# Quick, crude Spanish translation question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 17, 2012, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-crude-spanish-translation-question/622208 "2012-05-17T14:19:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2012, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-crude-spanish-translation-question/622208/1 "2012-05-17T14:19:22Z")
One of my Facebook friends (who I only know from one of the games) posted this: “bueno chicos,me lo pase de puta madre,genial,hace 20 minutos qe llegue a casa” Which was translated as “well guys, I had a fucking great, 20 minutes ago qe get home” That’s clearly not right. Can anyone tell me what it means? There is no context at all, this is the entirety of the post. If I had to guess, I’d guess something like, “I just had a great fucking 20 minutes ago” or something, but I see "madre"in there… Joe ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2012, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-crude-spanish-translation-question/622208/2 "2012-05-17T15:15:53Z")
> [@wheresgeorge04](#): > > One of my Facebook friends (who I only know from one of the games) posted this: > > “bueno chicos,me lo pase de puta madre,genial,hace 20 minutos qe llegue a casa” > > Which was translated as > > “well guys, I had a fucking great, 20 minutes ago qe get home” > > That’s clearly not right. Can anyone tell me what it means? There is no context at all, this is the entirety of the post. If I had to guess, I’d guess something like, “I just had a great fucking 20 minutes ago” or something, but I see "madre"in there… > > Joe Sounds like Current Argentinian Spanish, I would translate it as “Ok, boys, I had a great time, cool, got home 20 minutes ago” ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2012, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-crude-spanish-translation-question/622208/3 "2012-05-17T15:24:38Z")
“bueno chicos,me lo pase de puta madre,genial,hace 20 minutos qe llegue a casa” puta madre = whore mother, but Google insists it means fucking, so maybe a colloquialsm? Pasar - pass llegar - to get Loosely: Good boys, pass on/for me the whore mother, brilliant, it takes 20 minutes of get to house. Or looselier: “fuck this noise, that was great, I gotta go.” ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2012, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-crude-spanish-translation-question/622208/4 "2012-05-17T15:39:59Z")
“Pasarla de la puta madre” is a colloquialism for “having a good time”. “que hijo de puta” (what a son of a bitch) can be an insult or a compliment in colloquial argentinian, we are weird that way 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2012, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-crude-spanish-translation-question/622208/5 "2012-05-17T15:46:36Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > “bueno chicos,me lo pase de puta madre,genial,hace 20 minutos qe llegue a casa” > puta madre = whore mother, but Google insists it means fucking, so maybe a colloquialsm? > Pasar - pass > llegar - to get > > Loosely: > Good boys, pass on/for me the whore mother, brilliant, it takes 20 minutes of get to house. > > Or looselier: > “fuck this noise, that was great, I gotta go.” Not sure where you learned Spanish, but _llegar_ means to arrive. And while you can sometimes use “get” in English to mean “arrive”, it usually means “to obtain”. Your loose translation makes no sense at all. Is that just a google translate effort? ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2012, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-crude-spanish-translation-question/622208/6 "2012-05-17T16:17:53Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Not sure where you learned Spanish, but _llegar_ means to arrive. And while you can sometimes use “get” in English to mean “arrive”, it usually means “to obtain”. > > Your loose translation makes no sense at all. Is that just a google translate effort? A more ordinary word in Spanish for “get” as a verb would be obtener (obviously related to the English word “obtain”). You might also be able to get away with tomar (to take) depending on the specific nuances. The “qe” is probably a misspelling of “que”. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2012, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-crude-spanish-translation-question/622208/7 "2012-05-17T16:22:59Z")
Maybe this: > [@An Argentinian](#): > > Hi friends, I had a ridiculously good time, got home 20 minutes ago. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2012, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-crude-spanish-translation-question/622208/8 "2012-05-17T17:14:11Z")
Idiomatic expressions, **TriPolar** has the correct (clean) version. Not clean, it does indeed translate to “Well pals, I had a fucking great time, got home 20 minutes ago”. “De puta madre” can indeed translate (as an expression) to “awesome”. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2012, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-crude-spanish-translation-question/622208/9 "2012-05-17T17:19:03Z")
My source says the word ‘genial’ is the clue to the pleasant evaluation of ‘de puta madre’. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2012, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-crude-spanish-translation-question/622208/10 "2012-05-17T17:31:10Z")
Yep, _genial_ is like great. Technically, closer to genious, but people don’t usually yell genious when things are going great (other than mad scientists). ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2012, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-crude-spanish-translation-question/622208/11 "2012-05-17T17:33:00Z")
interesting, I could not recall what the eact transaltion of “llegar” was and Google says “get”. I assume they want it to mean, as in “get (there)”? Sorry, yes, now I remember “hace 20 minutos” means “it makes 20 minutes… (since)” So “I got home 20 minutes ago” is probably the best translation? I assume in idiom, casa translates better as “home” than “house”? Is there such a distinction in Spanish? A loose literal translation often makes little sense; especially where colloquial expresions are concerned, and especially raunchy ones. The corect grammar IIRC would be Bueno_ **s** _ chicos, but that means “good boys,” while likely the idiom he is using is "good, boys, " As in “[That was] good, guys,…” – _“People called Romans, they go house”???_ ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2012, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-crude-spanish-translation-question/622208/12 "2012-05-17T19:56:55Z")
The correct answer, by a native speaker, was given in post #2. Offering up a “loose translation” from Google Translate is only going to confuse the issue. Especially since the OP has already tried something like that and failed. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2012, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-crude-spanish-translation-question/622208/13 "2012-05-17T19:58:44Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > Sounds like Current Argentinian Spanish, I would translate it as “Ok, boys, I had a great time, cool, got home 20 minutes ago” Thanks, that’s what I’ll go with! Joe ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2012, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-crude-spanish-translation-question/622208/14 "2012-05-17T20:09:56Z")
> [@wheresgeorge04](#): > > Thanks, that’s what I’ll go with! > > Joe You’re welcome, the “genial” that I translated as “cool” effectively applies to the “great time” part of the sentence as \*\*TriPolar \*\* says, perhaps a better but less literal translation wold be (taking some ideas from that post) would be “ok boys, I had a ridiculously good time, got home 20 minutes ago.” ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2012, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-crude-spanish-translation-question/622208/15 "2012-05-17T22:10:38Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > The corect grammar IIRC would be Bueno_ **s** _ chicos, but that means “good boys,” while likely the idiom he is using is "good, boys, " As in “[That was] good, guys,…” No, it’s not ‘idiom’: bueno is an adverb, it means ‘well’, another thing that the initial google translate got right and that was then repeated by the native speaker who came into the thread. Seriously, **md2000** , there’s so many people on the dope that actually speak Spanish, why must you inject your speculations and confuse everything? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2012, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-crude-spanish-translation-question/622208/16 "2012-05-17T22:28:01Z")
> [@Svejk\_1](#): > > No, it’s not ‘idiom’: bueno is an adverb, it means ‘well’, another thing that the initial google translate got right and that was then repeated by the native speaker who came into the thread. Seriously, **md2000** , there’s so many people on the dope that actually speak Spanish, why must you inject your speculations and confuse everything? Let me nit pick this since we’ve got several words here that mean different things in different contexts. Yes, _bueno_ here means “well”, but only in the sense that well can mean “OK”, and when it does, it isn’t an adverb. It’s being used more as an interjection. _Bien_ is the adverb meaning well, with _bueno_ being the adjective meaning good. Which I’m sure you know. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-crude-spanish-translation-question/622208/17 "2012-05-18T03:12:42Z")
Bear in mind, people, as stated in the OP, this is a Facebook post - I can barely decipher some of those from people I know, in English… Joe ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-crude-spanish-translation-question/622208/18 "2012-05-18T07:48:04Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > I assume in idiom, casa translates better as “home” than “house”? Is there such a distinction in Spanish? _Una casa_ vs _mi casa_. One is a house, the other one is my home (which may or may not be a house). The distinction is a problem for me in English sometimes: my home is a flat, but if I call it an apartment, then Americans get a different idea of what it means socially; if I call it a condo, that’s got a different legal setup; if I call it a flat, the Brist understand me just fine but many Americans don’t, and if I call it a house, people ask me about my gardening… Many times, the only thing telling you which one are people talking about is context; often, people add clarification: \*Estamos buscando casa, pero es que no queremos un piso ni un adosado, queremos una casa exenta, pero tampoco un chalet. \* We’re looking to buy a home, but we don’t want a flat or a townhouse, we want a house but not a big one either. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-crude-spanish-translation-question/622208/19 "2012-05-18T10:46:28Z")
Spanish has a distinction, _casa_ is usually house, while _hogar_ is usually home. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-crude-spanish-translation-question/622208/20 "2012-05-18T12:29:08Z")
But _hogar_ is also a fireplace/cooking fire, so a different possible confussion. In Spain _hogar_ is a word that’s used more in poetic situations than in everyday speech; in my part of Spain it’s more likely to mean the cooking fires than the home. _Lar_ has the two meanings of home and fireplace/cooking fire, as well. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-crude-spanish-translation-question/622208.md?page=2)