Need Clarification-Don't want to accidently swear in Spanish

Question

Ok,

(first of all, I searched all of the previous forums, before asking this)

I am a teacher that goes into homes to prepare 0-3 year olds for Head Start, I teach them basic rules like waiting their turn, saying please, picking up toys, using good language skills instead of screaming. It should also be noted that I teach Hispanic children, in Spanish.

I just saw that "coger" is deemed as a profane word. WELL, I had a Mexican mother instruct me to tell her child to "recoger" the toys instead of "limpialos del piso" 3 years ago when I started and my Spanish was very rough. She explained that "recoger" was to pick up. So I have been using it ever since....now I'm concerned,. Is "recoger" considered a slang or form of profanity to some groups? If so, I would like to know so I can mentally cross it out of my mind.

Answer 1

She is right. Recojer (retrive, pick up).

You are probably thinking of coger. This means to grab, but if you choose to use it as profanity it can also indicate to f**k.

I would not hesitate to use it in a clean conversation. If the listener chooses to interpret it as profanity, then that´s his problem.

English has similar words. Richard can be called Dick, but about the thing, dick.

Gay means happy, but homosexuals have chosen to use this word to identify themselves. This doesn´t change the meaning of the word.

Well you are a native speaker so you have much more experience than I. But as I was learning Spanish here in Mexico I was told many times not to ever use coger. - gringojrf, Jul 30, 2014

Oh, and by many different people as well. - gringojrf, Jul 30, 2014

My thought would be that unless one is very advanced and able to deal with all the nuances, there are many ways to avoid the use of the word, and it is still good advice for most learners to do so. - bosquederoble, Jul 30, 2014

Answer 2

In Spain Coger is fine and is used all the time.

In Mexico Coger is considered a profane word. Recoger is used instead. Continue to use recoger and you will have no problems.

In Mex and all Latin America and yep only in Spain is fine ;) because they use "follar" instead "coger" - 003e54f5, Jul 30, 2014

Answer 3

Recoger is fine, a totally different word than coger. Coger has connotations that make it best avoided in Latin America- but is used commonly without those connotations in Spain. But words derived from coger (acoger, encoger, recoger, escoger, etc.) are still fine everywhere.

You beat me by seconds. lol - gringojrf, Jul 30, 2014

Well, at least we agree. :) - bosquederoble, Jul 30, 2014