Che (Spanish)

Che (Spanish)

Che (, Portuguese: tchê, ; Valencian: xe, ) is a Spanish diminutive interjection (a vocative expression) commonly used in Argentina and Uruguay. It is a form of colloquial slang used in a vocative sense as "friend", and thus loosely corresponds to expressions such as "mate", "pal", "man", "bro", or "dude", as used by various English speakers. As a result, it may be used both before or after a phrase: "Man, this is some good beer", or "Let's go get a beer, bro." It can be added to an explicit vocative to call the attention, playing the role of "Hey", for instance: "Che, Pedro, ¡mirá!", "Hey, Pedro, look!". Che is also utilized as a casual speech filler or punctuation to ascertain comprehension, continued interest, or agreement. Thus che can additionally function much like the English words "so", "right", or the common Canadian phrase "eh".

Che can also be found in some parts of Paraguay, Brazil ("tchê"), Peru, and Bolivia, as a result of their close vicinity to Argentina. In other Latin American countries, the term che can be used to refer to someone from Argentina. For example, the famous Argentine revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara earned his nickname from his frequent use of the expression, which to his Cuban comrades in the Cuban Revolution, was a curious feature of his idiolect. As a result, Guevara is popularly known simply as el Che (the Che) in many Latin American countries.