How do teens say things like "You rock!" in Spanish?

Question

I am a new Spanish teacher. My students always want to know how to say "You rock!" "That rocks!" They also want to know if Spanish speaking teenagers have certain letters they use while texting each other, like how we use "lol" and "gtg."

Answer 1

Caña is also a draught beer (from the pump) -maybe it refers to that'

Answer 2

Hi, just thought I'd chime in with some txt talk.

xq or pq= por que
x= por and sometimes the ch sound...
x ej = por ejemplo
tb= también
bn=bien
q or k= que
vdd= verdad
aki=aqui
sip=yep or yeah
mxo=mucho
voy y vuelvo=brb (be right back)
if i think of any more i'll be back!
Chels

Answer 3

Sorry, I don't know,I was asking you....

Answer 4

No, tell me, please.

Answer 5

Thats an interesting one Lazarus, do you know why'

Answer 6

Also (in Spain):

¡Es la caña! (=It is the cane!)

Answer 7

This is great. Es la pera!

Muchas gracias,
Elena

Answer 8

Thanks for the texting info. My kids will love that.

As for the other expressions, I will stick with the non-controversial ones, in the classroom and beyond.

Muchas gracias a todos que escribieron.
-Elena

Answer 9

oh, but not only milk...

es la pera

es la hostia

es la re-pera

mola mucho

eso mola que te mueres

En fin, hay un montón.......

Answer 10

There's certainly a generation gap there! Anyone who even breathed something like that in my direction would find themselves with a stinging cheek and a fat lip.....

very funny, MZ jejejeje

Answer 11

msj = mensaje
+trd = mas tarde
NLS = no lo se

I'll just chime in with James above. The only "positive" "safe" use of puta madre in mexico, is used as we would exclaim "bloody 'ell" (ie -Your car does 0 to 60 in 5 seconds! -Bloody 'ell!) Not in polite company.
Positive: Eso esta de poca madre! or as todo madre (in for example - you're "the best!")

In the UK, ho and bitch is used in the sub's of "yoof culture" (youth) and the girls seem genuinely pleased to be someones ... I reckon they don't know what it means. I don't get it, I must be getting old, but I have been working the music festival scene 3 months every year for 10 years, and heard it from emos, skate-kids and the grungy black t-shirt brigade (the ones who listen to bands who's lyrics are screamed and unprintable).

Answer 12

Got it, thanks.

Answer 13

I have seen the expression '¡es la leche!' used -I'm not sure what the big deal about milk is though.

Answer 14

perhaps you can explain to me about how not to write a paragraph as one sentence

For example:

Hello everybody. I'd like to say that "esto es de puta madre" in fact is an insult in Mexico and probably in all Latin America. BUT IN SPAIN it is not an insult, at least not a "strong" one. It is common to say "esta pelicula esta de puta madre" (this movie is great). For example, in Mexico when you want to say the same thing, people say "esta pelicula está de poca madre" or "está a toda madre," but ONLY between young people. In other situations it is vulgar. I'm not against Spanish students learning this kind of sentence, because this is the way people talk in real life, but ONLY if the student knows when is apropiate to talk like this. When someone is learning a new language, the words and expressions are too polite, which is good, but when you talk with a Spanish native speaker, that person is never going to talk at you in the same way as you talk. This applies to any language and any country.

As you see, I used nine periods in your paragraph, while you used one.

Answer 15

My hubby was explaining a couple of weeks ago that puta madre can be used in a positive way as well as an insult, but at the time it sounded complicated so I just filed it under Do Not Use for the time being. I try not to use slang until I know a language, mainly because it changes so rapidly and thus making you sound like an idiot rather than cool! I still learn it though, it's useful to know what it means and interesting to know the background. I'll try to pin him down later and see what he says about this one?
Maybe, and this is just me theorizing here, it is with this like other street slang, where in certain "subcultures" young men/boys call their girlfriend "my bitch" or "my ho" as a term of endearment. There's certainly a generation gap there! Anyone who even breathed something like that in my direction would find themselves with a stinging cheek and a fat lip.....