Qué guay!

Posted by: willson

Qué guay! - 11/18/03 10:26 AM

What is this expression? Pronounced, approximately as... "Kay Wy".
I hang out with a bunch of people and this term/exclamation comes up quite constantly. Seems to be an expression of pleasure; "how nice"; "cool" or something of that sort. My dictionaries and online searches have yielded no results as of yet.
Anyone familiar with it and it's 'proper' usage?
If so... "Qué guay!" ... & let me know too.
Posted by: MadridMan

Re: Qué guay! - 11/18/03 10:50 AM

Oh! Me! Me!

"¡Qué guay!" is just as you expected. It means "How cool!" It's pronounced just as it looks. Like .. Hmm... the letter "K" and g+why". Seems that only younger people (20s and younger) use this expression. While not certain, I think it's a relatively new thing that came up in the last 10-15 years or so.

Simply put: It's slang. I've only heard it as an exclamation like, as you said "¡Qué guay!" and rarely, if ever, as simply "¡Guay!".

Saludos, MadridMan cool
Posted by: PFitz

Re: Qué guay! - 11/18/03 08:50 PM

just to confirm...being of the 20's and under crowd I hear this expression ALL the time. I personally like it a lot an use it a lot, however I think it is a 'spain thing' in that I've used it while speaking with my friends in Argentina & Chile and I always get a "qué??" At any rate, very 'lengua de la calle' and I wouldn't use it in any formal situation.
PFitz
Posted by: Chica

Re: Qué guay! - 11/19/03 04:32 AM

Quote:
think it's a relatively new thing that came up in the last 10-15 years or so.
Actually, this expression was all the rage when I was here studying 16 years ago...so my guess is that it was new 15-20 years ago. wink
Posted by: willson

Re: Qué guay! - 11/20/03 09:16 AM

Can anyone recommend an especially good Spanish-slang dictionary?