Colombia · Colombian Spanish
Colombia has no single slang. The mountains split the country into speech communities that developed largely out of earshot of each other, and the differences are audible in the first sentence: a paisa from Medellín hangs pues on the end of every clause, a bogotano says usted to his own children, and a costeño from Barranquilla drops consonants at a rate that the interior finds hard to follow. Roughly a third of the entries below are marked for region because using them outside it would be a costume rather than a sentence.
The layer that travelled furthest is parlache, the vocabulary that grew in Medellín's hillside neighbourhoods during the worst years of the drug conflict and then spread nationwide through music and television. Parce, parche and gonorrea all came from there, and they did not arrive neutral — the first two lost their associations completely, the third did not. That is the general trap here: Colombian slang is warm and sounds easy, and a good deal of it carries a class or regional charge that native speakers hear instantly and visitors do not. Where an entry has one, we say so.
50 terms, each with definitions and worked examples.
Each page below collects every Colombian term we have on one subject, side by side.
The terms below carry the most usage detail — register, origin and the situations where they go wrong. They are the ones worth reading in full before the rest.
50 terms
phrase · Informal · BYEN oh KEH
Hello; how's it going. A paisa greeting that has spread nationally among under-forties, delivered as a statement rather than a genuine enquiry.
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adjective · Informal · bah-KAH-noh
Great, cool, enjoyable. The safe all-purpose compliment in Colombian Spanish — usable in front of your in-laws, which is exactly what distinguishes it from chimba.
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adjective, noun · Colloquial · beh-RRAH-koh
Tough, gutsy, formidably good at something. 'Es un berraco' is high praise for someone who works relentlessly or has come through something hard.
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phrase · Colloquial · KOH-moh ah-SEE
What do you mean? — asked when something does not add up. The commonest request for clarification in Colombian Spanish and an unmistakable national marker.
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noun · Informal · kah-MEH-yoh
A job, or work generally. 'Conseguir camello' is to find work; 'estoy sin camello' is to be unemployed.
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noun, adjective, interjection · Vulgar · CHEEM-bah
Excellent, brilliant. '¡Qué chimba!' is the strongest everyday expression of enthusiasm Colombians have, and 'una chimba de carro' is a fantastic car.
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Use with care
verb · Informal · kwah-DRAHR
To get together with someone; to become a couple. 'Se cuadraron en diciembre' means they got together in December.
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noun · Informal · KOO-choh
An old person, or anyone older than the speaker by a generation. Not polite, but not cruel either — it sits about where English 'old boy' does.
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idiom, verb · Colloquial · dahr pah-PAH-yah
To leave yourself open to being robbed, cheated or taken advantage of — flashing a phone on the street, leaving a bag on a chair, telling the wrong person what you earn.
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phrase, adverb · Informal · deh OO-nah
Absolutely; I'm in; let's do it. The standard enthusiastic yes to an invitation, and one of the most frequent two-word exchanges in Colombian Spanish.
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interjection · Regional · EH-cheh
Coastal interjection of surprise, disbelief or complaint — 'wow', 'no way', 'oh come on', depending on delivery. Concentrated in Barranquilla and the Atlántico department.
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verb · Colloquial · em-boh-lah-TAHR
To mislay something, or for something to go missing in a muddle rather than by theft: 'se me embolató el recibo'.
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noun, adjective · Colloquial · goh-MEH-loh
A rich, preppy young person — private school, brand names, a particular drawled accent, a north-Bogotá postcode. Mildly derisive but not an insult you would be punched for.
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noun, adjective · Vulgar · goh-noh-RREH-ah
A contemptible person. At full force this is close to the strongest insult in Colombian Spanish and has started fights.
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Use with care
noun · Informal · GWAH-roh
Aguardiente — the anise-flavoured sugarcane spirit that is the default Colombian party drink, drunk in small shots straight from the bottle on the table.
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noun · Colloquial · gwah-YAH-boh
A hangover. The single most useful Colombian word for a visitor, because resaca — the word learners are taught — is not what anyone here says.
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noun, adjective · Vulgar · gweh-BOHN
Idiot, fool. 'No sea güevón' — don't be an idiot — is the everyday form, addressed to friends more often than enemies.
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Use with care
interjection, adjective · Colloquial · LEES-toh
OK; agreed; got it. The Colombian conversational workhorse — it accepts a proposal, acknowledges instructions, closes a phone call and fills a pause, often several times in one exchange.
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adjective, noun · Colloquial · LOH-boh
Tacky, gaudy, in poor taste. Applied to clothes, decoration, cars, weddings and people, and almost always about excess rather than cheapness — too much gold, too tight, too loud.
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noun · Informal · LOO-kahs
Thousands of pesos. Una luca is 1,000; veinte lucas is 20,000. Because Colombian prices run in thousands, this is how everyday amounts are actually spoken.
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noun, adjective · Taboo · mal-pah-REE-doh
Bastard, son of a bitch. A top-tier insult: it attacks the addressee's mother by implication, which is what gives it its force.
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noun · Colloquial · mah-MEH-rah
A drag, a bore, a thing you cannot face doing. '¡Qué mamera!' is the standard Colombian groan at an unwelcome task.
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noun · Informal · MAHN
A guy, a bloke — but grammatically Colombian, not English: it takes a Spanish article and is nearly always el man, referring to a specific man already in view.
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noun · Colloquial · meh-KAH-toh
Snacks — crisps, sweets, biscuits, anything eaten between meals. A mass noun: you buy mecato, not a mecato.
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adjective, adverb · Regional · MEH-rah
Intensifier placed before a noun, meaning 'absolute' or 'total': mera nota, mera chimba, mera vaina. Strongly marked as vallecaucano and Pacific-coast speech.
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interjection · Vulgar · noh HOH-dah
The all-purpose coastal exclamation: astonishment, delight, outrage, or simple emphasis. Barranquilla and Cartagena run on it.
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noun, adjective · Colloquial · NYEH-roh
A person read as poor, rough and streetwise, or anything associated with them — clothes, music, manners. The word is class contempt in one syllable, and it lands that way.
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adjective, interjection · Informal · PY-lah
Done for; no good; too bad. 'Quedé paila' means I'm in trouble or I've had it, and a bare '¡Paila!' is the verdict that something has failed and nothing can be done.
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noun · Informal · par-SEH-roh
Mate, buddy. Both a term of address and a noun for a friend. The clipped form parce is far more frequent in speech than the full word.
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noun · Informal · PAR-cheh
The crew you habitually hang around with. 'Mi parche del colegio' is my school lot.
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noun · Informal · peh-LAH-doh
A kid, a young person. Covers roughly ages five to twenty-five depending on how old the speaker is.
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noun · Informal · POH-lah
A beer. 'Unas polas' is the standard invitation to the pub, and it is the most casual of the available words for beer.
adjective · Informal · prehn-DEE-doh
Tipsy — pleasantly drunk, talkative, still functioning. The specific stage matters: Colombian has a graded ladder and prendido is the good rung on it.
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interjection, adverb · Regional · PWESS
The paisa sentence-particle, attached to the end of clauses with no lexical content whatsoever: 'quiubo pues', 'venga pues', 'sí pues', 'entonces qué pues'. Removing it changes nothing but the accent.
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phrase · Informal · keh MAHS
How are you? — a greeting, not a question about anything additional. This is the single most reliable way to spot a foreigner: answered literally, it produces bafflement on both sides.
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phrase, adjective · Informal · keh boh-LEH-tah
How embarrassing; what a disgrace. Said of a public humiliation, yours or someone else's — the emphasis is on being seen.
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phrase, interjection · Colloquial · keh PEH-nah
Sorry; excuse me. The standard Colombian apology for small offences, from bumping into someone to arriving late. 'Qué pena con usted' is the full polite form.
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interjection, phrase · Informal · KYOO-boh
Hi; what's up. The default informal greeting across Colombia, usually first in the sentence and usually followed by a name or by parce.
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noun · Colloquial · rreh-BOOS-keh
Informal income-hustling: selling sweets on the bus, doing deliveries, reselling, whatever pays today. Not a euphemism for crime, and Colombians are precise about that distinction.
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verb · Informal · rroom-beh-AHR
To go out dancing and drinking. La rumba is the night out itself, and it means the whole evening, not one venue.
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noun, adjective · Colloquial · SAH-poh
A snitch — someone who reports you to the authorities, the boss or your parents. In some contexts this is the most dangerous accusation in the language, and Colombians are careful with it.
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Use with care
noun · Regional · soo-mehr-SEH
A second-person pronoun and form of address used in Boyacá, Cundinamarca and parts of Bogotá. It is simultaneously deferential and affectionate, which has no English equivalent.
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adjective, noun · Informal · TEH-soh
Extremely good at something; an expert. 'Un teso del Excel' is the person the whole office asks.
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noun · Colloquial · TEEN-toh
A small black coffee, usually weak, usually pre-sweetened, sold from thermoses by street vendors and offered to every visitor to every office in the country.
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adjective · Informal · trah-GAH-doh
Head over heels; besotted. Estar tragado de alguien is to have it bad, and the passive construction is the point — it is something that happens to you.
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noun · Informal · TOO-sah
The specific misery of a recent break-up: heartbreak with a soundtrack, a duration and an expectation that friends will take you out. Not grief in general.
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Colombia · Colombian Spanish