Trucho
Fake, counterfeit, dodgy — anything that is not the real deal.
Related lesson: Argentine Spanish — A Survival Guide.
Hear it in context
Esa camiseta de Boca es trucha, se nota por la tela.
That Boca jersey is fake, you can tell by the fabric.
No compres ahí, venden todo trucho.
Don't buy there, everything they sell is knock-off.
Me pagó con un billete trucho, ¿podés creer?
He paid me with a counterfeit bill, can you believe it?
El sitio ese es medio trucho, yo no pondría la tarjeta.
That site is kind of sketchy, I wouldn't put my card details in.
What It Actually Means
Trucho means fake, counterfeit, pirated, or generally dodgy — the opposite of posta (the real deal, which has its own entry). A billete trucho is a counterfeit bill, a título trucho is a fake diploma, and una página trucha is a scam website. The word exploded in Argentine usage during the 1990s, when it became attached to political scandals and knock-off goods alike, and it never left.
Common Constructions
It behaves as an ordinary adjective and agrees in gender and number: trucho, trucha, truchos, truchas. Medio trucho softens it to “kind of sketchy”. You’ll also hear the verb truchar — to fake or forge something — “trucharon las firmas” (“they forged the signatures”), and truchada for a shoddy or fraudulent piece of work.
Beyond Counterfeits
Trucho stretches from literal fraud to plain low quality. A flimsy repair, an unconvincing excuse, or an improvised solution held together with tape can all be trucho. “Hicieron un arreglo trucho y a la semana se rompió” (“they did a dodgy repair and it broke within a week”).
Common Pitfall
Don’t reach for the textbook words falso or falsificado in casual speech — they’re correct but stiff. Conversely, trucho is informal: in a police report or a formal complaint, switch back to falsificado. Among friends, though, trucho is the only word anyone actually uses.