Castellano vs. Español

Information about some of the differences between the Castillian Spanish of Spain (Castellano) and Latin American Spanish (Español).

Most commonly, castellano and español 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 español to the language as it is spoken in Latin America.

Are castellano and español really that different? Isn’t 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 Andalucía. 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.

Pronunciation

Non-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: Verbs

Here are a few examples that illustrate some of the differences in Spanish vocabulary than can arise with respect to verbs:

Verb Forms

In both Spain and Latin America, the informal, second person singular verb form is tú (you). (See the chart below.) For example: “¿Quieres (tú) venir a la fiesta conmigo? Would you like to come to the party with me?”

However, when you’re talking to a group of people, that’s when things get more complicated. In Spain, you would use the second person plural verb form, vosotros, so you’d say: “¿Queréis (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?”

Slang

Slang varies widely from country to country and even region to region. To try to keep things clean around here, I’ll 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.

The use of tú vs. usted

In both Spain and Latin America, tú is the informal, second person singular and usted is the formal, second person singular. Generally, tú is used among good friends and usted in formal situations or as a sign of respect. However, the use of tú 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 can’t recall ever hearing him use the tú form. I, a transplant to Madrid, insist that he tutearme (use tú) because we’re friends; yet he says that he uses usted precisely because we’re friends. Curious.

Vocabulary: Nouns

Here are a few examples that illustrate some of the differences in Spanish vocabulary than can arise with respect to nouns:

Verb tenses

Castillian 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 mañana” in Spain and the simple past “Fui al supermercado esta mañana” 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.

Last updated 18 11 2008

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