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Hello to every scholar in the Dominican language! Welcome to this new edition of our fun and educating Dominican English dictionary, if this is the first time you read our dictionary, we would like to invite you to become acquainted with the words that we have previously published (jumo, guayarse, deguabinao, jartura, yeyo, chepa).
Dominicans are creative people, something which is especially evident, in the way we talk – often using words that are not listed in the dictionary.
If a Dominican tells you a story or a joke, you will often hear the word “dique”, actually this word exists in the spanish dictionary as “dizque”, but in the Dominican Republic it is frequently used as a pet word when someone is telling a story, joke, etc.
Dique
“Dique” means “supposedly “,”not even” or “apparently”. This word is used when Dominicans talk about incidents or information they are not sure about. They also use this word when they have an uncertain expectation about something or someone.
Example 1:
Dominican 1: Loco, ¿y esa cadena no era de oro? / Dude, wasn’t that a chain made out of gold?
Dominican 2: Esa cadena dique era de oro, pero el oro no se pone verde. / That chain apparently was made our of gold, but gold doesn’t turn green.
Example 2:
Juan dique me iba a llevar al cine / Juan might take me to the cinema.
Example 3:
¿Es cierto que a Claudia dique le robaron el celular? / Is it true that someone supposedly stole Claudia’s cellphone?