#12 - Why Is It "jajaja" and NOT "hahaha" in Spanish? 🤣
Speaking Spanish for Beginners
Latin ELE
4.8 • 901 Ratings
🗓️ 24 July 2025
⏱️ 6 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
😆 Have you ever seen someone type “jajaja” and thought… wait, what?
In this episode, you’ll learn why Spanish speakers write “jajaja” (not “hahaha”), and what “jijiji” and “jojojo” mean too.
It’s all about how we laugh en español and how to do it right!
📚 Study along with the shownotes on Latin ELE's blog 👇
https://latinele.com/laughter-in-spanish/
🎧 Join our Spanish Beginner Supporters Club and get access to 90+ exclusive episodes to boost your español with confidence.
❤️ If you enjoy this show, please give us a five-star review and recommend it to a friend :)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | In a recent episode of Bill Burr's podcast, he said this about the way Spanish speakers write the sound of laughter. You know, like you ever see, like when Latino people laugh at a video, they write J-A, J-A, J-A, J-A, J-A, J-A, J-A-J-O. What the fuck is J-J-J-J-J-J-No. No, it's ha, Jose. Old freckles, you're right. That's a common confusion by English speakers. |
| 0:23.6 | And more on that on this episode of speaking Spanish for beginners. |
| 0:32.6 | K'etal, me, Marco, your Latino Spanish teacher from Latin L. |
| 0:39.6 | In this episode, we'll explore how to write the son of laughter in Spanish. |
| 0:44.8 | We'll look at three specific ways, all using J instead of age. |
| 0:50.3 | And we'll see what each of these forms represents. |
| 0:53.9 | This is perfect for chatting with your amigos |
| 0:56.0 | and having fun in your text messages, |
| 0:59.0 | spelling the way we laugh correctly in Spanish. |
| 1:03.0 | Are you ready for this? |
| 1:05.0 | Sir, yes, sir! |
| 1:07.0 | In English, on social media or in text messages, when someone laughs, they write |
| 1:17.2 | ha ha ha with H and a, H, a. |
| 1:21.1 | H, a. |
| 1:23.1 | But in Spanish social media or text messages, you'll see your amigos writing it with J. |
| 1:30.3 | And in case you don't know, it's called Jota in Spanish. |
| 1:35.3 | Spell J-O-T-A, J-O-T-A, J-A. |
| 1:39.3 | So J is J-A. |
| 1:42.3 | And that name already gives you a clue as to why we write laughter with a J. |
| 1:49.2 | Did you notice the way it pronounced the letter in Spanish? |
| 1:52.9 | I said Jota with the sound hha. |
| 1:57.8 | Jota, not Jota. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Latin ELE, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Latin ELE and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

