Spanish · Exclamations (You Dropped Your Phone)
¡Chin!
CHEEN · /tʃin/
Darn! / Shoot!
1/5 Grandma-safe
mild, playful; fine on daytime TV
Literally
"(minced 'chingada')"
Word-for-word — which is rarely what it means.
How to use it
The polite off-ramp from "chingada" — you feel the curse coming and land on the harmless "chin" instead, like "sugar!" for the other word. Grandma-safe, instantly Mexican, and handy when you drop something in mixed company.
Heard in the wild
¡Chin, se me olvidaron las llaves!
Shoot, I forgot the keys!
Where it lands
Mexico (universal)
Quick answers
- What does "¡Chin!" mean?
- In Spanish, "¡Chin!" means "Darn! / Shoot!". Literally it's "(minced 'chingada')". The polite off-ramp from "chingada" — you feel the curse coming and land on the harmless "chin" instead, like "sugar!" for the other word. Grandma-safe, instantly Mexican, and handy when you drop something in mixed company.
- Is "¡Chin!" offensive?
- It's on the mild end — 1/5 (Grandma-safe) on the Punch-o-Meter. mild, playful; fine on daytime TV.
- How do you pronounce "¡Chin!"?
- Say it "CHEEN" — capitals mark the stressed syllable. In IPA: tʃin.
Related in Spanish
¡No mames! noh MAH-mess No way! / You've got to be kidding me! ¡No manches! noh MAHN-chess No way! / Come on! (the polite twin of no mames) ¡Órale! OH-rah-leh Alright! / Wow! / Let's go! / Get on with it! ¿Neta? NEH-tah For real? / Seriously? — or as a statement, 'the honest truth' ¡Híjole! EE-hoh-leh Yikes / oof / wow / uh-oh ¡Carajo! kah-RAH-hoh Damn it! / hell
The same idea, elsewhere
Via concepts like "Damn".
- French Putain ! Damn! / F***! / The all-purpose intensifier — punctuation, really
- German Scheiße! Shit! / Damn! — the all-purpose German expletive
- Greek γαμώτο Damn it! / Dammit!
- Italian Cazzo! Fuck! / Damn! / The all-purpose Italian curse.
- Japanese くそ Damn! / Crap! / Shit!
- Korean 씨발 Fuck / fucking hell — the load-bearing Korean curse.
- Polish kurwa Fuck / damn / shit — the load-bearing word of Polish, and its most common comma.
- Portuguese Porra! Damn! / Fuck! — but mostly used as pure punctuation
Reviewed by native speakers. Rate it differently? Tell us what we got wrong.