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LOCAL Tuesday 1 april 2025

Papiamento words and phrases you may want to know!

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

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