En plan
Like, kind of, sort of — the filler younger Spaniards drop into nearly every sentence.
Related lesson: Sounding Natural — Rhythm, Fillers and Flow.
Hear it in context
Me lo dijo en plan borde, ¿sabes?
He said it to me all rude, you know?
Podemos cenar algo en plan tranquilo, sin salir de fiesta.
We can have dinner, something chill, without going out partying.
Y ella estaba en plan: no me lo puedo creer.
And she was like: I can't believe it.
Es en plan una app para compartir coche.
It's like an app for sharing rides.
What It Actually Means
En plan started life meaning “in the mode of” — salir en plan amigos, “to go out as friends” — but younger Spaniards have stretched it into a universal filler that works almost exactly like English “like.” It hedges, it approximates, it introduces quotes, and often it means nothing at all.
Common Constructions
- En plan + adjective/noun — describing the vibe: “Una boda en plan íntimo.”
- Estar en plan: — the quotative, introducing reported speech or attitude: “Yo estaba en plan: ¿en serio?”
- En plan, … — pure filler at the start of a clause, buying thinking time.
Where Textbooks Get It Wrong
Textbooks translate “like” with como, which covers comparisons but not the conversational filler. If you only ever say como, you’ll understand the news but not a group of twenty-somethings in a bar, where en plan can appear several times per sentence.
Common Pitfall
Because it’s so easy, learners overdo it — and so do natives, which is why en plan is a running joke in Spain, mocked as the verbal tic of la generación “en plan.” Use it naturally in casual speech, but strip it out of anything formal or written, where it reads as sloppy.