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Differences between argentine Spanish and others

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Don´t be afraid of Argentine Spanish!

 

"...I understand there are some differences in Spanish according to the region of the world you are in.  People have been telling me that Argentine Spanish is quite different than the Spanish in Mexico or Colombia for example.  I hear its a bit more unique here in Argentina in certain ways.  I am curious if you teach a more 'universal' approach or if its the typical Argentine Spanish?  I will likely use Spanish much more in the US with Mexican people but I can not say for sure.  Just curious how that will affect my learning."

This is part of a message our Spanish school have received from one of our students (Thank you, Taylor!) and believe me, many of our prospective customers have the same question in mind... Certanly, as Taylor mentioned, there are some differences in Spanish according to the region of the world you are in. Considering that over 400 million people speak Spanish, there MUST be differences.

Now, how important for efficient comunication are these differences? Not much, communication will not be broken. The same happens with other languages like American English compared to British, Kiwi , Ozzie and others.

So, my answer for Taylor was: "Exactly, each reagion has different caracteristics, so we ask our students what they will prefer to practice. The biggest difference is in the pronunciation between Spanish from Spain and Spanish from Americas. During our Spanish lessons and Spanish courses, we teach "universal" version, but we practice according to students preferences. Most of our students prefer "americas" style, so they learn to speak "universal" and get used to hear several different accents, with our audio and video practice."



Many of our former students found easier to learn Argentine Spanish. Why?
1) verbs are much easier to learn since we have more regular forms.
2) they get used to it while in Bariloche.

Finally, what is the difference between Argentine Spanish and others?
The pronunciation of three consonants, the use of two pronouns and the ending of the verbs in present tense and imperative mood (commands) for the second person:

1) Pronouns:
-->

 
 
 
 
person
Argentine
Rest of Latin America and US
Spain
2 sing
vos
2 plural informal
ustedes
ustedes
vosotros/as


As you can see, there are only two differences: one in the secon person (informal "you" singular) and the other is only  compared to Spain: second person plural informal ("You" plural informal).

2)  Verbs:
a) Endings for present tense.

 
 Argentine
Rest of Latin America, US and Spain
 
ar
ás
as
 
er
és
es
 
ir
ís
es
 


Here, you can notice that the stress is different and the ending for _ir verbs has changed.

b) Endings for imperative mood.

 
 Argentine
Rest of Latin America, US and Spain
 
ar
á
a
 
er
é
e
 
ir
í
e
 


3) Pronunciation:

consonant
 Argentine
 Rest of Latin America and US
 Spain
"y" and "ll"
sounds like "sh"
sounds like "ee"
sounds like "ee"
"z" and "c" in front of e and i
s
s
sounds like "th" (in "thunder")
 
 
 

 

Finally the complete chart for Regular verbs in Argentine Spanish is:

Conjugación de los verbos regulares usada en Argentina.

(incluye “vos” de Argentina y NO incluye “vosotros” de España)

 

 

ar

er

ir

yo

_o

_o

_o

vos

_ás

_és

_ís

él/ella

_a

_e

_e

nosotros 

_amos

_emos

_imos

ustedes

_an

_en

_en

ellos/ellas

_an

_en

_en

 

Would you like to practice a little?

 

Completar:

 

 

trabajar

er

ir

yo

trabajo

   

vos

 

comés

 

él/ella

   

vive

nosotros

   

ustedes

     

ellos/ellas

     

Gabrielle, from the US


 

Rachel, from Canada

Penny y Roberto de UK


Jesse and Leslie, from Seattle


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