No problemo

"No problemo" is a slang expression used in North American English to indicate that a given situation does not pose a problem. It has roughly the same meaning as the expression "no problem," but is rarely heard as a response to "I'm sorry."

The expression is sometimes used as an instance of "pseudo-Spanish" or Mock Spanish.^[1] Its usage as a Spanish expression is incorrect; a correct translation would be no hay problema or ningún problema. Many equivalents to English words can be found in Spanish by adding an o, such as "insect" (insecto), "pilot" (piloto), or "leopard" (leopardo); however, "problem" belongs to the series of words ending with an a in Spanish that have a similar English counterpart, such as "poet" (poeta), "ceramic" (cerámica) or "rat" (rata). This is because it has a Greek 'ma' ending, and as such is among the Spanish words ending in 'ma', such as tema, which is in fact masculine.

In the constructed languages of Esperanto and Ido, the word "problem" translates as "problemo."^[2][3] However, it is doubtful that the etymology of the expression's use in the English language can be traced to either of these languages.

Usage in popular culture

• The Terminator character in the movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day uses this expression, which he learns from the John Connor character.
• The character Alf from the TV series of the same name uses this phrase; in the Latin-American Spanish version of the show, the phrase is translated as "no hay problema."
• It is used in the TV show The Inbetweeners by the character Neil Sutherland, who is quoting Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
• In the cartoon series Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! the character Widget uses the phrase every time she helps out someone with one of her inventions.
• In the cartoon series The Simpsons, this expression is frequently used by Bart and Homer Simpson.
• In the cartoon series ChalkZone, the character Snap can be heard saying this numerous times on some occasions.

References

1. ^ John M. Lipski (2004). "Is 'Spanglish' the third language of the South?: truth and fantasy about U.S. Spanish". p. 15. http://www.personal.psu.edu/jml34/spanglish.pdf. Retrieved 2009-10-28. 
2. ^ "Esperanto-English Dictionary". http://www.esperanto-panorama.net/vortaro/eoen.htm. Retrieved 2010-01-12. 
3. ^ Mann, David (2007). "English-Ido Dictionary : P". http://www.davidmann.us/ido/dictionaries/ep.htm. Retrieved 2010-01-12. 

External links

• Examples from film and television