Mal pensado

Mon, Dec 28, 2015

As your language skills improve, you may begin to notice when others are making seemingly innocent comments that have a humorous double meaning, doble sentido. For example, the question ¿Te gusta el chile? could be an albur (a double entendre) meaning: Do you like dick (penis)?

When someone accuses you of saying something sexually suggestive and you want to suggest that they, and not you, are the one with the dirty mind, here's a good reply: No seas mal pensado. Get your mind out of the gutter. Add a smirk and feign shock to get a laugh. ¡Qué mal pensado eres! What a filthy imagination you have! I meant nothing of the sort.

When directed at a woman, change pensado to pensada. Many Mexican women will claim not to understand albures but I'm not fully convinced.

By the way, dirty mind is mente cochambrosa, since cochambre is the grease that builds up in the kitchen from splatter. A person with such a mind could be called a puerco. ¡Qué puerco eres! What a pervert you are!

Bien pensado

¡(Muy) bien pensado! is something sincere you could say in response to hearing a well-thought-out idea. This time, pensado refers to the remark itself and not the speaker, so it doesn't inflect for gender.

© 2003-2024 Mark R. Alexander