Puerto Rican Slang Quiz: How Boricua Are You?

This Puerto Rican slang quiz is ten questions long, and four years of school Spanish won't save you. School taught you how to ask where the library is. Nobody at a backyard party in Carolina has asked that since about 1987, and they won't start tonight while the speaker is still going.

Half is island slang. Half is Spanglish, which is English wearing a Spanish ending. Every answer comes with a short note on what the word means and who you'd hear saying it, usually a cousin, sometimes your grandma. Your score comes out in fancy fonts at the end.

What Does Boricua Mean?

It's what Puerto Ricans call themselves. The word comes from Borikén, the name the Taíno people gave the island long before the Spanish ships showed up in 1493. People wear it with pride. You'll see it on flags, shirts and car bumpers from San Juan to the Bronx. Even the island's anthem, La Borinqueña, takes its name from the same old word, and you'll hear it before every Puerto Rico game at the World Baseball Classic.

Your score tells you how Boricua your words are. Zero to three makes you a turista. Four to six means you're still learning, so aprendiendo. Seven or eight is casi Boricua, close enough that abuela lets you in the kitchen. Nine or ten? Boricua de pura cepa, the real deal.

Puerto Rican Slang Words

Most lists online just dump forty words in alphabetical order. That's no use at a party. These are the ones you'll actually hear in your first hour, roughly in the order you'll hear them. If you only learn five, make it wepa, pana, chavos, guagua and dime, because those will get you through a family party, a bus ride and a trip to the bakery.

Word	What it means	Example
wepa	yay, woo, let's go	¡Wepa! Ganamos. (Woo! We won.)
¿qué es la que hay?	what's up?	Dime, ¿qué es la que hay?
dime	hey, what's up	Dime, pana.
pana	friend	Ese es mi pana. (That's my friend.)
corillo	your group of friends	Salgo con el corillo.
broki	bro	¿Qué pasó, broki?
janguear	to hang out	Vamos a janguear hoy.
chavos	money	No tengo chavos. (I'm broke.)
pelao	broke	Estoy pelao hasta el viernes.
guagua	bus	Coge la guagua.
zafacón	trash can	Bótalo en el zafacón.
china	orange (the fruit)	Un jugo de china, por favor.
brutal	awesome	Ese concierto estuvo brutal.
ay, bendito	aww, poor thing	Ay, bendito, se le cayó el helado.
jeva	girl, girlfriend	Él vino con su jeva.
nene, nena	kid, or babe	El nene tiene hambre.
acho	man, ugh (a sigh)	Acho, qué calor.

Puerto Rican Words vs Mexican Words

Same language, very different grocery list. A Mexican and a Boricua can talk for an hour and still get stuck on the bus, the beans and what to call the thing you throw your trash in.

Thing	Puerto Rico	Mexico
bus	guagua	camión
money	chavos	lana
orange	china	naranja
trash can	zafacón	bote de basura
beans	habichuelas	frijoles
jeans	mahones	pantalones de mezclilla
cool	brutal	chido

Coming from the Mexican side? The Mexican slang translator has the other half of this table.

The Questions That Trip People Up

China gets everybody. School Spanish says china is a Chinese woman. In a San Juan bakery it's an orange, and jugo de china is what's in the glass next to your quesito. Nobody stops to explain.

Pana is sneakier. It's your friend, and it's also breadfruit, the heavy green thing that drops off backyard trees and lands like a bowling ball on the zinc roof of the shed next door. So "your bread" is only half wrong.

Guagua can go really wrong. In Chile a guagua is a baby. Tell a Chilean friend to go catch the guagua at the corner and watch their face while they try to work out whose baby you mean.

Is Spanglish a Real Language?

Not on its own, no. Linguists call it code-switching, and it has rules, which is why a two-language ear can tell right away when someone swaps languages in the wrong spot. The U.S. took Puerto Rico in 1898. English came in through schools and army bases, and English verbs picked up Spanish endings along the way. Parquear. Janguear. Printear, for when the office printer jams again.

Show Off Your Score

Your result comes back in four fancy fonts, ready for an Instagram story or a WhatsApp status. Need more? The Instagram fonts generator has plenty.

Bombed it? Drop an English text into the Puerto Rican Spanish translator and it hands it back with chavos and pana where they belong. The Spanglish translator does the half-and-half mix. Got a roommate from Medellín? There's a Colombian Spanish translator too.

Puerto Rican Slang Questions People Ask

What does wepa mean? Yay! It's the cheer for a home run, a new baby, or the DJ finally putting on Bad Bunny.

What is Puerto Rican slang for friend? Pana. Your closest one is your panita, and the group chat is the corillo.

What is Puerto Rican slang for bro? Broki. Brother, Boricua style. Reggaetón songs throw it around every other line.

What is Puerto Rican slang for girl? Jeva. That's a girl or a girlfriend. Nena works for a little girl, and also for a grown woman someone's sweet on.

How do you say what's up in Puerto Rican slang? Dime. The long version is "¿qué es la que hay?" and the right answer is "aquí, tranquilo," even if your day is a mess.

Every quiz is on the quizzes page. For the history behind the accent, see Puerto Rican Spanish on Wikipedia.