BootsnAll Travel Community

Such a major language, so many countries. So many little unexpected words and rules that change country to country to trip up the non-native speaker and make them look like a big momo.

For example?

- In Mexico (or at least southern Mexico), when you specify the size of your bottled drink, it's not "pequeña." Instead, you say "chica". Which means "little girl" -- and how am I supposed to know that! Made me look like a momo to my seen-too-many-tourists-coming-through-here-waiter, and protesting "no, I do know Spanish! I do!" doesn't remove that impression that you have no idea what he's asking when he says "grande o chica?" after you ask for "una botella de agua."

- In Guatemala, instead of tú and usted, it's vou and usted for informal/formal "you". The only time one says "tú" would be when talking to a girlfriend or boyfriend, or for a very close female friend if you are female. Men don't use the term with their very close male friends as it is a machisimo culture and it would indicate that they are boyfriends, so they use the "vou" when talking to their closest male buds.

Any others to share?

chica means girl too, but it's the word for small, no?

in Spain, people laughed when I said things like "cabrón" and "pendejo". when I first got there, all I knew how to do was ask for a cup with ice (since you had to pay more to get refrigerated drinks... I was a bit of a cheap bastard) and say these random Mexican words.

Chica (or chico) is commonly used for "small" throughout Mexico, I’m pretty sure. Another word with very different meanings in Spain and Mexico is the verb “coger.” In Spain it’s “to take” or possibly to “pick-up” (my Spanish isn’t that great). In Mexico, it’s roughly equivalent to “joder” in Spain. Not the expletive, rather the horizontal tango. I haven’t done it, but using it inappropriately would result in much hilarity among your audience, I think.

Good to know about that vou thing in Guatemala. It sounds like vos in Argentina and some other places, although I don’t know if there’s the distinction between novios and other friends.

Heres a note: I never had any problem with tu in Guatemala. People liked it just fine. Usted is a form that does work well, of course, but Vosostros form is not used, or at least not taught at all in Guatemalan language schools.

So, when doubt with a stranger, use Usted and you'll be just fine.

Heres a truth that really hurts.

Unless your accent is perfect and you have all the other forms right, Spanish from Spain will work just as well for anything a tourist does, or even informal conversations. Even speaking spanish gets you a plus. Spanish from Spain doesn't use Tu in a formal setting, and so, it works well.

Mexican spanish does use second person, informal a lot.

NOw, there are some idioms that break this exception:

Huevos means balls in mexican slang. Don't ask for huevos in your drink.

In Spain, when addressing someone unknown in an official function, use the ustedes form to ask a favor. Bank teller, etc.

In spain, th sing song mexican accent doesn't get you very far. Speak in more of a monotone, kill the sing-song, and bring your voice down an octave.

In spain, vosotros form is used when speaking to second person, plural, not in an informal sense.It is very much formal and authoritative, as in professor to student, or lector to class, individual to group largely not friends. Tu has taken over that function.

In argentina Vosostros has retained its familiar form.

In venezueal, bring it down two octaves or they won't understand you.

In spain, when meeting someone, reply with

Encantada" They will be enchanted.

In Costa Rica, you're NOT supposed to use "tu" at all! Only the "usted" and "vos" forms are permitted, and I mostly heard usted myself (though I may not have been listening carefully enough or not have gotten it).

I learnt Spanish in Chile. Therefore, I can understand all other forms of Spanish as they seem to be clearer. Unfortunately, I never bothered learning the vosotros verb endings so it will be interesting when I go to Spain and Central America nextthis year.

You won't need vosotros in Central america.

Its used in specialised instances in spain.

quote:

Originally posted by Tortuga_traveller:
Heres a note: I never had any problem with tu in Guatemala. People liked it just fine.

Interesting. TT, were you in the country or city? The person who told me all that about using vou, not tú, for the informal you, is a Guatemalan from Guatemala City. I wonder if it's different in different parts of the country.

Well, I never stayed much in Guat city. Something about the dust, the smell, the lack of tourist interest, and yes,, the crime, turned me off that particular city unless I had business to do with immigration.(Which turned out to be a long and tragic story, even a little funny)

The white guatemalans pride themselves on their Spanish, its true, but the vos form was almost never heard from my white and rich guatemalan family. He was a lawyer. He probably did business in guat city.

I never heard Vos from them, and when I was taught spanish in Antiqua, they said there was no point to my learning the Vos forms, they taught me the informal Tu, though of course, usted if one shows respect.

If you go to Indian areas, the launguage gets very interesting, but not at all 'correct', They probably never even heard the vos form in all their life. Lago atititlan and Todos santos was like that.

quote:

Huevos means balls in mexican slang. Don't ask for huevos in your drink.

Why would I want eggs in my drink?

When I first went to Spain, they didn't think I could speak Spanish at all because I wasn't familiar with the vosotros form. In Sevilla, at least, they used it all the time. And here, teacher's basically threw out that form because most Latin American countries don't use it.

The ll=j sound in Argentina threw me a bit at first. Once I got into the pattern, though, I caught on.