Bondi
Bus — the everyday Buenos Aires word for the city bus (colectivo).
Related lesson: Argentine Spanish — A Survival Guide.
Hear it in context
Perdí el bondi por dos minutos.
I missed the bus by two minutes.
¿Qué bondi tengo que tomar para ir al centro?
Which bus do I need to take to get downtown?
Me quedé dormido en el bondi y pasé mi parada.
I fell asleep on the bus and missed my stop.
What It Actually Means
Bondi is Buenos Aires slang for “bus” — used constantly in place of the more official colectivo, which is what appears on signs and in formal writing. If you’re navigating the city day to day, you’ll hear bondi far more often.
Where It Comes From
The word likely comes from a Portuguese/Brazilian term for early tram tickets (“bond”), carried into Rioplatense Spanish and eventually generalized to buses once trams disappeared from Buenos Aires.
Where Textbooks Get It Wrong
Courses teach autobús or colectivo as the standard vocabulary for “bus”, which is technically correct but misses the word locals actually say to each other — much like curro vs. trabajo in Spain.
Common Pitfall
Bondi is specific to Argentina (mainly Buenos Aires); elsewhere in Latin America you’ll need camión (Mexico), guagua (Cuba, Canary Islands), or micro (Chile) instead.