Dirty Spanish: Everyday Slang from "What's Up?" to "F*%# Off!" (Dirty Everyday Slang) [Paperback]

Juan Caballero (Author), Nick Denton Brown (Contributor)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

GET D!RTY

Next time you're traveling or just chattin' in Spanish with your friends, drop the textbook formality and bust out with expressions they never teach you in school, including:

• Cool slang
• Funny insults
• Explicit sex terms
• Raw swear words

Dirty Spanish teaches the casual expressions heard every day on the streets of Spain and Latin America:

♦What's up?
¿Qué ta

♦I'm wasted
Estoy fumigado.

♦Your mom's a ten.
Tu vieja es un cuero.

♦I gotta take a piss.
Necesito mear.

♦I wanna nail that ass.
Quiero clavar ese culo.

♦What a sunnuvabitch!
¡Qué 'jueput

♦Goooooaaalll!
¡Gooooooolllll

About the Author

Juan Caballero is a doctoral candidate in Comparative Literature. He is a lifelong Californian and avid backpacker whose passions include competitive eating, contemporary art, noise music, and booty-shakin'. Nick Denton-Brown loves talking dirty...in Spanish. He loves eating burritos, playing soccer, and rocking out to Bruce Springsteen, in that order.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Ulysses Press; Bilingual edition (September 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569756597
• ISBN-13: 978-1569756591
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #25,636 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

  #4 in	Books > Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Slang & Idioms
  #70 in	Books > Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Spanish
  #43 in	Books > Reference > Foreign Languages > Instruction > Dictionaries; Polyglot

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great little tool!, November 20, 2008

By	Cathy G. Cole (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Dirty Spanish: Everyday Slang from "What's Up?" to "F*%# Off!" (Dirty Everyday Slang) (Paperback)

They never teach you slang in those high school foreign language classes. At least they never did in mine. But of course, we all wanted to learn how to swear in the language we were learning. I became better acquainted with the intricacies of another language when Maria, a foreign exchange student from Colombia, and I became friends. I mispronounced something that caused her (1) face to turn tomato red, and (2) to break out in hysterical laughter. Although I knew I'd just committed some major faux pas, she would never tell me what I'd actually said. That alerted me to the fact that I'd better be careful what I say when I try to speak someone else's language.

A little book like Dirty Spanish is a great tool. Not only will it help you to not sound as if you've just wandered out of Spanish 101 in high school, you'll learn that harmless slang in Mexico might get you a fist in the nose in Spain. Divided into chapters such as Howdy Spanish, Friendly Spanish, Party Spanish, Body Spanish, Angry Spanish and Hungry Spanish (among others), the author also tells you which Spanish-speaking country uses the particular phrase. There's lots to learn in these 126 pages, and you'll laugh along the way.

Dirty Spanish is indispensable for any trip you're planning to a Spanish-speaking country, or if you just want to understand what Spanish-speaking employees are saying as they walk past. (I'd received a compliment and didn't even know it!)

[...]

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the Book !!, March 14, 2009

By	Barbara Badham "book woman" (petaluma, CA) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Dirty Spanish: Everyday Slang from "What's Up?" to "F*%# Off!" (Dirty Everyday Slang) (Paperback)

I loved it! I am fairly fluent in Spanish, having lived in Mexico and gotten a Bachelor's Degree in the language, but neither my friends nor my teachers along the way wanted to "corrupt" me with slang or obscenities. So I always felt there was a gap in my learning, which this little book fills in nicely.

Its contents run the gamut from the simply informal to cool slang, funny insults, explicit sexual terms, and raw swear words. It gives you all the nuances to understand how a word or phrase is intended, so that you don't embarrass yourself if you attempt to use a new saying--or it lets you know the speaker's frame of mind if you are simply the listener. There are sections devoted to eating, sports, entertainment, working out, and so forth. Written in 2008, the book is quite up-to-date which is important as colloquial speech tends to evolve quickly. And as the Spanish-speaking world is so diverse, the author made a point to differentiate which phrases are used in different countries (although he tried to write using terms that would pretty much be understood universally). And it's got all the new-tech stuff you might want: lots of computer-ese, text messaging lingo, etc.

I read the book with a highlighter, skipping many expressions that I would never use in either English or Spanish. That left me with exactly what I wanted, a short and colorful list to expand my use of the vernacular. Andale!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dirty Spanish: Everyday Slang Review by James, December 11, 2009

By	James Williams "JamesSpanish.com" (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Dirty Spanish: Everyday Slang from "What's Up?" to "F*%# Off!" (Dirty Everyday Slang) (Paperback)

This is James from James Spanish (the learning Spanish blog).
Not your average textbook, and certainly not for the faint hearted, this book gives translations for the somewhat spicier side of the Spanish language. While these words and phrases shouldn't form part of your everyday vocabulary, understanding them can be handy when you are talking amongst native speakers. Having an awareness of these insults, slurs and slang will also help you to avoid any embarrassment caused by using them inappropriately by accident. In 2008 an American singer competing in a televised talent contest in Spain caused an uproar when he mispronounced one word and changed a romantic lyric into an offensive obscenity that left the audience gasping in shock. Don't let a similar social situation happen to you! Brush up on the terms in this book for some guidelines on what not to say, or to be able to express yourself with typical Spanish abandon if the occasion demands it!

Of course, the book doesn't just cover obscenities, but also some colloquial expressions used in Spain and Latin America. The regional differences are important to note, as what is harmless slang in one country may earn you a slap in another. However, these types of slang words and phrases can help you to seem more like a native speaker, and convey a more informal and relaxed tone when you are talking. The book is great to take with you while you travel, and can be an amusing conversation starter with other travelers you meet during your trip.

Each word or phrase is provided in context, letting you see how it is used in real life situations. The book is divided into topics, which lets you brush up on any particular social situation that you might find yourself in, for example reading the section on eating, may help you to feel more like a native when you visit someone's home for a meal in Spain. You will learn that when someone points to a particular dish as says "Eso es la leche!" they are not literally saying "That is the milk!" but rather commenting on how wonderful the food is.

Whether or not you choose to use any of the expressions in the book, it is good to be familiar with them so that you can understand what is being said by native speakers around you. At the very least you will be able to identify a complement from an insult!

In closing my review of this product, I'd like to share with you the three Amazon products that I have found most helpful in my pursuit to learn Spanish. If you are truly serious about achieving fluency, I'd recommend getting all 3 of them if you can afford it.

1. Lights, Camera, Spanish (Book + DVD): Learn Conversational Spanish by Watching a Romantic Adventure This is actually a 90 minute movie for Spanish-language learners. It gives the option to watch the movie with subtitles but I'd recommend not using them to improve your Spanish. This "movie" also includes a workbook so that you can reinforce the Spanish vocabulary words and phrases from the film. The workbook also has lots of exercises to keep you engaged in the film. But be prepared to hear Chilean accents. Although pleasent to the ear, the accents from Chile are very different from most Latin American accents.

2. Verbarrator Version 1.1 (Windows Version) This software replaces the traditional verb conjugation books and makes learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs an interactive and fun activity. This should be a required resource for anyone who wants to improve their ability to conjugate Spanish verbs. Especially anyone who is challenged by the drudgery of learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs and who is looking for a new way to make learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs an easy and fun activity

3. Diccionario esencial de la lengua espanola de la Real Academia Espanola (Spanish Edition) If you are really serious about speaking the language fluently, then at some point you will need to replace your Spanish-English dictionary and get a pure Spanish dictionary with both the vocabulary words and the definitions entirely in Spanish. I use this one only because it was highly-recommended by a friend from Spain who teaches Spanish. According to him, in academic circles in Spain as well as Latin America this Spanish dictionary is the standard.