Do you know the main differences between Latin American Spanish and European Spanish? “You all”, formal or informal? The first thing that you’ll come across is that in mainland Spain they use vosotros. Vosotros is the pronoun used when addressing a group of people informally it translates to “you all”.
So if you’re going to Spain you might say buenas tardes, ¿como estáis? when you’re talking to a group of people informally. Then you go on holiday to Costa Rica or Argentina and you very quickly realize that nobody uses vosotros so rather than saying hola buenas tardes ¿como estáis? and getting some strange looks you’ll use the formal plural you which is ustedes all the time. Vosotros in Central and South America does not exist. So you would say hola buenas tardes, ¿como estan? ¡Bien!
Tú or vos?
So the next difference between Latin and European Spanish is the tú. You’ll be pretty aware that in most Spanish-speaking countries tú is the pronoun for the informal singular you and it’s pretty much used in all Spanish-speaking countries right you learn it when you first start learning Spanish and that’s just the way that it is however if you’re going to Argentina for example you’ll very quickly notice that the tú doesn’t exist. It’s just not there. Instead of tú we say vos so I wouldn’t say hola como estas tu I say hola como estas vos. Vos means you in Argentina.
¡Bien!
Proununcing “thank-you”
The third difference that you’ll notice is the sound of the th. To say thank you in Español if you’re in Europe you would say gracias prounced gra-thi-as. However as soon as you get on that plane and you go a little bit further over to Mexico, Central America or America Latina you drop the th sound and it becomes a ssss sound. So gra-thi-as becomes gra-ssssi-as.
Does it matter? In a word, no. Of course it doesn’t. The word is the same and you’ll still be understood whether you say gra-ssssi-as in Costa Rica or gra-thi-as in Madrid. You’ll still be understood.
Phew!
The double elle (ll)
The next big difference in the language is the double elle sound.
You will come across the word llamar for example, which means “to call” as if you’re making a phone call or to call somebody; llamar. It’s a y sound generally. However in Argentina if you’re in Buenos Aires for example you won’t hear y you’ll hear an eye sound. It’s a longer sound like asge. You won’t necessarily hear people say llamar you’ll hear jamar. The words are still spelt the same but the sounding is different when you pronounce them.
Lunfardo
ou’ll also probably notice that in Buenos Aires, there’s something very similar to Cockney slang in London, called lunfardo. It’s Argentina’s own slang, born in the slums of Buenos Aires, and it shows up constantly in tango lyrics — if you’re speaking to someone who’s lived in Buenos Aires their whole life, their everyday vocabulary will be full of it. I dig into where it came from and some of my favourite lunfardo words in this post. I’d also recommend picking up a dictionary that specialises in it — which is exactly what I did (affiliate link: Lunfardo dictionary).
Get creative with the Vocabulary
The last difference of course is el vocabulario. El vocabulario (vocabulary) is slightly different throughout all of the Spanish-speaking countries. But do not despair! Meloncotón for example means peach in España but if you go down to South America and you ask for un meloncotón they probably aren’t going to know what you mean because it’s called un durazno. Un durazno is exactly the same fruit but it’s got a different name. As with the avocado. Avocado can be un aguacate or it can be una palta depending on which country you are in.
Does it really matter? Well, yes, a bit. I mean you want to try and know the words of the things in the country you are travelling to right. And if you get it wrong, don’t worry. You can get creative with the language to describe what it is that you need using simple words to describe the colour and shape and adjectives to describe the taste and flavor.
Want to hear these differences for yourself rather than just read about them? I made a short video covering exactly this — the vosotros vs ustedes switch, the tú vs vos swap in Argentina, and that “th” sound that trips so many people up. Watch it below.
Hopefully that gives you a clearer sense of how different the same language can sound depending on where you are.
If you do know which Spanish-speaking country you’re travelling to next, it’s a great idea to brush up on the vocab and grammar specific to that destination.
New to Spanish? Check out my free Spanish resources:
Spanish Beginners Guide – download here: Spanish Starter Kit
Spanish Scavenger Hunt – Are you travelling to Spain (or further afield) with little ones? I’ve created a Spanish Scavenger Hunt Game to keep your children entertained at the airport. It’s FREE to download here: Spanish Scavenger Hunt
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