Free to join
CommunityPura vida, together.
Spanish sticks when you use it with real people. Our Facebook group is where students ask questions, swap tico slang and keep talking between lessons — and you can join before your first class.
Facebook group · Free
Catch the wave with other students
Learning a language alone is slow. In the group you'll find people learning the same Spanish as you — the one with mae, tuanis and ¿diay?
- Ask the questions you don't want to save for class
- Share your progress — and your best mistakes
- Practise real tico Spanish outside the lessons
Free · Opens Facebook in a new tab
Every tiquismo
Pura vida /PU-ra VI-da/
The most Costa Rican phrase there is. It works as hello, goodbye, thank you, «all good» and «no worries». Tone decides which one you are getting.
«— ¿Cómo está? — ¡Pura vida!»
Read the full article →Mae /MA-e/
The Costa Rican «dude» or «mate». Used to address someone casually, and also as filler inside a sentence. Among friends it shows up in nearly every line.
«Mae, ¿vamos a la playa el sábado?»
Tuanis /TUA-nis/
Cool, great, nice. It describes things, plans and people. It is one of the words that most clearly marks someone as having learned Spanish in Costa Rica.
«Qué tuanis que viniste.»
¿Diay? /DIAI/
It comes from «de ahí» (from there). It is a question, a filler and a shrug all at once: «so?», «what happened?», «well, what can you do».
«¿Diay, qué le pasó?»
Brete /BRE-te/
Work, a job. «Bretear» means to work. It is everyday vocabulary: in casual conversation you will hear it more often than «trabajo».
«Mañana no puedo, tengo brete.»
Chunche /CHUN-che/
Thing, gadget, that thing whose name escapes you. It works for any object, and it is the word that saves you when your vocabulary runs out.
«Pasame ese chunche, por favor.»
Read the full article →Güila /GÜI-la/
Kid, child. It is informal and affectionate, and it is used for any gender even though the word ends in -a.
«Esa güila habla tres idiomas.»
Pulpería /pul-pe-RÍ-a/
The small neighbourhood shop where you buy day-to-day things. Not a supermarket: it is the corner store where you also catch up on everything happening nearby.
«Voy a la pulpería por pan.»