Chatting about relationships is popular in any language. If you find yourself doing it in Spanish, you’re going to need some specific vocabulary and phrases.
We’ll start with Facebook’s Spanish options for choosing a relationship status. Can you guess what each status below means?
soltero (a)
= single
estoy soltero -> I am single
Note: The trailing (a) means the spelling is gender dependent. If you are male and single (and talking about yourself), you’d say ‘estoy soltero‘. If you’re female you’d say ‘estoy soltera‘.
tiene una relación
= has (in) a relationship
In Spanish, Facebook is using tener (to have) in the 3rd person, saying ‘she/he has a relationship’
comprometido(a)
= engaged
In this instance, comprometido means, engaged, as in engaged to be married. Note that it can also mean engaged as in being engaged in an activity:
ya estaba comprometido con otro proyecto -> he was already committed to another project
estar comprometido a hacer algo -> to be committed to doing something.
(Also see prometido below)
casado(a)
= married
Estoy casado -> I am married
Casado is the past participle of the reflexive verb casarse which means to marry. When you use it in the present tense, you’ll need to include this reflexive:
Casarse con una mujer adinerada -> To marry a wealthy woman.
Vamos a casarnos -> we are getting married
Nos casamos -> we’re married
mantiene una unión civil
= in a civil union
mantiene in Spanish means to maintain or to keep. While civil unions are common, many Spanish-speaking countries also use pacto civil de solidaridad (civil pact of solidarity) or sociedad de convivencia (partnership of coexistence)
tiene una pareja de hecho
= domestic partnership
The English version of Facebook translates this as a domestic partnership, but the literal translation is something akin to ‘has a defacto partner’.
Pareja in Spanish means partner or couple, and ‘de hecho‘ is used often in to mean ‘in fact’:
De hecho, estaba en Madrid -> In fact, I was in Madrid.
tiene una relación abierta
= has (in) an open relationship
es complicado
= it’s complicated
separado(a)
= separated
estoy separada -> I am separated (female)
divorciado(a)
= divorced
estoy divorciado -> I am divorced (male)
viudo(a)
= widowed
estoy viudo -> I am widowed (male)
That’s the list from Facebook. Here are some additional relationship phrases in Spanish:
Tengo novio/novia
= I have a boyfriend/girlfriend
You can also say tengo un novio or una novia.
also, note you can use:
mi marido / esposo = my husband
mi mujer / esposa = my wife
No estoy buscando algo serio
= I am not looking for anything serious
No he superado a mi ex
= I haven’t gotten over my ex
superar means to overcome, surpass or get over. This expression is in the present perfect, so it means ‘have (not) gotten over’.
Amigos con derecho (a roce)
= Friends with benefits
The phrase con derecho literally means ‘with rights‘. You may also see the added a roce, which means to touch/tap, so in this case, you have friends with rights or friends with rights to touch/tap.
Estoy prometido
= I am engaged
As we mentioned above, comprometido means to be engaged, but can also have additional meanings more generally. Prometido however, always refers to a romantic engagement. Check out this actual news headline, El cantante británico Ed Sheeran anuncia que está comprometido:
Me prometí justo antes de Año Nuevo. Estamos muy felices y enamorados y nuestros gatos también están encantados
Download a PDF Version of Relationship Vocabulary in Spanish
