Havana Nights: The Cuban Spanish Lessons You Need for Authentic Island Fun

If you want to learn how to speak Spanish like a Cuban, you’ve come to the right place!

Cuba is a true fusion of African and European influences. It also uses a lot of vibrant slang—making it a wonderful challenge for the more advanced Spanish learner to master.

This dialect is a great introduction to the diversity of the Spanish language for anyone who’s traveling to Cuba or who has Cuban friends.

Let’s get started with these tips and tricks for your brand-new Cuban adventure!

Contents

• Cuban Spanish 101
• • Pronunciation and Speech
  • Provinces and Language Differences
  • Cuban Spanish Grammar
  • Cuban Slang Overview
  • Basic Spanish Knowledge
• 23 Key Cuban Slang Words
• • 1. Absorbente
  • 2. Aguajirarse
  • 3. ¡Alabao!
  • 4. Ambia 
  • 5. Bachata
  • 6. Baracutey 
  • 7. Baro
  • 8. Burumba
  • 9. Caché
  • 10. Candela al jarro
  • 11. Chola
  • 12. Coger un aire
  • 13. Dar la punzada del guajiro
  • 14. Darse tremendo tanganazo
  • 15. De carretilla
  • 16. Drinqui
  • 17. Echar un tacón
  • 18. Emperifollado
  • 19. Fachao
  • 20. Jugar a los bomberos
  • 21. Machacar las teclas
  • 22. Vacilón
  • 23. Zurdo

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Cuban Spanish 101

Pronunciation and Speech

Much of Cuban speech can be seen as informal, a feature of most Caribbean Spanish varieties. Here are some of the relaxed pronunciations you might come across:

• If a syllable ends in r or l, the sound becomes the same as the first sound of the next syllable. This might sound confusing, but it’s a really easy one in practice. For example, Carlitos becomes Cal-li-tos. 

• If d is at the beginning of a syllable within a word, it might not be said at all, e.g. dedo (finger) is pronounced dé-o.

• S at the end of a syllable is often aspirated, and occasionally it’s omitted altogether.

• Occasionally, r becomes l at the end of a syllable or end of a word.

• Consonants at the beginnings of syllables are often spoken more softly than usual Spanish pronunciation dictates.

One of the main differences you’ll find between Cuban Spanish and general Latin American Spanish is the nasal accent and rhythmic intonation. This is the influence of African settlers on the language and makes it sound very different from most other Spanish varieties.

Provinces and Language Differences

Cuba has sixteen provinces in modern day. Linguistically speaking, it’s less complicated to consider the historical six provinces of Cuba. These are:

• Pinar del Río — Here you’re most likely to hear r become l at the end of a word or syllable, and occasionally the other way around. This can be hard to understand, so you might have to train your ear to it.

• La Habana — Occasionally, speakers may be heard to speak as in Pinar del Río. The rest of the island outside of Havana is also referred to as campa in Havana.

• Mantanzas and Las Villas — These two provinces in the middle of Cuba have no special Cuban dialect.

• Camagüey — This place has some of the different vocabulary of the Oriente province but mostly follows the language of the rest of the island. They use balance instead of sillón for “rocking chair” and pluma or llave instead of faucet, which is used on the rest of the island for a tap.

• Oriente — The language here is far more similar to Dominican Republic Spanish than the rest of the island. They also have a set of vocabulary words that’s different from the rest of the Cuban island. For example, balde instead of cubo for bucket and guineo instead of plátano for banana/plantain. Here the s sound is also most likely to go unaspirated. The unusual intonation of this province may also be the last remnants of the indigenous language.

Cuban Spanish Grammar

There are some elements of Cuban Spanish grammar that are different to European and Latin American Spanish. These are some features you might want to be aware of:

• Tú comes before the verb, not after it, in a question.

Example: ¿Qué tú haces aquí? (what are you doing here?)

• Le and les become la and las when after se in a sentence.

Example: A Juana se la ve en la tienda todos los días. (Juana is seen in the store every day.)

• Decir a is used to show the start of an action.

Example: Si el niño dice a crecer, tendremos que comprarle ropa nueva. (If the boy starts to grow, we’ll have to buy him new clothes.)

• Para instead of en for saying that someone is somewhere.

Example: Carmen está para la Habana. (Carmen is in Havana.)

• The phrase ¡Cómo no! (Of course) is ¡Cómo que no! in Cuban Spanish.

• Uno (one, number or pronoun) is used instead of the indefinite article una.

Example: Está uno cansada de tanto hablar. (Is one tired of talking.)

• Más (more) comes before nada/nadie (nothing) to produce the phrase “nothing else.”

• Clarito, feo, fuerte and rapidísimo can all be used as adverbs (to describe an action) as well as adjectives (to describe a person or thing.) In European Spanish, each of these adjectives has an alternative equivalent adverb but these aren’t used in Cuban Spanish.

• -ico and -ica are used at the end of words instead of -ito and -ita to indicate a smaller or lesser version. This only applies to words ending in to/ta.

Example: Plato (plate) becomes platico (saucer.)

Cuban Slang Overview

Cuban slang, much like slang in many other languages, is a vibrant mix of constantly changing words and meanings.

Cuban slang derives some of its influences from African languages and also features quite a lot of anglicisms.

What we’ll give you has a splash of everything, and they’re all slang words that you might find useful in a Cuban club.

Basic Spanish Knowledge

Of course, you can’t just rely on slang terms and grammar to get you by in a conversation. In order to use these terms and phrases effectively, you’ll have to know basic Spanish grammar.

How do you learn it? It depends on your learning style. 

If your non-partying alter ego is willing to sit down with a textbook, then you should make one your new best friend. 

If you’re too busy to sit down at all (probably dancing instead, I bet!), try a vocab/grammar driller like Duolingo, with its “throw it at you until you get it” approach. 

You can also enjoy native music and entertainment while learning Spanish with a virtual immersion program like FluentU. This option lets you learn with engaging short videos like music videos, movie trailers, commercials and other native Spanish media.

Videos come with interactive dual-language subtitles that you can click on for any word’s contextual definition without needing to leave the video player. Keep the party going with multimedia flashcards, post-video quizzes, personalized flashcard exercise sets, downloadable transcripts and even speaking questions on the iOS and Android app versions.

Whatever you do, stick with it, because these slang words are waiting for you to be ready to use them!

23 Key Cuban Slang Words

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)