Spanish word of the week: charlatán

a profile of a man with lots of squiggly arrows coming out of his mouth

charlatán ADJECTIVE chatty

If you translate charlatán as it sounds you might think someone described that way was a bit suspect. It can have the same meaning as in English, but it’s often used just to describe someone who talks a lot:

Estaba charlatana y alegre. She was chatty and happy.

It comes from the verb charlar to chat:

Me puse a charlar con ella. I started chatting to her.

And from the same root we get una charla, meaning either a chat, or a talk at a conference, congress and so forth:

Después de mi charla con papá me sentí muchísimo mejor. After my chat with dad I felt much better.

Dio una charla sobre Buda. He gave a talk on the Buddha.

Come back next week to learn a new word!

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