In 2017, the linguist Niktelol Palacios of El Colegio de México published a study of softened speech in Puebla in the journal Anuario de Letras. Lingüística y Filología. It drew on the PRESEEA corpus of Puebla, among speakers with little formal education.
The study names one aim of the softening devices that these speakers use: “se trata de evitar al máximo el desacuerdo” (the point is to avoid disagreement as far as possible).
Hoy no se fía, mañana sí. “No credit today, tomorrow yes.” The Mexico City magazine Chilango, in an article on the signs and cries of street markets, calls this sign “famoso” (famous).
The same article opens by naming a blunter version among the best-known cries and signs of the markets of Mexico City: Hoy no fío, mañana tampoco, “No credit today, and none tomorrow either.”
In Mexico, a plain gracias in answer to an offer can mean yes or no. In a guide published by Mexico News Daily in November 2024, Sarah DeVries describes her way around this. She asks: ¿Gracias “sí” o gracias “no”? The answer, she writes, is “almost always ‘Gracias, no.'”
The same guide lists other polite ways to decline. A lo mejor, “probably.” Déjame ver or déjame checar, “let me see” or “let me check.” Estamos en contacto, “we’ll be in touch.”
Yo te aviso, “I’ll let you know.” Ahorita, a la vuelta, “in a little while, on my way back,” said to a street vendor. Ahí para la otra, “next time, then.” Déjame pensarlo, “let me think about it.” En un ratito, “in a little while.” In 2017, Matador Network in Spanish listed these among nine expressions Mexicans use to avoid saying no.
In 2012, Gala Karina Villaseñor García tested how 123 Mexican university students understood replies to requests, for a master’s thesis at UNAM. Some replies came at once. Others came after a silence of 1.2 seconds.
The result: “un silencio antes de una respuesta negativa intensifica la noción de rechazo” (a silence before a negative answer intensifies the sense of refusal). The study also tested silence as the only reply.
In 2019, the first year of López Obrador’s government, a series of senior officials resigned. Simón Levy, undersecretary of tourism, called his resignation “estrictamente personal” (strictly personal) and “irrevocable.” When Patricia Bugarín left as undersecretary of security, her ministry spoke of reasons that were “estrictamente personales.”
Two officials broke with this. On May 21, Germán Martínez left the IMSS, the social security institute, and called excessive savings in health “inhumano.” On July 9, Finance Secretary Carlos Urzúa wrote in his letter of resignation: “Discrepancias en materia económica hubo muchas” (There were many disagreements on economic matters).
In 2006, the linguist J. César Félix-Brasdefer published a study in the Journal of Pragmatics on how male speakers of Mexican Spanish refuse. He examined the effect of formality on their refusals and the link between politeness and protecting face.
In a study published in 2008, he observed 18 male Mexican students refusing a request, an invitation and a suggestion from a peer. They refused mainly in indirect ways, and they softened what they said.
In 2019, BBC Mundo asked Mexican scholars why it is hard for Mexicans to say no. Alí Albarrán of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters at UNAM said: “Decir que no a alguien que te está ofreciendo algo de buena voluntad es considerado una ofensa” (Saying no to someone who offers something in good will is considered an offense). The anthropologist Roger Bartra said that “it is not very polite to say no openly.”
The article describes the common solution: “para no decir no, dicen que sí, pero no ponen un plazo” (to avoid saying no, they say yes, but they set no date).