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Spanish: European and Mexican

The differences between European and Mexican Spanish:

Differences in European and Mexican Spanish

Spain and Mexico both have influential neighbours to the north and this sometimes shows up in the differences between the two varieties of Spanish.

Here is a very brief collection of terms I’ve noticed where Mexico follows an English form and Spain follows a French one:

Mexico Spain
licencia de manejar

(US Eng: driving license)

carnet de conducir

(Fr: carnet de conduire)

reporte (Eng: report) informe
extinguidor (Eng: extinguisher) extintor (Fr: extincteur)
tanque de gasolina (US Eng: gas tank) depósito de gasolina
computadora (Eng: computer) ordenador (Fr: ordinateur)

But this isn’t the whole story –

  • Spain has taken the anglicism “marketing” while Mexico has “mercadotecnia”
  • Spain has “parking” (via French) for “car park” where Mexico has “estacionamiento”
  • Northern Mexico and the southern USA have some fascinating but low prestige “Spanglish” with words like “breca” for “brake” and “troca” for “truck”!

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