The Ultimate Guide To Latin American Spanish - Which Accent to Choose?

In this article, we will answer the question: Which accent of Latin American Spanish to choose? We will break down the features and benefits of each Spanish accent from Latin America, starting with Mexican Spanish and going all the way south to Argentina and Chile.

What is Latin American Spanish?

Latin America is vast. Therefore, it’s so surprise that there is no such thing as THE ONE Latin American Spanish. There are numerous dialects, and while they all share some common features that make them different from Peninsular Spanish, they all greatly vary in vocabulary, pronunciation and even grammar.

Mexico

Mexican Spanish is a pretty clear and understandable accent, as each letter is pronounced as it’s written. It has a total of 120 million native speakers, making it the most widely spoken Spanish accent. Therefore, it’s not only very useful – it’s also super easy to find learning resources such as textbooks, videos – and, of course, Mexican telenovelas.

Carribbean

Caribbean Spanish is very fast and full of temperament. Speakers of this accent tend to swallow letters at the end and in the middle of words, such as:
Puedo – pueo or puesto – pueto.
This can be really hard for beginners, but here’s the good news: Some of its features can also be found in other parts of Latin America, the Canary Islands and Southern Spain. Therefore, getting used to the speed and way of talking will bring you a long way in many places!

Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuadorian Coast

This region consists of a lot of different accents, which are hard to generalize. However, to a greater or lesser extent, they all contain elements of Andean and Caribbean Spanish. Learning an accent from this region is super useful as you will come across many of its elements in a lot of regions all over Latin America.

Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Northern Argentina - the Andes

Andean Spanish is probably known as the clearest Latin American accent as its speakers tend to talk very slowly and clearly. It resembles Mexican Spanish in many aspects. However, one of its most distinguishing features is the usage of Quechua/ Quichua words, which is the language of the indigenous population. Learning Andean Spanish is very beginner-friendly and will open you the door to an amazing culture located in a breathtaking nature.

Uruguay/ Argentina (Rioplatense)

While all the above-mentioned accents can more or less be summarized into one macro-group, the so-called Rioplatense Spanish is completely different in terms of vocabulary, but also grammar. For instance:

The letters “ll” are pronounced “sh” instead of “y”
Instead of the pronoun “tú” (you), this accent uses “vos”. Vos is conjugated differently than “tú” in present tense and imperativ. Like this: Tu quieres – vos querés or tú llegas – vos llegás

Although Rioplatense Spanish isn’t the most useful accents to learn unless you plan to travel exclusively to that region, it’s definitely the most melodic one, being known as the Italian of Spanish accents.

Chile

Chilean Spanish is one of the fastest-spoken accents. On top of that, Chileans tend to swallow letters and have a very particular intonation, making it one of the hardest Spanish accents to understand – even by natives. But not only that: Just as Rioplatense Spanish, Chilean Spanish uses “vos”, but with some additional grammatical twists: Instead of vos querés or vos llegás, Chileans say vos querís or vos llegai. Therefore, Chilean Spanish can be seen as a completely own accent group.
Not many people learn Chilean Spanish – so you’ll certainly make some people speechless if you know some Chilean slang!

Hopefully, this article could give you some more clarity as to which accent of Latin American Spanish to choose.