 |
Learn Chilean Spanish: A Language Guide to Speak and Understand the Spanish Dialect and Culture of Chile (Audiobook)
This audio guide includes an overview of core vocabulary for the Chilean Spanish dialect. It is important to understand the culture, word usage, and slang of Chile to better communicate with Chileans, and this guide gives you that understanding. Topics covered include vocabulary that can be put to use daily and insights into language usage across Chile (food, numbers, places, questions, greetings, weather, etc.). This is an ideal way to prepare for a trip to Chile as a tourist or as a professional and to be better understood and better understand the country, its heritage, and its people. This audiobook is divided into 10 daily sessions, including a mixture of new content, reviews of prior content, simple grammar, and details on the culture of the linguistics of Chilean Spanish. |
An Overview of Chilean Spanish
Chilean Spanish, spoken by roughly 19 million people in Chile and by Chilean communities abroad, has a reputation across the Spanish-speaking world for being one of the hardest national varieties for outsiders to follow. Other Latin Americans often joke that Chileans speak so fast, drop so many sounds, and use so much local slang that even fluent Spanish speakers from neighboring countries need a moment to adjust. The country's long, narrow geography — squeezed between the Andes and the Pacific and stretching more than four thousand kilometers from the Atacama Desert to Patagonia — has historically isolated Chile from its neighbors, and that relative isolation helped its Spanish develop a distinctive character.
The most striking features of Chilean Spanish are phonetic. Final s tends to weaken to an aspirated h or disappear entirely, so los chilenos sounds like loh chileno or lo' chileno. The d between vowels often drops, turning cansado into cansao and pescado into pescao. The ch sound, which most Spanish speakers pronounce sharply, often softens toward sh in casual Chilean speech, so muchacho can sound like mushasho — a feature stigmatized in formal contexts but common in everyday talk. Speakers also tend to swallow syllables and run words together at considerable speed, producing the impression of a continuous flow that listeners from outside the country struggle to break into discrete words.
Chilean voseo is its own peculiar phenomenon. Unlike Argentine voseo, where vos fully replaces tú and carries prestige, Chilean voseo is verbal rather than pronominal — speakers usually keep the pronoun tú but use distinctive verb endings, saying tú tenís, tú podís, tú sabís, tú querís. The forms come from older second-person plural endings and remain informal, common between friends and family but considered too casual for many professional or formal settings. The result is a kind of hybrid that catches outsiders off guard even when they know the rules.
Slang and colloquial vocabulary fill Chilean speech to a degree that has produced extensive dictionaries and constant joking commentary. Cachái — from cachar, to catch or grasp — punctuates conversations as a tag meaning you know? or get it?, somewhat like Argentine viste or American you know. Po, a worn-down form of pues, attaches to the end of countless sentences as filler. Weón (often written huevón) serves as one of the most versatile words in Chilean Spanish, functioning as an insult, a term of endearment, a generic word for guy, or a verbal pause depending entirely on tone and context. Pololo and polola mean boyfriend and girlfriend, fome means boring, bacán means cool, pega means work, and cuático describes something strange or over the top.
Mapudungun, the language of the Mapuche people of southern Chile, has contributed vocabulary related to flora, fauna, food, and place names — guata for belly, pichintún for a tiny amount, and countless toponyms like Temuco, Pucón, and Chillán. Quechua words entered through colonial contact with the Andean north, and recent immigration has begun to add new layers as well.
Regional variation exists but is less pronounced than in larger countries. The Spanish of the northern desert regions shares some features with Peruvian and Bolivian Spanish, the central zone around Santiago and Valparaíso defines the standard heard in national media, and the southern regions toward Chiloé and Patagonia have their own slower cadence and vocabulary, including archaic forms preserved by the islands' historical isolation. Chileans across regions share a fondness for diminutives, irony, and a self-deprecating humor about their own famously difficult Spanish.
The most striking features of Chilean Spanish are phonetic. Final s tends to weaken to an aspirated h or disappear entirely, so los chilenos sounds like loh chileno or lo' chileno. The d between vowels often drops, turning cansado into cansao and pescado into pescao. The ch sound, which most Spanish speakers pronounce sharply, often softens toward sh in casual Chilean speech, so muchacho can sound like mushasho — a feature stigmatized in formal contexts but common in everyday talk. Speakers also tend to swallow syllables and run words together at considerable speed, producing the impression of a continuous flow that listeners from outside the country struggle to break into discrete words.
Chilean voseo is its own peculiar phenomenon. Unlike Argentine voseo, where vos fully replaces tú and carries prestige, Chilean voseo is verbal rather than pronominal — speakers usually keep the pronoun tú but use distinctive verb endings, saying tú tenís, tú podís, tú sabís, tú querís. The forms come from older second-person plural endings and remain informal, common between friends and family but considered too casual for many professional or formal settings. The result is a kind of hybrid that catches outsiders off guard even when they know the rules.
Slang and colloquial vocabulary fill Chilean speech to a degree that has produced extensive dictionaries and constant joking commentary. Cachái — from cachar, to catch or grasp — punctuates conversations as a tag meaning you know? or get it?, somewhat like Argentine viste or American you know. Po, a worn-down form of pues, attaches to the end of countless sentences as filler. Weón (often written huevón) serves as one of the most versatile words in Chilean Spanish, functioning as an insult, a term of endearment, a generic word for guy, or a verbal pause depending entirely on tone and context. Pololo and polola mean boyfriend and girlfriend, fome means boring, bacán means cool, pega means work, and cuático describes something strange or over the top.
Mapudungun, the language of the Mapuche people of southern Chile, has contributed vocabulary related to flora, fauna, food, and place names — guata for belly, pichintún for a tiny amount, and countless toponyms like Temuco, Pucón, and Chillán. Quechua words entered through colonial contact with the Andean north, and recent immigration has begun to add new layers as well.
Regional variation exists but is less pronounced than in larger countries. The Spanish of the northern desert regions shares some features with Peruvian and Bolivian Spanish, the central zone around Santiago and Valparaíso defines the standard heard in national media, and the southern regions toward Chiloé and Patagonia have their own slower cadence and vocabulary, including archaic forms preserved by the islands' historical isolation. Chileans across regions share a fondness for diminutives, irony, and a self-deprecating humor about their own famously difficult Spanish.
Chilean Spanish Learning Books
 |
Speaking Chileno: A Guide to Spanish from Chile
Speaking Chileno, already a bestseller in Chile, is the most up-to-date reference book of Chilean Spanish vocabulary. It features more than 2,000 words and phrases explained in English, many with sample sentences. This dictionary-style book also includes 29 humorous cartoon illustrations, plus short sections about Chilean gestures, pronunciation, and grammar. Quick reference sections group common Chilean words and phrases for food, drink, terms for the body, types of clothing and key words that are found in the daily spoken language. This book is indispensable for anyone with ties to Chile. First-time visitors to Chile, native Chileans and even people looking to connect to their Chilean family and heritage will find Speaking Chileno useful as they enjoy Chilean Spanish. The Chilean edition of Speaking Chileno has been featured in the Chilean International Book Fair, has also been part of the El Mercurio Readers Club and has appeared in Chilean newspapers. |
 |
Chilenismos Dictionary & Phrasebook
Chile is known for having created an enormous amount of distinct words and expressions. Consequently, the Spanish spoken in Chile is frequently indiscernible to gringos and native Spanish speakers alike. This dictionary and phrasebook collects over 1,500 of these terms and idioms, known as "Chilenismos," and expresses them in simple English. The book also explores the roots of Chilenismos and explains the grammatical constructions and idiosyncratic speech patterns particular to Chileans. This is an ideal guide for tourists, businesspeople, and anyone who plans to spend time in Chile. |
 |
How to Survive in the Chilean Jungle
The perfect book to help anyone understand the Chilean people. Great for study abroad, travel, vacationing, and even locals! This book will help you learn the Chilean slang and dichos. A must have! |
 |
Chilean Spanish Linguistics: Studies on Variation, Innovation, Contact, and Identity
As early as the 19th century, Chilean Spanish attracted the interest of linguists such as Lenz (1891), who hailed it as an evolving and vibrant variety. In more recent times, a number of contemporary linguists have indicated that such a variety of differences exist between Chilean Spanish and other varieties on a number of linguistic fronts, that it should be considered as an independent dialectal zone in the Spanish-speaking world. Its interest as a case study is reinforced further by the incongruence of the particularly high degree of social variation and the small degree of geographical variation. This book is the first of its kind, bringing together the work of a diverse and international group of researchers on Chilean Spanish. It examines how language usage, variation, attitudes, identity, and change are uniquely manifested in different aspects of Chilean Spanish and its speakers. Bringing the most current work on Chilean Spanish linguistics to the forefront of the field, this volume will be a valuable resource to all involved in the research and teaching of Spanish language linguistics, language variation, and change, as well as undergraduate and graduate students alike. |
Chilean Spanish Language Courses
|
1-on-1 Spanish tutoring at italki
One-on-one language tutoring at italki is hands down the most efficient way to reach language fluency. That's why it is the most popular platform today for learning a language online. You can practice conversational skills under different real-world scenarios with a native speaker tutor of your choice who provides you with undivided attention and customized lessons that cater to your learning needs and interests. Whether you’re at home, at the airport, or at your local park, you have complete access to learning Chilean Spanish or any other language you want with a native speaker from any country of your choice. |
|
Spanish Uncovered: The World’s First StoryLearning Spanish Home Study Course
This new, science-based language learning method was invented by polyglot language expert Olly Richards, who has authored more than a dozen best-selling language books available in bookstores around the world and on Amazon.com. This was the method he used to learn eight languages, and is the exact same method he has been using to help thousands of students learn Spanish. The course comes in both Castilian and Latin American versions, which means that it works for you whatever variety of Spanish you're learning. |
|
Baselang's Real World 1-on-1 Spanish tutoring
This top-rated program offers UNLIMITED 1-on-1 Spanish tutoring where you can take as many online Spanish classes as you want, on a daily basis if you wish, with their professional teachers from all around Latin America for a monthly flat rate. Baselang's classes are specifically tailored to your level, from zero to advanced. Don't miss this amazing opportunity! |
Chilean Spanish Learning Podcasts
|
Podcast on Chile by Lengalia
Listen to native speakers from Chile telling interesting facts about their country, culture and language in Chilean Spanish accent. |
Chilean Spanish Learning Blogs
|
Chilean Spanish: A Learner's Guide at LatinAmericanSpanish.com
An editorial site dedicated to the dialects, words, and cultural worlds of Spanish as it is spoken across Latin America, including Chilean Spanish. Features essays, book reviews, curated recommendations, and a growing audio archive of native speakers from across the region. Written in a literary register that treats Latin American Spanish as a subject worth taking seriously. For learners and anyone curious about the language as it is actually spoken. |
|
47 Chilean Spanish Slang Words You Should Know
An excellent blog article on Chilean Spanish slang by Baselang. With Baselang's UNLIMITED 1-on-1 online Spanish tutoring you can take as many online Spanish classes as you want with their professional teachers for a monthly flat rate. Don't miss the opportunity! |
|
The Beginner’s Guide to Chilean Slang
A great blog article on Chilean Spanish slang by FluentU. |
|
Chilean Spanish Learning Apps
|
Chilean Slang - On Google Play
Chilean Slang is an application developed to facilitate the learning of some of the most used expressions and words of Chilean Spanish. It currently has 50 terms. In addition to the definition and examples of each term, Chilean slang allows you to hear the pronunciation of the expressions and also practice it through speech to text. |
|
Chilenismos - On Google Play
A dictionary of Chilean Spanish words and phrases, in Spanish. |