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Uruguayan Spanish

Posted on May 5, 2007
Filed Under Expat Tips, Vocabulary | 6 Comments

Uruguay is one of those countries where you’ll need to know Spanish to function and it will make your experience there much richer. Relatively few of the people you’ll interact with on a daily basis will know enough English to help you out. The good news is that if you learned Spanish in school you will be in fairly good shape, as Uruguayans will understand whatever flavor you happen to have learned, for the most part. Every Spanish speaking country has number of colloquialisms and local vocabulary that must be learned, but the number of new expressions is manageable.

Depending where you learned Spanish you may have some difficulty understanding Uruguayan Spanish at first, due to their peculiar accent and verb tenses. Fortunately, for most people this is not a big impediment to communication. The Río Platense Spanish, spoken in Montevideo, Buenos Aires and the surrounding area has a pronunciation quite different from most Spanish speaking countries. In that area the ll and the y (before a vowel) is pronounced as a zj by most people (see yeismo). The z, c sound like s when in front of e or i, which creates some spelling issues for many locals.

Uruguay and Argentina have a very specific way to conjugate the second person singular (voseo). In most of the Spanish-speaking world however, this form of speech is considered bad Spanish, i.e to be avoided. However in Uruguay and Argentina you need to use it in order not to sound affected and to communicate more effectively. Both Uruguay and Argentina use vos (which is NOT the vosotros used in Spain) to address a friend. It is a peculiarity to these two countries, parts of Chile and a few other regions of Spanish America. In Argentina, either usted or vos is used, but rarely ever tú. In Uruguay, usted is rarely used (except for special deference). Tú is used to address someone you don’t know very well and vos is the most familiar form.

The simplest way to describe conjugation of vos in the present of the indicative is: take the infinitive of the verb, remove the trailing r, add an s and make the last syllable tonic. For example: querer - vos querés; parar – parás; venir – venís. The notable exception to this rule is ser - vos sos. Please note that in Uruguay the trailing s is usually aspirated.

Here are the rules for the voseo for a few other tenses:

Imperative - Same as the rule for the present of the indicative, but without the s at the end e.g. comprá, vendé, viví

Imperfect - Same as regular tú e.g. vos venías

Preterite - Like the normal tú, but sometimes an s is added to the end e.g jugaste or jugastes

Future - Like the normal tú e.g. cantarás

Present of the Subjunctive - Like the tú, but with an accent in the last syllable e.g. que vos hablés, que vos pidás (there may be several exceptions in the case of irregular verbs).

Please note that in Uruguay both tú AND vos are conjugated the same way, like vos. So you would not hear, tú quieres, but rather tu querés.

Note that these rules are for UY and Argentina. Chile and other regions are slightly different.

Other posts in Expat Tips

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• Should I Bring My Electrical Aplliances to Uruguay?
• Usufruct and Inheritance Issues
• Tipping Custom in Uruguay
• American Income Tax While Living Abroad
• Visa Requirements to Travel to Brazil
• Inheritance Laws in Uruguay
• Obtaining the Uruguayan National ID
• Steps To Obtain Permanent Residency in Uruguay
• Uruguayan Permanent Residency Process

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• Uruguayan Spanish Real Estate Terminology
• Uruguayan Mate Custom
• Marijuana Legal Status in Uruguay
• Types of Cheeses Made in Uruguay
• Things to Consider Before Hiring Household Help
• Uruguayan Knife Sharpener
• Observations on Pricing in Uruguay
• Uruguayan Banking Vocabulary
• Banners Commonly Seen in the Streets of Montevideo

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