Traigo muchas broncas

"Traigo muchas broncas"

When I first read this, I had no idea what it meant. Which isn't necessarily all that unusual when I get into conversations with native speakers. So once again it was time to flex my Google muscles and get to the bottom of things.

It turns out that Traer and Tener are synonyms. Or at least some of the time they are.

And "Traer broncas" means something to the effect of having issues/problems.

Here's the original sentence:

Discúlpame por no te he marcado pero traigo muchas broncas.

Here's an alternative version:

Discúlpame, pero no te he llamado por teléfono porque tengo muchos problemas.

Both of them translate to "Forgive me, I haven't called you because I'm having a lot of problems".

But like always, Spanish varies from region to region. Our definition is the one used in Mexico, and possibly Spain. Although I don't have the specifics, in Argentina it has a different meaning altogether.

Also remember that using traer in this manner is much more informal than using tener.

Here's another example:

Tengo dolor de cabeza.
Traigo dolor de cabeza. (informal, for use with your friends)

I always find it amazing how rich the Spanish language is. Tener and traer are (sometimes) synonyms. Who knew?