Qué onda güey

To be honest, I can't believe I haven't posted about this a long time ago.

If you spend any significant amount of time in México socializing with the people, or even here in the US, this is a phrase you can't escape from.  It's virtually a staple of Méxican spanish.

When I go to Mexico, I spend 3-5 days in las calles (the streets) and bares (bars) talking with anyone and everyone.  And talking to the taxistas (cab drivers) is just as fun, if not more so.  But most of the language they teach me belongs on my other blog.  But I digress.  Getting back to the subject at hand, walking up and down the streets of Tijuana, I can't walk two steps without hearing these words, especially "güey".

Let's start with  "Qué onda".  It means "what's up?".  "Güey" means dude, and you will likely see it written as buey as well.  The real definition of "güey" is Ox, as in the animal.  "Qué onda"  literally is "what wave?".  Best to just remember it as "what's up".  Both of these are very informal, but very common as well. 


 "Qué onda" is pretty straight-forward, I only have one other thing to add about the expression.   A few hand gestures and a change in the tone of your voice and "Qué onda güey" goes from "what's up" to "You got a problem dude?". 

OK, so now let's talk about "güey".  

So, who uses  the word "güey"?  This one's easy, everybody.  Guys say it to guys, girls say it to girls, and guys say it to girls. Literally everyone uses this term, regardless of age.

How else can we use the word "güey"?  Here's a couple of examples...

Qué pasa güey , qué haces güey, cómo estás güey, llamame güey.

I think you get the picture.  You can use it in the same manner as you would "dude"  in English.   

 Now, while it's true a montón (ton) of people use the word "güey", not everybody likes it.  My maestra is one of those people, and quite surprisingly, she's only 23.  So, like always, exercise a bit of caution.

Well, that's it.  Use the words "Qué onda güey", and you are going to sound "muy Méxicano".

¡Hasta la próxima!