Differences between the Spanish from Spain and the Spanish from Mexico

Something that Americans often asked me when they discovered my nationality was if I could understand Mexicans when they speak, if our language was the same, two different dialectal varieties or a completely different language. Yes, in Spain we speak Spanish and in Mexico too, only the accent and a few words differ. It is like if an American goes to Australia, is he going to be able to communicate with Australians, and an Australian in Ireland? Of course they will, they will only notice that some things have different names, that some expressions are not understood, that the accent is different… And that is what happened to me in Chicago when talking to Mexicans. Here are some of the most significant differences:

Coger in Spain and coger in Mexico have a very different meaning. In Spain we use the verb coger for everything: cogemos el autobús, cogemos un resfriado, cogemos un cabreo, cogemos algo al vuelo; we can say that the verb coger in Spain replaces the English verbs to take, to get, to understand, to catch up. In Mexico coger directly means to f**k, to have sex. Well, I once met a very cultured Mexican who used coger like us Spaniards, and I asked him if he wasn’t worried about being misunderstood by his compatriots, to which he replied “why would I worry? The verb coger has several meanings and the one I use is the main one, if they don’t understand it it’s their problem”. In other words, coger in Mexico can be used correctly as it is used in Spain, but the reality is that the vast majority of Mexicans only know it as I have explained above. So this gave rise to a lot of awkward or funny situations when my wife and I used the verb with Mexicans present. There was one time when, at the grocery store, a Mexican family covered their children’s ears because my wife asked me to coger a pineapple and I asked her if she also cogió potatoes. And so there were more similar situations.

Goma (rubber). Normally in Spain we call goma to the rubber band that we can use to keep bills or other objects together, and also to the eraser, that thing with which we erase what we write in pencil. In Mexico, a goma is a condom. Imagine the situation when, at the bank, I asked a Mexican customer who had just made a cash withdrawal, with the bills in my hand, “¿Quiere una goma?“.

Me sabe mal (I feel bad). We use this expression a lot in Spain when we feel bad for someone, when we do something or something bad has happened to them. For example “Me sabe mal irme de vacaciones y dejarlo a él en casa“. Well, Mexicans aren’t familiars with this and it gives rise to confusion. And I’m sure there are many other ways of speaking that we don’t understand each other, but the truth is that this expression, perhaps because of the frequency with which we Spaniards use it, was the one I had to explain most often to my Mexican interlocutor.

Hacía tiempo que no te miraba. This is what Mexicans used to say to me when they hadn’t seen me for a long time, the traditional “long time no see”. It is a very strange composition, to tell the truth, because mirar is to observe something attentively, it is the English “to watch”. And English speakers do not say “long time no watch” or “It’s been a while without watching you”, it sounds bad, doesn’t it? In Spain we say what I think is normal, “hacía tiempo que no te veía”.

Carro in Mexico, coche in Spain. That’s how we say car in both countries.

Manejar en México, conducir en España. To refer to the act of driving a car. And from this we derive other differences: licencia de manejo, in Mexico; permiso de conducir, in Spain to refer to the driver’s license.

Computadora in Mexico, ordenador in Spain. This is how we refer to computer. Although in Spain on rare occasions you may hear a Spaniard saying computadora instead of ordenador.

¿Me regalas una pluma? This is how Mexicans used to ask me to borrow a pen, which sounded funny to me because we use the verb regalar in Spain only for the act of giving something with a certain value (monetary or sentimental) to a person on the occasion of an important event such as a wedding or a birthday, or as a token of respect or affection; to give someone a present, but Mexicans use the verb regalar more lightly, as if to borrow something.

Pluma, en México, bolígrafo en España. The difference here is that Mexicans call any ink writing device a pluma, while in Spain a pluma, besides “feather”, is a more refined writing instrument, with a writing end that resembles a bird’s feather. The ballpoint pen, on the other hand, is more common.

Móvil in Spain, celular in Mexico. To refer to the cell phone.

Charlar in Spain, platicar in Mexico. This is what we call it in both countries when having a relaxed conversation. Although both are understood in any country.

Tortilla in Mexico and tortilla in Spain do not refer to the same food. In Mexico the tortilla is the thin, circular bread used to make tacos and fajitas, in Spain the tortilla is, along with paella, the most famous and favorite dish among Spaniards.

These are some of the most frequent words that differ in the speech of both countries and as you can see this is something anecdotal, not something that makes such a big difference as to consider it a dialectal variety as some people think.

Another thing I do want to note here is the difference in pronunciation of the ce, ci and the z. In Spain these letters, in words such as cielo, zorro, luz, cebada, the c and the z have a very strong sonority, while in Mexico and the rest of Latin America these same letters have a sonority almost identical (I would say indistinguishable) to the s.