Spanish Differences Between Spain, Mexico, Argentina, and Colombia
I really enjoy watching these kinds of videos so I thought I’d add some additional notes to explain some of the differences or add more context for people who may not know
Unrelated, I was also very worried the one girl was drinking champú “shampoo” and now I need to try a champús because what does a lulo taste like I can’t even imagine)
#1 “blonde” - in standard Spanish you do say rubio/a for someone with blonde hair - this can trip some people up in the beginning because it literally does mean “red” and people see rubio/a and think “ruby” but it’s blonde.
In etymology history, there’s actually a fun little period where in some Latin and Western European languages, you have periods where blonde is written as “red” or “gold” - and then for people with red hair you have “red-gold” but that’s unrelated to Spanish
The use of güero/a is common in Mexico for someone with lighter-hair, and it can also be used for someone with whiter skin or lighter skin because blonde hair is uniquely white; similar to how moreno/a in Spanish can be both dark-skinned or dark-hair/dark-eyes since they tend to go together.
It is technically written as güero/a with the umlauts [the two dots; in Spanish it’s la diéresis] but sometimes in written Spanish you’d see it as wero/a, because of the W sound. In Mexico there’s also güey which is like “dude” but it’s very common to see it written in texts as wey or even we [pronounced like “way”]. If you don’t have the ü you’d probably pronounce the G harder like guerra has a hard G sound, not a W sound
mono/a has many different meanings; I’m used to mono/a being either “cute” or meaning “monkey” - but it can also be “doll”, I’m not sure if it’s just related to “cute” or if it’s a shortened way of saying muñeco or muñeca for “doll/figurine”, but it can happen.
*unrelated but la muñeca can also be “wrist”, and you wouldn’t change that to mona I don’t think…… I’m not 100% sure if it’s related to “doll” but I always imagined hand puppets or sock puppets when trying to remember it
#2 la farmacia is standard “pharmacy” and everyone gets it [in the UK you’d say “chemist” I think?]; la droguería makes sense as “drug store” but the joke they’re making is that la droga “drug” tends to be like illicit drugs, though it could be medicine [los remedios or los medicamentos]
The other word they’re saying as potica I think I’ve heard/seen as la botica with a B
la botica or el boticario feels very old-fashioned but it’s like “apothecary”, but it is sometimes more popular in places with more German immigrants because they say apotheke, and that’s literally where you get botica - but it’s a little old-fashioned to me
And in some places I believe you can say la bodega [also related to “apothecary” in etymology] - it’s not specifically a pharmacy, it’s a like a place where you can buy wine/beer, general snacks, and some medical stuff. Sometimes it has a pharmacy. To me a bodega is a “liquor store”, that may also have a “pharmacy”
#3 cerveza - the standard for “beer” is typically la cerveza and also means “ale”, and I associate la birra with some kind of “beer” that’s from Germany or Italy rather than a “domestic” beer
And to me birria is a specific kind of stew that you then use for tacos
The other word you do see sometimes is una caña but that’s “draft beer”. If you were at a bar and you asked for caña, you’d get the kind of beer that you get from a nozzle or a keg that they use a pump or a nozzle for - it’s because caña is also “reed” or “tube” or “rod” - and it’s different in taste from a beer in a can or a bottle
And la pola is very regional - it’s actually a brand name I think. The woman Policarpa Salavarrieta - whose nickname is La Pola - was a spy for revolutionary forces in Colombia [what was then the Viceroy of New Granada] against Spain who was arrested and executed. In Colombia, La Pola is a revolutionary hero, and there’s a brand called La Pola that uses a picture of her on beer
I’m actually used to saying una soda. I think that the north of Mexico probably uses la soda because of the US influence on the language; otherwise I’m used to seeing both el refresco and la gaseosa depending on where I am.
With la gaseosa I believe just means “gaseous” or “has gas”; sorta like la bebida gaseosa “a carbonated beverage”. It’s still common to say agua con gas for “sparkling water/seltzer” in a lot of places, and con gas usually means “carbonated” while sin gas is not carbonated
refresco does make sense to me only because I’ve seen it in all my textbooks as an alternative
*Note: la sangría [lit. “bloodletting” or “a bleeding”] is wine with fruit added in; in Spain it’s considered touristy because of how presentational it is, but most places have something where they add fruit or juice to wine. What’s more common is el tinto de verano [lit. “summer red wine”] which involves adding some kind of fruit-flavored soda or sparkling lemonade to wine - me personally I like grapefruit soda and red wine, or orange soda. They also do blanco de verano which is white wine and some kind of clear soda. It’s REALLY common to do this with the cheapest wine you can find
Me personally I’ve always said pimiento for a “pepper”, and for me la pimienta is “pepper” the spice
They’re all very connected; I believe a morrón or pimiento morrón is specifically a sweeter pepper like a “bell pepper”, while pimiento is the basic word for the plant
I’m both surprised and not surprised by pimentón. It literally means “big pepper” so I could see that for a larger bell pepper as opposed to a smaller chili pepper.
But in Spain, el pimentón is the Spanish-style paprika and it’s much spicier (and I believe it’s smoked?), rather than the Hungarian sweet paprika. When I think of pimentón I think of the kind of thing you flavor chorizo with
el morral to me is like “knapsack” or a “satchel”, like it’s smaller but it makes sense to me
la maleta confused me because to me that’s a “suitcase” like hacer maletas is “to pack suitcases”
And for me el maletín is “briefcase” since it has the diminutive; so the big luggage is la maleta but the smaller one business people carry around is maletín but I get why they’d use them in different countries
And la valija is to me the kind of suitcase you can carry - it looks like a bigger square briefcase? I think this word is from “valise” which I think of like a fancy word for attache case or overnight bag. It’s something I can still carry but more like a carry-on rather than a suitcase I’d roll?
But that’s just me - all those words make sense contextually though, it’s more about the size of things, but la mochila makes me think of students and la maleta makes me think of people traveling
el bolso is often “purse/bag”, and la bolsa is “a bag” like when you go shopping; some people interchange them
*Note: When the woman from Spain misheard chuspa, she said chusma which is like… “bad people” like “lowlife”; it’s like a group of rude or uneducated people and it comes out sounding a little classist
For a pacifier, I’d say chupete - but all of these make sense to me because they’re all related to chupar which is “to suck”… somehow though chupo makes me think of chupachup which is like slang for a “lollipop”
I’d say gomitas personally, gominolas sounds like a mouthful
To me, las gomitas only makes sense for things like gum drops, gummy things, and jellybeans because la goma is “rubber” so it kind of makes you think of bouncy things
The basic word for “candy” is los dulces “sweets” or occasionally los caramelos
The word they’re using las golosinas is like… “confections” or “candy-making”; it’s kind of like the basic umbrella term to me, and a little obscure unless you’re specifically at a candy store or going into culinary divisions. It makes me think of things involving sugar, not chocolate.
But a golosina is like if you were focusing on desserts you’d have cakes/pastry [la pastelería which is like “patissiere” or “pastry”, but the base word here is la pasta meaning “dough”], chocolate, and candy [golosinas] if that makes sense?
In general though - los dulces “sweets” is ANYTHING sweet - from candy, to anything with lots of sugar, and sometimes even desserts
But if I had to translate “jellybean” I’d use gomita, and if someone asked me to describe it, I’d say las gomitas son un tipo de golosina “jellybeans are a kind of candy”
