Money.
The standard Puerto Rican word for money in casual speech. "No tengo chavos" is I am broke.
From "ochavo," an old Spanish coin worth an eighth of a real.
In Mexico "chavos" means kids, not money. Same word, entirely different meaning.
Mexico says varo or lana, Argentina says guita, Colombia says plata, Spain says pasta.
Reading a definition isn't the same as saying it to someone. Lingo Kaiava is a voice tutor set to Puerto Rican Spanish โ it uses chavos the way locals do, corrects you in the moment, and never "fixes" the way real people actually talk into textbook Puerto Rican Spanish.
Practice Puerto Rican Spanish free โ
Free to start. No signup for your first conversation.