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Quick Answer
Echar porras means to cheer somebody on in Mexican Spanish. Una porra is a chant and la porra is the group of fans doing the chanting, so echarle porras a alguien is throwing cheers at them. It means moral support rather than practical help, and it is safe with anybody.
- Echar porras means to cheer somebody on or hype them up out loud.
- Una porra is a chant and la porra is the crowd chanting it, so you are literally throwing cheers at someone.
- It is warm, safe, and usable with anyone - friends, family, coworkers, your boss.
What it means
Echar porras is backing somebody up out loud. Not helping them, not fixing anything - making noise on their behalf so they know somebody is watching and wants them to win.
It works for anything with an outcome. A job interview, an exam, a race, a first date, a difficult phone call somebody has been putting off for a week. Wherever there is a before and an after, there is room for porras.
Literal meaning
Echar is to throw, and it does an enormous amount of work in Mexican Spanish - echar la mano, echar un taco, echar aguas. Una porra is a chant. La porra, with the article, is the organized crowd doing the chanting - the kind that travels with a football club and brings its own drums, and also the school cheer a whole assembly knows by heart, the goya at UNAM being the famous one.
Which came first, the chant or the crowd named after it, is not settled, so treat any confident stadium origin story as a guess. What the phrase describes is clear either way: echarle porras a alguien puts one person in the middle and you in the stands. You are not on the field, but you are loud.
The forms you will actually hear
- échame porrascheer me onThe single most common shape. Said the day before something hard.
- échenme porrascheer me on (to a group)What lands in the group chat the night before.
- le eché porrasI cheered him or her onThe le is doing the work. Echar porras a alguien, never echar porras alguien.
- me echaron porrasthey cheered me onThe after-the-fact version, usually said with some surprise.
- le hicimos porrawe cheered him onThe sports shape, usually singular and with the article. ¿A quién le haces porra? is how Mexicans ask which team you support.
- ahí te van mis porrassending you my cheersOne possible reply, and a playful one. Échale ganas is the standard.
- no te eches tantas porrasstop blowing your own trumpetReflexive, and the only unfriendly use the phrase has.
How Mexicans use it
The most common shape is a request. Échame porras, said the day before something hard, is how people ask their friends to be in their corner. It is not fishing for reassurance - it is closer to telling someone the date so they can think of you at the right hour.
The other common shape is a report after the fact: me echaron muchas porras. That usually means a group showed up for you, and people say it with some surprise, because being cheered for is not something adults expect.
In WhatsApp it lives in group chats and it is short. Échenme porras mañana lands the night before, and the replies are usually emoji, a tú puedes, or an ánimo. Nobody writes paragraphs back.
Parents and teachers use it about children - hay que echarle porras - and there it means something closer to build them up. Same verb, softer setting.
Examples
- Échame porras, mañana tengo entrevista.Cheer me on, I've got an interview tomorrow.
- Ahí te van mis porras, tú puedes.Sending you my cheers, you've got this.
- Le eché porras toda la carrera y ni me oyó.I cheered for her the whole race and she didn't even hear me.
- Nos echaron muchas porras en la presentación.We got a lot of cheering at the presentation.
In the group chat
- banda mañana tengo entrevista a las 10, échenme porras 🙏guys, I have an interview at 10 tomorrow, cheer me on
- ahí te van mis porras, tú puedessending you my cheers, you've got this
- mucho éxito!! nos cuentasgood luck!! tell us how it goes
- ya me pusieron nervioso jaja graciasnow you've made me nervous haha thanks
Mini dialogue
Common mistake
The default verb is echar - échame porras, le eché porras. Hacer porra is the other native one and it takes over around sport: le hicimos porra a la selección, ¿a quién le haces porra? Dar porras is the odd one out. It gets understood, but it reads as a translation of dar ánimos rather than something anybody grew up saying.
The bigger mistake is sending porras when somebody asked for help. Moral support offered in place of a favor reads as a polite way of saying no. If your friend needs a ride, echarle porras is the wrong answer, and everybody in the chat can see it.
Don't sound gringo
échame porras asks a friend to be in your corner. it is asking for noise rather than for luck.
The verb is echar - or hacer porra, once the thing being cheered is a team.
What comes back is usually échale ganas, the other half of the pair and the most common thing Mexicans say to somebody facing something hard.
The one version with an edge is reflexive: no te eches tantas porras means you are hyping yourself.
Where you'll hear it
- the night before an interview, texting the group chat échenme porras mañana and getting eleven replies in a row
- the last kilometre of a run in Chapultepec with a friend jogging beside you on the path shouting
- a colleague heading into a presentation and everyone at the desks behind her giving her the nod
- an entire section of the stadium doing the job the word was invented for
FAQ
What does echar porras mean?
It means to cheer somebody on or hype them up. Una porra is a chant, so echarle porras a alguien is throwing cheers at them - moral support, said out loud.
Is echar porras formal or informal?
Informal but completely safe. You can say it to a friend, a coworker, or your boss without anyone raising an eyebrow. The formal written equivalent is animar or dar ánimos.
How do you ask someone to cheer you on in Spanish?
Échame porras. Add the occasion if you want: échame porras mañana, tengo examen. For a group, échenme porras.
Is it echar porras, hacer porra, or dar porras?
Echar is the everyday one - échame porras, le eché porras. Hacer porra is equally native and dominates around sport: le hicimos porra al equipo. Dar porras is the one to skip; it reads as a translation of dar ánimos.
What is the difference between echar porras and hacer el paro?
Echar porras is moral support - noise, encouragement, being in someone's corner. Hacer el paro is an actual favor. Offering porras when somebody needed a favor reads as a soft no.
What does porra mean in Mexico?
A chant, and by extension the group of fans doing the chanting - la porra of a football club. In Spain the same word turns up in mandar a la porra, which means telling somebody to get lost, but that sense is not used in Mexico.
How do you reply when someone says échame porras?
Échale ganas is the standard, then tú puedes, ánimo, or mucho éxito. Ahí te van mis porras works too and is more playful. None of them needs anything after it.
What does no te eches tantas porras mean?
Stop hyping yourself up. Used reflexively, echarse porras is the one version of this phrase that is not warm - se echa porras solo is said about somebody who does his own cheering.
Don't confuse with
- hacer el paroHacer el paro is real help - a favor, a ride, covering a shift. Echar porras is moral support and nothing else. If somebody needs the airport and you send porras, you have not helped.
- échale ganasThe phrase this one lives next to. Échale ganas is what you say TO somebody facing something hard - give it everything. Echar porras is what you do FOR them. Ánimo and tú puedes sit in the same spot, and all three are shouted rather than written.
- porroOne letter away and a completely different world. In Mexico los porros are the hired thugs who break up student protests at UNAM and IPN - a political landmine, not a cheer. In Spain and Colombia un porro is a joint; the Mexican word for that is churro or gallo.
- echarse porrasReflexive, and the one unfriendly use. No te eches tantas porras means stop blowing your own trumpet, and se echa porras solo is said about somebody who does his own cheering.
- mandar a la porraIn Spain that means telling somebody to get lost. Mexicans understand it and it turns up in print and in older speech, but nobody here reaches for it - that is vete a la chingada, or vete al diablo if you are being polite. In Mexico porras is cheering almost every time.
- porristaUna porrista is a cheerleader. It comes from the same root but it is a job description, not something you do for a friend.
Related words
Test yourself
tap an answer.
Your friend texts 'échame porras, mañana tengo examen.' What are they asking for?
Which one sounds like a native speaker?
The one thing
echar porras is cheering somebody on out loud. hacer porra is the sports version, échale ganas is what comes back at you, and none of it is a substitute for actual help.
Sources
- DictionaryporraDiccionario breve de mexicanismos, Academia Mexicana de la LenguaGives echar porras a alguien as supporting somebody, frequently by shouting, and defines porra as both the group of supporters and the thing they shout.
- DictionaryporraDiccionario de americanismos, Asociación de Academias de la Lengua EspañolaMarks porra for Mexico in two senses at once, the crowd of followers and the set of chants, which is why the chant and the crowd share one word.
- Institution¿De dónde viene la porra Goya de la UNAM?PUEDJS, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoTraces the Goya to a 1940s neighborhood cinema next to Prepa 1, not to a stadium, and to an earlier Joooya chant it replaced.
- Institution¡Goya! La historia del grito universitarioFundación UNAMSets out competing accounts of where the Goya came from, including imported US college porras, so no single origin story is settled.
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