En resumen (the short version)
- Learn the Spanish of the place where you'll use it. If you don't have a place yet, pick one and stick with it. Speakers from Spain and Latin America understand each other fine.
- "Castilian" is just another name for Spanish. In English it usually means Spanish from Spain.
- The differences you'll notice: the "th" sound, vosotros, how the past is used for today, and a set of everyday words.
✌🏼 ¡Hola aventurero!
Quick question: how do you say "swimming pool" in Spanish? 🏊
If you said piscina, you're right. If you said alberca, you're right too. And pileta? ¡También! (Also right!) It just depends on whether you're in Spain, Mexico or Argentina.
That's the kind of thing that makes people worry about Castilian Spanish vs Latin American Spanish. Which one should you learn? Did you pick the wrong one? Let's sort it out, with a bit of history so it all makes sense 🤓
The short answer: which one should you learn?
Learn the Spanish of the place where you're going to use it. That's really it.
| If… | Go with… |
|---|---|
| You live in Spain, or you're moving there | Spanish from Spain |
| Your partner, family or colleagues are from one country, like Colombia | That country's Spanish |
| You want to travel around Latin America | Any Latin American Spanish, like Mexican or Colombian |
| You don't have a plan yet | Whichever one has the teacher, course or series you enjoy most |
And if you've already learned one and now need the other, no pasa nada (no problem). The grammar and most of the words are the same. You keep everything you know and adjust a few things, which is what the rest of this post is about.
What "Castilian" actually means
Castellano comes from Castilla (Castile), the old kingdom in the north and centre of Spain where the language first took shape.
In Spain, castellano and español both mean the whole language. The Spanish Constitution calls it castellano, and Spain has other official languages too, like Catalan, Galician and Basque. So in Barcelona or Bilbao you'll often hear people say castellano to make clear which language they mean. Lots of people in Latin America call it castellano as well.
In English, though, "Castilian Spanish" usually just means Spanish as it's spoken in Spain. That's how I'll use it here.
Neither one is the "real" Spanish. Spain is one country. Latin America is about twenty, and they don't all sound the same either: Mexican, Argentinian and Colombian Spanish are as different from each other as any of them is from Spain.
Why they sound different (a bit of history)
The difference most people hear first is the z, and the c before e or i.
In most of Spain, those letters sound like the "th" in "think". In Latin America, the Canary Islands and parts of Andalucía, they sound like an "s".
| Word | In most of Spain | In Latin America, the Canaries and parts of Andalucía |
|---|---|---|
| cine | "THEE-ne" | "SEE-ne" |
| azul | "a-THOOL" | "a-SOOL" |
| cielo | "THYE-lo" | "SYE-lo" |
So why? Teacher bit 🤓 In the 1500s, the ships to the Americas left from Seville, and later from Cádiz. A lot of the people on them came from Andalucía and the Canary Islands, and their Spanish already used the "s" sound. That's the version that stuck. So Latin American Spanish sounds closer to southern Spain than to Madrid.
With the "th", casa (house) and caza (hunting) sound different. With the "s", they sound the same, and context does the rest. Both are correct, and the Real Academia Española accepts both.
The j changes a bit too. In Spain it's strong and throaty. In much of Latin America it's softer, closer to an English "h". If you want to work on your Spanish sounds, have a look at 5 Spanish pronunciation mistakes English speakers make.
Vosotros: the grammar difference you can't skip
When you talk to a group of friends in Spain, you use vosotros. In Latin America, everyone uses ustedes, friends included. In Spain, ustedes is only for formal situations, like a hotel receptionist talking to a group of guests.
| Spain | Latin America | |
|---|---|---|
| What are you doing tonight? | ¿Qué hacéis esta noche? | ¿Qué hacen esta noche? |
| Do you know Lucas? | ¿Conocéis a Lucas? | ¿Conocen a Lucas? |
| Have you been to Granada? | ¿Habéis estado en Granada? | ¿Han estado en Granada? |
| What do you think? | ¿Qué os parece? | ¿Qué les parece? |
| You're all invited. | Estáis todos invitados. | Están todos invitados. |
The history explains the grammar here too. Vosotros started as vos otros, "you others". Ustedes comes from vuestras mercedes ("your graces"), which is why it takes the same verb as ellos: ustedes hablan, ellos hablan.
And in Argentina and Uruguay, you'll hear vos instead of tú for one person, with its own verb forms: ¿Vos sos de acá? (Are you from here?)
Even if you go with Latin American Spanish, learn to recognise vosotros and os. You'll see them in every book, film and series made in Spain, and it only takes a few minutes to spot the pattern.
Today: he comido or comí?
Both sides have the same past tenses. They use them a bit differently.
In Spain, today still feels "open", so for things that happened today people use the present perfect: he comido, he ido. In much of Latin America, people use the simple past for the same thing.
| Spain | Much of Latin America | |
|---|---|---|
| This morning I went to the gym. | Esta mañana he ido al gimnasio. | Esta mañana fui al gimnasio. |
| Have you eaten yet? | ¿Ya has comido? | ¿Ya comiste? |
| I've lost my keys! | ¡He perdido las llaves! | ¡Perdí las llaves! |
For yesterday or earlier, everyone uses the simple past: Ayer fui al gimnasio. One more thing: in the Canary Islands and parts of northwest Spain, people also prefer fui for today. Spain isn't one accent either 😉
There's a full picture of the past tenses in Spanish past tenses explained.
Same thing, three different words
This is where you'll get caught out most often. Everyday things often have a different word in each country, and Latin American countries don't agree with each other either.
| Spain | Mexico | Argentina | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| la piscina | la alberca | la pileta | the swimming pool |
| la nevera | el refri | la heladera | the fridge |
| la camiseta | la playera | la remera | the T-shirt |
| la chaqueta | la chamarra | la campera | the jacket |
| el melocotón | el durazno | el durazno | the peach |
| el grifo | la llave | la canilla | the tap |
| aparcar | estacionar | estacionar | to park |
The good news: most people understand the other versions, especially from TV. You'll just sound more local if you use the word where you live.
In Spain, coger is an everyday verb: you coges el tren, coges el teléfono and even coges frío (catch a cold). In Mexico, Argentina and several other countries, coger is a rude word for sex 🙈 There, say tomar el tren or agarrar instead.
If you're heading to Spain, the Spanish phrases you'll use every day living in Spain has plenty more of the local words.
Your first step this week
If you've chosen Spanish from Spain (or you're switching to it), start here:
Turn three questions into vosotros
Pick three questions you'd ask one friend, like ¿Qué haces esta noche?, and ask them to a whole group instead: ¿Qué hacéis esta noche? Say them out loud.
Learn five words the Spain way
Choose five words from the "Same thing, three different words" table that you'd actually use, like la nevera and aparcar, and make a sentence with each one.
Say three things you did today with he
Before bed, say three things you've done today: He desayunado tarde, he trabajado en casa y he llamado a mi madre.
Going the other way, from Spain to Latin America? Do the same three steps in reverse: ustedes, the local words, and fui for today. Fácil.
Recap ✨
- Learn the Spanish of the place where you'll use it. If you change later, you adjust, you don't start again.
- "Castilian" is another name for Spanish. In English it usually means Spanish from Spain.
- Latin America sounds closer to southern Spain because many early settlers came from Andalucía and the Canaries.
- Spain uses vosotros with friends and he comido for today. Most of Latin America uses ustedes and comí.
- Everyday words change by country, like piscina, alberca and pileta. Watch out for coger.
Whichever Spanish you go with, it helps to know what to learn next. My Roadmaps lay out the everyday topics in order, with games, speaking prompts and cheat sheets 🗺️
Now I'm curious 👀 Which Spanish are you learning, and which word from the other side surprised you most? Cuéntame in the comments!
Lucía ✨
Lucía · Linguist, translator, Spanish teacher and author of the Visual Spanish Grammar Book.
Come and learn Spanish with me and other aventureros like yourself at skool.com/learnspanish 🎉