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Medulin
Tetraglot
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Croatia
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Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese
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 Message 41 of 42
28 June 2012 at 6:08pm | IP Logged 
PLATICAR in the Oxford Spanish Dictionary:

PLATICAR [A2] verbo intransitivo (especialmente América Latina) [this verb is widely used in Mexico and Central America but is literary in other areas] to talk, chat (familiar); '''platicaron de muchas cosas'' they talked about many things; ''pasa por casa para que platiquemos un rato'' drop in for a chat o so we can have a chat

 PLATICAR verbo transitivo (México) (contar) to tell; ''platícame cómo te fue en el viaje'' tell me how your trip went


PlATICAR in the Argentinian ''Diccionario integral del español de la Argentina'' (Voz Activa/Clarín):
Platicar MÉ, charlar (source:)
http://www.clarin.com/diccionario

These two dictionaries are the best (and the most accurate) dictionaries of Spanish I've found. Most dictionaries made in Spain fail to label the usage correctly (if you look at entries like LINDO and PILLAR in the RAE dictionary you can't guess that LINDO is almost never used in Spain, and that PILLAR does not mean ''to catch'' in Argentina and Uruguay, but ''to piss'' (pronounced as PEESHAHR ; Or that for the word GUAPO, the 1st ''non colloquial'' definition in RAE is the one which is used in South America, but not elsewhere. According to RAE, guapo for handsome is colloquial, but it should be: Spain , México and Central America: general Spanish of Spain and Central America, and not colloquial universal Spanish )).


GUAPO in the RAE dictionary (an example of vague lexicography):

guapo, pa.
(Del lat. vappa, vino estropeado, hombre vil, vagabundo).
1. adj. coloq. Bien parecido.
2. adj. coloq. Animoso, bizarro y resuelto, que desprecia los peligros y los acomete. U. t. c. s.
3. adj. coloq. Ostentoso, galán y lucido en el modo de vestir y presentarse.
4. adj. coloq. U. en vocativo, vacío de significado, como expresión de cariño, a veces con retintín o con tono de irritación. Cállate un poquito, guapo
5. m. Hombre pendenciero y perdonavidas.


It should be like this:

GUAPO
1. Spain, México, Central America: handsome (for men), beautiful (for women)
2. Spain, México, Central America: smart, elegant
3. Spain; colloquial: nice: un coche guapo (a nice car)
4. South America & Cuba: brave, gutsy
5. South America & Cuba; colloquial: cocky: ponerse guapo (to get cocky)
6. Chile; colloquial: tough, strict

If I were to find a universal word in Spanish for ''good-looking'', I would have to go with BONITO, but many Spaniards will say: '' We don't really use BONITO for people anymore, it sounds tacky, we use GUAPO for people, and BONITO for things (although many people are starting to use GUAPO for things as well; and we never use LINDO in Spain either for people or for things, it sounds Latin American).''. In Southern Cone, the answer is, BONITO for people is fine, but we prefer LINDO, and we never use GUAPO because GUAPO means brave, or gutsy (as in LOS GUAPOS DEL TANGO)...So, maybe we should chose HERMOSO instead of BONITO for ''good-looking'' in universal/neutral Spanish. UN HOMBRE LINDO sounds awful in Spain, but you can be sure that UN COCHE GUAPO sounds even more horrible to a South American ear. ;) It's UN AUTO LINDO (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay) or UN CARRO LINDO (Colombia).

Edited by Medulin on 28 June 2012 at 6:44pm

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Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
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Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German

 
 Message 42 of 42
28 June 2012 at 10:57pm | IP Logged 
I once got corrected by a Mexican for using "charlar" to mean "chat" (as they do in
Spain) and was told to use platicar. If I remember correctly FSI Spanish uses "conversar"
where Platiquemos uses "platicar",
2 persons have voted this message useful



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