Talking About Being Drunk in Spanish: From Tipsy to Wrecked
How native speakers actually talk about being drunk in Spanish — pedo, ciego, turca, resaca — and the two grammar patterns behind all of it.
You’re out for the night in Barcelona. You’ve ordered beer and wine in flawless Spanish, washed it down with a cocktail or two and the odd shot. Saying “estoy borracho” works, but it’s the textbook answer — natives grade drunkenness on a scale, and they have a word for every point on it.
The good news: almost every expression below follows one of just two patterns. Either estar/ir + adjective (estar pedo, ir ciego) for describing the state you’re in, or llevar/pillar + noun (pillar una turca, llevar una cogorza) for the session that got you there. Learn the two frames and the vocabulary slots right in.
Just Tipsy
If you’re only slightly merry, you’d say estar entonado or llevar un poco de puntillo (to be tipsy, to have a bit of a buzz): Solo llevo un puntillo, estoy bien (I’ve just got a slight buzz on, I’m fine). No need to reach for the heavy artillery yet.
The Standard Word: Borracho
- Estar/ir borracho/a — the neutral, works-everywhere way to say you’re drunk: Iba borracha el sábado (I was very drunk on Saturday). The matching verb is emborracharse (to get drunk): Me emborraché mucho el sábado (I got very drunk on Saturday).
The Colloquial Scale: Pedo, Mamado, Ciego, Tajado
- Estar/ir pedo — extremely common slang: Estaba pedo anoche (I was wasted last night). It’s invariant — a woman is still pedo, never peda. There’s even a rhyming upgrade: más pedo que Alfredo (drunker than Alfredo). One caveat: pedo with tirarse means “fart” — ¿Te has tirado un pedo? ¡Huele fatal! (Did you fart? It reeks!).
- Estar/ir mamado/a — equally colloquial: Mi amiga iba mamada (my friend was wasted). The verb mamar can also mean to drink heavily: Mamamos un montón de copas anoche (we drank loads of cocktails last night). Context matters here — mamar also means to breastfeed, and in cruder registers, to give a blowjob.
- Ir ciego — literally “to go blind”; use it for someone’s current state on a night out: Esos chicos van completamente ciegos (those guys are legless).
- Estar/ir tajado — same slot as pedo or mamado: Estáis bien tajados eh, ¿cuántas cerves lleváis ya? (You’re nicely hammered, eh — how many beers have you had?).
The Noun Pattern: Turca, Cogorza, Melopea
These name the drinking session itself, so they pair with coger, pillar or llevar:
- Coger/pillar una turca — common in Spain: Vaya turca he pillado, no puedo ni andar (I’m properly pissed, I can’t even walk).
- Llevar/pillarse una cogorza — like a turca, but a notch drunker: Lleva una buena cogorza, mañana no trabaja ni de coña (he’s completely rat-arsed, there’s no way he’s making it to work tomorrow).
- Llevar una melopea — same family: Cuando yo la vi, llevaba una melopea que no veas (when I saw her, she was completely wrecked).
The Formal Register
When the police report gets written, the slang disappears: ebrio or embriagado (intoxicated, inebriated). Le hicieron la prueba del alcoholímetro y resulta que sí, estaba ebrio (they breathalysed him and it turned out that yes, he was drunk).
The Morning After: Hangovers in Spanish
A hangover is la resaca almost everywhere — or el resacón if it’s a bad one. Regional variants are worth knowing: la cruda (Mexico), el guayabo (Colombia), la caña (Chile).
Related survival vocabulary:
- Vomitar (to vomit) — or the cruder, more colloquial potar.
- Tener lagunas (to have gaps) — the memory loss after a heavy night.
- La borrachera — covers both the binge and the drunken state: Fuimos por Londres y pillamos una borrachera (we went on a binge in London), Espero que se me pase la borrachera pronto (I hope I stop being drunk soon). The formal term for binge drinking is excesos alcohólicos.
The People Involved
- Un/a alcohólico/a or dipsómano/a — an alcoholic.
- Un/a borracho/a — as a noun, a drunkard.
- Un/a abstemio/a — a teetotaller.
- Sobrio/a — sober.
One Last Word: Botellón
El botellón is a Spanish institution: groups of young people gathering in parks, streets or any secluded-but-public spot to drink large quantities of cheap alcohol together. You “go to” one — ¿Vas al botellón luego? (are you going to the botellón later?) — or “do” one — ¿Hacemos botellón el viernes? (shall we do a botellón on Friday?). It’s a rite of passage for young Spaniards and firmly embedded in Spanish culture.
Next time someone asks how your Saturday went, skip estaba borracho and reach for pillé una buena cogorza — that’s the difference between speaking Spanish and speaking it like a native.