12 Questions & Answers About The Spanish Language

1. Are Spanish from Spain and Spanish from Latin America distinct languages?

No, the Spanish language is a regulated language and, therefore, is the same everywhere.

2. Is there a difference between Spanish from Spain and Spanish from Latin America?

Yes, some but the main difference is that in Latin America speaks with a sort of lisp that does not take place in most part of Spain.

3. Do all Spaniards speak Spanish?

Yes, Spain has certain regions with its own language but the locals of these regions are bilingual, they speak Spanish perfectly in addition to the language of their region.

4. Do all Latin Americans speak Spanish?

No, there are Latin American countries whose language is not Spanish. The subset of Latin American countries whose official language is Spanish is called Hispanic America.

5. Do all Spaniards have the same accent?

No, each region has its particular accent, although the predominant is the Castilian accent.

6. Do all Hispanic Americans have the same accent?

No, each region has its own accent, even within the same country there is a wide variety of accents.

7. Do Spaniards and Hispanic Americans understand each other?

Of course, very marked accents and the use of regionalisms can complicate it a bit but, apart from that, they would not have major problem to understand each other.

8. Do Latinos in the United States speak Spanish?

No, in the United States Latinos speak Spanglish (random mix of Spanish and English), which is difficult to understand for both Spanish speakers and English speakers.

9. Which countries have the Spanish language as their first language?

Spain, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.

10. Is Spanish the language of Brazil?

No, the language of Brazil is Brazilian Portuguese which is a variant of European Portuguese.

11. Are Spanish and Portuguese the same language?

No, they are different but, being Western Romance languages, they have several words in common.

12. Are there other places where the Spanish language is official?

Yes, in Africa there are two countries that, among their languages, also have Spanish as the official language (but it is not the dominant language), those countries are Equatorial Guinea and Western Sahara.