In the Dominican Republic we call them guineos (prounounced ghee-neh-ohs). Turns out it’s because many other Spanish speaking countries refer to BANANAS as plátanos. I was severely confused the first time I ever saw sweets that were plátano flavoured. “So-and-so is broke that guy never has any money.” 3. “Fulanito es un muerto de hambre ese tipo nunca tiene cuarto.” This word which means room or fourth in “standard” Spanish means money in Dominican slang. Who doesn’t want some cualtos (the “r” is pronounced like an “l” in some region).

Daniel es guapo él siempre está peleando.ĭaniel is aggressive/brave he’s always fighting. Claudia está guapa porque su novio no se acordó de su aniversario.Ĭlaudia is upset because her boyfriend didn’t remember their anniversary.Ģ. The expression comes from the now “obsolete” verb guapear which means to act tough or brave.ġ.

While a Dominican will understand what you mean if you use it this way, for us, guapo, means angry when paired with the verb ESTAR and brave or someone who is always ready for a fight when paired with the verb SER. Most people are used to this adjective meaning that someone is handsome or good-looking. Guapo is a word that trips up a lot of visitors to the Dominican Republic. Use them to add some Dominican sazón to your Spanish! 1. So without further ado, here are four words that don’t mean what you think here in the DR. These dominicanismos can confuse even the most advanced Spanish student who is used to hearing these words in different contexts. Like any language, Spanish is subject to regional peculiarities, in the Dominican Republic we’ve adopted Taíno (indigenous) and African words and we’ve also repurposed Spanish words in some pretty interesting ways. Today we’re going to talk about d ominicanismos or the words, expressions, and phrases that are common and unique to Spanish spoken in the Dominican Republic.

I am brave in spanish