¿Dónde viven? – Hombre, no estoy seguro.
Where do they live? Well, I’m not sure.
¡Hombre!, qué bueno que hayas venido.
Well!, I’m glad you’ve come.
¡Hombre!, qué lástima lo que le pasó a Mario.
Oh dear!, what a pity what happened to Mario.18.1.4 (p. 85)
30.8.4 Este, like pues and bueno, is used for expressing doubt or hesitation and it is frequently
used as a tag, especially among Latin Americans.
¿Dónde has dejado las llaves? –Este...
Where have you put the keys? – Well...
Primero estuvimos en Santiago y después... este... fuimos a
Puerto Montt.
First we visited Santiago and then... well... we went to Puerto
Montt.
30.8.5 O sea has a similar function as the previous words but it normally only appears in the
middle of a sentence:
Pues, me llevaron a un lugar que estaba, no sé, muy lejos, o sea (que)
tuvimos que andar mucho...
Well, they took me to a place which was, I don’t know, very far, well...
we had to walk a lot...
30.8.6 ¿Sabe/s?, the equivalent of the English phrase ‘you know’ is especially common in
some Latin American countries.
Fuimos al teatro, sabes, y después pasamos a tomar una copa al bar
de Pancho.
We went to the theatre, you know, and then we went to Pancho’s bar
for a drink.
Tendrás que venir, ¿sabes?
You’ll have to come, you know.
In the last sentence, Peninsular Spanish uses the expression¿eh? instead of¿sabes?30.9 Changing the subject
Common expressions are:
A propósito...
By the way...
Eso me recuerda...
That reminds me...Cambiando de tema...
Changing the subject...Changing the subject 30.9