The second most widely used language in America is Spanish. This is not only because the United States borders Mexico, but because there are many immigrants who come to live in America from all over Central and South America, as well as Puerto Rico and Cuba.

While Americans tend to learn Mexican or Argentinean Spanish at school, there will be some differences to look out for if planning on speaking and continuing to learn the language in Spain.

While there is little difference in grammar between all the Spanish dialects, there are conjugations and accents that differ between Spanish of the Americas and European Spanish. While in Spain, firstly, notice there is a big difference between the Northern Castilian dialect and the Andalusian dialects of the Castilian Spanish. The Andalusian dialect is the one that is closer to the Spanish of Latin America. The major difference is the fact that in Spain, the Castilian Spanish replaces any “s” sounds with a “th”.

While Mexican Spanish incorporates “tl” and “tz” in certain words because of a heavy Native American influence in their language, Spain too has localized intonations in their dialects. When travelling to Spain, keep in mind there are regional languages. For example, if planning on going to Barcelona, then your Classical Spanish may get you by but really the local language of Catalan is preferred. In other parts of Spain, Galician and Basque are spoken. Be sure to check which region speaks which local language before you go.

There are differences in vocabulary between Latin American countries and Spain as well, mostly with food products. Again, this is because of the Native American influence in Central and South America. But do not be too stressed if visiting Spain from America because in general, there is a wide cross understanding of all dialects and most people understand that a large variant of Spanish is spoken throughout the world.

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