Latin American Spanish and Spanish from Spain

Start with the Spanish you will hear

Learn the Spanish of Spain if you will live, work, or spend real time there. Learn Latin American Spanish if the Americas are the reason. People looking up how to learn Spanish usually need to pick one before the first month.

Paseo practices Latin American Spanish. You can love Madrid and still be honest about which sound you are practicing.

What you will notice first

In Spain, c and z before e or i often sound like the th in think. In most of Latin America they sound like s. Neither is the correct Spanish. Both are.

A few everyday words differ. The first in each pair is the usual Latin American one: computadora and ordenador for a computer, carro and coche for a car, jugo and zumo for juice, celular and móvil for a mobile phone.

One plural you is enough at the start

Spain uses vosotros for a group of people you know well, with its own verb forms. Latin America uses ustedes for the plural, in speech and in writing. Learn one pattern first. The other will be recognizable later.

Do not mix them in the first month. Switching varieties mid-sentence makes you hesitate, and it makes listening harder. Pick one. If that one is Latin American Spanish, stay with that audio, those phrases, and a coach who speaks it.

A pace you can check

The hours come from the State Department. The calculator turns a walk into weeks and leaves flashcards out.

• Speaking practice, in public figures
• Conversation hours