Mixing Spanish and English words when speaking
Hola everyone on forum, I am a very new beginner learning Spanish, I listen to Spanish on the radio and television. On the television, I notice that some people will mix English words when speaking Spanish. Is this acceptable? If so, I would me very happy. Please let me know your thoughts. Thank you, Pam
7 Answers
Its called Spanglish and yes many people in the US and Mexico do it, but it is a type of slang. It is not correct in either language. If that is normal with the people you talk to then no problem but it would not be okay to talk that way with someone you just met.
You also must make the differenciation between "Spanglish" and "Extranjerismo"
- Spanglish = Flipping back and forth from language to language when you cannot remember a word in one language or the other. I.E. Hey dude, what's up? My mom me dijo que you need to go donde mi tía,... etc.
- Extranjerismo = When a word does not exist in one language but it is grammatically accepted by the other. I.E. Surfing, blogging, enchilada, taco, tamal, etc.
This happens all the time! I talk regularly with people from many different countries, and sometimes I hear my friends who barely speak English use English words. Sometimes it is "Spanglish", but a lot of times there simply isn't a Spanish word for what they are saying. When learning Spanish it is important to understand the difference, and realize how much of an impact the English language has made.
I also appreciate the fact that this is an old post, but I still want to throw in my dos pesos' worth:
When there are two countries that share a common border such as The US and Mexico, there is bound to be a mingling and exchange of many words between the two languages. Languages do change and develop over a period of time as elements from other languages impinge upon them.
As you can see, my English is very well developed, and my Spanish is also proper and grammatically correct, however when I'm around my "Mexifornia" buddies, I can sling the ol' Espanglés with them and enjoy myself doing it. There are already many, many, words from Spanish that have become part of the English vocabulary. Not to mention food items like "burrito" or "taco"or "frijoles" we also have *patio, rancho, lariat (la reata) calaboose (calabozo) macho, rodeo, "cojones" and maybe a few hundred others."
In an era when in so much of the world people are coming together, it is not surprising that the languages should be merged somewhat. It is getting more and more difficult to keep languages "pure."
During the years of Muslim occupation in Spain, hundreds of Arabic words were added to the Spanish vocabulary. Some are starting to creep into English at present. Words like "jihad", "hijab" "fatua" and "burka" are fairly common at the present time.
So getting back to the way that English and Spanish are beginning to merge somewhat in border towns, and in the case of California, just about the lower fourth of the state, it is not surprising to hear Spanglish or espanglés being used by a large number of people.
I was hearing a Spanish show over the radio a week ago. Hosting the show was a Mexican girl and she mixed both languages all the time. I hated it.
I correct my kids every time they mix both languages. I tell them that not every Spanish speaking person they talk to would know English, and they must know how to talk proper Spanish.
If you don't know a word, just try to describe it with the words you know and ask somebody, or if you have time, look for it in a dictionary. This way you'll learn new words to increase your Spanish vocabulary.
Some English words have been borrowed into Spanish, but their orthography has been "Spanished-up", like Esmog (smog), estrés (stress), márketing (marketing), gol (goal), mánager (manager), revólver (revolver), fútbol (football).They are called in Spanish "Anglicismos". This words have entered Spanish after a long time of use, and were generaly understood by most of the people. The use of other words is incorrect, at least until the R. A. E. accepts them.
Hey there, I know is a very old question, as gringojrf said, its a slang, very common in middle and upper class people in their 20s 30s and even 50s but there need to be certain conditions, i have listened to this both in NYC and Guadalajara but rarely in rural areas, and there's usually some trust between the speakers, for example: this white girl in NYC would say stuff like "hola", "bodega","que pasa(whats up)", etc to any other american and in Guadalajara many mexicans will say "hey" instead of "hola" and "dude" instead of "wey" which means the same, or maybe yell "****" whenever they miss something, most people who care of it is simply because they don't understand. and yes, if used frequently it can't be a little annoying for non bilingual people.
