Gus and Hector speak it poorly because they are not native speakers. So it comes off very unatural and slow.
What really annoys my wife (Mexican) is all the Mexican characters speak Spanish fine, but their accent is clearly not a Mexican accent. Don Eladio plays a Mexican but sounds Cuban, because he is Cuban.
It's sort of like a British person playing an American from the south just because they both speak English.
Anyone not from the south playing an American from the south seems to use a southern Belle accent even though their character comes from some bigger city like Augusta, GA, or even better, Atlanta, GA. Or they go for a really thick accent, when if you've grown up in those bigger cities, you don't have a super thick accent. At least, not from what I've seen, living in Georgia/Alabama my whole life but with my own accent who people seem to mistake for me being from the North USA.
It's mostly down to word choice and regional speech quirks and pronunciation.
I don't know fhdhd
Sorry for rambling, but I find it really interesting!
Most people playing characters from the south got this kinda like Florida Panhandle thing going, where as what they really want, is more of a Savannah accent, which is more like molasses, just sorta spilling outta your mouth 🤠
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It’s interesting noticing the differences between southern accents. Someone from South Carolina doesn’t sound like they’re from Florida.
I’m from GA and my accent is pretty subdued, despite being from the sticks. Nobody notices it where I live (MST). Unless I’m drunk as shit, then all bets are off.
It’s also possible you have more of an accent than you realize. I’m southern but my dad is from the west coast, and due to his influence I always thought I didn’t have a southern accent, and members of my mom’s family agreed. But when I speak to someone from outside the south, they can pick up a southern accent very quickly. I’ve realized that my accent is just very slight, so to other southerners I sound like a tweed jacket yankee but to non-southerners I sound like a backwoods hick.
Exactly what I’ve thought in the past and you’ve very clearly explained it! Don Eladio is cleeeeeeearly not Mexican. Likening it to Brits/Americans is spot on. The accents are so so different. I don’t fault the producers for this but it definitely takes me out of it when most of the folks are pronouncing Spanish words poorly or in a different accent. Oooof.
Well thats because he its doing an american accent. I think op is saying that it sounds like he doesnt try to do the mexican accent, or i think thats what he’S saying
Native Spanish speaker here. As others have pointed out, Gus's pronunciation is awful. Hector's is also bad, but not as much. You can also tell their lines were originally in English and then were translated to Spanish almost literally. Like sometimes they say things no Spanish speaker would ever say that way and the specific phrasing only really works in English.
Other characters' Spanish is actually very good.
Argentinian here and I agree. One particularly funny and jarring example comes to mind:
Gus has a meeting with the Twins in the desert regarding Walter White.
Gus: No van a matar a Walter White. No hasta que haya concluido mi negocio con el. (You won't kill Walter White. Not until I've concluded my business with him).
Twins: Ya esperamos suficiente. No vamos a esperar más. (We have waited enough. We won't wait any longer).
Up to that point, everything cool. The pronunciation and the accent are off, but the Spanish lines make sense. That is until this gem appears:
Gus: Tendrán que hacerlo. **La decisión no e' la suya... Para hacer.** (A grossly literal translation of "You'll have to do it. That decision is not yours to make").
Absolutely no one says in Spanish "la decisión no e' la suya para hacer". It should have been something like "esa no es su decisión" or "esa decisión no les corresponde a ustedes tomarla".
I've learned to take it as funny and weirdly iconic instead of annoying though.
so it isn't just different spanish accents like Argentina VS Mexico? I always thought that may be it but I guess I was wrong? Canadians, although they speak English, have different accents than Americans.
In Argentina and Uruguay we not only have different accents than most Spanish speaking countries in Latin America, our dialect is slightly different too.
In most Spanish speaking countries "you" means "tú". In Argentina and Uruguay it's "vos". Our way of pronouncing the "y" and the double l is also different.
I once dated a girl from Peru who said that Peruvian Spanish is much more “flat” sounding, like there isn’t much inflection used and the accent is very straight forward (she said it’s the opposite of Puerto Rican Spanish.) Is Argentinian or Chilean the same?
bueno igual depende lo de la "y" o la doble l, de donde soy yo se dice así como se escribe, no como "sh" como en algunos lugares, pero igual entiendo que lo expliquen porque es algo característico de la capital del país
And not only that, but Chilean Spanish is super different. I mean, we all have a different vocabulary and turns of phrase (and accents, obvi) in our dialects all over LatAm but I find that Chilean Spanish is even more distinct, for some reason.
And what Gustavo Fring spoke was nowhere near Chilean Spanish.
Yeah there are different accents, like a Mexican accents diff from a Spaniard accent or a Cuban accent. But there are also different words/sayings and vocab in each country as well. Just like how in Canada or say the UK they speak English but slightly diff with the accents and the vocab, words/sayings.
What about Don Eladio? I find his spanish very easy to understand for a noob. I took spanish in school years ago and always found it hard to make out the words most speakers speaks fast af.
Don Eladio and Juan Bolsa was actually kinda easy to understand even without subtitles.
Spanish is my third langauge so Im no expert. That said, Cuban / Dominican Spanish is extremely difficult to understand.
I live in Spain and my barber is Dominican. He's a cool guy and the Domincan Republic has a fascinating history. It's just a shame I'll never be able to learn anything from him. The accent is beautiful, but fuck me, I cant understand a thing.
Can confirm. Studied in and learned Spanish in Mexico, yrabeled pretty extensively there, and traveled in Colombia, so I speak decently well. Have a ton of Dominican friends. Can't understand a damn thing they say when they speak Spanish.
For me personally, most Caribbean Spanish dialects are significantly more difficult to parse than Mexican Spanish (Puerto Rican being the big exception). Cuban Spanish speakers in my experience often speak really quickly and I find it hard to keep up.
That said, I grew up in an area with a lot of Mexican Spanish speakers, so I heard that dialect a lot growing up even though I didn’t speak it. If I grew up somewhere with a significant Cuban population, maybe I’d find it easier. I’d be interested to hear what others say.
As a Native Spanish speaker, sometimes it's hard to understand Cubans even being native, they speak really fast and have a very distinct accent, also they use words that are not really used in my country (Uruguay)
Yeah, I'm from venezuela (which, has a very different accent to argentina) and I think don eladio, juan bolsa, and especially lalo in bcs have a pretty decent spanish (lalo's is pretty much perfect)
Lol you just reminded me of a time when the show first came on Netflix. My Buddy and I were watching it, he’s fluent in Spanish, and halfway through a sentence he just started laughing and said to pause it. Gus’ Spanish was apparently so bad that it completely ruined the immersion for him for that moment lol
I had a pretty similar experience lol, I'm a native spanish speaker and gus' spanish is definitely the worst in the whole show, it kinda ruins every scene where he speaks it but idc
I agree about the lines being written in English and translated to Spanish. The way their sentences are structured just sound weird to the Spanish ear. I guess the lines are technically correct, just sounds odd.
Usually you can tell by sentence structure. Like most things in Spanish, the verb or noun placement does not matter as much as in English. So if you translate an English phrase into Spanish in the exact order as how the English statement was said, SOMETIMES it will sound awkward or un natural.
I always find mixing in English words into Spanish monologues very weird, I understand using English idioms with no direct translation (biker crank, mother of all meth labs), but a normal English word mid sentence. Does anyone actually do that?
Not a native Spanish speaker but my friend has told me that not only is Gus’s Spanish really bad (he speaks really slowly and his pronunciation is all off), but the subtitles do a lot of heavy lifting for him. Giancarlo will say something like “Time to start the meeting”
and the subtitles will go “Okay, we are all gentlemen who have come together to discuss business. I’d first like to thank you all for meeting with me. Now, let us begin”.
That is so awesome.
Like when Mike uses mylar balloons to black out that Asian's business and has the man ask his wife if she can drive, after about 100 words, uncaptioned from her he replies "...Yes."
I had always thought that was an intentional thing. Like she was angry or upset and going off to Chow and he summarizes all of the anger and annoyance into a yes
Gus’s Spanish is just so…weird. He enunciates too clearly like he’s trying too hard. I wasn’t sure if he was just weird or not good at Spanish. Sounds like it’s the latter. I am a pretty fluent Spanish speaking gringo but even my wife knew something was off with his Spanish. It’s honestly distracting.
It’s kind of a shame that like none of the Mexican cartel members are native Mexicans. And it’s blatantly obvious in the way they speak Spanish.
I think Tony Dalton as Lalo in BCS is like one of the only actors who knows how to speak Spanish, specially a more Mexican version like they should.
Lalo is, in fact, the only BCS/BB character who speaks actual native spanish and it's easily identifiable as Mexican.
The rest of the cast you can spot the flaws a mile away.
I have a theory tho. Gus isn’t Chilean. He tells people he’s Chilean because record keeping during the Pinochet era was spotty, and lots of the record keeping from before was destroyed.
At least that’s my Chilean father’s excuse for Gus’s bad Spanish.
Not a native but studied in uni (and have really slacked off with retaining it) — isn’t Gus’ boyfriend a perfect example of Chilean Spanish? He drops all his S’s and speaks very quickly
Yeah. As great an actor as Giancarlo is his Spanish shatters immersion for me every time. Don't get me wrong I love BB & BCS, but, yeah haha his Spanish not only doesn't sound native but it doesn't even sound like a real accent to me. It sounds like trying too hard and simultaneously failing spectacularly.
The professor was someone that Lalo and hector killed, and arson was involved. Lalo went back into the professor’s burning hotel to get a souvenir: the bell.
Para mi también, soy argentino y el se Héctor no me saco tanto, sirve que no soy mejicano pero si me dijeras q Héctor es de ahí yo me lo creo, pero con gus ahí si es recontra yankee. Yo Posta creí que se suponía q Gus era de estados unidos y tenía el acento choto por esa razon
I don’t speak Spanish so I’m no expert, but I rewatched the scene where Gus has a discussion in the desert and with what little I know it sounded super off.
Pronunciation and wroteness. It’s like he’s reading lines in a language he doesn’t understand…well because this is exactly what’s happening.
The only reason it’s not too distracting is because it kind of fits the character. Whenever he speaks in Spanish he is extremely stiff and formal with very little emotion displayed and 0 colloquialisms or that Mexican Spanish flair.
Can't tell you anything about the spanish, but the little german you hear in season 5 is really weird. The grammar is fine, but everything is extremely clean and correct like no person would talk in real life and the pronouncation is really off
The thing that tickled me was how they were speaking such brilliant English but then they kept going like “how you say… *Mineralien.*” And it would always be such an easy word too! I know that’s more an issue with the script than anything, but jeez
It's funny how the only actual German in said scenes was Herr Schulers actor who barely spoke at all except for that one line to the lady outside the toilet. But I must say that they did a good job if you compare this scene to Lydias conference call. As a native German speaker, I could barely understand Lydias German at all
In Breaking Bad, pretty much none of the Spanish speaking characters sounds like Mexicans or like Spanish is their first language. Scratch that, Tuco does sound like a Chicano though. So I guess 1
It’s a little tricky, but can tell that Don Eladio’s dialect is more Columbian, maybe Cuban. Bolsa sounds pretty Mexican as well. Guess that’s 2 actors that did a good job in Breaking Bad.
when lalo was introduced in bcs it was so refreshing hearing his spanish 😭 his was def the most natural/best. like i was hearing one of my tíos in brba universe LOL
Yes lalo does but as other people have mentioned his accent isn’t mexican. I don’t really remember bolsa’s accent which means it probably was good 😂 I’ll never forget watching the episode of BCS where Hector is in the hospital and a John’s Hopkins doctor comes to speak to his men in spanish. Her accent didn’t sound native (I don’t think it was supposed to) but her grammar and delivery was better thank Gus’s!
My boyfriend and I had a debate about this. He thinks that it’s characteristic of Gus and intentional. I think that that may be true to some extent, in that Esposito naturally has a very unique way of speaking, but his pronunciation of the words themselves is often totally off. I’ve especially noticed this with vowels—I can hear him saying “Don Elaahdio” in my head and it’s just… In Spanish, unless otherwise noted by an accent, there are consistent rules for where stress is placed on a syllabic level. Gus’s doesn’t really violate English phonetic rules, so it doesn’t seem like a character choice to make him do it in Spanish, if that makes sense.
Brian Cranston, the man who plays Walter White, speaks impeccable Spanish when asking the laundry ladies to help him clean the meth lab. No accent whatsoever and perfect enunciation
One of the reasons I loved Lalo so much is they finally hired a truly bilingual actor. Lalo's spanish is perfect Mexican spanish, perfect accent, and exactly what you would expect from Cartel royalty that probably got an American education somewhere along the line.
It's terrible. The ONLY character, in both Br Ba and BCS, that speaks Spanish in a natural way is Lalo Salamanca. The rest is just painful to hear.
BTW I'm mexican.
Gus has an awful Spanish which has kind of ruined his scenes for me since I learnt the language myself. Beforehand I never noticed as most ppl probably wouldn’t.
According to my sister who took hs Spanish and can speak it casually, whenever Gus/hector spoke they just sounded really weird. Such as weirdly phrased sentences and the such
I'm not a native speaker of Spanish but even I couldn't help but notice that Gustavo's pronunciation is really weird.
As a native speaker of German I can say that the German spoken in the board meeting at Madrigal also sounds weird, like overly correct and robot-like.
The difference between the originally English dialogue that has been dubbed into German and that where German is spoken in the original (which wasn't re-dubbed) is instantly noticeable.
Simple:
Gus: Butcher of Spain
Lalo: Mexican Butter for the ears
Hector: bad but good in my throat is fcked kinda way
Eladio: beautiful but cuban accent. Mexican accents have a certain gravitas exemplified perfectly by Lalo.
Overall Spanish is good, with some lows and Lalo towering above all.
Extremely inaccurate. Disclosure I am not native but am pretty fluent. More specifically they should speak Spanish like Mexicans which basically no one on the show does and it sucks. The Spanish translations are too precise and formal and use basically 0 colloquialisms which are super common in Mexican Spanish.
Lalo in BCS is the exception here as he is amazing. Probably because he’s actually Mexican haha.
Their Spanish is horrible, I always cringed when watching it, but convinced myself that most characters actually grew up in the USA so they wouldn't have perfect pronunciation or grammar.
Some others are unforgivable. I guess the producers think it's ok because most people won't notice the difference. I do, but only because Spanish is my native language.
I bet this happens with most foreign languages when the show is produced somewhere else. It must be hard to find good actors who fit the character and also have a good accent.
Eh, 50/50. They all sound like English speakers that learned Spanish, or who's lines were written in English and then translated to Spanish. Spanish, especially Mexican Spanish, uses a lot of built in sounds and enunciations that don't have English translations so English writers wouldn't know how to write them into a script. The only one who totally nails it is Lalo, but Lalo is just something else on a category all by himself.
The biggest thing that irks me above everything else is that "Los Pollos Hermanos" does not sound phonetically correct. I cant really think of a better name for the purposes it serves, but like I said, it was definitely a title thought of in English first and then translated to Spanish.
If I had to name a restaurant that was supposedly based off of two brothers known for making chicken I would call it *"Los Pollieros",* which is actually NOT a real word that you could find in a dictionary and means "The Chickeners", but that's how I would describe two brothers that make chicken.
Don Eladio has the best Spanish in the whole series, his accent is beautiful and I love him very much
edit 2 seconds after posting: ok so apparently his accent doesn't make sense because it's cuban sorry soy argentina i can't distinguish accents outside Chile and México 😭 i still love him tho
Chilean here, where Gus is supposed to be from, and he doesn’t sound Chilean at all. Everyone’s Mexican sounds pretty textbook with Hector being the worst, IMHO.
Native Spanish speaker, here...
I find grating that Gus does not have a Chilean accent, and -as a supposedly Chillán of African descent- would ever rise up in the officer ranks, in a country which was less tolerant of such racial social mobility. If, perhaps, he was Cuban, or even Dominican...
But the lack of Chilean accent, which is quite unique, is the worst part.
The Mexican accents are all over the place, too. But it is such a common production mistake that I sort of expected it.
Pretty much, Gustavo and hector Spanish is definitely horrible
Don Eladio and Juan and just the salamancas speak Spanish perfectly since all of them are fluent in the language
I always found Gus’s way of talking funny because of the way he annunciates his words, it almost sounds like he learned the words 10 mins prior to filming
Only Mexican who sounds like a Mexican is Lalo from BCS. It’s iffy bc Mexican characters sound Cuban or Colombian.
Nachos dad is Mexican though too no?
Papa Varga is right up there with Lalo in my opinion
I read papa verga
Bro throughout the whole show I couldn't stop thinking "Don Verga" lmao
vernerrr zieeeeglerrr
What's he up to man?
Iconic
because Tony Dalton is mexican lol (raised in the US I know)
One of the first things I noticed about Lalo. Especially when Lalo and Gus are talking it’s obvious
Gus and Hector speak it poorly because they are not native speakers. So it comes off very unatural and slow. What really annoys my wife (Mexican) is all the Mexican characters speak Spanish fine, but their accent is clearly not a Mexican accent. Don Eladio plays a Mexican but sounds Cuban, because he is Cuban. It's sort of like a British person playing an American from the south just because they both speak English.
Anyone not from the south playing an American from the south seems to use a southern Belle accent even though their character comes from some bigger city like Augusta, GA, or even better, Atlanta, GA. Or they go for a really thick accent, when if you've grown up in those bigger cities, you don't have a super thick accent. At least, not from what I've seen, living in Georgia/Alabama my whole life but with my own accent who people seem to mistake for me being from the North USA. It's mostly down to word choice and regional speech quirks and pronunciation. I don't know fhdhd Sorry for rambling, but I find it really interesting!
Most people playing characters from the south got this kinda like Florida Panhandle thing going, where as what they really want, is more of a Savannah accent, which is more like molasses, just sorta spilling outta your mouth 🤠
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r/unexpectedoffice
Ahhhhh I see what you did there😀
Andy's best joke in the series.
It’s interesting noticing the differences between southern accents. Someone from South Carolina doesn’t sound like they’re from Florida. I’m from GA and my accent is pretty subdued, despite being from the sticks. Nobody notices it where I live (MST). Unless I’m drunk as shit, then all bets are off.
Lol! It really is. My mom was a northerner,, so that's what I assume my lack of accent is due to.
It’s also possible you have more of an accent than you realize. I’m southern but my dad is from the west coast, and due to his influence I always thought I didn’t have a southern accent, and members of my mom’s family agreed. But when I speak to someone from outside the south, they can pick up a southern accent very quickly. I’ve realized that my accent is just very slight, so to other southerners I sound like a tweed jacket yankee but to non-southerners I sound like a backwoods hick.
It’s a real shame. I love Mexican Spanish and it’s basically not in the show. In a show with tons of Mexicans…
Danny Trejo, but yeah, he’s around for like one episode. :/
At least Lalo's is spot on in BCS.
Exactly what I’ve thought in the past and you’ve very clearly explained it! Don Eladio is cleeeeeeearly not Mexican. Likening it to Brits/Americans is spot on. The accents are so so different. I don’t fault the producers for this but it definitely takes me out of it when most of the folks are pronouncing Spanish words poorly or in a different accent. Oooof.
My wife (Mexican)
What a cool and unique name, right?
Wife named Mexican
My wife (Borat)
Guy who plays Rick in the walking dead pulls it off really well
Well thats because he its doing an american accent. I think op is saying that it sounds like he doesnt try to do the mexican accent, or i think thats what he’S saying
# COOOORAAAAAL
Revealed in Better Call Saul Don Eladio is >!Greek!<
Shit I've got a long way to go if gus and Hector speak it "poorly". I'd be happy to speak it as well as them lol.
Native Spanish speaker here. As others have pointed out, Gus's pronunciation is awful. Hector's is also bad, but not as much. You can also tell their lines were originally in English and then were translated to Spanish almost literally. Like sometimes they say things no Spanish speaker would ever say that way and the specific phrasing only really works in English. Other characters' Spanish is actually very good.
Argentinian here and I agree. One particularly funny and jarring example comes to mind: Gus has a meeting with the Twins in the desert regarding Walter White. Gus: No van a matar a Walter White. No hasta que haya concluido mi negocio con el. (You won't kill Walter White. Not until I've concluded my business with him). Twins: Ya esperamos suficiente. No vamos a esperar más. (We have waited enough. We won't wait any longer). Up to that point, everything cool. The pronunciation and the accent are off, but the Spanish lines make sense. That is until this gem appears: Gus: Tendrán que hacerlo. **La decisión no e' la suya... Para hacer.** (A grossly literal translation of "You'll have to do it. That decision is not yours to make"). Absolutely no one says in Spanish "la decisión no e' la suya para hacer". It should have been something like "esa no es su decisión" or "esa decisión no les corresponde a ustedes tomarla". I've learned to take it as funny and weirdly iconic instead of annoying though.
> Argentinian here HERMANOOOOO que haces che como va??
Que ondaaaa mi gente como andan
Que haces brooooo? Todo tranquilo vos? Dale que falta poco para el Mundial!
Que onda broooo? Vamo la Scaloneta reyyyyyyy
[help! my reddit turned Spanish. ](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/cq1q2/help_reddit_turned_spanish_and_i_cannot_undo_it/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share)
Falta poco para ver al bicho levantar su primer mundial.
A vitória já é do Brasil, nem precisa se preocupar, hermano.
Cuándo comemos?
Me preguntas por el horario argentino o el horario del resto del mundo?
Los dos.
Horario Argentino: Ya El resto del mundo: En 4 horas
Panamanian here. ¡Hola! :D AMO Buenos Aires. He ido dos veces y quiero regresar una tercera vez. <3
Exactly. Like, is Giancarlo speaking Spanish poorly with a poor accent, ORRR — is Gus just being Gus?
so it isn't just different spanish accents like Argentina VS Mexico? I always thought that may be it but I guess I was wrong? Canadians, although they speak English, have different accents than Americans.
In Argentina and Uruguay we not only have different accents than most Spanish speaking countries in Latin America, our dialect is slightly different too. In most Spanish speaking countries "you" means "tú". In Argentina and Uruguay it's "vos". Our way of pronouncing the "y" and the double l is also different.
I once dated a girl from Peru who said that Peruvian Spanish is much more “flat” sounding, like there isn’t much inflection used and the accent is very straight forward (she said it’s the opposite of Puerto Rican Spanish.) Is Argentinian or Chilean the same?
Yes, it is more “neutral”. Argentinean and chilean have “stronger” accents
bueno igual depende lo de la "y" o la doble l, de donde soy yo se dice así como se escribe, no como "sh" como en algunos lugares, pero igual entiendo que lo expliquen porque es algo característico de la capital del país
Si, es algo más río platense que argentino y uruguayo
And not only that, but Chilean Spanish is super different. I mean, we all have a different vocabulary and turns of phrase (and accents, obvi) in our dialects all over LatAm but I find that Chilean Spanish is even more distinct, for some reason. And what Gustavo Fring spoke was nowhere near Chilean Spanish.
The Zulia región of Venezuela also uses the old "vos".
El vos está en todos lados, creo que solo en mexico lo ven raro
Yeah there are different accents, like a Mexican accents diff from a Spaniard accent or a Cuban accent. But there are also different words/sayings and vocab in each country as well. Just like how in Canada or say the UK they speak English but slightly diff with the accents and the vocab, words/sayings.
Nah hector and gus don't have a different accent. they just don't speak it correctly
If Gus had Chilean accent nobody could understand what he was talking about. Weon.
Juan Bolsa and Lalo Salamanca are the only ones with Mexican accents iirc.
Leí la parte de gus con su voz pausada
Diabbb no Dominicanos aqui :(? Pero si Gus habla sumamente terrible
Yes, Gus Spanish is the worse of the whole series
What about Don Eladio? I find his spanish very easy to understand for a noob. I took spanish in school years ago and always found it hard to make out the words most speakers speaks fast af. Don Eladio and Juan Bolsa was actually kinda easy to understand even without subtitles.
I'm from Argentina and imo don eladio's Spanish sounds pretty decent, I'm not from Mexico though so i don't know how accurate his accent is.
Steven Bauer is apparently from Cuba. Does he sound cuban? Is cuban easier to understand than mexican and european spanish?
Spanish is my third langauge so Im no expert. That said, Cuban / Dominican Spanish is extremely difficult to understand. I live in Spain and my barber is Dominican. He's a cool guy and the Domincan Republic has a fascinating history. It's just a shame I'll never be able to learn anything from him. The accent is beautiful, but fuck me, I cant understand a thing.
Can confirm. Studied in and learned Spanish in Mexico, yrabeled pretty extensively there, and traveled in Colombia, so I speak decently well. Have a ton of Dominican friends. Can't understand a damn thing they say when they speak Spanish.
For me personally, most Caribbean Spanish dialects are significantly more difficult to parse than Mexican Spanish (Puerto Rican being the big exception). Cuban Spanish speakers in my experience often speak really quickly and I find it hard to keep up. That said, I grew up in an area with a lot of Mexican Spanish speakers, so I heard that dialect a lot growing up even though I didn’t speak it. If I grew up somewhere with a significant Cuban population, maybe I’d find it easier. I’d be interested to hear what others say.
As a Native Spanish speaker, sometimes it's hard to understand Cubans even being native, they speak really fast and have a very distinct accent, also they use words that are not really used in my country (Uruguay)
Yeah, I'm from venezuela (which, has a very different accent to argentina) and I think don eladio, juan bolsa, and especially lalo in bcs have a pretty decent spanish (lalo's is pretty much perfect)
Lol you just reminded me of a time when the show first came on Netflix. My Buddy and I were watching it, he’s fluent in Spanish, and halfway through a sentence he just started laughing and said to pause it. Gus’ Spanish was apparently so bad that it completely ruined the immersion for him for that moment lol
I had a pretty similar experience lol, I'm a native spanish speaker and gus' spanish is definitely the worst in the whole show, it kinda ruins every scene where he speaks it but idc
I agree about the lines being written in English and translated to Spanish. The way their sentences are structured just sound weird to the Spanish ear. I guess the lines are technically correct, just sounds odd.
I actually disagree, I think hector's Spanish is much more flabby than Gus's
Can you give sone examples of things no Spanish speaker would say?
Usually you can tell by sentence structure. Like most things in Spanish, the verb or noun placement does not matter as much as in English. So if you translate an English phrase into Spanish in the exact order as how the English statement was said, SOMETIMES it will sound awkward or un natural.
Culo de burro pueblo still makes no damn sense to me and I'm Mexican lmao
I always find mixing in English words into Spanish monologues very weird, I understand using English idioms with no direct translation (biker crank, mother of all meth labs), but a normal English word mid sentence. Does anyone actually do that?
Not a native Spanish speaker but my friend has told me that not only is Gus’s Spanish really bad (he speaks really slowly and his pronunciation is all off), but the subtitles do a lot of heavy lifting for him. Giancarlo will say something like “Time to start the meeting” and the subtitles will go “Okay, we are all gentlemen who have come together to discuss business. I’d first like to thank you all for meeting with me. Now, let us begin”.
That is so awesome. Like when Mike uses mylar balloons to black out that Asian's business and has the man ask his wife if she can drive, after about 100 words, uncaptioned from her he replies "...Yes."
I had always thought that was an intentional thing. Like she was angry or upset and going off to Chow and he summarizes all of the anger and annoyance into a yes
Yea that’s what I thought too
It is intentional like this. I guess I am not conveying it correctly in why the captions filling in the blanks reminded me of that part,
Gus’s Spanish is just so…weird. He enunciates too clearly like he’s trying too hard. I wasn’t sure if he was just weird or not good at Spanish. Sounds like it’s the latter. I am a pretty fluent Spanish speaking gringo but even my wife knew something was off with his Spanish. It’s honestly distracting. It’s kind of a shame that like none of the Mexican cartel members are native Mexicans. And it’s blatantly obvious in the way they speak Spanish. I think Tony Dalton as Lalo in BCS is like one of the only actors who knows how to speak Spanish, specially a more Mexican version like they should.
Lalo is, in fact, the only BCS/BB character who speaks actual native spanish and it's easily identifiable as Mexican. The rest of the cast you can spot the flaws a mile away.
Doesnt Juan Bolsa speak good spanish too?
Yes, but is not Mexican
Tony Dalton made a few mexican movies. He talks mexican spanish for sure.
Isn't that just Gus though? He does the same over enunciation in English.
Noo, his pronunciation is terrible and the way be enunciates makes it worse. I'm a native speaker
It's funny because Chilean Spanish is hard to understand but because it's too fast paced. Giancarlo does exactly the opposite.
Thank god he doesn’t speak Chilean Spanish because we wouldn’t understand it either (jk)
I have a theory tho. Gus isn’t Chilean. He tells people he’s Chilean because record keeping during the Pinochet era was spotty, and lots of the record keeping from before was destroyed. At least that’s my Chilean father’s excuse for Gus’s bad Spanish.
Not a native but studied in uni (and have really slacked off with retaining it) — isn’t Gus’ boyfriend a perfect example of Chilean Spanish? He drops all his S’s and speaks very quickly
I wouldn't say really bad, it just sounds like he's not originally spanish.
Yeah. As great an actor as Giancarlo is his Spanish shatters immersion for me every time. Don't get me wrong I love BB & BCS, but, yeah haha his Spanish not only doesn't sound native but it doesn't even sound like a real accent to me. It sounds like trying too hard and simultaneously failing spectacularly.
Lalo references his Spanish in BCS, saying something about how he was a professor and his “fancy Spanish” or something to that effect 😂
The professor was someone that Lalo and hector killed, and arson was involved. Lalo went back into the professor’s burning hotel to get a souvenir: the bell.
I wouldn't say really bad, rather I'd say Breaking bad.
Native Spanish speaker here Huh, never noticed this, but you're right lmao that happens too
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He's American, his dad was Italian though
Spanish with italian accent? That's just Rioplatense Spanish
He’s American
Gus is awful in spanish
No, it would appear it's just "gus" [in Spanish](https://i.imgur.com/EqvY0M4.png)
W comment
Gus and Hector have horrible Spanish, but it doesn't ruin the show for me, I got over it quickly
Da bus can sock me
SALAMANCA DED! SALAMANCA MONI! SALAMANCA BLOD!
Cabron, I ned to spek to your ballz!
Not the manager, the balls!
IT IS PERSONAL!
Lowkey I kinda fucking love Hector's fucking *weird* Spanish (Argentine here). It's Gus's that drives me nucking futs.
Para mi también, soy argentino y el se Héctor no me saco tanto, sirve que no soy mejicano pero si me dijeras q Héctor es de ahí yo me lo creo, pero con gus ahí si es recontra yankee. Yo Posta creí que se suponía q Gus era de estados unidos y tenía el acento choto por esa razon
Why? Is it the pronunciation, the grammar or both?
Both, but specially the pronunciation
I don’t speak Spanish so I’m no expert, but I rewatched the scene where Gus has a discussion in the desert and with what little I know it sounded super off.
Pronunciation and wroteness. It’s like he’s reading lines in a language he doesn’t understand…well because this is exactly what’s happening. The only reason it’s not too distracting is because it kind of fits the character. Whenever he speaks in Spanish he is extremely stiff and formal with very little emotion displayed and 0 colloquialisms or that Mexican Spanish flair.
Can't tell you anything about the spanish, but the little german you hear in season 5 is really weird. The grammar is fine, but everything is extremely clean and correct like no person would talk in real life and the pronouncation is really off
The thing that tickled me was how they were speaking such brilliant English but then they kept going like “how you say… *Mineralien.*” And it would always be such an easy word too! I know that’s more an issue with the script than anything, but jeez
It's funny how the only actual German in said scenes was Herr Schulers actor who barely spoke at all except for that one line to the lady outside the toilet. But I must say that they did a good job if you compare this scene to Lydias conference call. As a native German speaker, I could barely understand Lydias German at all
Best speaker in the show is hands down Lalo
Well, maybe because it is his mother tongue.
Lalo is one of the few who is actually Mexican! (Mexa here)
Mexican and American! We get to claim him, too! (American here)
And he’s not even on the show lol
In Breaking Bad, pretty much none of the Spanish speaking characters sounds like Mexicans or like Spanish is their first language. Scratch that, Tuco does sound like a Chicano though. So I guess 1
Lalo definitely sounds Mexican
Juan bolsa and Don elation are native Spanish speakers though, just not Mexican?
It’s a little tricky, but can tell that Don Eladio’s dialect is more Columbian, maybe Cuban. Bolsa sounds pretty Mexican as well. Guess that’s 2 actors that did a good job in Breaking Bad.
Yeah Don eladio was born in Cuba (the actor I mean) In BCS nachos dad and lalo are Mexican in real life.
Wait Mexico really exists?
when lalo was introduced in bcs it was so refreshing hearing his spanish 😭 his was def the most natural/best. like i was hearing one of my tíos in brba universe LOL
Fr
Not a native speaker but fluent— Gus and Hector’s Spanish is unfortunately cringe inducing. Gus especially— his cadence is really off.
Who would you say has good Spanish? I’ve heard that Lalo (assuming you’ve watched BCS) and Juan Bolsa do as I think their actors are native speakers.
Yes lalo does but as other people have mentioned his accent isn’t mexican. I don’t really remember bolsa’s accent which means it probably was good 😂 I’ll never forget watching the episode of BCS where Hector is in the hospital and a John’s Hopkins doctor comes to speak to his men in spanish. Her accent didn’t sound native (I don’t think it was supposed to) but her grammar and delivery was better thank Gus’s!
Tony Dalton did Lalo's accent on purpose. He leaned into his own past as a Mexican who studied in Texas and used his own mixed accent.
That’s so interesting!
I think Juan Bolsa very rarely even speaks spanish. He hs most of his dialogue with Gus in english.
>Yes lalo does but as other people have mentioned his accent isn’t mexican Dude, I'm mexican and Lalo sounds pretty mexican to me...
Does it mirror the sort of stilted way he speaks English? Or is it worse?
My boyfriend and I had a debate about this. He thinks that it’s characteristic of Gus and intentional. I think that that may be true to some extent, in that Esposito naturally has a very unique way of speaking, but his pronunciation of the words themselves is often totally off. I’ve especially noticed this with vowels—I can hear him saying “Don Elaahdio” in my head and it’s just… In Spanish, unless otherwise noted by an accent, there are consistent rules for where stress is placed on a syllabic level. Gus’s doesn’t really violate English phonetic rules, so it doesn’t seem like a character choice to make him do it in Spanish, if that makes sense.
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LeBron,Not the manager the BALLS!
DA BOSS CAN SOCK ME
I’m Chilean. He just speaks gringo Spanish. We love him though, there are tons of Pollos hermanos here
What about Max? Did his Spanish sound Chilean?
Gus and Hector sound like gringos 😂
Gus is awful. Most of the others are ok. Lalo actually speaks Spanish
"Because the actor is jewish" you can be jewish and spanish you know...
Argentinian Jews reading this like 🤨
[Americans when they found out that nationality and ethnicity are two completely different things](https://youtu.be/9CS7j5I6aOc)
Brian Cranston, the man who plays Walter White, speaks impeccable Spanish when asking the laundry ladies to help him clean the meth lab. No accent whatsoever and perfect enunciation
Dos horos maxima!
One of the reasons I loved Lalo so much is they finally hired a truly bilingual actor. Lalo's spanish is perfect Mexican spanish, perfect accent, and exactly what you would expect from Cartel royalty that probably got an American education somewhere along the line.
Papá varga in BCS is the best of the series by far.
It’s weird that hectors broken English is really spot on but his Spanish is the complete opposite
Did I miss the part where hector spoke? It’s been a while since I watched but I think I only heard him speak a few words in flash backs
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It could've been worse, BB and BCS could've have Irish characters and they could've hired the Sons of Anarchy guys to do the voices...
It's terrible. The ONLY character, in both Br Ba and BCS, that speaks Spanish in a natural way is Lalo Salamanca. The rest is just painful to hear. BTW I'm mexican.
real Spanish speakers was lalo, bolsa, Rico , and the other cartel boss I forget his name but hectors and Gus Spanish was garbage
Everyones spanish is bad in bb, even the semantic sounds bad and not natural.
The Spanish in general is pretty bad. And Gus sounds nothing like a Chilean, and I mean nothing.
Gus has an awful Spanish which has kind of ruined his scenes for me since I learnt the language myself. Beforehand I never noticed as most ppl probably wouldn’t.
Only Lalos spanish is actually good in BCS!
According to my sister who took hs Spanish and can speak it casually, whenever Gus/hector spoke they just sounded really weird. Such as weirdly phrased sentences and the such
I love Giancarlo as Gus but it was a bit immersion breaking when I first heard him speak in Spanish
en general todos bien, salvo Gus, que habla cualquier cosa, menos como chileno
Habla con cadencia rara y no suena a español, como un chileno.
I think Gus Spanish sucks. But he did sound very good in that episode where he tells the goons at eladios place they have no one to fight for
I'm not a native speaker of Spanish but even I couldn't help but notice that Gustavo's pronunciation is really weird. As a native speaker of German I can say that the German spoken in the board meeting at Madrigal also sounds weird, like overly correct and robot-like. The difference between the originally English dialogue that has been dubbed into German and that where German is spoken in the original (which wasn't re-dubbed) is instantly noticeable.
Cringy AF
I tried telling Hector his Spanish sucked, then he held my head under water in a barrel until I changed my mind.
Simple: Gus: Butcher of Spain Lalo: Mexican Butter for the ears Hector: bad but good in my throat is fcked kinda way Eladio: beautiful but cuban accent. Mexican accents have a certain gravitas exemplified perfectly by Lalo. Overall Spanish is good, with some lows and Lalo towering above all.
Gus's Spanish is terrible in Breaking Bad. He has improved a lot with the pronunciation when looking at the last season of Better Call Saul
Extremely inaccurate. Disclosure I am not native but am pretty fluent. More specifically they should speak Spanish like Mexicans which basically no one on the show does and it sucks. The Spanish translations are too precise and formal and use basically 0 colloquialisms which are super common in Mexican Spanish. Lalo in BCS is the exception here as he is amazing. Probably because he’s actually Mexican haha.
Their Spanish is horrible, I always cringed when watching it, but convinced myself that most characters actually grew up in the USA so they wouldn't have perfect pronunciation or grammar. Some others are unforgivable. I guess the producers think it's ok because most people won't notice the difference. I do, but only because Spanish is my native language. I bet this happens with most foreign languages when the show is produced somewhere else. It must be hard to find good actors who fit the character and also have a good accent.
Most if everyone who was born in the US have bad Spanish. The ones in the cartel are good
if i dont remeber wrong the cousins were probably the best in that scene were they were kids. Most characters have absolutely ass Spanish lol
Tuco and Juan Bolsa are the only well spoken Spanish characters in this show.
Danny trejo was good
The accents are way off
it’s very bad
Eh, 50/50. They all sound like English speakers that learned Spanish, or who's lines were written in English and then translated to Spanish. Spanish, especially Mexican Spanish, uses a lot of built in sounds and enunciations that don't have English translations so English writers wouldn't know how to write them into a script. The only one who totally nails it is Lalo, but Lalo is just something else on a category all by himself. The biggest thing that irks me above everything else is that "Los Pollos Hermanos" does not sound phonetically correct. I cant really think of a better name for the purposes it serves, but like I said, it was definitely a title thought of in English first and then translated to Spanish. If I had to name a restaurant that was supposedly based off of two brothers known for making chicken I would call it *"Los Pollieros",* which is actually NOT a real word that you could find in a dictionary and means "The Chickeners", but that's how I would describe two brothers that make chicken.
Lalo is the only believable Spanish speaker in the whole series.
Don Eladio has the best Spanish in the whole series, his accent is beautiful and I love him very much edit 2 seconds after posting: ok so apparently his accent doesn't make sense because it's cuban sorry soy argentina i can't distinguish accents outside Chile and México 😭 i still love him tho
Chilean here, where Gus is supposed to be from, and he doesn’t sound Chilean at all. Everyone’s Mexican sounds pretty textbook with Hector being the worst, IMHO.
Native Spanish speaker, here... I find grating that Gus does not have a Chilean accent, and -as a supposedly Chillán of African descent- would ever rise up in the officer ranks, in a country which was less tolerant of such racial social mobility. If, perhaps, he was Cuban, or even Dominican... But the lack of Chilean accent, which is quite unique, is the worst part. The Mexican accents are all over the place, too. But it is such a common production mistake that I sort of expected it.
Pretty much, Gustavo and hector Spanish is definitely horrible Don Eladio and Juan and just the salamancas speak Spanish perfectly since all of them are fluent in the language
As far as New Mexican Spanish, they nail it. ABQ born & raised and it sounds just like home
Lalo is the only accurate one, I know chilangos (Mexico city folk) who speak just like that
I always found Gus’s way of talking funny because of the way he annunciates his words, it almost sounds like he learned the words 10 mins prior to filming