Language Trainers Blog

There are many words and phrases that Spanish speakers throw into their conversations which don’t necessarily have any particular meaning or have a context-dependent meaning. They can also have other functions such as giving the speaker time to think what to say next, indicating agreement, disagreement, pleasure, etc. If you’re learning Spanish it’s a good idea to try to learn when to use these interjections in order to sound more like a native speaker.

The most commonly-used interjection is perhaps claro, which means light (in color), clear, evident, weak, thin (watered down) or frank. It is also used to express agreement and can be translated as “of course”, “obviously”, “evidently”,  “sure” or “yes”.

• ¿Me reconoces? ¡Claro que sí! (Do you recognize me? Of course!)
• ¡Claro que no puedes! (Of course you can’t!)
• ¡Claro que no! (Of course not!)
• ¿Salimos? ¡Claro! (Are we leaving? Sure!)

Other interjections include:

• ¿De veras? – Really?
• ¿En serio? ¿De verdad?- Are you serious?
• ¡No inventes! ¡No estés jugando! – You’re kidding/joking!
• ¡Ay! ¡Caramba! ¡Caray! – annoyance/dismay – Good grief!
• ¡Ah qué bueno! – How good!
• ¿Eh? – What?
• ¡Ea! – Come on! Hurry up!
• ¡Cuidado! – Be careful! Watch out!
• ¡Ojalá! – I hope so, Let’s hope so, God willing
• ¡Bah! – disdain/disbelief
• ¡Ajá! ¡Ajalá! ¡Hurra! ¡Vaya! – approval
• ¡Oiga! ¡Oigan! ¡Oye! – disapproval