Talking about the people around you
These expressions are everywhere in spoken Spanish in Spain. Three are colloquial: fine with friends, out of place in a formal email.
| colloquial | neutral |
|---|---|
| estar hecho polvo | estar muy cansado |
| buen rollo | buen ambiente |
| la pasta | el dinero |
Ser de fiar, hacer trampas and hacer el ridículo are plain Spanish: you can use them anywhere, formal writing included.
Fixed phrases
In ser de fiar only ser changes; de fiar stays the same. In Spain, trampas in hacer trampas is usually plural.
| That guy isn't trustworthy, and on top of that he cheats. | Ese tipo no es de fiar, y encima hace trampas. |
In estar hecho polvo, hecho agrees with the person: hecha polvo, hechos polvo.
| My mother is worn out after the trip. | Mi madre está hecha polvo después del viaje. |
Two kinds of rollo
You know un rollo, a drag. With buen or mal in front, rollo is usually the vibe, and dar mal rollo is to give someone a bad feeling.
| The class is a drag, but there's a good vibe. | La clase es un rollo, pero hay buen rollo. |
| That party gave me a really bad vibe. | Esa fiesta me dio muy mal rollo. |
Pasta you cannot eat
La pasta is also slang for money. Earned or spent, it is usually money; cooked or eaten, it is food.
| That car costs a lot of dough. | Ese coche cuesta mucha pasta. |
| He earns a lot of dough, but he only eats pasta with tomato. | Gana mucha pasta, pero solo come pasta con tomate. |
Sospechoso
El sospechoso is usually the suspect; after a noun or after parecer, sospechoso means suspicious.
| The suspect had a very suspicious attitude. | El sospechoso tenía una actitud muy sospechosa. |
| It seems suspicious to me that he always wins. | Me parece sospechoso que siempre gane. |
