History UsefulNotes / SpanishLanguage

The next big influence on Spanish was [[UsefulNotes/ArabicLanguage Arabic]]. Between 711 and 718 CE, the Moors--a mix of Arabic-speaking and Berber-speaking Muslims from North Africa--conquered most of the Iberian Peninsula. They famously left a lot of vocabulary starting with ''a'' (e.g. ''aceite'', oil, from the Arabic ''az-zayt'', "the oil") or ''al'' (e.g. ''alberca'', a pool or pond, from the Arabic ''al-birka'' "the pond/pool"). The "a/al" thing is derived from the Arabic ''al-'', the Arabic word for "the"; the reason for the variation, and why the Spanish-speakers included the definite article, is too complicated to discuss here. The same Arabic "al" ''might'' also have influenced the pronunciation of the Spanish masculine definite article settling on "el" rather than something closer to its Italian cognate ''il'' or something completely different like the Portuguese "o".[[note]]Technically, these are all descended from variations of the Classical Latin ''ille'' "that/that one". (Even the Portuguese "o", from a different inflection.) The French ''le'' has the same derivation. From ''ille'', ''el'' is not especially weird as a derivation; rather, the theory is that the influence of Arabic might have created a glide path for settling on ''el'' rather than some hypothetical alternative form. (''Lo'' would suggest itself in Spanish. For one thing, it's directly cognate to the Portuguese "o". But the main thing is that ''lo'' actually is used in Spanish, just as the pronoun for the masculine singular direct object. This doesn't mean much on its own, but the feminine equivalent of ''el'' is ''la'', which itself is also used as the pronoun for the feminine singular direct object. The irregularity of ''el'' as the equivalent for ''la'' as the definite article but ''lo'' as the equivalent for ''la'' as a pronoun is a bit weird for Spanish, which (1) is generally the most regular of the major Romance languages (itself possibly the result of Arabic influence, since Arabic is rigidly regular in its verb and pronoun forms--Arabic nouns are another story but "irregular nouns" are not a thing in Romance) and (2) prefers to have feminine equivalents be the masculine either with a masculine ending substituted with "a" or with an "a" appended. Hence the "Arabic influenced it" theory.)[[/note]] Arabic also bequeathed to Spanish (and Portuguese) its placeholder name for a person--Arabic ''fulān(ah)'' became Spanish ''Fulano/a'', "John (Jane) Doe" (or Joe Bloggs or Joe Schmoe or Johnny Q. Public or...).\\

Gender is quite a bit more intuitive than in many languages as well; in most cases, a noun's gender is clear from its ending; ''-o/-an/-aje/-ón'' is almost always masculine, whereas ''-a/-ión/-ad/-ud'' is almost always feminine... though not to say that there aren't exceptions[[note]]like ''la mano'' ("hand") or ''el idioma'' ("language").[[/note]]. Masculine nouns are more common than feminine ones, so if you're really lost, guess masculine. Plural nouns that contain both masculine and feminine elements are mostly referred to as masculine; ''los gatos'' could mean "the [male] cats" or "the [male and female] cats," while ''las gatas'' can only refer to "the [female] cats."[[note]]In recent years this usage has become quite controversial in a few Spanish speaking countries, Spain included, since some people are starting to consider it sexist, and promote the use both the plural masculine AND plural feminine together to be inclusive. Which creates the problem of making sentences much longer and arguably impractical, which has led some others to suggest possible gender-neutral forms... which in turn leads to traditionalists accusing everyone else of polluting the language. Let us say, it's a debate that has no clear end in sight. That said, given the relative simplicity of Spanish grammatical gender compared to other Romance languages, several observers have suggested that Spanish might simply more or less drop the whole concept by the 22nd century. (It would likely be the first Romance language to do so--not counting Romance creoles--but hardly the first Indo-European language, English merely being the most prominent.)[[/note]]

Another difference of Spanish punctuation is their disuse of quotation marks. Dialogue is denoted by long "em" dashes (--), and quotes and phrases are surrounded by «comillas angulares», or angular quotes, used in most Romance languages. If you're from the Americas this might come as a bit of a surprise for you, because despite being the actually correct ones as specified by the RAE, «comillas angulares» are in practice pretty much exclusive to Spain; in Latin America, everybody uses American English "quotation marks" (despite that, the use of quotation marks is becoming steadily more prevalent even in Spain, outside of dialogue).

Besides the acute accent, Spanish is also famous for the ''eñe'' letter, "ñ." This is pronounced approximately[[labelnote:*]]You make the ñ by pronouncing a n and a y simultaneously. It's easier than it sounds, really.[[/labelnote]] like "ny," so "ñoño" above would be pronounced "nyonyo" (a word that more or less means "cheesy" in Spain and "nerd" un Mexico). For another example, the English word "canyon" is derived from the Spanish "cañón." The Portuguese have their own version of this sound in ''nh'' (as in "senhora"), while French and Italians use ''gn'' (as in "guignol") instead.

Another difference of Spanish punctuation is their disuse of quotation marks. Dialogue is denoted by long "em" dashes (--), and quotes and phrases are surrounded by «comillas angulares.», or angular quotes, used in most Romance languages. If you're from the Americas this might come as a bit of a surprise for you, because despite being the actually correct ones as specified by the RAE, «angular quotes» are in practice pretty much exclusive to Spain; in Latin America, everybody uses American English "quotation marks" (despite that, the use of quotation marks is becoming steadily more prevalent even in Spain, outside of dialogue).

Decimal separators also depend on the region. In Spain and some countries in Latin America, the thousands separator is a period and the fractional separator is a comma (ten thousand and a half in Spain = 10.000,5); while in other parts of Latin America, just like in American English, the thousands separator is a comma and the fractional separator is a period (ten thousand and a half in Mexico = 10,000.5).

** Subjunctive imperfect (''imperfecto de subjuntivo''): The subtleties of the subjunctive mood were explained above. This one is used when the preceding clause is in the imperfect, preterite, conditional, or the present, past, and conditional perfects. Also used to express the condition used to fulfill the conditional tense: "''Yo comería si '''tuviera''' hambre.''" (I'd eat if I were hungry.) Notably, this has two conjugation variants: the nowadays more common one ends in ''-ra'', while the less common, more formal variant ends in ''-se''. ''Tuviera'' in the previous example could have been easily replaced by ''tuviese'' with no change in meaning. Because its name and composition is a bit of an earful, it's usually nicknamed ''"el hubiera"'' (the may-have), and its conditional hypothetic nature is summarized by a proverb that says ''"el hubiera no existe"'' (the may-have isn't real).

** Subjunctive imperfect (''imperfecto de subjuntivo''): The subtleties of the subjunctive mood were explained above. This one is used when the preceding clause is in the imperfect, preterite, conditional, or the present, past, and conditional perfects. Also used to express the condition used to fulfill the conditional tense: "''Yo comería si '''tuviera''' hambre.''" (I'd eat if I were hungry.) Notably, this has two conjugation variants: the nowadays more common one ends in ''-ra'', while the less common, more formal variant ends in ''-se''. ''Tuviera'' in the previous example could have been easily replaced by ''tuviese'' with no change in meaning. Because its name and composition is a bit of an earful, it's usually nicknamed *"el hubiera"* (the may-have), and its conditional hypothetic nature is summarized by a proverb that says *"el hubiera no existe"* (the may-have does not exist).

** Preterite (''pretérito''): The "once" or "X times" past. Distinct from the imperfect. Also, unlike English, used to describe pictures and the like; to ask "What's she saying?" for a comic book panel or somesuch would be ''"¿Qué '''dijo''' ella?"'' Also often used in speech to replace the perfect tense, somewhat akin to English, especially around the Rio de la Plata. In Spain, on the other hand, is not as commonly used. Only when the action described is considered to be in the relatively distant past.

** Subjunctive imperfect (''imperfecto de subjuntivo''): The subtleties of the subjunctive mood were explained above. This one is used when the preceding clause is in the imperfect, preterite, conditional, or the present, past, and conditional perfects. Also used to express the condition used to fulfill the conditional tense: "''Yo comería si '''tuviera''' hambre.''" (I'd eat if I were hungry.) Notably, this has two conjugation variants: the nowadays more common one ends in ''-ra'', while the less common, more formal variant ends in ''-se''. ''Tuviera'' in the previous example could have been easily replaced by ''tuviese'' with no change in meaning.

* ''Pendejo'': slag for "pubic hair", although roughly used as "idiot" or "jackass", with an added connotation of willful incompetence. Almost exclusive to Latin America, with Spaniards only using it whenever they want to invoke Latin stereotypes. It's a derogative word for a young person in Chile and Argentina, and for a particularly dumb or mean person in Mexico. There was a scandal in Venezuela when the late politician and intelectual Arturo Uslar Pietri used the word on a TV interview in 1989 to refer to honest everymen, not because the meaning but because at the time the word was considered too strong for broadcasting (while in real life it is relatively mild).
* ''Joder'': "fuck". It is sed rather like it is in English; ''estamos jodidos'' means "we're fucked." Almost never conjugated in anything but past participle (the expletive "fuck!" would simply be ''joder!'' and "that fucking test" would be ''Ese jodido examen'', although most would say ''puto'' or something similar instead). "Fuck you!" would be translated as ''¡Jódete!'' or ''¡Que te jodan!''. It is also a vulgar word for ''bother'' (compare "fuck with"). Almost parodically Spanish--it is used in Latin America occasionally, but usually it's associated with Spaniards.

After ''[[UsefulNotes/TheCatholicMonarchs Los Reyes Católicos]]'' completed the ''Reconquista'', the next major influence on Spanish (and from this point on it's purely vocabulary) is from the ''Conquista''--i.e. from the languages of the lands Spain conquered in the 16th and 17th centuries. Unlike the Romans, the Spanish integrated native languages into their system of government, leading to languages like Classical Nahuatl of Mexico and Quechuan of Peru to stay healthy, develop their own literature and eventually influence Spanish. Indeed, Nahuatl at least actually ''spread'' after the ''Conquista'', as imperial administrators brought it with them from the Mexica heartland to regions where Nahuatl had at best been known as a trade language and at worst was completely foreign. The strongest impact on modern Spanish is probably from Nahuatl, whose names for various New World items generally became the "standard" (see, e.g. the worldwide acceptance of Nahuatl-derived ''chile'' (originally ''chīlli'' in Classical Nahuatl) over the Taíno-derived South American and Caribbean Spanish term ''ají'' for hot peppers, unless we're specifically talking about South American/Caribbean peppers).\\

After ''[[UsefulNotes/TheCatholicMonarchs Los Reyes Católicos]]'' completed the ''Reconquista'', the next major influence on Spanish (and from this point on it's purely vocabulary) is from the ''Conquista''--i.e. from the languages of the lands Spain conquered in the 16th and 17th centuries. Unlike the Romans, the Spanish integrated native languages into their system of govern, leading to languages like Classical Nahuatl of Mexico and Quechuan of Peru to stay healthy, develop their own literature and eventually influence Spanish. The strongest impact is probably from Nahuatl, whose names for various New World items generally became the "standard" (see, e.g. the worldwide acceptance of Nahuatl-derived ''chile'' (originally ''chīlli'' in Classical Nahuatl) over the Taíno-derived South American and Caribbean Spanish term ''ají'' for hot peppers, unless we're specifically talking about South American/Caribbean peppers).\\

After ''[[UsefulNotes/TheCatholicMonarchs Los Reyes Cathólicos]]'' completed the ''Reconquista'', the next major influence on Spanish (and from this point on it's purely vocabulary) is from the ''Conquista''--i.e. from the languages of the lands Spain conquered in the 16th and 17th centuries. Unlike the Romans, the Spanish integrated native languages into their system of govern, leading to languages like Classical Nahuatl of Mexico and Quechuan of Peru to stay healthy, develop their own literature and eventually influence Spanish. The strongest impact is probably from Nahuatl, whose names for various New World items generally became the "standard" (see, e.g. the worldwide acceptance of Nahuatl-derived ''chile'' (originally ''chīlli'' in Classical Nahuatl) over the Taíno-derived South American and Caribbean Spanish term ''ají'' for hot peppers, unless we're specifically talking about South American/Caribbean peppers).\\

The nature of semantic drift naturally ensures that [[InMyLanguageThatSoundsLike "false]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_friend friends"]] will arise. Probably the most famous, as shown above, is ''molestar'', which is a perfectly innocent and mundane word in Spanish meaning "bother," but obviously means something more... extreme in English. This really isn't that difficult, but an English speaker who's sort of half-listening may still be caught off guard by a phrase such as, ''Aunque él me molestaba a veces, yo le amaba.'' ("Even though he '''bothered''' me sometimes, I loved him." We're not talking StockholmSyndrome here). Funnily enough, this can also happen with Spanish speaking natives when trying to speak English ("Teacher, teacher! He's '''molesting''' me!")

Spanish, also known as "Castilian"[[note]]This is the actual original name of the language. The country we know today as Spain was formed in the late 15th century, when Castile and Aragon, the two main Christian kingdoms of the Iberian peninsula, finished the [[UsefulNotes/MoorishSpain Reconquista]] and expelled the Muslims that had occupied it for 800 years. Both kingdoms were united thanks to the marriage of [[UsefulNotes/TheCatholicMonarchs their respective monarchs, Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon]]. Castilian was, obviously enough, the language from Castile, which eventually became the dominant language of the territory, and the one that was exported to the American colonies. "Castilian Spanish", or just "Castilian", are very common terms to refer to the Spanish language as it's spoken in Spain, specifically[[/note]], is an Ibero-Romance language, and the second most natively spoken language in the entire world (after Mandarin Chinese) due to the enormous expanse of the Spanish Empire in its heyday. It's the official language of 20 countries[[note]] along with UsefulNotes/PuertoRico which is an unincorporated territory of the USA[[/note]], as well as one of the six official languages of the UsefulNotes/UnitedNations and an official language of 13 other international organizations. The UsefulNotes/UnitedStates also has a sizable population of Spanish-speakers numbering around 50 million, which is more than the entire population of most Spanish-speaking countries, Spain itself included.[[note]]And if you look below, there's even a native dialect of Spanish in New Mexico and Colorado.[[/note]] In short, this is a '''big''' language. It's the most widely spoken language in the Western Hemisphere.

The modern Spanish language is a Romance language, one of the large family of languages descending from the [[UsefulNotes/LatinLanguage Vulgar Latin]] spoken by the common people of much of the late [[UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire Roman Empire]]. The Romance languages of Iberia--including Spanish, but also Portuguese, Catalan, and regional languages like Galician and Asturian--are interesting because they descend from a peculiarly conservative dialect of Vulgar Latin. Spain was one of the first regions the Romans conquered outside what is now Italy, having taken it during the [[UsefulNotes/TheRomanRepublic Republican era]] from the Carthaginians during the UsefulNotes/PunicWars.\\

As a result, Spanish Latin preserved a lot of Republican-era Classical Latin vocabulary that would be superseded in Rome in later periods, and some evidence of this remains even in modern Spanish. The most commonly-cited examples are the terms for "cheese," "head," and "beer," which were ''cāsus'' (native Latin word) and ''caput'' (ditto), and ''cevisera'' (a borrowing from the Celtic Gaulish language--the Romans didn't go in much for beer and saw it as an uncouth drink for northern barbarians) in Classical Latin. Spanish retains ''cāsus'' as ''queso'', while more ''au courant'' dialects in Italy and Gaul replaced the word for cheese with ''formāticum'' (a slang word meaning "formed", because you make cheese in a form) sometime during the Empire (whence Italian ''formaggio'' and French ''fromage''). Similarly, Italian ''testa'' and French ''tête'' for "head" both derive from the Classical Latin ''testa'', meaning "pot", which Imperial-era slang apparently repurposed to mean "head";[[note]]The Ancient Romans were truly the New Yorkers of their era. "Hey, Marius, don't bang your pot on the wall, we can fix this!"[[/note]] the more conservative Spanish dialect seems to have preserved ''caput'', which eventually became ''cabeza'' in modern Spanish. Meanwhile, both French and Italian borrow their words for beer (''bière'', ''birra'') from German ''Bier'', probably because of direct contact with German culture over the centuries, while Spanish retains the old Gaulish-derived ''cervesa''.[[note]]Amusingly, this means Americans requesting a ''cervesa'' when ordering a Corona or Tecate are using a word cognate with the [[UsefulNotes/{{Wales}} Welsh]] ''cwrw''.[[/note]]\\

That said, Spanish isn't completely devoid of Germanic influences. The Visigoths ruled the peninsula for about 200 years and left their mark on the language. Their biggest influence is in personal names (for instance, the quintessentially Spanish masculine name Álvaro seems to be a Gothic name), but it also seems to have added a few vocabulary items (e.g. ''ganso'' for goose--the Latin word was ''anser'', the Gothic was ''gans'' as in modern Dutch and German). Also in the post-Roman period it seems that the Basque language started having an effect on the Romance dialects of north-central Iberia, mainly in phonology; the shift from word-initial ''f'' to ''h'' (e.g. ''fablar''->''hablar'' "to speak") seems to have been Basque influence.\\

After ''Los Reyes Cathólicos'' completed the ''Reconquista'', the next major influence on Spanish (and from this point on it's purely vocabulary) is from the ''Conquista''--i.e. from the languages of the lands Spain took as colonies in the 16th and 17th centuries. The strongest impact is probably from the Classical Nahuatl language of Mexico, whose names for various New World items generally became the "standard" (see, e.g. the worldwide acceptance of Nahuatl-derived ''chile'' (originally ''chīlli'' in Classical Nahuatl) over the Taíno-derived South American and Caribbean Spanish term ''ají'' for hot peppers, unless we're specifically talking about South American/Caribbean peppers).\\

The institution was created in 1714 following the model from the "Académie française" in France and the "Accademia della Crusca" in Italy. Its function is to gather and approve officially all the changes in the Spanish language in all the Spanish-speaking world to preserve and maintain its proper use. Every year they take care of including in the dictionary new words and removing unused ones[[note]]Well, at least in theory. The R.A.E. is infamous for being painfully slow in acknowledging the most recent developments, specially in the colloquial language. There are plenty of words that took '''decades''' to be approved by the academy just because their members kept refusing to accept them as proper[[/note]].

Gender is quite a bit more intuitive than in many languages as well; in most cases, a noun's gender is clear from its ending; ''-o/-an/-aje/-ón'' is almost always masculine, whereas ''-a/-ión/-ad/-ud'' is almost always feminine... though not to say that there aren't exceptions[[note]]like ''la mano'' ("hand") or ''el idioma'' ("language").[[/note]]. Masculine nouns are more common than feminine ones, so if you're really lost, guess masculine. Plural nouns that contain both masculine and feminine elements are mostly referred to as masculine; ''los gatos'' could mean "the [male] cats" or "the [male and female] cats," while ''las gatas'' can only refer to "the [female] cats."[[note]]In recent years this usage has become quite controversial in a few Spanish speaking countries, Spain included, since some people are starting to consider it sexist, and promote the use both the plural masculine AND plural feminine together to be inclusive. Which creates the problem of making sentences much longer and arguably impractical, which has led some others to suggest possible gender-neutral forms...which in turn leads to traditionalists accusing everyone else of polluting the language. Let us say, it's a debate that has no clear end in sight. That said, given the relative simplicity of Spanish grammatical gender compared to other Romance languages, several observers have suggested that Spanish might simply more or less drop the whole concept by the 22nd century. (It would likely be the first Romance language to do so--not counting Romance creoles--but hardly the first Indo-European language, English merely being the most prominent.)[[/note]]

Having fun yet? And that's just one tense out of ''seventeen'', which are divided in three categories: Indicative (''indicativo'', which has ten tenses), Subjunctive (''subjuntivo'', which has six) and Imperative (''imperativo'', which has only one). Every single tense has a table like this. Oh, and to add to the fun, in the Rioplatense dialect (Argentina, Uruguay, etc.) the pronoun ''vos'' has its own separate conjugation! So instead of ''hablas,'' it's ''vos hablás.'' On the other other hand, you can almost completely ignore the "vosotros/as" form if you're focused on Latin American Spanish--it's not used anywhere in Latin America (the Rio de la Plata included), so you only need to be vaguely aware it exists in case you ever speak with/read something written by or for Spaniards. (As mentioned above, Spaniards won't bat an eye if you don't use the ''vosotros'' form, especially if your speech is otherwise Latin American, so you only need to know that Spain Spanish has a weird second-person plural form to actually get by, you don't need to be able to produce it yourself.)

** Preterite (''pretérito''): The "once" or "X times" past. Distinct from the imperfect. Also, unlike English, used to describe pictures and the like; to ask "What's she saying?" for a comic panel or somesuch would be ''"¿Qué '''dijo''' ella?"'' Also often used in speech to replace the perfect tense, somewhat akin to English, especially around the Rio de la Plata. In Spain, on the other hand, is not as commonly used. Only when the action described is considered to be in the relatively distant past.

** Conditional perfect (''condicional compuesto''): Used to express a "hypothetical past action"; something that would have happened had a condition been met. Think of the last line every Franchise/ScoobyDoo villain says: "And I '''would have''' gotten away with it if it weren't for YouMeddlingKids!" In Spanish, they would use the conditional perfect. (''"¡Y yo '''habría tenido''' éxito sin ustedes muchachos entrometidos!"'')

Fun fact, Spanish vowel sounds are literally ''identical'' to Japanese vowel sounds. So you can use those for reference if you know them[[note]]As a matter of fact, Spanish and Japanese phonetics are shockingly similar in general, despite how different they are in pretty much everything else. Due to this, the Japanese language is ridiculously easy to pronounce for native Spanish speakers. For native Japanese speakers, the opposite is a bit more difficult due to sounds like the strong, rolling "R", but still, it's easier for them to pronounce Spanish than to pronounce English[[/note]].

** The word llama seems to have three different translations into English. "Llama": the [[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness domesticated South American Camelid]]. Llama as a conjugation that can mean "he calls" or "You, call!". And "llama" as in "Flame". [[note]]This is the CatchPhrase of [[ComicBook/FantasticFour The Human Torch]], Saying "¡llamas a mí! Loosely meaning "Flames, come to me!"[[/note]]

* RR: The famous "rolled r," as in the ridiculously exaggerated ''[[TrrrillingRrrs ¡Arrrrrrrrrrrriba!]]'' Think making a machine gun noise with your mouth. If you don't get it right, don't worry too much: this is one of the most difficult sounds for nonnatives, and natives usually understand that. In some parts of Central and South America it is often not pronounced like the standard, some people pronounce it like almost like the "s" in "pressure", while in other people it comes close to an English r. In several Caribbean dialects, it becomes a guttural ''ch'' (like ''loch'' or ''Bach'').

Besides the acute accent, Spanish is also famous for the ''eñe'' letter, "ñ." This is pronounced approximately[[labelnote:*]]You make the ñ by pronouncing a n and a y simultaneously. It's easier than it sounds, really.[[/labelnote]] like "ny," so "ñoño" above would be pronounced "nyonyo" (a word that more or less means "cheesy" in Spain and "nerd" un Mexico). For another example, the English word "canyon" is derived from the Spanish "cañón."

Another difference of Spanish punctuation is their disuse of quotation marks. Dialogue is denoted by long "em" dashes (—), and quotes and phrases are surrounded by «comillas angulares.», or angular quotes, used in most Romance languages. If you're from the Americas this might come as a bit of a surprise for you, because despite being the actually correct ones as specified by the RAE, «angular quotes» are in practice pretty much exclusive to Spain; in Latin America, everybody uses American English "quotation marks" (despite that, the use of quotation marks is becoming steadily more prevalent even in Spain).

* ''Cojones'':[[labelnote:*]]Not "cajones", although non-native speakers sometimes confuse the two. Saying that someone has a lot of cajones means that they have a lot of drawers.[[/labelnote]] Spain only. This is more profane word for balls, the usual, milder ones being ''huevos'' (which is also the word for eggs) and ''pelotas'' (which actually means "balls"). Quite a few expresions arise from this one: the verb ''acojonar(se)'' means "to (get) scare(d)" and is generally used to remark how much of a coward the guy who got scared is (it's in fact a deformation of ''acongojar(se)'' due to phonetic similarities, but the original verb is now only used in formal situations, by extremely polite people or people with extreme aversion to curse words). ''Cojonudo'' roughly translates to "fucking good". The expression ''tocar los cojones'' (literally "touching the balls") can either mean "to be a lazy fuck" or "to piss someone off" depending on whether the metaforical balls belong to the person touching them or not. Calling someone a ''mosca cojonera'' ("balls-y fly") implies that they are as annoying as, well, having a fly in the balls.
* ''Carajo'': An interjection roughly equivalent to "damn", "fuck", or in some cases "hell" ("vete al carajo" can be half-literally translated as "go to hell"). In Venezuela, along with the interjection use, is also used as a sightly more vulgar equivalent of "dude", even having a female and a diminutive version to refer to women and small children. "Estar del carajo", however, means that something/someone is doing very well (although in Spain it tends to be used sarcastically to mean very bad instead). May or may not also mean dick in some places.

* ''Tomar'' (lit. "taking"): Latin American slang for drinking spirit. Though to be frank, in most Latin American dialects--including Mexican--it means any kind of drinking. ''Nunca toma nada sino agua'' would be the most normal way to say "He drinks nothing but water" in Mexican Spanish; saying ''Nunca bebe nada sino agua'' (using the "official" word for "to drink" ''beber'') would register as highly formal. It retains the rest of meanings, being completely innocuous for most situations, such as photography (tomar unas fotos). An important exception would be taking a person to a place, for which the verb "llevar" is used. "Tomé a mi hermana al prom", for example, means you and your sister have some explaining to do. In Spain, ''tomar'' only means "taking"; it has its own slang words for drinking, but they are not as popular.

* ''Coger'' (lit. "get or take"): it has evolved into "fuck" in most Latin American countries. In Spain, however, it has maintained the literal meaning and is an incredibly common word, which sometimes can cause misunderstandings between Spaniards and Latin Americans. For instance: ''cogí una magdalena'' means "I took a muffin" in Spain, but "I fucked a muffin" in Latin America. ''Recoger'' is the non-profane version (which in Spain means something similar to "pick up").

* ''Pinche'' (lit. "kitchen helper"): its original meaning is still maintained in Spain, but in Mexico this word has evolved into an interjection to emphasize something, similar to "fucking" in English: "una pinche cerveza" means "a fucking beer". It can also be used to express contempt for something; if you hate your mother-in-law's [[MisterMuffykins yappy little dog]], you might say "¡Pinche perrito!" ("Fucking little dog!").

Actually, the prevalence of profanity in Spain is so extended that, when it's in an informal situation and among friends, swearing on its own may easily be seen as relatively innocent. As a result, Spaniards rely a lot more on voice tone, timing in the conversation and body language to distinguish between playful banter and actual rude behaviour. Getting this right may be a bit tricky at first for non-native speakers , though. However, since this is meant to be done with friends, most likely Spaniard friends will be ''delighted'' to teach you the fine art of spicy, swearing-ridden Spaniard chatting.

Truly offensive peninsular profanity relies a lot on creativity and especially blasphemy. Spain is a country with deep Catholic roots, but in the last centuries it evolved gradually into its direct opposite, and nowadays it keeps instead a heartfelt disdain for Christianity and religion in general (another consequence of the Franco regime, though the attitude was already present in the times of UsefulNotes/TheSpanishInquisition and several Church-sponsored absolute monarchies). As a consequence, there is a ton of swearing based on religious imagery, a bit like the [[UsefulNotes/{{Quebec}} Québecois]] ''sacres''. ''Hostias'', or "host" (as in sacrament)[[note]]Compare to Québecois ''hostie''[[/note]] is somewhat more offensive than "joder", while ''Me cago en Dios y las tetas de la Virgen'' (I shit upon God and the Virgin's tits) means you probably just amputated something. Without anesthetic and most probably by accident.

[[VulgarHumor Overtly agressive or profane]] swearing (even moreso than these latter examples) is possible, but rare and mostly used in derivative works for comedic effect, such as "Te voy a sacar los putos ojos y me voy a mear en los agujeros para que te escueza"[[labelnote:*]]"I'm going to gouge your fucking eyes out and piss in the holes till it burns[[/labelnote]]. Spaniard are perceived as more profane than Latin Americans, not because this is fundamentally true, but because there is more swearing on Spanish TV (sometimes even on family-oriented shows on occassion), while most Latin American countries [[MoralGuardians enforce cleaner language]] on media to very ridiculous extremes (where even GoshDangItToHeck can be considered too much).

* ''Culo'' (lit. "ass"): Yes, like the Music/{{Pitbull}} song. Used in pretty much the same situations as in English and then some more. ''De mi culo'' is "my ass" in some Latin American countries. In those, a father of a teenage daughter, when she says where she goes with her date, may say ''"'Vamos al cine' de mi culo."'' ("'We're going to the movies' my ass."). In Spain it's also used in the construction "de culo" for "screwed"; ''"Vamos de culo"'' means "We're screwed." Venezuelan males also use the term to refer to a one-night stand or someone they have a superficial sex-based relationship (but never saying it in front of the person); "ese un culo que me levanté anoche" means "a girl I picked up last night".

* ''Culo'' (lit. "ass"): used in pretty much the same situations as in English and then some more. ''De mi culo'' is "my ass" in some Latin American countries. In those, a father of a teenage daughter, when she says where she goes with her date, may say ''"'Vamos al cine' de mi culo."'' ("'We're going to the movies' my ass."). In Spain it's also used in the construction "de culo" for "screwed"; ''"Vamos de culo"'' means "We're screwed." Venezuelan males also use the term to refer to a one-night stand or someone they have a superficial sex-based relationship (but never saying it in front of the person); "ese un culo que me levanté anoche" means "a girl I picked up last night".

Truly offensive peninsular profanity relies a lot on creativity and especially blasphemy. Spain is a country with deep Catholic roots, but in the last centuries it evolved gradually into its direct opposite, and nowadays it keeps instead a heartfelt disdain for Christianity and religion in general (another consequence of the Franco regime, though the attitude was already present in the times of UsefulNotes/TheSpanishInquisition and several Church-sponsored absolute monarchies). As a consequence, there is a ton of swearing based on religious imagery, a bit like the [[UsefulNotes/{{Quebec}} Québecois]] ''sacres''. ''Hostias'', or "host" (as in sacrament)[[note]]Compare to Québecois ''hostie''[[/note]] is somewhat more offensive than "joder", while ''Me cago en Dios y las tetas de la Virgen'' (I shit upon God and the Virgin's tits) means you probably just amputated something.

* LL: Its ''canonical'' pronunciation is rather like the Italian ''gl'' as in ''figlio''. However, in most dialects the pronunciation has become like the ''y'' in ''year'' or like the J in "jail" (oddly enough, the only strong hold-out of the primitive pronunciation is Catalonia, where the same sound is an important part of the Catalan language and its standard accent). In the area around Rio de La Plata, instead, it's pronounced as the ''sh'' in ''show'' or the ''s'' in ''measure'', in Guatemala, it becomes a sound somewhere between i and j, and in New Mexico, it's generally omitted entirely, such that ''ellos'' becomes ''éos.''

The next big influence on Spanish was [[UsefulNotes/ArabicLanguage Arabic]]. Between 711 and 718 CE, the Moors--a mix of Arabic-speaking and Berber-speaking Muslims from North Africa--conquered most of the Iberian Peninsula. They famously left a lot of vocabulary starting with ''a'' (e.g. ''aceite'', oil, from the Arabic ''az-zayt'', "the oil") or ''al'' (e.g. ''alberca'', a pool or pond, from the Arabic ''al-birka'' "the pond/pool"). The "a/al" thing is derived from the Arabic ''al-'', the Arabic word for "the"; the reason for the variation, and why the Spanish-speakers included the definite article, is too complicated to discuss here. The same Arabic "al" ''might'' also have influenced the pronunciation of the Spanish masculine definite article settling on "el" rather than something closer to its Italian cognate ''il'' or something completely different like the Portuguese "o".[[note]]Technically, these are all descended from variations of the Classical Latin ''ille'' "that/that one". (Even the Portuguese "o", from a different inflection.) The French ''le'' has the same derivation. From ''ille'', ''el'' is not especially weird as a derivation; rather, the theory is that the influence of Arabic might have created a glide path for settling on ''el'' rather than some hypothetical alternative form. (''Lo'' would suggest itself in Spanish. For one thing, it's directly cognate to the Portuguese "o". But the main thing is that ''lo'' actually is used in Spanish, just as the pronoun for the masculine singular direct object. This doesn't mean much on its own, but the feminine equivalent of ''el'' is ''la'', which itself is also used as the pronoun for the feminine singular direct object. The irregularity of ''el'' as the equivalent for ''la'' as the definite article but ''lo'' as the equivalent for ''la'' as a pronoun is a bit weird for Spanish, which (1) is by far the most regular of the major Romance languages (itself possibly the result of Arabic influence, since Arabic is rigidly regular in its verb and pronoun forms--Arabic nouns are another story but "irregular nouns" are not a thing in Romance) and (2) prefers to have feminine equivalents be the masculine either with a masculine ending substituted with "a" or with an "a" appended. Hence the "Arabic influenced it" theory.)[[/note]] Arabic also bequeathed to Spanish (and Portuguese) its placeholder name for a person—Arabic ''fulān(ah)'' became Spanish ''Fulano/a'', "John (Jane) Doe" (or Joe Bloggs or Joe Schmoe or Johnny Q. Public or…).\\

As a result, Spanish Latin preserved a lot of Republican-era Classical Latin vocabulary that would be superseded in Rome in later periods, and some evidence of this remains even in modern Spanish. The most commonly-cited examples are the terms for "cheese," "head," and "beer," which were ''cāsus'' (native Latin word) and ''caput'' (ditto), and ''cevisera'' (a borrowing from the Celtic Gaulish language[[note]]It is thus cognate with the modern [[UsefulNotes/{{Wales}} Welsh]] word ''cwrw'' for the same drink[[/note]]--the Romans didn't go in much for beer and saw it as an uncouth drink for northern barbarians) in Classical Latin. Spanish retains ''cāsus'' as ''queso'', while more ''au courant'' dialects in Italy and Gaul replaced the word for cheese with ''formāticum'' (a slang word meaning "formed", because you make cheese in a form) sometime during the Empire (whence Italian ''formaggio'' and French ''fromage''). Similarly, Italian ''testa'' and French ''tête'' for "head" both derive from the Classical Latin ''testa'', meaning "pot", which Imperial-era slang apparently repurposed to mean "head";[[note]]The Ancient Romans were truly the New Yorkers of their era. "Hey, Marius, don't bang your pot on the wall, we can fix this!"[[/note]] the more conservative Spanish dialect seems to have preserved ''caput'', which eventually became ''cabeza'' in modern Spanish. Meanwhile, both French and Italian borrow their words for beer (''bière'', ''birra'') from German ''Bier'', probably because of direct contact with German culture over the centuries, while Spanish retains the old Gaulish-derived ''cervesa''.\\

As a result, Spanish Latin preserved a lot of Republican-era Classical Latin vocabulary that would be superseded in Rome in later periods, and some evidence of this remains even in modern Spanish. The most commonly-cited examples are the terms for "cheese," "head," and "beer," which were ''cāsus'' (native Latin word) and ''caput'' (ditto), and ''cevisera'' (a borrowing from Gaulish--the Romans didn't go in much for beer and saw it as an uncouth drink for northern barbarians) in Classical Latin. Spanish retains ''cāsus'' as ''queso'', while more ''au courant'' dialects in Italy and Gaul replaced the word for cheese with ''formāticum'' (a slang word meaning "formed", because you make cheese in a form) sometime during the Empire (whence Italian ''formaggio'' and French ''fromage''). Similarly, Italian ''testa'' and French ''tête'' for "head" both derive from the Classical Latin ''testa'', meaning "pot", which Imperial-era slang apparently repurposed to mean "head";[[note]]The Ancient Romans were truly the New Yorkers of their era. "Hey, Marius, don't bang your pot on the wall, we can fix this!"[[/note]] the more conservative Spanish dialect seems to have preserved ''caput'', which eventually became ''cabeza'' in modern Spanish. Meanwhile, both French and Italian borrow their words for beer (''bière'', ''birra'') from German ''Bier'', probably because of direct contact with German culture over the centuries, while Spanish retains the old Gaulish-derived ''cervesa''.\\

As a result, Spanish Latin preserved a lot of Republican-era Classical Latin vocabulary that would be superseded in Rome in later periods, and some evidence of this remains even in modern Spanish. The most commonly-cited examples are the terms for "cheese," "head," and "beer," which were ''cāsus'' (native Latin word) and ''caput'' (ditto), and ''cevisera'' (a borrowing from Gaulish) in Classical Latin. Spanish retains ''cāsus'' as ''queso'', while more ''au courant'' dialects in Italy and Gaul replaced the word for cheese with ''formāticum'' (a slang word meaning "formed", because you make cheese in a form) sometime during the Empire (whence Italian ''formaggio'' and French ''fromage''). Similarly, Italian ''testa'' and French ''tête'' for "head" both derive from the Classical Latin ''testa'', meaning "pot", which Imperial-era slang apparently repurposed to mean "head";[[note]]The Ancient Romans were truly the New Yorkers of their era. "Hey, Marius, don't bang your pot on the wall, we can fix this!"[[/note]] the more conservative Spanish dialect seems to have preserved ''caput'', which eventually became ''cabeza'' in modern Spanish. Meanwhile, both French and Italian borrow their words for beer (''bière'', ''birra'') from German ''Bier'', probably because of direct contact with German culture over the centuries, while Spanish retains the old Gaulish-derived ''cervesa''.\\

* ''Pajero'' (lit. "Wanker"/"douchebag"/"jackoff"): exactly that. Mitsubishi fortunately avoided [[BiteTheWaxTadpole biting the wax tadpole]] on this one and sold their model as "Montero" (mountaineer) in Spanish speaking countries. In Chile it's also a pejorative term for a lazy and/or slow person: "Apúrate, pajero!" would mean "Hurry up, stupid slouch!"

* ''Coño'' (lit. "CountryMatters"): exactly that. It is not nearly as offensive as that word is in English (ESPECIALLY in North America), and in fact it is often as an interjection, as in "fuck!"; "¿Qué coño ___?" equates to "What the fuck ___?" in peninsular Spanish (see note below on profanity in Spain). Saying that a person is "un coño de madre/un coño de su madre" means not that they're ''that'' part of their mother anatomy, but that the person is a bastard, and the expression "¡El coño de tu madre!" ''is'' a direct insult, in some places being even worse than calling the person "hijo de puta". There is also the milder derivate word "coñazo", that in Spain means something among bothersome or annoying (as in "esa persona es un coñazo", that person is very annoying) but in Venezuela means "beating" (te voy a meter un coñazo = I'm going to hit you hard). Nowadays, Spain is the only country that still uses the word on its original sexual context: the rest of the Spanish speaking countries simply see it as another vulgar interjection. Within Latin America, use of ''¡coño!'' as a vulgar interjection is seen as parodically UsefulNotes/{{Cuba}}n in much the same way as interjections of ''¡joder!'' are parodically Spanish and ''¡pendejo!'' are parodically Mexican.

* ''Coño'' (lit. "CountryMatters"): exactly that. It is not nearly as offensive as that word is in English (ESPECIALLY in North America), and in fact it is often as an interjection, as in "fuck!"; "¿Qué coño ___?" equates to "What the fuck ___?" in peninsular Spanish (see note below on profanity in Spain). Saying that a person is "un coño de madre/un coño de su madre" means not that they're ''that'' part of their mother anatomy, but that the person is a bastard, and the expression "¡El coño de tu madre!" ''is'' a direct insult, in some places being even worse than calling the person "hijo de puta". There is also the milder derivate word "coñazo", that in Spain means something among bothersome or annoying (as in "esa persona es un coñazo", that person is very annoying) but in Venezuela means "beating" (te voy a meter un coñazo = I'm going to hit you hard). Nowadays, Spain is the only country that still uses the word on its original sexual context: the rest of the Spanish speaking countries simply see it as another vulgar interjection.

* ''¿Qué diablos?'' or ''¿Qué demonios?'' (lit. "What devils?" or "What demons?"): roughly, "what the hell". It's an archaic expression that, unlike its English equivalent, became GoshDangItToHeck over time, so it is pretty unusual to hear today. A related word that is even more archaic is "demontre", also vaguely meaning demon. All of them can also be used as an interjection ("¡demonios!" = roughly "holy shit!").

[[/folder]]

Spanish, also known as "Castilian"[[note]]This is the actual original name of the language. The country we know today as Spain was formed in the late 15th century, when Castile and Aragon, the two main Christian kingdoms of the Iberian peninsula, finished the [[UsefulNotes/MoorishSpain Reconquista]] and expelled the Muslims that had occupied it for 800 years. Both kingdoms were united thanks to the marriage of [[UsefulNotes/TheCatholicMonarchs their respective monarchs, Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon]]. Castilian was, obviously enough, the language from Castile, which eventually became the dominant language of the territory, and the one that was exported to the American colonies. "Castilian Spanish", or just "Castilian", are very common terms to refer to the Spanish language as it's spoken in Spain, specifically[[/note]], is an Ibero-Romance language, and the second most natively spoken language in the entire world (after Mandarin Chinese) due to the enormous expanse of the Spanish Empire in its heyday. It's the official language of 20 countries[[note]] along with UsefulNotes/PuertoRico which is an unincorporated territory of the USA[[/note]], as well as one of the six official languages of the UsefulNotes/UnitedNations and an official language of 13 other international organizations. The UsefulNotes/UnitedStates also has a sizable population of Spanish-speakers numbering around 50 million, which is more than the entire population of most Spanish-speaking countries, Spain itself included.[[note]]And if you look below, there's even a native dialect of Spanish in New Mexico and Colorado[[/note]] In short, this is a '''big''' language. It's the most widely spoken language in the Western Hemisphere.

** LatinAmericanLiterature (aside from Brazilian Poruguese literature)

Spanish, also known as "Castilian"[[note]]This is the actual original name of the language. The country we know today as Spain was formed in the late 15th century, when Castile and Aragon, the two main Christian kingdoms of the Iberian peninsula, finished the [[UsefulNotes/MoorishSpain Reconquista]] and expelled the Muslims that had occupied it for 800 years. Both kingdoms were united thanks to the marriage of [[UsefulNotes/TheCatholicMonarchs their respective monarchs, Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon]]. Castilian was, obviously enough, the language from Castile, which eventually became the dominant language of the territory, and the one that was exported to the American colonies. "Castilian Spanish", or just "Castilian", are very common terms to refer to the Spanish language as it's spoken in Spain, specifically[[/note]], is an Ibero-Romance language, and the second most natively spoken language in the entire world (after Mandarin Chinese) due to the enormous expanse of the Spanish Empire in its heyday. It's the national or official language of 21 countries, as well as one of the official languages of the UN and 13 other international organizations. Even in the United States alone there are over 50 million Spanish-speakers, which is more than the entire population of most Spanish-speaking countries, Spain itself included[[note]]And if you look below, there's even a native dialect of Spanish in New Mexico and Colorado![[/note]]. In short, this is a '''big''' language. It's the most widely spoken language in the Western Hemisphere.

* ''Tomar'' (lit. "taking"): Latin American slang for drinking spirit. It retains the rest of meanings, being completely innocuous for most situations, such as photography (tomar unas fotos). An important exception would be taking a person to a place, for which the verb "llevar" is used. "Tomé a mi hermana al prom", for example, means you and your sister have some explaining to do. In Spain, ''tomar'' only means "taking"; it has its own slang words for drinking, but they are not as popular.