GRAMMAR

CASTELLANO or ESPAÑOL? VOS or TU?

An ever recurring questions among students of Spanish is wether in Argentina they speak "Español" or "Castellano".
"Castellano" was originally the dialect of the Castilla region in Spain, where the crown was seated. Talking "Castellano" meant talking "the king´s" Spanish.
Nowadays the two terms mean EXACTLY the same, though people might have their own definition of terms. In Argentina, most people will refer to "Spanish from Spain" with "Español", while they consider themselves talking "Castellano".

So...Is Argentinean Spanish different to other Spanish?
Yes it is. But you never will have problems to communicate with people who speak European Spanish or other Latin American Spanish, nor in speaking neither in written communication.
Spanish is Spanish, and important is that you know it, which "local Spanish" you know, doesn‘t have any importance.

So, why does Argentinean Spanish sound so different?
Voseo is the use of the second person singular pronoun vos in Argentina instead of tú.
The voseo predominate in Central America, also on the Canarty Islands of Spain and the voseo is used in Buenos Aires and Argentina.
It‘s estimated that about 30% of all Spanish native speakers around the world are using vos in instead of tú.
Only in Argentina the voseo forms also part of the written language.
My experience shows that for communicating with Spanish speaking people it‘s not important if you are accustomed to use vos or tú, they will understand you in any case.

The conjugation of verbs for tú and for vos changes:
Verbs in -ar and -er in the second person singular in the case of using vos get stressed (get an accent) in the last syllable:
tú hablas >> vos hablás
tú comes >> vos comés …

Verbs in -ir change from -es using tú to -ís using vos (note the accent):
tú vienes >> vos venís
tú vives >> vos vivís

In the case of changing the stem vocal to diphthong or other vocal using tú, this conversion will not happen if you use the vos:
tú vienes >> vos venís
tú tienes >> vos tenés

At the beginning your attention maybe caught by the use of sos instead of eres:
tú eres >> vos sos


Does that come from Spain?
Not sure, you are probably thinking about "vosotros" , the informal second person plural currently used only in Spain.
Therefore the majority of the Spanish native speakers don‘t use the verbs in second person plural.


Anyways, I know it all look very confussing, but I promise is not!
Find the form in which you feel the most confortable, no matter what second person you use (vos or tu) you'll always be understood among Spanish/Castellano spakers!