Saturday, March 10, 2012

Hey dude! / ¡Oye, tío!


            I consider it a grand success that a lot of the students in my school now say the word “dude” a lot in English with me. It is fantastic to see that a new generation of international academics is learning the real way to speak English.

Excuse me, American.

Spain has several convenient muletillas ("little crutch", meaning crutch word) that function in a similar fashion, such as tío ("uncle"), macho ("male"), and the omnipresent hombre (d'uh). And it's not uncommon to string all three of them together in a single burst of convivial meaninglessness. 

Thus we have the perennial classic:

¡Oye, tío! ¡Hombre, macho!

And you've said so much without saying anything at all!

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