Latin American and European Spanish

[Dodge]

Hi, I was wondering if there was any difference at all between how Spanish is spoken in the Americas and how it's spoken in Spain. I'm a beginner to the language and want to learn it because I'll be moving to Texas soon. I have the new Rosetta Stone Latin American Spanish, but I've read that while learning while using a program like that to immerse yourself in the language, so I've came across websites that stream Spanish radio from Spain. It looks and sounds the same to me since I'm a beginner, but I can't be too sure, so I was wondering from any of you that know the language well if there was any difference at all. Thanks!

[Rusty]

There are a number of differences between the Spanish spoken in Spain and the Spanish spoken in Mexico (and even more in Texas). If you are familiar with the accent and vocabulary differences between American and British English, there are just as many of the same kind of differences between the Spanish spoken in Mexico and Spain. And, Mexican Spanish isn't like the Spanish spoken in Central or South America.
Texan Spanish has some English influence.

[bobjenkins]

there are some differences, yes, but you should be able to understand each dialect to a point

For instance spain is the only country that uses VOSOTROS in place of USTEDES
Agentina uses VOS in place of TÚ

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by bobjenkins

there are some differences, yes, but you should be able to understand each dialect to a point

For instance spain is the only country that uses VOSOTROS in place of USTEDES
Agentina uses VOS in place of TÚ

There are many more countries than just Argentina that use vos. In Spain, they use vosotros as the plural form of tú. They also use ustedes (the plural of usted).
Spaniards can understand Mexicans, but they have to work at it just as hard as we do to understand a Brit.

[bobjenkins]

Originally Posted by Rusty

There are many more countries than just Argentina that use vos. In Spain, they use vosotros as the plural form of tú. They also use ustedes (the plural of usted).
Spaniards can understand Mexicans, but they have to work at it just as hard as we do to understand a Brit.

Jeje Sí, es difícil por mi entiendo alguien de Inglaterra

[jannr]

Rusty and others are right. There are differences: a small number in grammar (such as vosotros--only in Spain, vos--limited to specific regions and a few other, more esoteric ones; pronunciation--only in Spain do you hear the "th" sound for z and c before e or i. In Spain centro sound like "thentro" and zebra sound like "thebra." Elsewhere, these two letters sound like "s": "sentro" and "sebra." Tradicionally Spain had a special sound for "ll", but it is dying out pretty quickly, replaced by the "y" sound used everywhere else: me llamo sounds like "me yamo." There are also differences in intonation and vocabulary between Spanish and Latin American dialects.

So, each region is somewhat different from others. Although it is true that Mexican Spanish is different from Central American and South American, in each country there are at also least some differences. All educated Spanish speakers can understand other educated Spanish speakers, even if they have to work at it a little bit. The local differences are more pronounced as you go farther down the socioeconomic scale, as is true with every modern language. If you learn the "vanilla" Latin American variety, no one will mistake you for a native speaker, but you will be understood everywhere.

[ookami]

Nice post jannr.

About what Rusty said, I don't know if you wanted to said that that (? que eso, ¿esta bien dicho?) only applyes to people born and educated in Spain that try to understand Mexicans, but I can understand mexicans, spanish, bolivianas, etc, etc, without problem, and the people I know too. (if they speak without using any dialect, of course) So I don't know it it's like EEUU and Britain. I can understand someone from EEUU quite well, but from Britain is another thing...

[pjt33]

"That that" is fine, but "applies".

There are other important grammatical differences, such as the usage of perfect vs indefinite preterite tenses.

Dodge, can you PM me some links for those radio stations? I usually listen to Internet radio from Florida, but listening to Spanish radio would be good given that I'm in Spain. Although regardless, the music is likely to be a mix of Lat Am (particularly Mexican and Hispanic USian) and Spanish. I hear bands like La Quinta Estación and La Oreja de Van Gogh on Floridian radio.

[ookami]

Thanks pjt33 but, is there another way to say that without saying twice the same word? it sounds ugly.

[bobjenkins]

Originally Posted by pjt33

"That that" is fine, but "applies".

There are other important grammatical differences, such as the usage of perfect vs indefinite preterite tenses.

Dodge, can you PM me some links for those radio stations? I usually listen to Internet radio from Florida, but listening to Spanish radio would be good given that I'm in Spain. Although regardless, the music is likely to be a mix of Lat Am (particularly Mexican and Hispanic USian) and Spanish. I hear bands like La Quinta Estación and La Oreja de Van Gogh on Floridian radio.

No pienso que Dodge está aquí .. el primer hilo, May 18, 2009, 02:49 PM

Pero escucho a eso, es bueno si te gustan los deportes no música.

http://www.marca.com/multimedia/radiomarca/

Aquí están unas estaciones de España que tocan música
http://www.listenlive.eu/spain.html

[pjt33]

Originally Posted by ookami

Thanks pjt33 but, is there another way to say that without saying twice the same word? it sounds ugly.

"That that" is the most natural way to say it. It's not really the same word, anyway: I'm pretty sure that when I say "that that" I pronounce the first one more like "thut".

If you really want a sentence which repeats a way, try this:
Tom, where Fred had had "had", had had "had had"; "had had" had had the teacher's approval.

Bob, no me di cuenta de que era un hilo zombí. Gracias por avisarme, y por los vínculos.

[EmpanadaRica]

Originally Posted by pjt33;50682
Bob, no me di cuenta de que era [B

un hilo zombí[/B] . Gracias por avisarme, y por los vínculos.

Me gusta esta expresión..

" Night of the Living Dead Thread" ..

Questions will be dead right or RIPped off... (Siento.., me coge la insomnia.. )

[ookami]

"El hilo espectral" (and a glummy wind pass by)

What hour is there Empa? GMT X?

[pjt33]

Glummy?

[ookami]

uh uh!, sorry, gloomy. (I learned it recently so I'm trying to fix it :P)

[pjt33]

Pues tampoco estoy 100% seguro de lo que quieres decir con "gloomy wind". Gloomy puede ser oscuro, en tinieblas, o (de una persona) un poco deprimido.

[chileno]

Originally Posted by pjt33

Pues tampoco estoy 100% seguro de lo que quieres decir con "gloomy wind". Gloomy puede ser oscuro, en tinieblas, o (de una persona) un poco deprimido.

it also means tenebroso...

[pjt33]

Originally Posted by pjt33

Pues tampoco estoy 100% seguro de lo que quieres decir con "gloomy wind". Gloomy puede ser oscuro, en tinieblas, o (de una persona) un poco deprimido.

¿Eso no significa el mismo que "tenebroso"?

[chileno]

Originally Posted by pjt33

Pues tampoco estoy 100% seguro de lo que quieres decir con "gloomy wind". Gloomy puede ser oscuro, en tinieblas, o (de una persona) un poco deprimido.

Originally Posted by chileno

it also means tenebroso...

Originally Posted by pjt33

¿Eso no significa el mismo que "tenebroso"?

No estoy seguro de cuál es tu duda...

Gloomy wind se traduciría como "viento tenebroso" o sea "oscuro" o algo que da miedo porque no se puede discernir...

[Villa]

(I was a bilingual teacher for 23 years and a high school Spanish teacher for 7 years. Have been teaching Italian for 4 years now to adults. My home language is Spanish a proposito.)

This is a very interesting topic tal vez the topic that interests me the most. Of course there our differences in Latin American Spanish and the Spanish from Spain but then again you should here the way my relatives from Arkansas speak English. It's just a question of accents and a few words here in there. (The word for all this is dialects.) I speak Italian as well as Spanish. I go back and forth between Spanish and Italian and also French. So those little difference between Spanish from Spain and Latin American Spanish have very little meaning to me. Think about it. When I listen to Italian I understand it and it's another language. So even though my Spanish is Latin American Spanish how would I have trouble understanding Spanish from Spain if I can even understand Italian. Have watched many movies from Spain and listened to many tapes of Spanish speakers from Spain. It's like the difference between American English and English from England. Different but mostly the samething. In fact it's these differences that make Spanish as well as English interesting.

So if you're half-way fluent in Latin American Spanish you would have very little trouble understanding the Spanish from Spain and visa versa. A proposito. It's the Spanish from southern Spain that is more similar to Latin Spanish than the more main stream Spanish from Spain of Madrid.