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5.7 Flatulence
We’re not sure that this is a ‘useful’ verb but flatulence is definitely something that almost every serious student of Spanish wants to know or needs to know at some point.
You may come across a variety of ways that people in Latin America communicate the fact that someone (or they themselves) ‘let one go’ but there are mainly two common ways of saying someone farted, which will be understood just about anywhere in the Spanish speaking world.
El pedo – The fart
Tirarse un pedo – To fart
This is the most common way of saying someone farted. It pretty much implies that they more or less intentionally ‘cut some cheese’ since the verb ‘tirar’ means ‘to fire’ among other things.
Examples:
Jorge se tiró un pedo y corrimos – Juan farted and we ran
Perdón, me tiré un pedo – Sorry, I farted
¡No me digas que te tiraste un pedo otra vez! – Don’t tell me you farted again!
There is one more useful construction that is covered in more detail on the chapter ‘The many uses of se’ which implies that a fart accidentally slipped out; that it was unexpected and unintentional:
Se me salió un pedo – I accidentally farted/A fart slipped out (of me)
A Marco se le salió un pedo – Marco accidentally farted