
- po — (emphasis tag — untranslatable) A worn-down "pues", glued to the end of almost anything: sí po, no po, ya po, obvio po. It means nothing and it is everywhere; nothing marks a Chilean faster.
- al tiro — right away / immediately Often written and said as one word, "altiro". Chile's answer to "ahora mismo" — and it really does mean now.
- Ya po — OK then / come on already "Ya" alone is a plain "OK"; add "po" and it turns into agreement, impatience or encouragement depending on your tone.
- ¿Cómo estái? — how are you? This is Chilean voseo in the wild: the pronoun stays "tú" but -ar verbs end in -ái. "¿Cómo estás?" is correct and understood — it just isn't how anyone greets you here.
- ¿Querís? — do you want? The -er/-ir half of the same system: querís, tenís, podís, venís. Argentina says "vos querés"; Chile says "tú querís". Nowhere else does this.
Practise it with someone from Santiago
Chileans will tell you their own Spanish is the hardest, and they say it almost proudly. It runs fast, drops the ends off words, glues «po» onto half of them, and conjugates «tú» its own way — «¿cachái?», «¿querís?», «¿cómo estái?». Nacho has Puesto 42 at the Ñuñoa feria libre, the street market that takes over the block on Tuesdays and Saturdays and is swept clean by three. He calls you «casera», does the arithmetic in his head faster than you can check it, and throws the parsley in for nothing.
Meet Nacho in Santiago →