Curiosities of Salamanca: its people speech and way of being

Like anywhere else, the inhabitants of Salamanca have acquired certain expressions and customs that accompany us in our daily life. Sometimes they are temporary but others are here to stay. We would like to share with you some of these expressions and customs that are typically “charras” (a way of saying “from Salamanca”). How many did you already know?
(For those of you studying Spanish, those forms that are said in Salamanca but are wrong in standard Spanish have been marked with *):

  1. Before leaving our home, we always wonder: "¿He candado?” (instead of “¿He cerrado?”). We cannot leave until we know that we have locked the door.
  2. We do not use meters to measure distance, we say that something that is paquí*, pahí* o pallí* (instead of “aquí”, “ahí” and “allí”).
  3. If we are lucky enough to remember what we dreamt last night and we want to tell someone about that dream, we start the sentence this way: Ayer me* soñé... (instead of “Ayer soñé…”).
  4. We do not drop things, we “fall” them: "Ten cuidado, que caes* la botella" (instead of “Ten cuidado que tiras la botella”).
  5. If we want to get as quick as possible somewhere, we do not take the longest way as it takes too much time. “Atrochamos”, meaning that we take the shortest path.
  6. If we want to eat something watching a film, for instance, we do not buy “gominolas” but “galguerías” or “galgás*”.
  7. If you go to a shop, everyone refers to each other as “mi niño” or “mi niña”.
  8. We boast of having the best Spanish: “¡El mejor español de España!”.
  9. During winter, we do not use an “abrigo”, but a “chambergo”.
  10. During the festivals of the city, we like going to the “coches chocones*” while in the rest of Spain everybody goes to the “coches de choque”.
  11. We like being called “charros”.
  12. When we eat “hornazo” (typical food of Salamanca), sometimes “nos añusgamos” because we try to eat too much in one bite!
  13. If we say that we are “armando”, we are not getting ready to go to war or something like that: we are just having fun doing anything!
  14. When we eat delicious “chocolate con churros” but we get our face a little bit dirty, we have “berretes” on our face that we try to clean with our own tongue!
  15. In Salamanca we have “chochos”, a typical sweet but a weird way to call it from the rest of Spaniards…
  16. Sometimes we eat “perronillas*” instead of “perrunillas”, that of course are far more delicious!
  17. If you are talking to someone from Salamanca and he/she says “¿Lo qué?*”, it means they have not understood you and they are asking you to repeat.
  18. Children from Salamanca do not use “calcomanías” on their skin, but “calcamonías*” (though they are pretty similar!).
  19. If after a day of shopping, we arrive home and we discover that the clothes we bought don’t suit us very well… we need to go back to the shop to “descambiarlo” (“cambiarlo” is not enough for us).
  20. Even if we know that “día” is masculine and “medio” in “mediodía” (midday) is masculine too, we say “la* mediodía” (lunchtime, that can be at two o’clock or even three!).


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