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’.

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,

You might also want to read these articles:

• Expressions with MIERDA
  As a sequel to our previous post, today we focus on MIERDA and its multitude of meanings.
• The body and bodily functions
  A handy list of things we all do but rarely (care to) learn in a foreign language.
• Spanish Class | SNL
  A fun sketch from Saturday Night Live where students are in class ‘learning’ Spanish.
• How to go about with reading in Spanish
  In this post I want to make you want to read, even if you feel you’re not ready for it.
• Implied subject
  This post deals with a little tweak that can make your Spanish sound more natural —dropping the subject pronoun.
• Start Shadowing now!
  Today I’ll get you started with shadowing, so your Spanish speaking skills go through the roof.