Spain or Latin America: which Spanish should you learn?
It is one language with two big families of accents and words. Here are the differences that matter and a simple way to choose.
By the Duendillo team · ·5 min read
Before your first lesson you have to make a choice: the Spanish of Spain or the Spanish of Latin America. It sounds like a big decision. It is a much smaller one than it looks.
One language
Spanish has around half a billion native speakers, and about nine in ten of them live in the Americas. Yet a teacher from Madrid and a teacher from Mexico City teach the same grammar, the same verb forms and almost all of the same words. Books, news and films cross the ocean without translation. The differences are real, but they are the kind that make a conversation more interesting, not the kind that stop it — think of British and American English.
Here is what actually changes.
“You” in the plural
In most of Spain, talking to a group of friends you use vosotros: ¿Vosotros venís a la fiesta? In Latin America (and in the Canary Islands) the plural “you” is always ustedes, friends or strangers: ¿Ustedes vienen a la fiesta?
So learners of Latin American Spanish get one verb form fewer in every tense. Learners of the Spanish of Spain learn vosotros too, and everyone understands ustedes everywhere.
In Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and much of Central America people also say vos instead of tú to a friend: vos tenés instead of tú tienes. You will hear it in films and songs, but the tú of a course is understood there too.
Pronunciation
The best-known difference: in most of Spain z, and c before e or i, sound like the English “th” in “think” — gracias, cerveza, cinco. In Latin America they sound like s. Neither is “lisping” and neither is wrong; they are two standards.
Beyond that, each region has its own melody. A Mexican, an Argentine and someone from Madrid sound as different as a Texan, a Scot and a Londoner — and understand each other just as well.
Everyday words
Most words are shared, but some everyday objects have different names:
| Spain | Latin America | |
|---|---|---|
| car | coche | carro (auto in Argentina and Chile) |
| computer | ordenador | computadora |
| mobile phone | móvil | celular |
| juice | zumo | jugo |
| to drive | conducir | manejar |
| flat | piso | departamento |
In Latin America the words also vary from country to country. Duendillo teaches the form most of the region uses.
The past tense
In Spain an event of today usually takes the perfect tense: Hoy he comido paella — “I have eaten paella today”. In most of Latin America the simple past is normal for the same thing: Hoy comí paella. Both are correct Spanish; they are simply the habit of each side.
How to choose
Ask yourself one question: who will you talk to?
- You are moving to Spain, studying there or going on holiday to Barcelona or Seville → the Spanish of Spain.
- You travel in Mexico or South America, work with Latin American colleagues or live in the US → Latin American Spanish.
- No plan yet? Pick either. Everything you learn works on both sides of the ocean, and switching later costs you almost nothing.
How it works in Duendillo
You choose your variant when you start, and you can change it at any time in Profile → Settings. Your progress is shared: the words and rules you already know stay known, and only the forms that differ follow your new choice.
Exercises use the words and forms of your variant — coche for Spain, carro for Latin America — and the vosotros lessons appear only for Spain. If you answer with the other variant’s word, it counts as correct, with a short note showing your variant’s form.
You can listen to many voices, too: Castilian voices for Spain, and for Latin America voices from Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Venezuela, Cuba and the US. Turn on several and your ear gets used to more than one accent from the start.
Whichever Spanish you choose, you are learning the same language. ¡Buena suerte!