Spain vs Latin American Spanish: 40 Words That Change

Order "un zumo de naranja" at a juice stand in Mexico City and you will get your orange juice, plus a small smile. Zumo is Spain's word; in Mexico juice is jugo. Nobody is confused, but the vendor now knows where you learned. That is the real difference between Spain and Latin American Spanish: one language, one grammar, and a few dozen everyday words, one sound and two grammar habits that tell people which side of the Atlantic your Spanish comes from.

Below: 40 word pairs counted in our own Spanish decks, vosotros against ustedes, the two past tenses, the "th" sound (distinción, seseo and ceceo), and a plain answer to which Spanish you should learn.

Is Spanish in Spain different from Latin America?

Yes, but less than the accents suggest. A newspaper from Madrid and one from Bogotá read as the same language, and the whole Spanish-speaking world shares one set of spelling rules. A learner meets four layers of difference:

• Sound. Most of Spain says "th" for z and for c before e or i; Latin America says s.
• Everyday words. Car, phone, computer, juice, bus: the words you need in the first hour.
• One pronoun. Spain has vosotros for "you all" among friends; Latin America uses ustedes for everyone.
• One past tense habit. Spain says "hoy he comido", Latin America "hoy comí".

"Latin America" is not one variety either. Mexico, Argentina, Colombia and Chile each have their own words, so the tables below give the form you will hear most widely, with the countries where it changes.

40 words that change, counted in our own decks

A script searched all 38 of our public Spanish decks, 9,113 cards, for both words of every pair. The number in brackets is how many cards use the word, on the front or in the example sentence; the deck column links the deck where it appears most, Spain's word first. "Only in a note" means no card uses it, but a regional note on another card names it. Words with a second meaning (piso is also a floor, billete a banknote) count only where the card's translation shows the meaning in the table.

Getting around

In Mexico City a camión is a city bus, not only a lorry; in Buenos Aires the bus is the colectivo and in Santiago the micro. A bus or metro ticket is a boleto in Mexico and Argentina, and a long-distance one is often a pasaje. Drivers manejan and estacionan everywhere from Mexico to Chile; conducir and aparcar mark you as Spain-trained, but everyone understands them. A public holiday is a día festivo in Mexico too; feriado is the word further south.

Eating and drinking

Papa comes from Quechua and is the potato everywhere in Latin America, and also in the Canary Islands. Fresa and aguacate are also the Mexican words, as in Colombia and the Caribbean; frutilla and palta are the words of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. Cake is the one to watch: pastel in Mexico, torta in Argentina and Chile, tarta in Spain, and in Mexico a torta is a sandwich in a crusty roll. Call the waiter "joven" in Mexico and "mozo" in Buenos Aires; camarero works in Spain.

Home, phone and everyday things

Móvil, ordenador and piso are the three words Spain uses most and Latin America never does. Celular and computadora are what you will see on every shop sign from Tijuana to Ushuaia; a flat is a departamento in Mexico, Argentina and Chile and an apartamento in Colombia and Venezuela.

Talking to people

Vale is Spain's all-purpose "OK"; Mexico says "sale" or "órale", Argentina "dale". Bonito is everyday in Mexico too; lindo is the first choice in Argentina and Uruguay and common across South America. Slang is where the two sides share least: Spain's guay is chido in Mexico, chévere in Colombia and Venezuela, bacán in Chile and Peru.

Vosotros or ustedes: "you all" on each side

Spain has two words for "you" in the plural. Vosotros is for friends, family and anyone you would call tú; ustedes is the polite plural, for a group of strangers or customers. Latin America uses ustedes for everyone, friends included, and vosotros does not exist in speech.

The vosotros endings (-áis, -éis, -ís) are the clearest marker of Spain in any text. The Canary Islands and parts of western Andalusia use ustedes like Latin America. If you are going to Latin America, you only need to recognise vosotros forms in films and books. If you are going to Spain, learn them to understand people; using ustedes with a group of friends sounds a little formal, never wrong.

Argentina, Uruguay and much of Central America also have vos for the singular "you" (vos sos, vos tenés), with its own verb forms. It deserves its own post; it does not change anything in Spain.

He comido or comí: the past tense

Spain uses the present perfect for anything that happened today, this week or "ever", and the simple past for finished time:

• Spain: "Hoy he comido paella." "¿Has estado en México?"
• Latin America: "Hoy comí tacos." "¿Estuviste en México?"

In most of Latin America the simple past (pretérito indefinido) covers both, and he comido is kept for things still ongoing or never done. The Canary Islands, Galicia and Asturias also prefer comí. Both are correct; just do not be surprised when a Mexican friend says "ya comí" where someone in Madrid says "ya he comido".

One line on leísmo: in central and northern Spain you will hear "le vi ayer" for "I saw him yesterday", where Latin America says "lo vi ayer". The Real Academia accepts both for a man.

The "th" sound: distinción, seseo and ceceo

This is the difference people hear first, and it has three names:

• Distinción (northern and central Spain, Madrid included): z, and c before e or i, sound like the "th" in "thin"; s stays s. Casa (house) and caza (hunt) are two different words: KAH-sah and KAH-thah.
• Seseo (all of Latin America, the Canary Islands and much of Andalusia, Seville included): all three letters sound like s, so casa and caza sound the same. About nine in ten Spanish speakers talk this way.
• Ceceo (parts of Andalusia, around Cádiz and in villages of the Seville and Málaga provinces): the reverse, s also becomes "th", so "sí" can sound like "thí". It is regional and you will not be taught it.

The "th" is not a lisp, and the story about a king who lisped is a myth: it comes from a sound change in the 16th and 17th centuries that Latin America, settled largely from Andalusia and the Canaries, never took part in. A learner can use either system anywhere. Seseo is easier for English speakers and sounds natural in Spain too, because much of Andalusia speaks that way.

Two more things your ear will notice: in Argentina and Uruguay ll and y become "sh" (KAH-sheh), and in the Caribbean and Andalusia a final s often fades to a breath, so "las dos" sounds like "lah doh".

Which Spanish should you learn?

The one for where you are going. That is the whole answer for a trip.

• Going to Spain: learn the Spanish of Spain. The words in the tables and vosotros will do more for you that week than any accent work.
• Going to Mexico, Colombia, Argentina or anywhere in Latin America: learn Latin American Spanish, and the words of your country if you can.
• No trip planned: roughly nine in ten native speakers live in the Americas, and most of the Spanish you will hear in the US is Mexican or Caribbean. If you are moving to Spain, or your friends and series are Spanish, start with Spain.

Either way it is one language. A learner of either variety is understood everywhere, and switching later is mostly the words in the tables plus a few weeks of listening.

What our decks teach

Our Spanish decks are written in the Spanish of Spain: coche, ordenador, vosotros. Where Latin America says something else, the card says so in a regional note (377 cards have one), and the C2 Regional Variation & Nuance deck collects the Latin American words themselves. Each Spanish deck page says the same. The counts show what that means in practice:

Latin America's word only wins where Spain's decks have no word at all: slang, a corn cob, a blender. So if you are heading to Mexico or Bogotá, keep using our decks for the grammar and the vocabulary both sides share, and read the regional notes on the cards that have them. For the trip itself, take the kit for your country.

Where to go next

Find out which Spanish you already know with the free Spanish vocabulary test: a few minutes, no account, and since the core vocabulary is shared, the result holds for either variety. The Spanish vocabulary statistics show how many words each level takes.

For a trip, the Spanish Trip Kit is fifty phrases for Spain with tips on the bread on the bill and the bill that never comes (the Spain traps post explains both). The Mexican Spanish Trip Kit is the same for Mexico: carro, celular, boleto, "mande" and the tip on the card machine, read with a Mexican voice on devices that have one. Each is ten phrases a day for five days, and day one works without an account. To choose an app for the long haul, our comparison of flashcard apps for Spanish covers which ones handle the two varieties.

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