Sunday, March 10, 2013

No seas haragán

This piece of Spanish that I'm going to talk to you about today came out of a conversation I had on Facebook.  In fact, I've been picking up a lot of Spanish from chatting with my amigos on Facebook.

During one of those chats I admitted to a friend that I hadn't written anything for my blog lately, not to mention several household chores I had been avoiding.  He replied to me with:

wow hahaha tu has estado de guevon lol
Wow, you have been lazy



Güevón is very slangy word for perezoso, which means lazy.  I've also seen it written as huevón, and a Google search will also give you güevón.  I wouldn't lose any sleep over how it's spelled, because it's a very informal word best reserved for your friends and online chat.  Nor whether or not you put the accents in the right place.  In fact, when you're texting or chatting very few people put any emphasis on accents at all.  And yes ladies, you too can be huevonas.

Actually, I need to point out that you can say de güevón  un güevón , or just güevón .

De güevón translates to being lazy, while un güevón might be best translated as a lazy bum, and güevón sometimes can be translated either way.


Sos un webon, no te gusta hacer nada
Dude you are a lazy bum, you don't like to do anything


Webon is another spelling variation you'll see and sos is a conjugation of Vos, which I plan on blogging about very soon.  It's informal, equivalent to .

Levantate ya es tarde no estes de guebon
Get up, it's late, don't be lazy

No seas güevón 
Don't be lazy

Eres güevón
You're a lazy bum

And like always, there's more than one way to skin a cat, and in Guatemala you can skin that cat with the word haragán.

My amigo explained it to me perfectly:

haragán es lo mismo que perezoso
es colloquial para decir que has estado de perezoso
oh de haragán

Haragán is the same as perezoso
It's a colloquial way to say you've been lazy

With that in mind, it shouldn't surprise you that you can substitute haragán for  güevón

No seas haragán
Don't be lazy

Ya ponte a trabajar no estes de haragán
Now get to work and don't be lazy

And there you have it, three ways to let your buddies (or kids) know just how lazy they really are.

Before I forget, I need to tell you that güevón in all it's forms is not for polite company.  It is considered a grosería (bad word), although like many words in Spanish, how bad it is can vary from country to country.  Have fun using this with your friends and don't say I didn't warn you.

Also güevón can mean different things in different countries, so be sure you know your audience.  If you have friends from different countries don't be shy about asking what it means to them.

And while I'm not going to make any promises, I'm going to try and be a little less of a guevon and starting blogging a little more often.

Hasta la próxima!