Spanish word of the week: callarse

11th May 2021

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

callarse VERB to stop talking; to keep quiet

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

Cuando entró el profesor, 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.

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!

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