Skip to content
Irish ArgentineProject

Learning the language

Spanish in Argentina

Argentines speak a Spanish of their own. Here is how it differs from the Spanish you may have learned, the words and phrases you will need first, and where to learn.

Vos podés.(You can do it.)

How Argentine Spanish differs

Learn with us

Argentine Spanish classes

Online and one to one with Allie, an Irish teacher in Buenos Aires: the quirks of Argentine Spanish, and of its culture.

Español rioplatense

How Argentine Spanish differs

The Spanish of Buenos Aires and the River Plate is known as Rioplatense. If you learned Spanish from a textbook, these are the differences you will notice first, each with the source that describes it.

  1. Vos, not tú

    Argentines say for the informal "you". The Spanish academies record it as accepted at every social level, spoken and written. Only two verb forms change: the present, where the stress moves to the end, and commands. Other tenses stay as you learned them, and so do te and tu.

    • Textbook
      ¿Tú tienes tiempo?
      In Argentina
      ¿Vos tenés tiempo?

      Do you have time?

    • Textbook
      ¿De dónde eres?
      In Argentina
      ¿De dónde sos?

      Where are you from?

    • Textbook
      Ven, mira esto.
      In Argentina
      Vení, mirá esto.

      Come and look at this.

  2. Ustedes for everyone

    For "you" to more than one person, Argentines say ustedes, to friends and strangers alike, as everywhere in the Americas. Vosotros, the informal plural of most of Spain, is not used. To one person you do not know, usted is the polite form.

    • Textbook
      ¿Vosotros venís?
      In Argentina
      ¿Ustedes vienen?

      Are you all coming?

  3. The "sh" sound

    Most Spanish speakers say ll and y alike. In Argentina and Uruguay that sound is made with strong friction, as a "zh" or a "sh": this is . Among younger people in Buenos Aires the "sh" has taken over, so calle (street) sounds like "ka-sheh" and yo (I) like "sho".

  4. No "th" sound

    As across Latin America, z, and c before e or i, sound like s. Central and northern Spain say a "th" there, so cerveza (beer) has no "th" in Buenos Aires. If you learned the Spanish of Spain, this and the "sh" are the two sounds to retune.

  5. A soft s

    At the end of a syllable, s is often breathed out like an English h, or dropped, so mismo (same) can sound like "mihmo" and más (more) like "mah". It is commoner in casual speech; careful speakers tend to keep the s.

  6. The melody

    Buenos Aires has an intonation of its own: the pitch peaks early and statements tend to step down at the end. Linguists trace it to the turn of the twentieth century, when Italian immigration was at its height, and the Instituto Cervantes describes it as shaped by Italian.

  7. Hiciste, not has hecho

    Where Spain often uses the perfect for what happened today, Argentines use the simple past. Studies of River Plate speech find the perfect rare, and kept mostly for "have you ever". Both are understood; the simple past sounds local.

    • Textbook
      ¿Qué has hecho hoy?
      In Argentina
      ¿Qué hiciste hoy?

      What did you do today?

    • Textbook
      Juan no ha llegado todavía.
      In Argentina
      Juan no llegó todavía.

      Juan hasn't arrived yet.

  8. Voy a, for the future

    The everyday future is ir a and a verb. In one study of educated speech it made up nearly two thirds of future forms in Buenos Aires, against under half in Madrid. The simple future, será, there more often means a guess: "it must be".

    • Textbook
      Mañana iré al centro.
      In Argentina
      Mañana voy a ir al centro.

      Tomorrow I'll go into town.

  9. Che, ¿viste?

    Small words carry a lot. calls someone's attention, ¿viste? ("you know?") checks they are with you, acá is preferred to aquí, and re makes a word stronger: re lindo, really nice. Recién with a verb means "just now", as in most of the Americas but not in Spain.

    • Textbook
      Lo acabo de ver.
      In Argentina
      Recién lo vi.

      I just saw it.

  10. Still standard Spanish

    Vos, the "sh" and the missing "th" are not slang or mistakes. The Spanish academies treat regional usage as fully correct when educated speakers of the area use it, and all three qualify. The DELE exams include the varieties of Spanish, and Argentina's own certificate, the , accepts any learned variety: it asks you to understand vos, not to use it.

Same thing, different word

Everyday words that differ from the Spanish of Spain. Each is marked as Argentine or American usage in the Spanish Royal Academy's dictionary.

Words you will hear

Informal words you will hear, some of them lunfardo, the old slang of Buenos Aires. Each opens its meaning in the glossary.

All the everyday words in the glossary

Residency and Spanish

There is no Spanish test for residency

Argentina does not test your Spanish when you apply for residency. rewrote the migration rules. According to a legal summary of its text, it contains no language test or integration requirement.

The core documents lists for residence are a passport, criminal-record certificates, proof of address and proof of entry. A Spanish certificate is not on the list. Documents in another language need a Spanish translation by a . That is the translator's work, not a test of your Spanish.

Citizenship and universities are separate questions. No Spanish test appears in the citizenship law, but some courts have asked applicants about their Spanish, and practice varies by court (language on the citizenship page). The University of Buenos Aires requires a high level of Spanish from applicants from non-Spanish-speaking countries. If you want a certificate of your level, read about the CELU.

Sources

Sources