dale

What it means

1. 1.

   Go on, go ahead, okay. The default Cuban agreement particle — it accepts a proposal, ends a phone call and gives permission, depending on intonation alone.

2. 2.

   As encouragement: come on, let's go, keep going. This is the sense that carried into reggaetón and into Miami English.

3. 3.

   Dale que dale, of someone persisting tediously at something.

Literally: Give it (to him/her).

Examples with translations

• Nos vemos a las ocho. — Dale.

  See you at eight. — Right, fine.

• ¡Dale, asere, que se hace tarde!

  Come on, bro, we're running late!

Where it comes from

The imperative of dar with an attached pronoun, general Spanish in form but distinctively Cuban in frequency and in the flat 'okay' sense. Its global recognisability is largely the work of Miami Cuban artists — Pitbull built a catchphrase out of it — which means many people outside Cuba know the shouted sense and not the ordinary one.