Regional variation: voseo, ustedes, seseo and ceceo, vocabulary

Spanish is spoken by more than 500 million people, and educated speakers in Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Seville and Madrid all speak standard Spanish, just different standards. This lesson brings together the variation you met in earlier lessons (Tú or usted; vosotros or ustedes, Colloquial Spain Spanish (vale, mola, tío, venga) and Latin American equivalents).

Voseo: vos instead of tú

In Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and much of Central America, vos replaces tú for informal you. In the Río de la Plata it is the norm at every level, in speech, advertising and literature. Present tense forms are stressed on the ending, and stem changes disappear.

• Vos tenés razón, pero no es tan fácil.You're right, but it's not that easy.
• ¿Vos sos de Rosario o de Córdoba?Are you from Rosario or from Córdoba?

Commands drop the final -r of the infinitive and stress the last vowel: hablá, comé, viví, tené, vení, decí, poné, salí. With pronouns the accent goes: decime, sentate, contame. Ir uses andá.

• Vení a casa el sábado y traé el mate.Come over on Saturday and bring the mate.
• Tené cuidado con el perro, que muerde.Be careful with the dog, it bites.
• Decime la verdad.Tell me the truth.

Pronouns: the object and reflexive pronoun stays te, the possessive stays tu, tuyo, and after prepositions you say vos, never ti or contigo.

• Vos te acordás de todo.You remember everything.
• Esto es para vos.This is for you.

In the Río de la Plata the present subjunctive is usually the tú form (que vengas). The preterite is vos viniste.

Ustedes for every plural you

In all of Latin America and the Canary Islands, vosotros is not used: ustedes is the plural of both tú and usted, with third-person plural verbs and pronouns (se, les, su).

• ¿Ustedes ya comieron?Have you all eaten yet?

Notice also the preterite where Spain would use the present perfect (The present perfect (he hablado) and when Spain uses it).

Seseo, ceceo and distinción

• Distinción (northern and central Spain): z and soft c are /θ/, like English th; s is /s/. Casa and caza differ.
• Seseo (all of Latin America, the Canary Islands, much of Andalusia): z and soft c sound like s. Casa and caza are identical. It is fully standard.
• Ceceo (parts of Andalusia, such as areas of Cádiz, Seville and Málaga): s also sounds th-like. It is local and carries some social stigma.

The Río de la Plata adds sheísmo: ll and y sound like English sh, so yo me llamo sounds like sho me shamo.

Vocabulary

• ¿Dónde dejaste el celular?Where did you leave your phone?

Coger is neutral in Spain but vulgar in much of Latin America; use tomar or agarrar there.

Common mistakes

• vos tienes or vos puedes: voseo forms have no diphthong and stress the ending, tenés, podés.
• para ti in a voseo dialogue: after a preposition use para vos, con vos.
• Vení acá y siéntate: keep the voseo throughout, sentate.
• Using vosotros in Mexico or Colombia: it sounds peninsular or archaic; use ustedes.
• Thinking seseo is a mistake: it is the norm for most Spanish speakers.