"Ch"

A lot of Mexican Spanish words start with the sound "ch". I noticed this soon after arriving and started to compile a list. The following is what I have come up with so far - feel free to add to it.

Some words are commonplace, such as a chamarra (sweater/jacket), chillar (to cry/whine), charco (a puddle) and chipi-chipi (light rain).

Others are adjectives, such as chueco (askew/twisted) and chaparro (short - as in height).

Chamaco and chavo both mean "kid", although chavo can also mean "guy".

Some words refer to food, such as chicarrón (fried pork rind) and chorizo (spicy pork sausage).

There are a few nicknames that start with "ch" that are quite common, including Checo (I know at least 3) and Chucho.

Moving into the Mexican youth culture, a few words stand out. A chela is a beer, and chupar (literally "to suck") is the verb used for drinking a chela. Slang words like chamba (work/job), chafa (bad/of bad quality), and chido (cool/great) come up all of the time. The expression chale is also very common in slang, and means somewhere between "yeah, right" and "no way!".

The "ch" hall of fame award goes to the verb chingar. It has the same meaning and flexibility as the verb "to fuck" in English, leading to chingada, chingón, chingo, etc.

The tendency to use "ch" even affected my name on one bus ticket. Even though I spelled out my full name for the clerk, this is what she ended up printing out: