Spanish Word of the Day: guay

by Ramses on November 21, 2008 · 13 comments

Today again a word that’s mainly used in Spain: guay. Where they’d use the words bacán, genial, estupendo or even chévere in many other countries, the word guay is pretty popular in Spain. An exclamation that’s quite popular, is ¡qué guay!. I also heard the word supermegaguay quite some times in Spain, but according to some readers (see the comments) it’s pretty childish.

Even though the official meaning is ‘brilliant’ or ‘terrific’, I often hear my Spanish professor using it to describe something that’s cosy (she’s from Castilla-La Mancha). Still, it’s becoming more and more a slang word to point out other things, as the sentences will show. In this context it can also mean ‘cool’.

Sentences

¿Ese tío es guay?
Is that guy cool?

Estoy viendo una peli, y es muy guay.
I’m watching a movie and it’s really cool.

¡Qué guay!
How cool!

¡Qué música más guay!
What cool music!

Lo pasé guay.
I had a fantastic time.

*Special thanks to @lisibo for the sentences.

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Related Posts:
Spanish Word of the Day: molar
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Spanish Word of the Day: guiri
Spanish Word of the Day: chévere

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meneame.net
November 21, 2008 at 10:53 pm

{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }

SpanishOmelette November 21, 2008 at 10:54 am

In RAE, the first definition of the word is the least used, I never hear nothing about this definition, that is because “guay” is a very old word and I think that its significate has been lost. So now, if you hear it, for sure it will be refered to the second definition.

http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltConsulta?TIPO_BUS=3&LEMA=guay

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Ramses November 21, 2008 at 1:22 pm

Yeah, I never heard or read the word “guay” as “ay”. It’s more used as ’slang’ nowadays, I think.

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Alan November 21, 2008 at 1:45 pm

Hello again.

“Guay” is very popular. “Supermegaguay” isn´t, unless you are 10 years old. On the other hand, in your first example, you should have written “ese tío es guay”, instead of “está guay”.

This word could be translated in almost any context as “cool” or “fine”, so the rest of the examples you wrote are good.

Greetings from Spain.

Alan’s last blog post..Diario del internauta neófito: 6. El Blog

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Ramses November 21, 2008 at 5:07 pm

I’ve heard the word supermegaguay quite often, and not only used by kids. Besides, I got the example from a dictionary and did some research to the form. It appears that both are used.

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SpanishOmelette November 21, 2008 at 6:50 pm

Yes, but don’t use Supermegaguay if you want to flirt :D

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Jade November 21, 2008 at 7:34 pm

Hi

Just don’t use Supermegaguay if you don’t want to look too childish. This compose form is just used by children and uh … pijos? (I would like to know how to use this word in English, maybe you could investigate it :P ) It’s not because of the use of guay, but because of “super-mega-xxx” prefixes :)

Well seriously, IMHO, depending of the context, the use of guay could sound a little childish as well but it depends of who are the listeners and who speaks. Even your first example where you use guay to describe people (I agree with Alan, a person “es guay”, but a movie “está guay”) sounds completely childish to me.

@SpanishOmelette: don’t even use supermegaguay to flirt buddy, except if you want to collect a lot of ‘rolfing’ ;P (that’s in the other hand is a good way) Well, indeed, I think it’s more used among the girls… they are allowed to be childish sometimes :) (and it’s nice ^^)

Cheers from ‘Spain’

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Ramses November 21, 2008 at 7:36 pm

Okay, changed it a bit. Thanks for your feedback all!

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Jade November 21, 2008 at 7:47 pm

I forgot, maybe you want to check out “molar” (as a verb, cos it’s teeth related word if it works as a noun) and “chachi” as similar words.

ciao

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Steven Capsuto November 21, 2008 at 9:51 pm

I usually translate it as “cool.”

And in response to Jade’s question: “pijo” (as used in Spain) translates into English very roughly as “spoiled rich kid.”

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Alan November 22, 2008 at 2:03 pm

@Jade: “pijo” is “posh”.

Alan’s last blog post..Diario del internauta neófito: 6. El Blog

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Jade November 24, 2008 at 6:58 pm

@Alan: Thanks, I discovered it yesterday speaking with a friend :) indeed, he told me that spoiled rich kid is “niño mimado” o “niño de papa”… is this right?

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J January 13, 2010 at 8:51 pm

o mellindros@

Reply

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