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How do I say "Silly me" in Spanish?

¡Yo tonto! ¡Olvidé mi móvil!

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  • In Argentina we would say: ¡Qué boludo! It is a very common Argentinian expression.
    – user7105
    Dec 4, 2014 at 17:22
  • Some people have stated in their answers that you can use both ser or estar in the translation. There are a lot of questions regarding the difference between the two verbs all around the site, but I feel like it can be useful to write a short summary about this specific case: ¡qué tonto soy! implies you are always silly, while ¡qué tonto estoy! implies you're not usually silly, but you are in that particular moment.
    – Charlie
    Jun 2, 2016 at 9:01
  • In Mexico, we say: Silly me = Que tonto soy.
    – Rengerre
    Apr 18, 2017 at 17:50
  • you could also say "soy un idiota!", but it probably sounds more harsh than saying "soy un tonto!" or "silly me!"
    – Pablo
    Apr 18, 2017 at 23:04

7 Answers 7

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Since you mention móvil, I guess you are looking for what people would say in Spain. An option would be:

¡(Pero) qué tonto! Me he olvidado el móvil en el coche.

"Yo tonto" is incorrect. The shortest option would be just "tonto".

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  • 2
    Just for completeness, in Spain you would say "coche", not "auto".
    – Konamiman
    Dec 4, 2014 at 9:44
  • In Spain we would also prefer me he olvidado el móvil or even se me ha olvidado el móvil rather than he olvidado mi móvil.
    – Gorpik
    Dec 4, 2014 at 15:58
  • "Me he olvidado el móvil" sounds completely ungrammatical in my dialect. Is this a Spain thing?
    – clinch
    Jan 22, 2015 at 23:57
  • @clinch So sounds it in my Spanish as well. It wasn't me the one that chose the word. It was the OP. Then the Spaniards added the reflexive-thing.
    – c.p.
    Jan 23, 2015 at 7:04
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Some common phrases in Spain are:

  • ¡Qué tonto!
  • ¡Pero qué tonto!
  • Qué tonto soy.

For example:

  • ¡Pero qué tonto! Me dejé el móvil en casa.
3

A few other expressions that can be said in this situation:

Estoy atontado/a, me he dejado las llaves dentro.

Estoy agilipollado/a, he perdido el vuelo. (A bit coarse this one.)

¡Qué estupido soy, otra vez me han timado!

3

In addition to other good answers:

¡Tonto de mí!

is the most close to the original, and correct, if slightly less colloquial than other alternative.

A colloquial idiom is

¡Seré tonto...!

or

¡... si seré tonto...!

for example (you can google for more)

¡Seré tonto, creí que hablabas en serio!

¡Pero si seré tonto, creí que hablabas en serio!

¡Mira si seré tonto, que creí que hablabas en serio!

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I am adding this summary following what was discussed in Juntemos en respuestas wiki las respuestas cortas específicas de regiones / Let's use community wiki to summarize set of short region specific answers. Feel free to edit to add the term used in your country or region.


Argentina

  • Boludo

España

  • Tonto
  • Atontado

Filipinas

  • Bobo

México

  • Tonto
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Silly can be translated as tonto or bobo. Also, for your example you could use both ser or estar:

Qué tonto estoy, me he olvidado el móvil

Mira que soy bobo, me he dejado el teléfono en casa.

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  • La palabra "bobo" se dice tmb en Filipinas en exactamente el mismo contexto. Jul 6, 2016 at 21:50
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In that situation, I hear more often the form atontado than tonto. Both meaning the same, but atontado can only be used with estar.

¡(Es que) Estoy atontado! Me he dejado el móvil en el coche.

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