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local Wednesday 28 May 2025

Papiamento words and phrases you may want to know!

(Oranjestad)—Aruba is mento means “how?” and is “afternoon”. However, The affirmative and negative
a melting pot of different pronounced with a rounder the shortened “tardi” is expression is very simple in Thanks man…
nationalities, cultures and “o” sounds, like in the English used to keep the rhythm Papiamento. Just like Span- Lastly, a word that we
languages. Primarily for this word “cone”. “Ta bay” refers on the phrase. And the ish, our yeses are “si” and can also say more often is
reason, the average Aruban to how you are doing. same could be said for our no’s are “no”. Pretty “danki”, which means liter-
can understand and speak our last greeting of the easy right? If you want to ally “thank you”. “Danki” is
Dutch, English and Spanish When we say goodbye, we day. gain some extra points from derived from the Dutch word
relatively well. However, as use the word “ayo” (not like 3. Bon nochi. You guessed younger locals, you can also “bedankt”. Though we don’t
much as we pride ourselves the Ayo Rock Formation, but it, “bon nochi” means say “se”, which is a more ca- really have a translation for
in being able to communi- also…kinda?). We may also “good night”. Just like sual affirmative used mostly “I appreciate it” in English,
cate with almost everyone, use “te oro”, which means “tardi”, “nochi” is actual- by the younger generation. we do use “masha danki” to
we cherish our native tongue “see you later”. ly the shortened version However, do note: some old- convey the message. “Ma-
Papiamento above all else. of the word “anochi”. er generations may find this sha” means “a lot” or “very”,
Want to learn some common Greetings during the day improper and not respectful, so “masha danki” means
words in our language? Here Most, if not all, languages Yes…no…maybe? so keep that in mind. “thank you very much”. q
are a few basic words and have different ways to greet
phrases that can get you a according to the time of
hat tip from an Aruban. day, and Papiamento is no
different. Since Papiamento
When you arrive at the air- is heavily influences from Por-
port in Aruba, one of the tuguese and Spanish, some
first words in Papiamento of these phrases may look
you may encounter is “Bon very familiar.
bini.” Bon bini in Papiamen-
to means welcome, and is 1. Bon dia is used in the
probably the most famous morning, up to about
Papiamento word for tourists. noon. Bon dia essentially
means good morning.
Hi! Bye! The word “bon” means
To be fair, there is no unique “good”, and while “dia”
way to say “hello” in Papia- does not directly mean
mento. At least, not officially. “morning” in English, it is
We often just use the English used often to refer to the
“hello” or “hey”, or Dutch morning time.
“hallo” to greet someone. 2. Bon tardi. In the after-
We do however, always noon to early evening
follow it up with “con bay?” hours, we use “bon
or “con ta?” Con bay is a tardi” to greet people,
shortened version of “con which means “good
ta bay?”, which essentially afternoon”. “Tardi” ac-
means “how are you?” tually comes from the
word “atardi”, which
The word “con” in Papia- directly translates to

Aruba Today on break

for Ascension Day

(Oranjestad)—The Aruba Today team would like to
inform our dearest readers that Aruba Today will be
not published tomorrow, April 29th, in connection
with the Ascension Day holiday.

We will be back on your newspaper stands Friday,
April 30th.

We thank you dear reader for your understanding
and apologize for any inconvenience.q