Is Spanish from Spain Different from Spanish in Mexico?

Question

Is Spanish from Spain Different from Spanish in Mexico?

Answer 1

There are some differences:

1-Za, zi, zo, zu, ce and ci are pronounced "th" sipped sound in Spain, but are pronounced with a "s" in all America (including Mexico)

2-Vocabulary: flipar, olé, pajilla that are Spaniards terms, in Mexico there some term like guajolote, popote, etc

3-In America "vosotros" is not used, in some regions in America (Mexican interior), "vos" is used.

Answer 2

in some parts of mexico they use "ustedes" instead of "vosotros", in some regions "vos" instead of tu, but thats not so common. The pronouncation is different, they use "chingar" more than "joder" and there are some words that come from english that they use.. for instance "computadora" instead of "ordenador" as they call it in Spain.

Answer 3

The biggest difference (apart from the excellent examples of different usage of words, given by other answerers) is in the pronunciation. Most of peninsular Spain pronounces a "c" (in front of an "e" or an "i") as "th" - a bit like having a lisp. The letter "z" is also spoken like this, and in most areas of the mainland, a "d" at the end of a word (ciudad = thee oo dath, more or less).

You should have no problems being understood however, and in the tourist areas English will be understood too. Andalucian Spanish is like English from Barnsley - the same in theory, but in practice........

Answer 4

Yes, the spanish from Spain is the proper spanish, the spanish from Mexico has different expresions,accents,different words even though the grammar is the same. It´s like british english and american english.

Answer 5

I always explain it this way....

English is spoken in the USA, England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and English is even the official language in India, Pakistan and many African nations...

So, while all these places speak English, there are different accents, expressions and use of vocabulary.

A couple of examples between England and the USA;

lift = elevator

flat = apartment

boot = truck of vehicle

bonnet = hood of vehicle

It is the same in Spanish...Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Columbia, etc...

For example, "bus" could be translated to;

autobus

camion

colectivo

guagua

Basic rules of grammar apply every where, in English & Spanish.  However, any linguist will tell you that a native speaker (of any language) speaks their language correctly!!

Answer 6

Yes. And also, no! Huh!?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_lan...

Quote from WikiPedia:

"There are important variations among the regions of Spain and throughout Spanish-speaking America. In countries in Hispanophone America it is preferable to use the word castellano to distinguish their version of the language from that of Spain, thus asserting their autonomy and national identity. In Spain the Castilian dialect's pronunciation is commonly regarded as the national standard, although a use of slightly different pronouns called laísmo of this dialect is deprecated. More accurately, for nearly everyone in Spain, "standard Spanish" means "pronouncing everything exactly as it is written", an ideal which does not correspond to any real dialect, though the northern dialects get the closest to it. In practice, the standard way of speaking Spanish in the media is "written Spanish" for formal speech, "Madrid dialect" (one of the transitional variants between Castilian and Andalusian) for informal speech."

If you've learned Mexican Spanish and you go to Spain you'll be understood perfectly well. If you've learned Spain Spanish and you go to Mexico you'll be understood perfectly well there too. You may get some odd looks with certain nouns used in both Spain and Mexico but most verbs and verb conjugations remain the same.

Mexican Spanish is the Spanish "left" by the Spanish conquerers/settlers from the 1500s(+) and it has logically not evolved along the same lines as Spain's Spanish.

The millions of Latinos living and working in Spain are not having any problem with the local "Spanish" language.

Saludos, BarcelonaMan (@YouKnowWhere!)

Answer 7

spanish and spain and spanish in mexico are much diferent. First spanish in spain  is much more proper and instead of using usted as a subject prounoun they use vosotros which means you all

Answer 8

Spanish in Mexico is not as proper, they almost always use the familiar form when talking.

Answer 9

People often ask that question.  I always explain it, as pal and sealen stated: The relationship between "Peninsular Spanish" and Latin Spanish is just like the relationship between British English and American English.  Different accents (neither is more "proper" as some people have said, just different) and different slang.  We, in the US and Mexico have much more influence from the Native Americans of our countries than the continental countries have.  The languages have evolved a bit differently.

They are, just like British and American, mutually understandable, but there are, occasionally different expressions, and often, different slang.  For instance:  You don't often hear Americans refer to the "bonnet" or "windscreen" of their cars, and likewise, Spanish people "Conducen sus coches", whereas Mexicans "manejan sus carros".  

Different words for the same things, yet understandable.

Oh, and they don't use Ud. any more in Spain than most people do in Mexico (thought this IS regional, as well, some places are more formal than others), and Ud. does NOT correspond to vosotros in any real way.  One is singular, and the other is plural...few people in Mexico are really aware of the vosotros form of the verb, because it really ISN'T used in Mexico, though some university graduates and a few pockets know and sometimes use it.

The other real difference between Mexican and Peninsular grammar it the le vs lo.  In Spain, they use le, les for people, and in Mexico, they differentiate between direct and indirect objects, thus, if the direct object of a sentence is a person, in Spain, the object pronoun is le, in Mexico, it's lo, la, los or las, depending on gender and number.