Spanish word of the week: callarse

This week’s Spanish word of the week is callarse.

Callarse is a verb that means to stop talking or to keep quiet. You can listen to the pronunciation of callarse in the audio clip below:

function playAudio(url) { new Audio(url).play(); }

Callarse is the reflexive form of the verb callar. The basic idea behind callarse is that of ‘not talking’:

Cuando entró la profesora, todos nos callamos. When the teacher came in we all stopped talking.

Me callé lo que ya sabía. I kept quiet about what I already knew.

Lo mejor que podemos hacer es callarnos. The best thing we can do is keep quiet.

You can use it to tell people to be quiet:

¡Cállense, por favor! Please be quiet!

But callarse la boca is rather informal:

¡Cállate la boca! Shut up!

Come back next week for another insight into Spanish vocabulary!

Other Articles

Spanish words of the week: foco or foca?

Today we look at two more Spanish nouns which are identical in form apart from their endings but whose meanings are very different. These are foco (masculine) and foca (feminine). Foco (masculine) is the commoner of the two and has many more meanings. You can listen… Read More

Spanish words of the week: paso or pasa?

It’s that time of the week when we step into the world of potentially confusable Spanish nouns and separate out how a particular pair is used. Today it’s the turn of paso (masculine) and pasa (feminine). Read More

Spanish words of the week: palma or palmo?

It’s that time of the week when we seek to get the measure of two more similar-looking Spanish nouns and how they are used. These are palma (feminine) and palmo (masculine). Read More