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Hello whopper

I was in the very early stages of learning Spanish and was walking down a street in Valencia when a local man passed me and said hola guapa. I gave him a look of contempt, ignored him and carried on walking. I thought guapa was a Spanish word for 'fat', because it sounded a bit like 'whopper'. Only a year later did I realise he actually said 'hello beautiful'. So whoever he was - ¡lo siento!

Sent by: Sam

Comments

boquerona, london 2011-07-20

"Guapa" is a "piropo" in Spain.
If a stranger calls you "guapa" in Spain, he is trying to have a chat with you= "ligar contigo", to pull in English.

Among friends, and depending on the tone of the voice,and the region it could mean different things, as "hi guys" or "hi love".
If angry similar to "hey you" (this is a more common use in the Madrid area)

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Gabriel, Chile 2010-10-30

Guapa is actually flirtatious if you don't know the person who's saying it to you...

If he/she is someone you know... well... it's just a common way of addressing among friends. (Only in Spain, in Latin America, it's not common)

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Heidi, Finland 2010-01-01

Actually, in Spanish the phrase "hola, guapa" does not necessarily carry any flirtatious meanings.

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Elaine Smith 2008-09-08

Many years ago, with limited Spanish, I walked into a bakers to ask for a cake. Not knowing the word for cake, I mistakenly used the French word gateau. The baker looked at me strangely before explaining that in fact I had just ordered a cat (gato)! The problem was I made it worse by saying Lo siento, estoy muy embarazada (thinking I had said sorry, I am so embarrassed). I found out later that embarazada means pregnant - so goodness knows what he thought of me!

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Susana 2008-09-29

Guapa is the same as pretty, beautiful, attractive.

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