Which of these phrases are more commonly used?

EmilyClaire

Hola Carmen,

In our tutoring session earlier, we discussed the phrase "que tal", and you mentioned that "que pasa" is an appropriate substitute, which triggered memories of hearing "que pasa" so often while I was growing up that it almost seems like it's an American phrase to me. I am hoping you can take a moment to review the list below and note any other interchangeable phrases. If there are any substitutions that are more commonly used in the south, I will probably have another "Aha!" moment.

bienvenido (What I mean is, when someone comes to my house, I don't say "welcome", I say "come on in".)

claro que si (What I mean is, when someone asks me if I can do something for them, I don't always say "of course", sometimes I say "sure".)

todo va bien

mas o menos

Gracias!!

P.S. No more saying "you guys"! Here is a link to Wikipedia's page about the wonderful word "y'all" and it's history/uses. Enjoy!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y'all

Carmen2013

Hola, Emily:

Thanks so much for the information about "y´all". It´s a great expression! A reminder for any other student: "Y´all" in Spanish is "vosotros" (Spain) or "ustedes" (Latin America).

When someone comes to your house, and they are physically entering, you can say : ¡Adelante! ¡Pasad / Pasen!

There are many expressions equivalent to "claro que sí"; you can say "claro", "naturalmente", "sin problema", "por supuesto".

"Más o menos" is a expression that English speakers learn, but that I find it´s not very used, at least in Spain. If I´m so so or if something is so so, I´d say "regular" or "no muy bien".

Can you give me a context for "todo va bien"?

I´m so glad you´re using the forum, Emily. I hope that you´ve been able to get into a good routine with your Spanish.

Saludos,

Carmen.

EmilyClaire

Carmen,

Thank you for the response! These are very helpful.

The essentials book states that the phrase "Todo va bien" means "Everything's going well". Are there any other ways to say this?

Thanks,

Emily Claire

Carmen2013

Hola, Emily and y´all:

In order to express that everything is going well you can say "todo va bien", "todo está bien", or simply "todo bien".

Ejemplo:

- ¿Qué tal el trabajo? (How´s work?)

- Todo bien / Estupendo / Muy bien / Sin problemas / Fenomenal

Looking forward to more questions,

Carmen.

Weenee

Since it is likely that many that are taking this course are going to use what they learn from this course to converse with Latin Americans........most likely Mexicans, as I do. We may possibly retire in Baja Mexico someday.   The words 'vosotros' and 'nosotros' are only used in Spain and never used in Mexico.....what is the Latin American word for 'we'?  I have been searching the web for a list of words that are used in Spain but hardly ever used in Latin America. Is there such a list available?

Thank you. Dennis

Erin

Hi Dennis!

Thanks for posting. You're right; it's much more likely that as an American learning Spanish, you'll find yourself in conversation with speakers of Latin American Spanish rather than Iberian (from Spain) Spanish.  However, fortunately, the differences are not so dramatic that you won't be able to converse successfully with both groups regardless of which variety you learn.  That said, it's good to know the differences. As you mentioned, one major difference is the use of 'vosotros' as the 2nd person plural pronoun. In (most of) Latin America, you'll hear 'ustedes' used instead to say "you" in the plural form (think of y'all in the Southern U.S.) However, 'nosotros' (we) is actually used in both Latin American and Iberian Spanish, so you won't need to learn a new pronoun there. 

As far as vocabulary differences, there are quite a few. We mention some in our course, for example in the Culture Note in Unit 1 Lesson 1 of Intermediate. You'll also find a description of differences between the pronunciation in Spain and Latin America in our Pronunciation Guide. However, I don't know of a comprehensive list. Perhaps we can ask our e-Tutor to share some differences on our blog. That's a good idea.  We'll keep you posted. 

Thanks again for the interesting post and good luck with the course!

Erin