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Spanish Word of the Day: 'Chapuza'

The Local Spain
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Spanish Word of the Day: 'Chapuza'
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Chapuza is a word that should be used with extreme caution, as you could cause serious offense if you use it to refer to someone's work!

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So, what does it mean?

Chapuza as an adjective can be used to refer to a “mess”, an “botched or shoddy job”,  or "swindle or trick”. Here are some examples:

  • Todo lo que haces es una chapuza!

         Everything you do is shoddy!

 

  • No podemos entregar esta chapuza.

        We can't hand in this botched job.

 

  • El tío tenía muchas ganas de e hizo chapuza en el juego.

        The guy really wanted to win and resorted to playing dirty tricks.

 

The verb chapuzar is to put your head under water or to go head first into water:

  • Chapuzó el plato en el fregadero

       He dunked the plate in the sink

Pronunciation

cha-pu-tha

t∫apu'θaɾ

 

Check out our other word of the day posts

This word of the day has been contributed by LAE Madrid, the leading Spanish academy in Madrid. Accredited by the Insitituto Cervantes, it offers Spanish courses for all levels and also has Spanish classes for kids and familiesRead their blog for more Spanish!

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