It’s not a pleasant feeling, but it’s one we all experience from time to time – that feeling of being annoyed or angry with something or someone. In Spanish, the word for this emotion, being angry, is enfadado.
Enfadado is the participle of the verb enfadar, which originates from Old Galician-Portuguese. The etymology of enfadar is disputed; some scholars suggest it derives from the Latin infatuāre, meaning to drive someone to foolishness or to make someone act foolishly.
The other theory suggests that the word comes from the Latin in fatum, meaning in fate or destiny, which translates to el hado in Spanish.
Latin American Pronunciation
European Pronunciation
Being an adjective, enfadado must agree in gender and quantity with its subject:
- singular masculine = enfadado
- singular feminine = enfadada
- plural masculine = enfadados
- plural feminine = enfadadas
Era un hombre tan enfadado y eso me hizo enfadar.
He was such an angry man and that made me angry.
Because being angry or enfadado is, hopefully, a temporary state of emotion, we use it with the verb estar: estar enfadado = to be angry.
- Estoy enfadado/a = I’m angry
- ¿Estás enfadado conmigo? = Are you angry with me?
It can also be used with the verb ser, indicating a permanent or characteristic state of being angry, for example:
- Él es enfadado: He is an angry person.
Interesting facts…
The word enfadado is used especially in Spain, while in Latin America, the word enojado is more commonly used with the same meaning.
In Mexico, enfadado means bored or fed up.
In addition to expressing anger, enfadado can also be used to describe situations where people have fallen out with each other. For example, if a couple or friends have a disagreement and separate, you would say they are enfadados.
Jaime y su novio están enfadados.
Jaime and his boyfriend have fallen out.
Synonyms of enfadado:
In Spanish, enfado or enojo typically refer to anger, while el odio denotes hatred. Other words for to anger in Spanish, depending on the context, include:
- molestar = to annoy
- fastidiar = to get in someone’s way
- enfurecer = to infuriate
- cabrear = to tick someone off
- dar rabia = to enrage
The last on that list of synonyms is dar rabia. This literally comes from rabia or rabies, the deadly virus which infects mammals and is spread through infected saliva.
Finally, when you make the verb enfadar reflexive, it becomes enfadarse, which means to get angry or to become annoyed in Spanish. This reflexive form indicates that the action is directed back onto the subject, implying that the person themselves is experiencing the anger or annoyance.
