“Pues” is a very common word.
♦It could be used to express the cause, and we translated it as “since, as, because”:
Me quedo en casa pues tengo que estudiar.
Me quedo en casa porque tengo que estudiar.
I am staying at home since I have to study.
♦It could also establish a connection between two ideas and it is translated as “well”. When it has this meaning, we can replace it with “entonces”:
¿No te gustó mi regalo? ¡Pues no te vuelvo a dar nada!
¿No te gustó mi regalo? ¡Entonces no te vuelvo a dar nada!
Didn’t you like my present? Well, I won’t give you anything again!
-¿Te gusta este vestido? -Pues no mucho…
-Do you like this dress? -Well, not too much…
♦We also use “pues” to oppose two ideas:
-¡Qué nombre tan feo! -Pues así se llama mi mamá.
-What an ugly name! -Well, that’s my mother’s name!
♦Or it could be used to reinforce a statement, as a filler:
-¿Tienes hambre? -¡Pues claro que sí!
-Are you hungry? -Of course I am!
Here, we can say only ¡Claro que sí! and the meaning is not affected.
♦Last but not least, “pues” can be used as “then”, as in this example:
Repito, pues, que hace lo que debe.
I repeat then, that he does what he must do.
