Learn Guaraní for your next trip to Paraguay! In this article, we’re covering 10 essential Guaraní words every traveller needs to know. Get ready to enhance your adventure with phrases that will make interactions smoother and more meaningful!

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10 Essential Words to Learn Before Travelling to Paraguay

Paraguay is an underrated country. Tucked between Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia, travellers to the region often pass through quickly, that is if they don’t skip it altogether. 

This is a shame because Paraguay has a unique history and a very interesting language situation that differs greatly from those neighbouring countries. 

You can visit Paraguay and explore completely in Spanish. But you’ll enjoy your experience much more if you know just a little about Guarani before your trip. Here’s 10 essential words to know before travelling to Paraguay. 

1. Mba’eichapa

This is the first word you’ll use when meeting someone new, one you’ll likely see and hear around the country on signs and in overheard conversations. 

It means hello, but also encompasses a ‘how are you?’ in there too. A two-in-one word! Bonus.

If we break it down, you get to see a little about how Guarani words to, which is pretty cool. 

Mba’e = a useful word. This means ‘what’ or ‘thing’.

-icha- = a suffix that adds the meaning ‘how?’

-pa = this is a common suffix that turns a statement into a question. You might also see -piko and -pió.

There’s another too, -ta, which is technically the future tense tag but this sometimes can make a question. If you know Russian, think about how you might say ‘budesh?’ to ask someone if they want something. 

2. Jopara

This is a hugely important word. 

I mentioned Paraguay’s unique language situation. That’s because both Spanish and Guarani are official languages. Although history hasn’t always been kind to Guarani, it is one of the indigenous languages in the Americas to hold official language status. Which goes to show the attitudinal difference people have. 

It’s estimated around 90% of people speak both languages on some level. Most of those people speak a blend of both languages, which is what’s called Jopara. 

Jopara is also really handy as a learner because it doesn’t have a strict rule of exactly which words from which languages are included in Jopara. That means that if you already know Spanish, you can easily practise your Guarani in Paraguay and substitute words you don’t know with Spanish. 

You’ll be understood, and technically speaking Jopara! 

Related: The Best Guarani Resources (+ 9 reasons to learn it)

3. Che – means I, not Guevara!

I’m including ‘che’ here because it may be tempting to think that the proximity to Argentina, the birthland of Che Guevara may be the reason you’re seeing and hearing the word everywhere! 

But no. Che means ‘I’ in Guarani. 

While we’re here, I’ll throw in some other pronouns too. Nde, ha’e, ore (exclusive), ñande (inclusive), peẽ, ha’ekuéra.

You’ll notice there’s just one word for he, she, and it. This word also means ‘is/am’are’ too, so you’ll see it a lot.

You’ll also spot that there’s two words for ‘we’. Ñande includes the person you’re speaking to and ore excludes them. You may be familiar with this concept from languages like Tagalog, Tamil, Cree, and Ojibwe.

It’s also worth knowing that once you’re confident with conjugations, which makes it clear who you’re talking about, then you can drop pronouns in Guarani.

4. Oga/hoga/roga

Oga means house/home. It’s a word you’ll see around a lot from shop names to waffle shops. 

But sometimes it might look a little different. It might be roga or hoga. 

This is the same word but just with slightly different meanings.

First of all, ‘oga’ is the default standard version of the word. It means ‘house’ or ‘home.

‘Hoga’ means ‘his/her house/home’.

‘Roga’ means ‘my/your/our/their house/home’. ‘Roga’ also has this warm feeling too. So, for example, you might say ‘Tupa roga’ meaning ‘God’s house’ or church.

You’ll see this pattern of prefixes ‘h-‘ and ‘r-‘ quite often and I’ve found ‘oga, hoga, roga’ to be the easiest memory hook for them.

5. Che rohayhu

If you learn just one thing to say in Guarani to impress people, it’s this. 

One of my favourite Paraguayan memories is watching Damian Albarn tell a crowd of Paraguayans ‘rohayhu Paraguay’. It’s always appreciated when you tell a local you love their country, but even more so when you can do it in their language.

The grammar on this one is interesting. 

You’ll spot the ‘che’ right away, no doubt. So we know that’s ‘I’. 

The verb ‘to love’ is ‘hayhu’. And the ‘ro-‘ is an example of how verbs get conjugated in Guarani – at the start of the verb. 

However, normally that little addition with ‘che’ will be ‘a-‘. ‘ro-‘ is the ‘yu’ form. So you can think of this as a bit like a reflexive verb.

6. Aguyje

Actually, there’s two words you must learn, this one too. 

Aguyje means thank you. It also happens to be really fun to say. 

There’s a great song by the Grammy-nominated band Tierra Adentro called Aguyje if you want a way to easily get this earwormed into our memory!

Related: Guarani Music You’ll Love: 10 Of The Best

7. Paraguay

Ok, so you probably know the name of the country you’re visiting! But there’s more to know here…

First up, Asunción is the Spanish name for the capital city. The Guarani name is Paraguai. Which definitely isn’t confusing at all.

The etymology of Paraguay is also an interesting one. Nothing is firmly agreed upon but all the guesses are interesting insights into the Guarani language and culture. 

My favourite because it gives you 3 words easily is that para would mean sea, gua = originates, y = river. would be ‘river which gives birth to the sea’.

Related: Language Stories: Guaraní in the Heart of South America – Episode 12

8. Terere Lingo

So you don’t need to know all the words on this one as you’ll probably pick them up because it’s so ubiquitous, but let’s talk tereré. 

If you’ve visited Argentina or Brazil, you’ll be familiar with mate, the bitter yet refreshing drink that locals are obsessed with. 

In Paraguay it’s everywhere too. Right from landing at the airport, you’ll soon spot flasks that look more like soup dispensers carried around by everyone.

The main difference is preparation. Mate is prepared with yerba mate dried leaves and hot water. Tereré is the dried yerba leaves, cold water, ice, and a blend of medicinal herbs.

Here’s some of the key vocab around this drink you will definitely drink at least once on your trip!

Tereré is the Guarani name for the drink itself. 

The dried leaves are called yerba. Yerba mate refers to the prepared drink.

The medicinal herb mix is called pohá ñaná.

You drink it from a guampa (cup) with a bombilla (metal straw will holes in the bottom to avoid sucking up the herbs.

9. Jagua

Did you know that you already know a Guarani word? A couple in fact!

The words cougar and jaguar both originate from Guarani. 

In fact, jagua is the Guarani word for dog!

The typical path of etymology goes from Guarani and Tupi to English via Portuguese.

10. Heta

Heta is a really useful word. It means ‘lots’ or ‘very’. 

So if we go back to our words so far, we could say some rudimentary versions advancing the things we already know.

For example, ‘che heta rohayhu’, ‘heta oga’ and ‘heta terere’.

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