So far I’ve been focusing on Castillian and Iberian words, although castellanos only make up about 7-10% of the Spanish speaking world. That’s why today’s word is a word that’s used throughout Latin-America, although in some places more than in other: chévere. In Spain you’d simply say formidable or tremendo. In English it can be translated to several words, like ‘awesome’, ‘cool’ and ‘nice’.
*Note: According to the Real Academia Española dictionary, there are different meanings for the word chévere in Latin-America:
1. adj. Ant., Ec., Hond., Méx., Pan. y Perú. Primoroso, gracioso, bonito, elegante, agradable.
2. adj. Á. Caribe, Bol., El Salv. y Hond. Estupendo, buenísimo, excelente.
3. adj. Col., Cuba, Pan., Perú, R. Dom. y Ven. Benévolo, indulgente. Un profesor chévere. Un examen chévere.
4. m. fest. P. Rico y Ven. petimetre.
5. adv. m. Ven. magníficamente (‖ muy bien).
Sentences
Mi novio es bien chévere.
My boyfriend is really nice.
Me siento chévere.
I feel great.
La fiesta fue chévere, fue cheverísima.
The party was nice, really nice.
¡Qué chévere!
That’s great!
*Sentences taken from WordReference.com.
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Well, that’s a new one on me ;o)
Lisaxx
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Chévere is a very chévere word. It’s really catching on in different Latin countries. Although it’s mostly a word used in Andean Spanish (up to Venezuela), it has hit the mainstream in Central America, making its way in through popular TV shows and international celebrities.
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I never heard of it actually, not until I saw it in my vocab book with a comparison table between ‘very Latin-American’ and ‘Castellano’ words. It contains more of these words, so it might be interesting using them for future posts.
Helloo, I’m spanish, from Spain, and I didn´t even knew that word xD
Its ‘very Latin-American’.
I`m curious, are you learning ‘Castellano’, or ‘Latin-American’ or both?
I’m learning English =)
Un saludo!
I’m mainly learning castellano, but knowing something about the language in different regions of the hipanosphere is always nice of course
.
Once again, this word will never be used in Argentina or Uruguay. I neverd heard it in Paraguay either, and I´m not sure about México. Actually, I wouldn´t use it anywhere outside Colombia, just in case (in Venezuela you will sound like a looser if you say it).
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In Argentina they use ‘copado’ in the same sense and in Chile they use ‘bakán’. In Peru and Ecuador ‘chévere’ is a very common word. Most of my friends from there use it. In Mexico they use lots of different words, mostly ‘chido’ and ‘padre’. But the Mexican Spanish is one of the richest of all, I think. Whole books are written about it, even one book about one word and its variations: chingar.
Many people from Argentina here the last few days
. Like I summed up in the post, the word isn’t used in Argetina. I should do some posts on Argentinan words. Any suggestions?
I’m not argentinan, but the typical words that we use to imitate argentinan people are ‘pelotudo’, ‘boludo’ and ‘macanudo’
Here’s some old school trivia: during the intro to Stevie Wonder’s “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing” he’s clumsily trying to impress a woman by demonstrating how international he is. He launches into nonsense Spanish saying, “Todo tambien chevere” and the woman coos back with the proper inflection ‘chévere!’, well aware that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, but amused by the effort! Check it out! That’s how I learned the word as a child!
Hehe, you’re right. Didn’t know that
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkBUx6Zn6mo
Although I took Spanish in high school and in college, I thought this was the French word for ‘goat’ when I saw it. (Though the spelling is slightly off.) I’ve always considered Catalan (which this word is likely derived from) to be a Spanish-French hybrid. I could read the signs in Barcelona, but how to pronounce the words? Who knows!
I’m guessing one would say “chevr-er-ay” in this case rather than ‘chev-air’ as in French?