What does “¿qué perdón ni qué nada?” mean in Spanish?

Disculpa a la abuelita por el desorden

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A2 Spanish listening practice · Colombian Spanish · Picked for people who know a little

💡 Did you know?
ni qué nada
Spanish dismissive comeback
“no way,” “don’t give me that” — brushes off whatever was just said

Ni qué nada is how Spanish brushes off an excuse or objection on the spot: tack it onto whatever the other person just said and you’re saying “don’t give me that” or “no way.” In the clip, a grandmother waves away an apology with ¿Qué perdón ni qué nada? — “What 'sorry'? Forget it” — before handing over the mop anyway. The pattern is ¿qué X ni qué nada?, where X is simply whatever word you want to dismiss.

The slot is flexible: ¿qué frío ni qué nada, abrígate! (“what cold, just put on a coat!”) or ¿qué cansado ni qué nada! (“tired, my foot!”) work the same way. A related but separate construction, ni que + subjunctive, adds sarcasm to a comparison — ni que fuera millonario, “as if I were a millionaire.” Both lean on ni qué to wave something away.

How common are the words?

How common are the words in this A2 Spanish listening practice video?

82.6%
of words are in the top 2,000 most common Spanish words
Most of the words in this video are common Spanish words.

How common in written Spanish

69.6%
Top 1,000
82.6%
Top 2,000
87%
Top 5,000

How common in spoken Spanish

87.8%
Top 1,000
100%
Top 2,000
100%
Top 5,000
👄 Words for talking
This video uses words people often say in Spanish.

Harder words in this video

These words are harder than A2. Here is what they mean.

trapeador
1×
Not in top 5,000
mop (cleaning tool)
trapear
1×
Not in top 5,000
to mop (verb)
trapeo
1×
Not in top 5,000
perdóname
1×
Not in top 5,000People say this a lot
abuelita
3×
Not in top 5,000

Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-ESP 2011 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.

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