What's the main difference between latin american spanish and european spanish?

Question

I'm going traveling to the west of south america and want to learn spanish. i've noticed that you can buy european and latin american spanish coursebooks but the one i like the look of is only available in european spanish. if i learn european spanish will i be ok in south america?

Answer 1

Actually, Castillian Spanish would be regarded as upper class Spanish in South America!

So, you should be just fine with it!

All the best!

Cheers!

Simon Templar

Answer 2

There are lots of different accents in Spanish as there are for English. South American and Latin American spanish have a variety of accents which you may not understand very well if you now the official spanish. They tend to speak faster,cutting the last syllables ,pronounce some consonants differently and use some other words. But of course all the basic stuff are the same.

Answer 3

The difference is the accent and the vocab, the intonation, and the speed of tlaking. Most of Spaniards speak faster than South American Latinos. And also, South Americans use a lot of "ito" and "ita" suffixes, which are obsiously used in Spain too but Latinos love them to bits, they can even overuse them. If I were you I would stick to what i personally like...which is the south american spanish accents.So if eg. Catalan Spanish appeals to u more and uve found the books that attract u then go for it and once ur in South America the poeple will love ur accent if u sound like the Spanish people.

Answer 4

First off, Mexico is part of Latin america, "Latin America" stands for bunch of countries that speak a language derived from Latin, in this case Spanish, and there is NO Latin American Spanish, i´m from Argentina and we speak nothing like chileans, or venezuelans, or colombians, or peruvians, it depends on the country, although we can all understand each other, there are many many differences regarding slang and accents even inside the countries.

Answer 5

one big difference is the use of the "vosotros" form instead of "ustedes". The both mean the same thing (you guys) but you conjugate verbs differently depending on which word you use. This might cause some confusion. Also, you will have a different accent. In particular you may pronounce the letter "C" with a "th" sound at certain times. Often times spaniards are riduculed because this sounds like they speak with a lisp. Again, this is totally dependent on the dialect of spanish you learn. There are different dialects all over Latin America as well as Spain itself. Some dialects in Spain are Castillian, Catalan, Galician-Portuguese and all have various rules applied to the way you structure and say words.

As a side note, to the persons point below - I did not include Euskadi as a dialect. That language isn't even remotely similar to Spanish.

Answer 6

The main difference is the 'register' of the voice.
Peninsular Spanish has a deeper sound, whereas Latin American Spanish is somewhat 'yelly'.
Spaniards J is much stronger, it sounds like the Dutch G, or like KH in some Arabic variants
The Z and the C before E and I, is pronounced like the British- English TH.
Latin Americans use 'ustedes' as second person- plural. In Spain 'ustedes' is polite.

Answer 7

You won't have a problem trust me. I'm from Argentina, and the Spanish language varies from one Latin American country to the other. The Spanish spoken in Spain is different, because of the accent, but perfectly understandable amongst those who speak Spanish, we do understand eachother despite our accents or the use of "vos", "tu", "vosotros"or "ustedes".
It's like the English spoken throughout the US, accent varies from State to State and is totally different from British English, yet you guys understand yourselves don't you???
Good luck on trip!!! You'll be okay!

Answer 8

Latin America has added many local words to the
Spanish language, otherwise the language is the same
BUT THERE MAY BE ACCENT DIFFERENCES

Answer 9

You are probably better off learning the language as it is spoken where you are going to.
The person who included Catalan, Euskadi and Gallego as Spanish dialects is not correct. They are considered 4 official languages in Spain.
The biggest differences between Latin American Spanish and Iberian Spanish are in pronunciation, vocabulary and slang (which are normally influenced by historical factors such as indigenous languages that were there before the Spanish Conquisition),, and, as someone else mentioned, the use of "vosotros", which in Spain is the informal version of "ustedes".
Enjoy your journey.

Answer 10

European Spanish has that awful 'th' sound.
e.g. gracias (thanks) is pronounced 'grassy-as' in South America but as 'graTHias' in Spain.Barcelona is also pronounced 'BarTHelona."I personally don't like it and have started learning Portuguese.Try a linguaphone course,you can choose either South American or Castillian Spanish.This is how I'm learning Portuguese,..it's very good.

Answer 11

I agree with Simon's answer. Mystique is also right.

You will have absolute no problem in South America if you learn the Spanish from Spain.