How to sound very Mexican

Once you started your semester abroad in Mexico you'll discover that the Spanish you learned in school (if you even did) or during vacation in Spain won't get you very far.

So let's get started with some basic Mexican Slang vocabulary only Mexicans understand:

¿Que onda güey?
Means "What's up dude?" literally it's "what's wave". Very informal way of greeting friends and rather used by chavos (guys) and doesn't appear very appropriate when used towards strangers by chavas (girls) however it's ok when you already friends with someone. You can add güey to basically everything you say: ¿Qué pasa güey? Qué haces güey? Cómo estas güey? Llámame güey! etc.
But take care when saying it in front of majors of age especially when it comes to authorities , teachers, grandpas etc.

¿Qué pedo?
Another way of say "What's up?". Literally: "What fart?"

¡Qué padre! Qué chido!
Literally "how father" - but actually means cool, great, nice. Universally useful in informal conversation.

¡No mames (güey)! or ¡No manches!
Again very common way of using güey, meaning "no way, unbelievable  or are you kidding me". Use it when you wanna sound surprised or you actually want to seem very interested in what your counterpart says (even if you're not).

¡Me vale madres!
lierally "I don't care mothers" - really means "I don't care!" You can also use "Equis" o "Me da igual" if you want to sound less informal.

Ahorita
Seams to be the favorite word of the mexicans as you can hear it in every corner and in every context. It's the diminutive of "ahora" meaning (right) now. But as we already learned but the Mexican  perception of time and timings it doesn't have to literally mean "right now"- it's more likely to be meant in half an hour or hour. If you want to be more specific about timings better use "ahora mismo" meaning right now/ in this moment.

¡Ando bien pedo!
literally "I'm very fart" - really means "I am very drunk" As you can see the word "pedo" has several meanings depending on the context. Another way of expressing that you're very drunk is "Ando muy chido"- also known through the late internet phenomenon "no me toquen ando chido" - don't touch me, I'm drunk.



¡A heuevo!
literally "to egg" - really means something like "hell yeah"

¡Pinche...!
means damn or fucking. You can add it to basically everything, like for example: pinche cabron, pinche coche, piche perro etc.

¡... de puta madre!
literally "of the prostitute mother" but really means fucking great , fantastic. Can also be used as adjective (puta, puto) in front of a noun.