Comedian Leo Harlem, during a lighthearted monologue, reflected on how younger generations interact with language and couldn’t help but mention Arturo Pérez Reverte, a member of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE). “This generation is astonishing. They’ve decided not to learn spelling rules; they’ve chosen to challenge the Spanish language. They write however they please and wait until the experts give in and change the norm,” Harlem explained.
Harlem then directly addressed the RAE, using a clear example: “The RAE has accepted ‘puto’ as an intensifying prefix. So now it’s correct to say ‘me putoencanta el zumo de piña.'” He continued to the laughing audience: “Pérez Reverte, an academic of the language and a war journalist for 21 years, gets zero. El Jonathan, from Fuenlabrada, who repeated the third year of secondary school three times, gets one. They’re winning, dude. Watch out.”
Pérez Reverte shared the video on social media and offered a concise response: “Indeed.” The mock victory of ‘El Jonathan’ sparked numerous reactions. Some defended the evolution of language, while others lamented that proper language care starts too late in school.
The debate over using ‘puto’ as an intensifying prefix gained traction in 2019 after a Twitter user queried the RAE. The Academy patiently clarified: “If it is stressed and precedes an adjective or adverb, it acts as an adverb and takes only the form ‘puto’: ‘Está puto lejos’ (= ‘Está muy lejos’). If unstressed, it functions as an intensifying prefix and takes only ‘puto-‘: ‘¡Qué putolejos vive!'” The RAE added that this usage is “not recommended in formal language and does not appear in our dictionaries.”
