Maria Garcia's List: Rioplatense Spanish / Basic

• Bueno

   

  Bueno can be very accurately translated to the English word “well” in the context of “Well…”, not “well” as in “feeling well” in this case.  It’s used in almost exactly the same way in many of the same circumstances, and is probably the most common sentence-starter in Spanish–you will very, very frequently hear sentences start with “Bueno, …”.  Examples to give you an idea:

   

  “Bueno, no es lo que queria decir.” = “Well, that’s not what I meant to say.”
• It very frequently is used to indicate the transition from one thing to another
• “mira” is almost always used to set the record straight. 
• La Verdad Es Que
• “The truth is that…” or “The truth of the matter is that…”, but a more contextual translation that would give you a really good English equivalent would be “actually”
• Entonces

• “Then I went to the store” = “Entonces fui a la tienda”), and it’s also used in a sort of “So what, then?” kind of way, sometimes used the same way we use “so”, as in:

   

  “So, what happened next?” = “Entonces, ¿qué pasó después?”

• O Sea

   

  “In other words…”, “That is to say…”, or “I mean…”

• Es Decir

   

  More literally means “that is to say”

• Por Lo Menos

   

  It means “At least”.

• Por Fin

   

  “Finally” or “At last”.

• Es Que

   

  This is the Spanish equivalent of
• “The thing is that…”

• Che

   

  This is pretty much exclusive to Argentina and just means something like “Hey!”, or “Hey buddy”, e.g.

   

  “¡Che! Me gustan tus zapatos.” = “Hey, I like your shoes.”
• Lo Que Pasa Es Que
• “What’s going on is…”

• Quizás / Tal Vez

   

  They both just mean “maybe” or “perhaps”
• Resulta Que
• it turns out that
• Así Que
• Just another way of saying “So” when used at the beginning of a sentence

• Aunque

   

  “Although”, “Even though”

• Además

   

  “Moreover”, “Besides…”, “Also”
• Sin Embargo
• “Nevertheless”,

• Menos Mal Que

   

  “Good thing that…”, or “It’s just as well that…”. 

• just they’re way of saying “It’s good that this thing happened.”  Examples:

   

  “Menos mal que no estacioné mi carro de cheese al sol, ¡se derretiría!” = “Good thing I didn’t park my cheese car in the sun, it would have melted!!”

• Lo Bueno / Lo Malo

   

  “The good thing…” / “The bad thing…”

   

  “Lo” = “It” and when placed before another word it means “that which is ____”, e.g. “lo bueno” means “That which is good”, “lo malo” means “That which is bad”,
• Por Eso
• “That’s why”.

• En Fin

   

  “Well, anyway…

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• Spanish

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