Shorouk Express
Have you heard a group of Spanish teenagers slipping English terms like ‘bro’ or ‘mood’ into their speech? That’s because English has come to dominate teen talk in Spain in recent years.
Some Spaniards have long bemoaned the creeping influence of English anglicismos in Spanish, but in recent years with social media this has become particularly pronounced.
According to a recent study, more than half of Spaniards (52 percent) use between six and ten anglicismos per day.
These might include words like ‘team’ or ‘dream’ or more business-oriented language like ‘feedback’ or ‘review’.
As you might’ve expected, young people between 16 and 24 are the most likely to use them; 28 percent were found to use between 11 and 20 daily, and 14 percent more than 20 per day.
In fact, younger Spaniards are now adopting English terms entirely or adapting them into some sort of Spanglish portmanteau.
This certainly feels like a generational thing too. Gen Z, meaning those born roughly from the late-90s to the early 2010s, was the first generation to effectively grow up online in a way that previous generations didn’t. This has meant that online and gaming vocabulary, where the influence of English is enormous, has slowly entered the Spanish language.
READ ALSO: Green dogs and trapped cats – Ten hilarious Spanish animal idioms
As such, if you find yourself walking around in Spain or spending time with younger Spaniards these days, some of their lingo might trip you up — and not for the reasons you’re used to.
Here are the 10 most common anglicismos that have come to dominate teen talk in Spain in recent years.
How English now dominates teen talk in Spain
Bro: perhaps the most common anglicismo in Spain at the moment, used mostly by teenage boys. Long common in English as short for ‘brother’, used both between literal brothers and friends alike, the use of ‘bro’ instead of the Spanish hermano has become very common in Spain in recent years, especially among teenagers and young men. It’s come to replace the common interjection of millennial Spaniards – tío (uncle) or tía (aunt), and is pronounced in a more phonetically Spanish way than English (‘bro’ rather than ‘brou’).
READ MORE: Why do the Spanish say tío and tía all the time?
Crush: younger Spaniards are also increasingly using the word ‘crush’ when referring to someone they are romantically interested in, in part because there really isn’t an informal equivalent in Spanish. For example: Ayer vi a mi crush en el gimnasio y me puse muy nerviosa. (I saw my crush in the gym yesterday and it made me really nervous).
Mood: another very common one slipped seamlessly into Spanish sentences nowadays, as humor or ganas doesn’t quite capture the same meaning. For example: Hoy no estoy en el mood de trabajar (I’m not in the mood for work today).
Random: many younger Spaniards also now use random instead of the Spanish aleatorio or raro.
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LOL: Perhaps the best example of the dominance of English online speech creeping into Spanish, LOL, literally meaning ‘laugh out loud’, is now used by many younger Spaniards as a single word to express amusement.
READ ALSO: Essential Spanish ‘text speak’ abbreviations that will help you sound like a local
Cute: Used instead of the Spanish mono or mona (which also means ‘monkey’).
Cringe: When Spaniards want to express something awkward or uncomfortable, many might skip the Spanish incómodo or violento and simply say qué cringe when something embarrassing happens.
Likear: More social media speech creeping into Spanish. Taken from ‘liking’ something online, Spaniards have taken the English word and conjugated it as a Spanish verb with an -ar ending. For example, if you’re going to like something online (dar un like) you might say voy a likear la foto de Pablo (I’m going to like Pablo’s photo).
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Ghostear: One from the online dating world coming from the term ‘to ghost’ someone, meaning stopping all communication with someone, sometimes after being in regular contact. Ignorar (to ignore) doesn’t quite capture the same meaning. Teenage Spaniards also used ghosteador (the ghoster) and the ghosteado (the ghosted) respectively.
Goat: the popular acronym for ‘Greatest Of All Time’ is also increasingly used in Spanish, especially in terms of sports. For example, a diehard Barcelona fan might say something like: No hay debate, Messi es el goat de futból (There’s no debate, Messi is the goat – greatest football player of all time).
Hype: used when there’s a disproportionate amount of excitement or anticipation for something, for example when a new film or album is released. For example: Hay mucho hype por el nuevo tema de Quevedo (There’s a lot of hype for Quevedo’s new song).
Stalkear: used to refer to the act by which a person stalks (in other words excessively or obsessively checks) someone’s social media profiles. For example: Ese tipo raro tiene que dejar de stalkearme en las redes (That weird guy needs to stop stalking me on social media).
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