People you don’t know by their name

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There is a group of words which we use almost interchangeably in our daily accounts of the day. Technically speaking, these would be referred to as ‘unnamed subjects’: people you don’t know by their name.

I don’t have nearly as much option when it comes to English translations for these words. I think of them under guy, lad, dude or bloke, but I’d love to hear what other options are out there.

All of these words have a masculine and a femenine form, but you’ll rarely hear ‘chabona’.

MasculineFemenine
PibePiba
FlacoFlaca
ChabónChabona
TipoMina
LocoLoca

It’s very difficult to explain why we’d choose one or other, most people leaning towards one or the other based off a personal preference. The only exception is pibe, because it’s used to refer to people of younger age, say below 25.

Alternatively, people could address you using words like:

  • maestro
  • jefe
  • pa
  • capo
  • señor

What’s interesting about all the words above is that they reflect a respectful, more hierarchical relationship.

Hope you liked learning something new today,

Happy Spanish learning,


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