¿Así?

One simple word, comprised of just three letters.   It's amazing how something that seems so simple can be so deceptive.

To be honest, I really don't remember learning much at all about the word así in any of my Spanish books.  It's (yet another) one of those words that I picked up somewhere along the way.  With that said, let's take a closer look at the word así.

By itself, así can have several meanings:

¿Como lo hago?  ¿Así?
How do I do it?  Like this?

You could also just simply say: 

¿Así?
Like this?

Here's where things can get a little tricky.  ¿Así? Doesn't always mean "Like this".

It can also mean "Like that".

¿Como lo hago? ¿Así?
How do I do it? Like this?

Sí, así.
Yes, like that.

No me hablas así
Don't talk to me like that

No seas así
Don't be like that

No hablas así de mi novia
Don't talk like that about my girlfriend

If you're in the throws of passion, así will definitely come in handy.

Asi me gusta papi
That's how I like it baby

Así papi, así
Like that baby, like that

But  wait, there's more.

Not surprisingly, you can pair up así with other words to make it take on whole new meaning.  What may actually come as a surprise  is that you can pair así with itself.

¿Cómo estás?
Así así.  Me duele la cabeza

How are you?
So-so. I've got a headache.

¿Cómo estuvo la comida?
Así así. 

How was the food
So-so

Así así isn't known by all Spanish speakers, but at some point you might hear it.  Mas o menos is universal and has the same meaning.

There's also así es.

Me dijieron que compraste una casa nueva
Así es

They told me you bought a new house
That's right

There's así de.

Estuvo así de cerca de comprar un iPhone
I was this close to buying a iPhone

Solo oprimes esta tecla. Así de fácil
You just press this key. It's that easy.

You could also say:

Asi de simple
It's just that simple

If you like to go fishing and you need to convince your friends of exactly how big that trout was, you can say:

Te lo juro, era así de grande
I swear it was this big

Let's not forget así que, which means "so".

No tengo dinero encima asi que necesito ir al banco
I don't have any money on me so I need to go the bank

And here's one more that's actually a bit tricky.


Manuel no puede ir al cine, está castigado
¿Ah, si?

Manuel can't go to the movies, he's grounded
Really?


Although our response was ah, sí it sounds just like así. Don't feel bad if you can't tell the difference, I didn't catch it the first couple of times either.  In fact, unless the speaker makes a significant pause, it's almost impossible to tell the difference.

Ya.  That's it.  There are probably even more ways to use así, but if you master these you'll have people thinking you were born speaking Spanish.

¡Hasta luego!