Guide to Costa Rican Spanish

Noted Costa Rican linguist, Miguel A, Quesada Pacheco , defines the word “pachuco” as: a person with unacceptable social customs, a kind of woman’s underwear or a type of street slang used by young people. In this series of columns I will only deal with the last definition.

Cagada/o de risa – a funny person or thing (vulgar)
Dar pelota – to flirt
Darle vuelta – to cheat on someone
Dejar plantado – to stand someone up
Despiche – a mess
Echarle el ruco – to hit on someone or try to pick them up. Echar el cuento or echar el caballo are also used.
Echarse – to drink something
Echarse al pico – to tell on someone
Embarcarse – to commit an error or get involved in a difficult situation
Enfiestarse – to party
Enchingarse – to take off ones clothes
Está legal – means something is cool
Estaca – a cheap person
Estar en todas – to be well informed. Estar sobre la jugada is a similar expression
Estar hasta el culo – to be drunk on ones ass (vulgar)
Estar limpio/a – to be without money
Estrilón – a complainer

You point with your lips.
You snap your index finger against your second
(bird) finger when you think something’s funny or incredible.
You miss the chaos when you leave the country.
You miss the way black beans in restaurants used to be whole and had a different flavor.
Diay and puta come out of your mouth like you were born to them.
You watch a Spanish language movie and you understand the body language that gives another layer of nuance to the acting.
You start to prevaricate so somebody else can save face.
You answer bien por dicha even when the other person doesn’t ask you how you were, but you were expecting them to, so you say it automatically.
The sound of a gringo accent in Spanish makes your ears bleed.
You get pissed off when your friend slams the door to your car.
You go to an English speaking country and when you want to ask for a glass of water the first thing out of your mouth to a waiter in a restaurant is “mae, regalame….” and you don’t get why he’s looking at you funny.