What does Tuanis mean?
Tuanis. “Tuanis” is definitely one of those slang terms you will hear nowhere else. In Costa Rica, “Tuanis” means “fine”, “cool”, “nice” or “ok”. For example, “Que tuanis, tome tantas birras y no levante con goma” means “Sweet, I drank so many beers but didn’t wake up with a hangover”.
What does Acachete mean?
A Cachete. Cachete is literally a cheek, but locals use the phrase “a cachete” to define that something is good or doing good. For example, if you ask your friend how things are doing on his business, the response can be “Mae, a cachete” meaning that everything is going great.
What do Costa Ricans call each other?
Costa Ricans are usually called ticos by themselves as well as by people of other Spanish-speaking countries. “Tico” and “tica” (male and female) are colloquial terms that Costa Ricans gave themselves, due to their linguistic tendency to add the diminutive “tico” to the end of words.
What does Tico mean in Costa Rica?
Costa Ricans are called “ticos” because of their unique way of saying diminutives in Spanish. For example, when saying something is small —or “chico” in Spanish— Costa Ricans would say it is “chiquitico,” or very small. Hence, Ticos.
What does Chiva mean in Costa Rica?
Literally speaking, a chiva would be the female form of chivo, or “goat.” But usually this phrase means “How cool!” or “Awesome!” If you’re familiar with Mexican slang, it’s basically the same as Qué chido there.
What does YODO mean in Costa Rica?
iodine
It literally means “iodine” in Spanish, but “yodo” [pr: YO-doh] is used to refer to the equally dark coffee.
What does Macha mean in Costa Rica?
“Macha” is a Tico slang term that means “blonde girl.” There’s no inherently offensive or degrading connotations to the word, but it does have a certain effect. I knew before moving to Costa Rica that some Latin American men have a preference for blonde women, but I never really thought about what that would mean.
What are two common Spanish phrases unique to Costa Rica?
23 essential Spanish expressions to learn before visiting Costa…
- Más Tico que el gallo pinto | “More Costa Rican than spotted rooster”
- Pura vida | “Pure life”
- Mae | “Dude”
- Brete | “Work”
- Diay.
- Tuanis | “Cool,” “nice,” “awesome”
- Por dicha / qué dicha | “Fortunately” / “how fortunate”
- Qué pereza | “What a drag”