Colombia (Lonely Planet, 5th Edition) - Jens Porup [277]
The use of the forms tu (‘you’ informal) and usted (‘you’ polite) is flexible in Colombia, unlike Spain, where tu is generally only used among friends. Strangers can often use tu, while a husband and a wife may use usted when speaking to each other and to their children. While either form is OK, the best advice is to answer in the same form that you are addressed in – and always use usted when talking to the police. In Cali and the rural parts of the mountain areas the use of vos is quite common.
Note that Colombians, like all Latin Americans, do not use vosotros (the plural of tu); ustedes is commonly used.
Latin American Spanish vocabulary has lots of regional variations and differs noticeably from European Spanish. Colombian Spanish has altered the meaning of some words or taken their secondary meaning as the main one. Colombians have also created plenty of colombianismos – words or phrases used either nationally or regionally, but almost unknown outside Colombia.
Colombians and other South Americans normally refer to the Spanish language as castellano rather than español.
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PRONUNCIATION
Pronunciation of Spanish is easy as many sounds are similar to English and the relationship between pronunciation and spelling is consistent. Unless otherwise indicated, the following English examples take standard American pronunciation.
The most significant pronunciation differences between the Spanish of Colombia and that of Spain are: ll – as ‘y’ in Colombia, as ‘ly’ in Spain; z and c before e and i – as ‘s’ in Colombia, not the lisped ‘th’ of Spain.
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Vowels & Diphthongs
a as in ‘father’
e as in ‘met’
i as the ‘i’ in ‘police’
o as in British English ‘hot’
u as the ‘u’ in ‘rude’
ai as in ‘aisle’
au as the ‘ow’ in ‘how’
ei as in ‘vein’
ia as the ‘ya’ in ‘yard’
ie as the ‘ye’ in ‘yes’
oi as in ‘coin’
ua as the ‘wa’ in ‘wash’
ue as the ‘we’ in ‘well’
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Consonants
Spanish consonants are generally the same as in English, with the exception of those listed below.
The consonants ch, ll and ñ are generally considered distinct letters, but in dictionaries ch and ll are now often listed alphabetically under c and l respectively. The letter ñ still has a separate entry after n in alphabetical listings.
b similar to English ‘b,’ but softer; referred to as ‘b larga’
c as in ‘celery’ before e and i; elsewhere as the ‘k’ in ‘king’
ch as in ‘choose’
d as in ‘dog’; between vowels and after l or n, it’s closer to the ‘th’ in ‘this’
g as the ‘ch’ in the Scottish loch before e and i (‘kh’ in our pronunciation guides); elsewhere, as in ‘go’
h invariably silent
j as the ‘ch’ in the Scottish loch (‘kh’ in our pronunciation guides)
ll as the ‘y’ in ‘yellow’
ñ as the ‘ni’ in ‘onion’
r as in ‘run,’ but strongly rolled
rr very strongly rolled
v similar to English ‘b,’ but softer; referred to as ‘b corta’
x usually pronounced as j above; as in ‘taxi’ in other instances
z as the ‘s’ in ‘sun’
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Word Stress
In general, words ending in vowels or the letters n or s are stressed on the second-last syllable, while those with other endings have stress on the last syllable. Thus vaca (cow) and caballos (horses) are both stressed on the next-to-last syllable, while ciudad (city) and infeliz (unhappy) are stressed on the last syllable.
Written accents generally indicate words that don’t follow the previous rules, eg sótano (basement), América and porción (portion).
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GENDER & PLURALS
In Spanish, nouns are either masculine or feminine, and there are rules to help determine gender (there are, of course, some exceptions). Feminine nouns generally end with -a or with the groups -ción, -sión or -dad. Other endings typically signify a masculine noun. Endings for adjectives also change to agree with the gender of the noun they modify (masculine/feminine