guide on correctly writing spanglish !!!!
hello there !! i just finished writing a fic yesterday with a character whose first language is spanish, and i thought i’d make a post with a guide on how to have your character jump between two different languages without it feeling clunky or forced or stereotypical. all of the things i will say have come from my own experience of being raised in a latino family, i myself use spanglish quite often in my thoughts and out loud at times. so i hope this helps !!
(note; i am not entirely fluent in spanish. i’m still learning and am making this post for fun and for the sake of others authenticity. if you want to, take what i say with a couple grains of salt, and look for outside sources on spanish if you want a better explanation than what i give.)
first off, let’s get one thing out of the way;
what NOT to do:
when writing a character with different languages, especially spanish, don’t-
• have them randomly start speaking spanish in an argument with a non speaker. i don’t know about everyone else, but to me this fuels the angry latina stereotype, and not even my own mother starts going off on her friends in fluent spanish when she’s annoyed with them.
•make them add one spanish sentence or word to every line they say. if people really cared about the character you’re writing, they don’t need a reminder of who they are in that sense. the only time this is really acceptable is with nouns or some conjunctions. i literally have to correct myself out loud and say cucumber instead of pepino when im talking to others, and me and my family will also say “pero” (but) in between english sentences, but that’s really where it ends. and don’t get me STARTED on pet names, oh my god, there’s other words beyond mi amor.
•make them speak spain spanish. if you don’t speak it, you must be thinking “there’s a difference??” yes there is. there’s a huge difference, to spanish speakers at least. go find a video of a spanish person vlogging and then find a video of a mexican vlogging and you’ll hear the difference. google translate and other translation apps are usually trained with spain spanish, so they’ll say things like “coche” instead of “carro” and they have a lisp in the accent. if you’re writing a character that isn’t from spain, it’ll feel pretty outlandish. like someone born in the usa to usamerican parents having a british accent and pronouncing things completely differently.
now that we have that out of the way, here’s
what TO do:
in response to each of the don’t’s i listed earlier, in order, what you should do instead is-
• have them talk to themselves in spanish or use spanish onomatopoeia and expressions. i do not just mean dios mío, because that also really kills it if your character for example is a hopeless or jaded person. why would they be calling out to god?? another thing that works is having their accent slip a little bit, on account of using said expressions. you can try this out for yourself if you speak another language or can use the accent, but when you say one or two words of it and then keep speaking english, the accent lingers for a bit. that’s an easier indicator that a character is angry or even excited, as they’re not holding back their default sound for others around them.
•have them directly translate spanish words and phrases to non speakers around them, when it’s really important or is plot relevant for the sake of curiosity. latinos and hispanics aren’t mean, they’re not gonna confuse you unless you deserve it !! and more often than not, if there’s one latino, another will follow. another thing you should also do related to this is instead use spanish honorifics for people related to your character, instead of calling everyone around them some spanish word. i know most people know to do this, but don’t take it too far. no one is saying primo josh, and some family members will often use english whatever local languages words for grandma and grandpa as their family name instead so that it’s easier on the grandchildren. depends on how localized or traditional the family member is.
•watch videos of people from around the world speaking spanish before writing the character. things like travel vlogs or product reviews work well, and you can translate any words you don’t know already. if you can’t find that or wanna try something more familiar, watching movies with the latin american spanish dub instead of the spain spanish dub works pretty well as a sort of universal overview of the the difference in the language. on disney plus, they only have the latinoamerica dub for movies like tangled and encanto, but on other streaming platforms there’s sometimes a difference between them.
now what you’re probably wondering is: what specific words are okay to use??
list of words that are okay to use:
in order of the do’s and don’t’s:
(related to do and don’t number one)-
•ijole- means something like “yikes” “oh my” “whoa there”, not a curse/rude word
•miércoles- kinder way of saying mierda, which means shit. basically the Spanish equivalent of saying crap. rude but not curse.
•coño- it deadass directly translates to pussy. im not joking. but in spanish, its used and pronounced with an intonation that’s similar to “good god” or “goddamn” at the beginning of a sentence, and like “damn” or “damn it” at the end of a sentence.
•tontería- tonto/tonta is an adjective that means stupid, and the suffix “ría” makes quite literally anything you want into a verb. so tontería just means “stupidity in action” or more casually “foolery/tomfoolery”. not a curse/rude word.
•jodienda/joder/jodes- the “jod” part (pronounced ho-d) of these words all literally mean “fuck” when translated. so jodienda means “fuckery” and translates to “fucking”, it’s basically a bit more of a rude word than tontería. joder means “to fuck” when directly translated, though casually it more so means “to mess around”, so it’s common that someone would say “porque quieres joder” as a one off meaning “why do you wanna mess with me”. jodes means “you fuck/fucked” basically, in a sense of “don’t annoy me/don’t fuck with me” because people say “no me jodes”. inherently a curse word, but spanish speaking people don’t exactly have a line on where curse words start and end.
•puta- i feel like everyone knows what this means at this point, but puta means bitch and puta is used exactly like the word bitch and fuck at the same time. so someone will say “puta madre” as in “bitch mother”, which is equivalent to saying “son of a bitch”. people will also use it on nouns like “este puta pedazo de mierda” meaning “this fucking piece of shit”. rude word, basically a curse word. if a five year old said this in the street, the parents would get looked at weird.
•carajo- directly translated means damn or damn it, but verbally used sounds more like just a sound of exasperation, so it’s pretty meaningless. not a curse word, could be seen as rude
•condenado- directly translated means condemned, but when you add another word beside it it turns into damned, and that’s basically how it’s used all the time. basically just calling something stupid or damned. not a curse, maybe a little rude.
•pendejo- again, everyone probably knows this, but pendejo means stupid. casually it’s used in the same way as you say asshole or something like that. not a curse, but pretty rude.
(in relation to do and don’t number two)-
•nouns to use- it’s actually more common for a spanish speaker to use spanish cutesy words than spanish angry words for things. even if the thing isn’t “cute”, it could just be little or feel insignificant. for example, i grew up calling step stools bancitos, which means little benches. so your character would probably go around the house saying “i need to empty la lavadora (the washer(washing machine))” or “theres holes en la pared (the wall)”, and when talking about thinks in full english with a spanish mindset, they’d probably say “can you get me a forkecito” or “look, I’m shortzecito”. english words, but the ito reminds you they’re small or cute. this will all also vary whether or not your character is fluent, so this is really a matter of personal judgement when it comes to nouns.
•conjunctions to use- all them. literally all of them. pero (but), en (in), para (for), realistically, you will hear conjunctions the most in splanglish because they’re the most throwaway words for every language and they easily recognizable if all the characters around them have their thinking caps on and know what a context clue is. even no sabo kids will say spanish conjunctions in english phrases.
•honorifics to use- when it comes to people you don’t know or know for business, señor and señora are the obvious ones, but only if the señor/señora in question also speak spanish. this is always the main thing that bugs me out, when latino/hispanic characters end up treating everyone around them as if they carry translators at all times. it makes the latino character the odd one out and feel a bit like a tourist almost, like a white tourist in mexico. if the character is talking to someone young, señorito or señorita is something they might get called just for fun to humor the kid, or if the character is still young but old enough it’s more so used to being the kid up to the adults level, kinda like a reminder that they’re getting there. for family members, it really depends on how “white” each one is, but i know that no aunts or uncles want to be called aunt or uncle. this is more so on the grandparents end, where some grandparents will wanna be called grandma and grandpa or something similar. actually, most people i know don’t really personally call their grandparents in spanish abuelo or abuela. i know i have special names for mine. and as for aunts and uncles, tia and tio is obvious, but to make it more personal, there are variants of them. titi, tita, and tia for the fem versions, so the masc ones would be tito and tio for uncles. but remember, more often than not, any other family related word a spanish person is using to refer to their family around others, they probably aren’t personally using with their own family as their names.
•pet names to use- querido/querida inherently means “wanted/desired” or “loved” so that’s already a simple one off the bat. cariño is like “dear” or “darling”. corazón literally means heart, so think of it like my heart. bebe means baby, used exactly the same way it’s used in english. also, it’s more common for spanish speakers to say “te quiero” which means “i want you” instead of “te amo” which means “i love you”, probably cuz it sounds more casual and personal and direct. also, don’t forget that if this character has a love interest that speaks a different language they know, they’re probably also or more likely are gonna use the pet names from that shared language unless their partner asks to use their native ones.
(in relation to do and don’t number three)-
•casual speak- no one is genuinely out there saying coche unless they’re from spain or learned spanish in school. i’m being so deadass. i’ve lived in spain and visited puerto rico, and i want you to guess which one sounds more natural. ding ding ding it’s puerto rico. this is mainly because they have lots of loan words and really just don’t try to sound prim and proper all the time. so try to have the character use some spanglish words mixed into their fluent spanish sentences if you really want it to feel natural.
•native languages- if your character IS from spain, you’re in for a very bitter treat. spain has different regions, and in most of those regions, they have their own ancient local language. for example, valencia has valenciano, and it sounds fairly different from spanish. like quite different. the closest language to it is catalan, and you can use google translate to see and hear what it’s like. if your going for really authentic on your spanish character, you gotta bring up spain like a lot. they love their country over there. make them really picky on what traditional paella is too.
•differences in words relating to people and food- the best example i can give here is the fact that spanish people use “vosotros/vos” meanwhile everyone else uses “ustedes/usted”. they mean the same thing, “you all/your” in a group term, but it’s an obvious giveaway as to where a character is from. another difference is between what someone calls cake and sandwiches. i grew up learning from my cuban and puerto rican family that a sandwich is called sándwich. however in spain, sandwich is bocadillo. and over in mexico, i’ve heard that sandwich is pastel. but i grew up learning that pastel is a cake. it really depends on the area for certain things, so its good to check and think about where your character learned their spanish from.
aaaaaand i think that’s it !! i hope this was helpful, and if you have any questions, you can put it in the comments or send me an ask through my inbox !! happy writing !!
