The differences between the Latinamerican Spanish and the Castilian Spanish

The differences between the Latinamerican Spanish and the Castilian Spanish

The differences between the Latinamerican Spanish and the Castilian Spanish

Spanish is spoken in over 21 countries on 5 continents (North-America, South-America, Europe, Asia and Africa). This led to numerous variations within the language as Spanish developed a bit differently on each continent. Latinamerica is the largest continent on which Spanish is spoken and Spain of course is the country where Spanish originates from. Even though Spanish developed differently, Latinamericans and Spaniards can communicate without problems. Some of the main differences are listed below.

Ustedes/Vosotros                                                                                                                           

A major difference between Latinamerica and Spain is the use of “Ustedes” in Latinamerica. In Latin-America you will hardly find anyone that uses “Vosotros”. Any group of people normally will be addressed with “Ustedes”. In Spain “Ustedes” (you, plural form) is only used in a formal situation, while “Vosotros” is the way to address a group of people.

spanish evening course

Voseo/Tuteo

In Argentina and some regions of Uruguay the “Vos” is used instead of the “Tu”. To complicate things further. The vos is formed differently.

                                               Tu eres               Vos sos

                                               Tu escribes         Vos escribís               

                                               Tu entiendes       Vos entendés 

                                               Tu puedes           Vos podés

                                               Hazlo!                 Hacelo!

                                               Dime!                  Decime!         

Tiempos

The majority of the people that live in Latinamerica only use the indefinido, even when the rule states that they should be using the preterito perfecto

e.g. Spain:                 Hoy he ido al supermercado

e.g. Latinamerica:      Hoy fui al supermercado.

Seseo and Ceceo

In Spain the C (that comes before an i or an e) and the Z are pronounced like the th /θ/ sound in English. In Latinamerica the C and the Z are mostly pronounced like the letter S. The Latinamerican phenomena is linguistically called seseo. The pronunciation form in Spain is called ceceo.

Words

Depending on the country different words are used to describe the same thing. Here is a small list with some examples. 

Word
Spain
Latinamerica
bus
el autobús
el camión (Mex.),
el bondi (Arg.),
el colectivo (LatAm.),
la guagua (Islas Can.)
car
el coche
el auto (LatAm.)
girl
la chica
la mina (slang Arg.)
boy
el chico
el pibe (slang Arg.)
computer
el ordenador
la computadora (LatAm.)
mobile phone
el móvil
el celular (LatAm.)
(to) take
coger
tomar (LatAm.)
(to) drink
beber
tomar (LatAm.)
very
muy
re (slang Arg.)
avocado
el aguacate
la palta (LatAm.)
banana
el plátano
la banana (LatAm.)
strawberry
la fresa
la frutilla (Arg.)
peach
el melocotón
el durazno (LatAm.)
juice
el zumo
el jugo (LatAm.)
pen
el bolígrafo
la lapicera (LatAm.)
money
el dinero
la plata (LatAm.)
glasses
las gafas
los anteojos (Arg.)
los lentes (LatAm.)