People you don’t know by their name

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,

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