Varieties ofSpanishMany students have heard so much about how the Spanish of Spain (or Argentina or Cuba or fill-in-the-blank) is different that they're worried their months of study won't do them much good.While the comparison isn't completely accurate, the differences between the Spanish of Spain and the Spanish of Latin America are something like the differences between British English and American English. People from throughout the Spanish-speaking world can communicate with other as easily as people throughout the English-speaking world can. There are differences, more so in the spoken language than in writing, but they aren't so extreme that you can't learn the differences as you need them.Also, while it's easy to think of Latin American Spanish as one entity, as textbooks and lessons often do, you should note there are differences in the Spanish of various countries in the Western Hemisphere. But again, the differences aren't so extreme that they prevent communication.If your pronunciation is reasonably good, whether your accent is Castilian or Mexican or Bolivian, you will be understood. Latin Americans watch movies from Spain, and Spaniards watch Latin American telenovelas (soap operas), so you can be assured the differences aren't all that that great. You might want to avoid slang or extreme colloquialisms, but standard educated Spanish is understood anywhere in the Spanish-speaking world.Here, however, are some of the differences you may notice:Pronunciation: One of the main differences is that many Spaniards often pronounce the z and the c before i or e like the "th" in "thin," while many Latin Americans pronounce it the same as the s. Also, speakers in some areas (Argentina in particular) often pronounce the ll and y like the "s" in "measure." In some areas, you will hear speakers drop s sounds, so est sounds like et. In some areas, the j sounds like the "ch" in "loch" (difficult for many native English speakers to master), while in others it sounds like the English "h." In some areas, the l and the r at the end of a word sound alike. If you listen to a variety of spoken Spanish, you'll notice other differences as well, particularly in the rhythm in which it is spoken.Grammar: Two of the biggest differences, each worth a lesson in itself, are the lesmo of Spain and the use of the pronoun vos in some areas instead of t. Another major difference is that vosotros is often used as the plural of t (the singular familiar "you") in Spain, while in Latin American ustedes is usually used. There are also numerous small differences, many involving colloquial usage.Vocabulary: Other than slang, probably the biggest class of vocabulary differences you'll come across is in the use of suffixes. A lpiz is a pencil or crayon everywhere, but a lapicero is a pencil holder in some areas, a mechanical pencil in others, and a ball-point pen in still others. There are also fair number of blatant differences, such as a computer being an ordenador in Spain but a computadora in Latin America, but they are probably no more common than the British-American differences. Of course, every area also has its quirky words. For example, a Chinese restaurant in Chile or Peru is called a chifa, but you won't run across that word in many other places.How Is 'Vos' Used inArgentina?However, as you already are aware, Argentine Spanish does have its differences from the Spanish of other areas. Perhaps the most well-known to outsiders is its pronunciation. There's nothing you won't be able to understand or get used to, as the differences are probably no greater than between Australian English and U.S. English. For example, you may hear the ll receive the "zh" sound, like the "s" in "measure" or the "z" in "azure." Not so well known is the major grammatical difference, the use of vos instead of the far more common t as the second-person familiar subjective pronoun. Although vos is heard elsewhere as an alternative to t, or among certain groups of people, in Argentina it basically replaces t in everyday speech among people of all classes and education levels. I don't know the specifics of how vos developed in Argentina, but it is fairly safe to assume that it is the form that was used by the early Spanish settlers in that country. As Spanish overtook the indigenous languages of the country, people adopted the Spanish of those settlers. As this occurred in the days before electronic media, there would have been little outside influence that would have acted to make Argentine Spanish more consistent with that of other countries. Although it hasn't happened in the case of Argentina, in the course of time groups of people who start off speaking one language can each develop their own variations, leading to the formation of new languages. Originally, of course, the two languages you mention, Spanish and Portuguese, started out as Latin. Thus the Portuguese voce and Argentine Spanish vos have a common origin along with the French vous and Italian voi. It may interest you to know that t has an etymological connection with the archaic English familiar form "thou," as both the Romance and Germanic languages themselves developed from Indo-European. French and German have similar words, tu and du, respectively. In some places where vos is used, it takes the same verb forms as does t. But not so in most of Argentina. Generally speaking, present-tense verbs take the endings of s added to the root of -ar verbs, s for -er verbs, and for -ir verbs. And because the accent is on the final syllable, you won't find the stem changes that you do when t is used. The present-tense, second-person familiar form of tener (to have), for example, is tens, and the present-tense form of poder is pods. Among the irregular forms is sos for ser. Thus, vos sos mi amigo is the equivalent of t eres mi amigo, or "you are my friend." Although vos is universally heard in Argentina, it is used on a limited basis in southern Mexico, Central America, and northwestern South America. Its rules of usage vary with region, and it can be considered substandard usage in some areas. When I was in Guatemala a few years ago, Spanish teachers told me that they used it with family members and very close friends although while a man might speak to his wife or close female friend using vos, he would never use it to address another man. As with any unusual usage, your best bet to sounding like a native when using vos is to hear how those around you use it.Familiar Pronoun Commonly Used in Parts of Central AmericaAddendum: In an earlier version of an article I had written, based on what I was told by some people in Guatemala, about the use of vos in that country. Since then, I have received these comments: Comment 1: I have to agree with your article, however, on this paragraph, the rule that a man would never use vos to address another man is not quite accurate. As a matter of fact, I would never use t with my buddies. It sounds too ... awkward. I grew up in Guatemala, la capital to be specific. Here are some conversation examples of how I use t/usted/vos (this is in no way a representation of how everyone else in Guate uses them): To a male friend: "Vos Humberto mano, a la gran pu--, porque no la llamaste!" Between my parents(*): "Hola mijo, como est? Ya almorzo?" (They use usted to address me). "S mama, estoy bien, y t como estas?" (I use t to address them.) To a girl I just met or an acquaintance: Usted is the universal rule. To a girl who is very close: "Claudia, te gustara ir a comer algo?" Tutear is the term used when a guy and a girl reach the comfort level to refer to each other using t. To my sister(**): "Vos Sonia, a qu horas vas a venir?"

(*) In some of my friends' families this rule is reversed and in some cases Usted is used by both parties. (**) Some of my friends address their siblings with usted. Comment 2: The usage of vos and t is interesting because it is an important element in the regional characteristics of the language and social relationships. What the other Guatemalan user pointed out in his clarification is true. Vos is used when there is a lot of familiarity, but if used out of the familiarity context it can be disrespectful or impolite. In fact, some people use vos in a disdainful way to address a Mayan stranger, but use the formal usted when addressing a ladino (non-Maya) stranger of equal or "higher" social level. In other cases, using vos with a stranger is regarded as rather friendly than impolite, but this is a deeply rooted cultural and social element that can't be described in just a few lines. Between male friends, vos is indeed the predominant form. Using t between men is very rare, and it is often characterized as queer. Vos is also used between close female friends, and relatives and friends of whichever sex, to a lesser extent. However, whenever t is used, it's conjugated as with vos (e.g., t sos mi mejor amiga. Ana, t coms muy poco). The use of the traditional conjugation of t is very rare. In some cases, the use of vos, t or usted is not mutual. Sometimes, a person will address you in either way, and you in turn will address that person with a different pronoun. This can be seen with people from different generations, social groups or levels, sexes or even a peer, depending whether you want to show respect, friendliness, distance or simply because that is the way you are used to address a certain group. This explains the example of the other Guatemalan, where his mother uses usted and he uses t, and how he addresses acquaintances or women with usted, which is due to the way he is used to address them within his social sphere. This is true for all social levels of ladinos in urban areas and many rural areas. Some things vary with people of Mayan descent.

Information about some of the differences between the Castillian Spanish of Spain (Castellano) and Latin American Spanish (Espaol). Most commonly, castellano and espaol both refer to the language of Cervantes, Borges, Lorca, and Vargas Llosa. However, in certain contexts, castellano is used to refer only to the language as spoken in Spain, and espaol to the language as it is spoken in Latin America. Are castellano and espaol really that different? Isnt Spanish all the same? Well yes, and no. Like English speakers from the UK, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and the United States, there are obvious differences but people can still effectively communicate with and understand each other. And that is the function of language.Yet what sounds right to one native speaker can sometimes sound strange, quaint, old-fashioned, or just plain wrong to a native speaker from another country. In the worst cases, incomprehension, misunderstandings, or arguments can arise as a result of linguistic differences, especially when it comes to slang. Nevertheless, the best rule of thumb is that good, educated language use is more often than not good and educated language wherever you are. Just be sure to allow for the differences that may arise. Admittedly, talking of Castillian Spanish or Latin American Spanish can be misleading. Spanish in Mexico is certainly different from the Spanish of Argentina, and Spanish in Galicia diverges from the Spanish of Andaluca. Even so, Spanish as it is spoken in Spain shares many common characteristics that set it apart from Spanish in Latin America, and that is what we will briefly examine here. PronunciationNon-Spaniards sometimes affectionately refer to the Castillian th pronunciation of the c and z as a lisp; where in Latin America, this same c and z is pronounced as an s. As such, some words are indistinguishable in Latin American speech, caza and casa for example. Not so in Castillian Spanish, where their phonetic difference is preserved. Vocabulary: VerbsHere are a few examples that illustrate some of the differences in Spanish vocabulary than can arise with respect to verbs:

Castillian Spanish

Latin American Spanish

English

coger

tomar

To take. Example: Cog el tren.Tom el tren. I took the train.In Latin America, coger meanssomething else, and you would notbe doing that to a train.

criarse

crecerse

to grow up, to be brought up

enfadarse

enojarse

to get angry

enfermar

enfermarse

to get ill or sick

pedir prestado

prestarse

to borrowVerb FormsIn both Spain and Latin America, the informal, second person singular verb form is t (you). (See the chart below.) For example: Quieres (t) venir a la fiesta conmigo? Would you like to come to the party with me?However, when youre talking to a group of people, thats when things get more complicated. In Spain, you would use the second person plural verb form, vosotros, so youd say: Queris (vosotros) ir a la fiesta conmigo? But in Latin America, the vosotros verb form is simply not used. There they use the third person plural verb form with ustedes instead, which would be: Quieren (ustedes) ir a la fiesta conmigo?

First person singular = yo quiero.

First person plural = nosotros queremos.

Informal, second person singular = t quieres.

Informal, second person plural = vosotros queris.

Third person singular = l quiere, ella quiere.Formal, second personal singular = usted quiere.

Third person plural = ellos quieren, ellas quieren.Formal, second person plural = ustedes quieren.SlangSlang varies widely from country to country and even region to region. To try to keep things clean around here, Ill limit our discussion to directing you to the Alternative Spanish Dictionary and Alternative Mexican Spanish Dictionary. These are good primers on slang and especially bad words in general. The Alternative Spanish Dictionary tells you in which country or region each word is in use. He insists on using the usted form with me..."The use of t vs. ustedIn both Spain and Latin America, t is the informal, second person singular and usted is the formal, second person singular. Generally, t is used among good friends and usted in formal situations or as a sign of respect. However, the use of t in Spain is very widespread and is used in many situations that in Latin America would require the use of usted. As an example, a very well-mannered Mexican friend of mine living in the United States insists on using the usted form with me. To my surprise, he even uses the usted form with his parents, which is fairly common in some Latin American countries. The truth is that I cant recall ever hearing him use the t form. I, a transplant to Madrid, insist that he tutearme (use t) because were friends; yet he says that he uses usted precisely because were friends. Curious. Vocabulary: NounsHere are a few examples that illustrate some of the differences in Spanish vocabulary than can arise with respect to nouns:

Castillian Spanish

Latin American Spanish

English

billete (m)

boleto (m)

ticket

ordenador (m)

computadora (f)

computer

tortilla (f)

tortilla (f)

In Spain, a tortilla is an omelette.In Latin America, a tortilla is a flat bread.

melocotn (m)

durazno (m)

peach

patata (f)

papa (f)

potato

autobs, autocar, bus (m)

guagua (f), colectivo, micro, mnibus, bondi, camin, bus (m)

busVerb tensesCastillian and Latin American Spanish tend to make different uses of certain verbal tenses.If you did something yesterday, you would use the imperfect preterite (also called the simple past). For example: Fui al supermercado ayer. I went to the supermarket yesterday. But if you went to the supermarket in the morning, you would hear the present perfect He ido al supermercado esta maana in Spain and the simple past Fui al supermercado esta maana in Latin America. Castillian Spanish uses the present perfect to indicate not only the recent past, but in many cases where only the simple past may be used in Latin America.

BrieflyMany people have the mistaken idea that the Spanish language that is used in Spain is completely different from that spoken in Latin America. They also believe that if you speak in Latin American Spanish, they won't be able to understand you in Spain. I'm not sure where people get this idea from, but it is simply not true. Some words vary region to region (especially slang or swear words) but the core Spanish language spoken in each country is still the same.

In fact, there is a very close correlation between English from the United States, England, and Australia and Spanish spoken in Spain and in Latin America. For example, if someone from England or Australia talks, I, as an American, can understand them just fine and they can understand me. Sure we have different accents, some of their swear words are different, and I may not understand many of their slang words but we can understand each other. It is the same with Spanish in Spain, Mexico and Latin America. They have different accents and their regional uses of some words may vary but they can understand each other just fine.

Briefly, some differences in accent between Latin America and Spain are that in Spain, when they say their "S's", they make more of a hissing "s" sound. Also, in Spain, the "z" and "c" (followed by "e" or "i") make a "th" sound instead of the Latin American "s" sound. And finally, in Latin America, the "ll" can sound like an English "j" or "y" depending on the region, however in Spain, it is generally pronounced like a "y".

Now you know the scoop on the difference between Spanish from Spain and Latin America.

Latin American Spanish or Spanish For Latin AmericaThis is the universal and somewhat arbitrary name that is given to idiomatic and native expressions and to the specific vocabulary of the Spanish language in Latin America. Of the more than 400 million people who speak Spanish (or Castilian) as their mother tongue, more than 300 million are in Latin America. There are numerous particularities and idiomatic expressions within Spanish or Castilian. Some of the aspects that affect Spanish are: incorrect usage employed by the mass media, the influence of English and, maybe most importantly, the existing gaps in technical vocabulary. However, it is in technical vocabulary that one can find more clearly a difference between Spanish from the Iberian Peninsula, also called Spanish from Castilla, and Latin American Spanish. In Latin American Spanish the direct loanwords from English are relatively more frequent, without translating or adapting the spelling to the traditional norms. The most notorious example is the use of the word email or e-mail in Latin American instead of the more literal translation, correo electrnico, that is used in Spain. These differences are evident especially in recently adopted technical terms. In Latin America they speak of la computadora while in Spain it's el ordenador, and each of the two words sounds foreign in the region where it is not used. Different Dialects of Latin American Spanish:The language has variants in the diverse zones where it is spoken. These differences are called regional variants or dialects. In Latin American this tendency toward differentiation is almost imposed by the very magnitude of the territory. So we can observe in the different geographical areas the development of different variants of Latin American Spanish: Amazon Spanish:In the Amazon area, the languages of the region have their influence, above all for designating flora, fauna and activities. Bolivian Spanish:In Bolivia, idioms and regionalisms exist in spoken Spanish, especially in the department of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Originally this was the most northern extension of the old and colonial dialect of the Southern Cone. Its speakers, the cambas or cruceos, profess to physically resemble Spaniards Caribbean Spanish:This is a Spanish marked with idioms, influenced by those who speak Andalusian, Canarian and above all the Black presence. Included are the island territories of Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, as well as the coastal areas and, by extension, the interior of Venezuela, northern Colombia and the majority of Panama. It is also the most common Spanish in the cities of Miami and New York in the United States and it is the form of Spanish most used by Salsa singers. Central American Spanish:The Spanish spoken in Central American, the Arahuaco and the Caribbean; it is also the variant of the Spanish language used in the Central American republics of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala together with the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. It represents an intermediate point between the dialects of the highlands and the lowlands of the Americas. It incorporates words such as: boho (hut/shack), yuca (lie/tough/hard), sabana (savannah), guacamayo (dressed garishly) and naguas/enaguas (petticoat). Andean Spanish:Along the mountain range of the Andes from Ecuador to the Tropic of Capricorn, there are influences of Quechua, Aymara, and other indigenous languages which are now extinct. Some words still in use, for example from Quechua, are: alpaca, guano, vicua or china. Chilean Spanish:The Spanish spoken in Chile differs with other Latin American dialects principally in pronunciation, syntax and vocabulary. It is recognized for having a wide variety of tones for each situation and for its conjugation of the second person singular (t). Colombian - Ecuadorian Spanish:Colombian-Ecuadorian Spanish, including a certain prolongation along the northern coast of Peru, is a mixture of the Caribbean dialect and Peruvian waterfront dwellers' dialect. The main urban center of the region is Guayaquil, together with Bogot and Quito, and there are important Black communities mainly on the Colombian coast (particularly in the department of Choc) with their own idioms and local usages. Mexican Spanish:The form or dialect of Spanish spoken in Mexico, mainly in the central area, has an indigenous substratum of mainly Nahuatl, which the Castilian language was placed on top of. However, if in the vocabulary its influence is undeniable, it is hardly felt in the area of grammar. In the vocabulary, apart from the Mexicanisms which have enriched the Spanish language, such as jcara (gourd/small cup), petaca (suitcase/trunk/luggage/hump), petate (grass/palm mat), aguacate (avacado pear/idiot/fool/balls), tomate, hule (rubber/rubber tree/condom), chocolate etc., Mexican Spanish has many Nahuatl words that give it its own lexical personality. Sometimes the Nahuatl voice co-exists with the Spanish voice, as in the cases of cuate and amigo (friend), guajolote and pavo (turkey), chamaco and nio (boy), mecate and reata (rope), etc. In other cases, the indigenous word differs slightly from the Spanish, as in the cases of huarache, which is a type of sandal; tlapalera, a type of hardware store, molcajete, a stone mortar, etc. Northern Mexican Spanish:The Spanish used in the North of Mexico (Chihuahua, Sonora, Nuevo Len, Sinaloa and Coahuila) differs from the other regions of Mexico mainly in the intonation of the words (Northern Accent). It preserves the same differences that the Mexican dialect has with respect to Peninsular Spanish (the universal use of the personal pronoun ustedes for formal and informal situations, the seseo and the yeismo). Paraguayan Spanish:The Spanish used in Paraguay as well as in the Argentinian provinces of Misiones, Corrientes, Formosa and Chaco is characterized by strong Guaran influence. Paraguay is the only Spanish American country where the majority of its population is bilingual. Paraguayan Spanish does not differ much in its written form from the rest of the Spanish of the Southern Cone. Peruvian Spanish:The Spanish spoken in Peru has two characteristic forms of speech. The first is the Spanish of the waterfront dwellers and the Central or Lima form, whose origin was in the city of Lima from where it spread to the whole coastal region. Between 1535 and 1739, Lima was the capital of the Spanish Empire in South America, from which the culture spread, and its speech became the purest because it was the home of the famous University of San Marcos of Lima and also it was the city that had the highest number of titles of nobility from Castile outside of Spain. The other main variety of Spanish from the coast of Peru is that which appeared after the penetration of the linguistic habits of the mountain areas and of the rural environment into the coastal cities and Lima. This language could be catalogued as undereducated, and is the form which is spoken today by the youth and the great majority of residents of the capital. Puerto Rican Spanish:Puerto Rican Spanish is a dialect of the Spanish language used in Puerto Rico. It can be distinguished by the aspiration of the final /s/ or interconsonantal at the end of syllables (transforming /adis/ to /adioh/ or /horas/ to /horah/), the elision of the teeth in the suffixes -ado, -edo e -ido and the corresponding feminine forms - converting to -ao, -eo and -o-, and the loss of the phonological opposition between /r/ and /l/, which results in allophones allowing the forms /seol/ as /seor/ or /Puelto Rico/" as /Puerto Rico/. Spanish from the River Plate or Buenos Aires Spanish:The River Plate Spanish is a variant of Castilian that is used in the surrounding area of the River Plate, the Argentine province of Buenos Aires and Uruguay. It differs from the Castilian of the rest of Latin America mainly because instead of saying t, it uses vos (with the verbal deformation of the Buenos Aires area), some words vary in accentuation and the words with "ll" sound like "ye" and in some regions like "sh". There are vocabulary differences and differences of morphology between Argentinian Spanish and Uruguayan Spanish. Both incorporate terms from Guaran: tapir, anan (pineapple), carac (bone marrow), uruta (a kind of bird), yacar (alligator), tapioca, mandioca (cassava/tapioca/manioc)... Also, it takes advantage of certain possibilities of the language to expand the use of augmentatives and diminutives: pesitos, cerquita, amigazo, buenazo, grandote... The phrasal verb replaces the future, for example, voy a ir (instead of ir), voy a cantar (instead of cantar)... And in vocabulary: lindo (bonito - beautiful), pollera (falda - skirt), vereda (acera - pavement/sidewalk), flete (caballo - horse). River Plate Spanish has been enriched by the influence of immigrants who settled in the area and also by native voices. Among the immigrant groups the influence of Italian and French stands out. In Argentina, slang is called lunfardo. Originally, Lunfardo started as a prison language, spoken by the prisoners so that the guards wouldn't understand them. Many of the expressions arrived with the European immigrants (mainly Italians). Today, many of the "Lunfardo terms" have been incorporated into the language spoken all over Argentina, while a great number of Lunfardo words from earlier times have fallen into disuse. Language exists to the extent that there are people who speak it. It is a human activity whose use is communication. Speech, which appears even in some texts in order to avoid a certain formality in the written language, expresses the psychophysical mechanism of the author. It is an act of will and intelligence, individual and different from person to person. It is changeable according to the passage of time and of modern life.