Learning Spanish

Acentos Diferentes

(Below is copied from https://www.fluentin3months.com/spanish-accents/)

Do all Spanish accents sound the same?

Of course not!

Like most languages, Spanish is diverse and can vary significantly, even in the same country. Even within Spain there are many Spanish dialects and accents (along with four official languages!).

Being able to understand a range of dialects is part of what takes you from intermediate to expert Spanish speaker – which is why it's important to learn the differences between the main Spanish dialects.

There are TONS of Spanish dialects, so for the purpose of this article I will focus on the main Spanish accents including Mexican, Spanish, Argentinian, Northern South American, Central American, Caribbean and Chilean.

Let's get started!

The Mexican Spanish Accent
If you've ever visited the Southwestern US, you will likely have heard Mexican Spanish.

There are two big influences on Mexican Spanish: Indigenous languages such as Nahuatl and Tzotzil, and American English.

As an example of indigenous influence many common Spanish words such as chocolate (same meaning in English) and aguacate ("avocado") come from Nahuatl. And it's worth noting that there are many Mexican communities that are purely Indigenous and don't speak Spanish.

Mexican Spanish also features many English loan words. For example, Mexicans would say computadora for "computer," while Spaniards use ordenador. Another case of this is the verb rentar, meaning "to rent", while other countries use alquilar.

Lastly, Mexican Spanish has many interesting slang words and phrases, such as the common word güey. In colloquial usage, güey means "dude" or "homie" and an example of this is Que pedo güey? or "What up dude?" However, güey literally means "castrated bull". Another phrase that is common in Mexican vernacular is chingar and its variations. Chingar means "f*ck", but it has many variations such as chingón, meaning "badass".

The Castilian Spanish Accent
Ah, Spain, the birthplace of Castellano, or Castilian Spanish.

Within Spain, the main Spanish dialect is Castilian Spanish, and it has different verb conjugations from other Spanish speaking countries.

A key example of these differences is that Spaniards use the vosotros verb form. Vosotros is an informal second person conjugation, which is used to address a group of people. This form is used with friends, while the ustedes form is a second person conjugation used to convey respect when speaking with groups of elders or people in positions of authority. For example, cómo estáis?, or "how are you guys?", uses the vosotros form. On the other hand, cómo están ustedes?, is the ustedes translation of "how are you all?". The vosotros form is only used in Spain, and rarely in other Spanish-speaking countries. Thus, students who learn Latin American Spanish will have little exposure to the vosotros verb form.

Spaniards also have unique grammatical forms, most notably the imperfect subjunctive. The imperfect subjunctive is an important Spanish grammar tense used to talk about uncertainty in the past. Most Spanish-speaking countries use -ra endings, while Spaniards frequently use -se endings. llegara, "to arrive", is one of llegar's imperfect subjunctive forms, and Spaniards would use llegase instead. Despite the spelling differences (ra/ se endings) these words mean the same thing.

The imperfect subjunctive can be a tricky tense, but it becomes easier to use with practice. The following phrase, Espero que llegaras ayer meaning "I hope you arrived yesterday", uses the imperfect subjunctive form of llegar. This tense is used in many uncertain situations, especially those regarding emotion and doubt. Many Spanish learners would be tempted to say Espero que llegaste ayer, which would be grammatically incorrect.