Learn these historic phrases from Crónica TV and amaze your Argentine friends!
Crónica (now called Crónica HD) is one of the most popular TV news channels in Argentina.
It’s well known for its particular journalism style, tending to be a little bit yellow and bizarre at times, and its red breaking news screens, accompanied by the US military march ‘The Stars and Stripes Forever’.
Currently its coverages go from fights between neighbors over drug trafficking complaints, to people trying to retrieve their house from squatters, and even paranormal cases!
Along these years, Crónica has given us some of the most historic moments in the history of our TV.
And with that comes some phrases you should know to sound like a true Argentine!
Three historic phrases from Crónica TV
I recommend Crónica for students interested not only in the Argentine accent, but Spanish in general.
If we consider the scale fixed by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, which goes from A1 to C2, after C2 there would be Crónica.
Usually it’s easier to understand journalists because they speak and pronounce very clearly.
But common people that appear on Crónica coverages don’t really care about your Spanish listening skills, so it will be a challenge!
Now let’s learn some of those historic phrases from Crónica TV. I will give you the context, meaning, and how you can use them in a conversation.
Are you ready? Let’s go!
‘Se están tirando con de todo‘
This reporter was covering a demonstration in Buenos Aires when he was caught in the middle of a clash between demonstrators and the police.
First, he was hit with a stone on his ankle. That’s why you can hear him moaning, trying to keep his mouth shut to not curse live.
While the demonstrators were throwing everything in their reach -stones, bottles, sticks, etc-, the police responded with tear-gas bullets.
In that context, the reporter said his iconic phrase: se están tirando con de todo.
Actually, con de todo is an ungrammatical structure. We can only wonder what he meant by that!
Tirar means ‘to throw’ and the pronoun se expresses a reciprocal action.
Con is a preposition that means ‘using something’. Demonstrators are using everything: stones, bottles, sticks, etc. Con todo would mean that.
But con is also used to show the way in which somebody does something. In that sense, con todo means with the maximum intensity.
The prepositional phrase de todo already expresses ‘all sorts of things’, so my guess is that this reporter meant ‘people are throwing everything at each other with the maximum intensity’.
In (Argentine) Spanish it sounds better!
Contexts in which you can use it
Besides using it in the context of a fierce demonstration, Argentines use it when there’s an argument between two or more people with a lot of criticisms and insults.
Here you can read many tweets of Argentine native speakers using it!
‘Venía pisteando como un campeón’
This guy was racing his motorcycle when he ran into another vehicle that crossed his way.
The video shows him lying on the street after the accident, having been assisted by medical workers.
The reporter asked him what happened and the victim replied with another iconic phrase in Argentine TV: venía pisteando como un campeón.
Pistear means ‘to race’ in Argentine car racing slang.
So he was pisteando como un campeón and ended up, in his own words, like German former racing driver Michael Schumacher in a Formula 1 car.
Hilarious, right?
We should recognize him for his possitive attitude, though!
When asked how he felt, he replied that he felt very well and he would recover and feel like a Formula 1. ¡Soy un campeón!, he assured.
But next time try to race in a racetrack!
Contexts in which you can use it
Argentines say this phrase to express that somebody was doing really well (like Schumacher in a Formula 1 car, of course), but something happened and it all ended in disaster.
Here you can read many tweets of Argentine native speakers using it!
‘¿Quién te conoce, papá?’
A Crónica TV journalist asks a bus inspector what he thinks about a recent rise in the bus fare.
Instead of answering, the bus inspector starts attacking him verbally, first telling him me importa un carajo, tomatelas, te dije (I don’t give a damn, I told you to buzz off).
Confused, the journalist asks him why he is telling him to buzz off, and the bus inspector says his iconic line: ¿Quién te conoce para contestar?
The audio fades out a little bit and that’s why people think he said ¿quién te conoce, papá? instead.
In this context, papá is a colloquial term that just means ‘buddy’ or ‘man’.
By ¿quién te conoce? (who knows you?) he means that the journalist is a nobody, therefore he won’t answer.
Finally, after a few more seconds of argument, the bus inspector says another iconic phrase: sos boludo y no tenés huevos.
If you have read my article about the meaning of boludo, it might sound contradictory, right?
But tener huevos colloquially means ‘to be brave’, associating a man’s testicles with masculinity, strength, bravery, etc.
So he wasn’t just calling the journalist an idiot, but also a coward. How rude!
Contexts in which you can use it
So we have three phrases in total here!
- ¿Quién te conoce, papá?, either to pretend not to know someone or to belittle them.
- Me importa un carajo, tomatelas, te dije, to say rudely that you don’t care and buzz someone off.
- Sos boludo y no tenés huevos, whenever you want to call someone an idiot and a coward.
Although really popular, it’s true that they are a little bit rude, and I don’t think people use it out of social media in their daily lives.
In most cases, Argentines use them when they engage in a argument with a stranger online.
Or when making a comment about a piece of news referring to the people involved in it, for example a celebrity or a politican, without addressing them directly.
And that’s all for today!
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I hope you have enjoyed this article about historic phrases from Crónica TV that Argentines use!
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Thank you very much and until next time,
Kevin.