Spanish or Latin American?

[linlsd1]

I am studying the spanish idioma (!) and the program offers 2 different versions 1 is Spanish and 1 is Latin American. Which one should I be studying to move to Costa Rica?Thanks! Linda

[Andrew]

They will both have their differences.

I am amazed that on zillions of occasions, when I ask my Guatemalan (Guatemalteca) girlfriend about certain words or expressions and she has no idea what they mean…

I say “But Spanish is your language” and she’ll say to me “But no! It’s Costa Rican, it’s NOT Spanish.”

It really is frustrating sometimes because when I hear Venezuelans abd Colombians speaking, I understand much more of what they are saying than when I hear Costa Ricans, and I have lived here for seven years and have never been to Colombia or Venezuela

Scott Oliver

[Gr1ng0T1c0]

Probably Spanish, since if the alternative is Latin American, Spanish must mean Spanish from Spain.

Besides the words that change meanings across every border, and accents that morph in even smaller distances, the big difference between the two is YOU GUYS, or, if you’re a Southerner, Y’ALL.

People who only speak English need to learn about conjugation to understand Spanish. No, I’m not talking about visits from your friend when you’re in jail. I’m talking about the different forms of a verb. Take take for example. In the present tense, I take, YOU take, WE take, THEY take, HE takeS, and SHE takeS. Notice that for HE and SHE, we add an S to the verb.

In Spanish, as well as a lot of other languages, changes in the verb, like adding the S, changes who you’re talking about. You can say “Yo escribo” (I write), but the “Yo” is redundant, because of the way the verb “escribir” (to write) is written. Here’s how that goes:

Yo escribo (I write)
Usted escribe (You write -informal)
Tú escribes (You write – formal)
Nosotros escribimos (We write)
Ellos escriben (They write)
Ella escribe (She writes
El escribe (He writes

Now, here’s the difference (finally).

In Spain they also use “Vosotros”, as in Y’all, and they have another conjugation for this. I don’t know it, because I never learned it. In fact, I never wanted to learn it, because I didn’t want to go to Spain.

Little did I know that in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and I believe Argentina, they use a similar form. Instead of using “Tú” for YOU (informal), they use “Vos”.

The conjugation is easy. Take the infinitive version “Comer” (to eat), drop the final “r”, add an “s” and an accent mark on the last syllable, making it “Vos comés. This works on all but irregular verbs.

O.K. I guess this is more than you wanted to know. I’ll stop now.

Why are you still reading this. Can’t you see I’ve stopped!

[linlsd1]

interesting sense of humor, but thanks.

[Author]

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