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Doin' It Doggy Style: Chilean Animal Slang

Michael Walsh → Designer, Developer, Writer | Villarrica, Chile… February 9, 2026
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Table of Contents

  • Chile: Top to Bottom, With A Barn For Good Measure
  • All The World's An Animal

Chile: Top to Bottom, With A Barn For Good Measure

Chile is certainly a study in contrasts; bone-dry desert, freezing Patagonia, and everything in between. Anyone visiting Chile from abroad will quickly learn three things about Chile's Spanish (another contrast from Spanish elsewhere)

  1. Chileans speak very fast
  2. Chileans do not heed "standard" grammatical rules
  3. Chileans idiomatically summon animals in everyday speech - a lot. :)

So I thought it would be fun to share some here, along with what their English equivalent would be (more or less)

All The World's An Animal

In Chile Translation English Idiom
Más cagado que palo gallinero Screwed / Totally in trouble Up the creek / Fucked
Fuiste al chancho You went overboard / Exaggerated Went overboard / Went too far
Pasarlo chancho To have a great time / Enjoy fully Have a blast / Have a whale of a time
Una persona vaca Person who is boring or dull Drag / Snooze
Perro pa’ la pega Hardworking / Dedicated Workaholic / Hard worker
Perro envenenado Stuffed full / Completely full Stuffed / Full
Un condoro To make a huge mistake Big blunder / Major screw-up
Ser sapo To be a snitch or tattletale Snitch / Tell-tale
Hacerse la mosca muerta To pretend to be innocent or harmless Play dumb / Play innocent
Más tonto que perro nuevo Extremely stupid / Naive Dumb as a post / Clueless
Buscarle la quinta pata al gato To overcomplicate something simple Split hairs / Make a mountain out of a molehill
Le pasaron gato por liebre To be tricked or swindled Get ripped off / Swindled
Ser vaca To be disloyal or mean-spirited Snake / Two-faced
Curado como piojo Very drunk Wasted / Hammered
Hacer perro muerto To skip out on a bill or not pay Dine and dash / Skip out

I hope this list is entertaining. Not sure, though, if it should be useful. :)

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