Same thing, eight ways to say it

Spanish words that change by country

A bus is a colectivo in Buenos Aires, a micro in Santiago, a guagua in San Juan and a pesero in Mexico City — and a guagua is a baby in Chile. Textbooks pick one Spanish and pretend the rest doesn't exist. These tables show what people actually say in eight cities, one everyday word at a time, with a dictionary or a native speaker behind every cell.

Table: ten everyday words — the bus, a straw, avocado, money, a job, cool, dude, what's up, ok, right away — as said in Buenos Aires, Santiago, Medellín, Santo Domingo, Madrid, Mexico City, Lima and San Juan — Card 1 of the series, as posted to r/Spanish. Every cell is expanded and sourced below.

The words

By country

Then say it out loud

Loquala drops you into a café, a market or a taxi in the city whose Spanish you're learning, with a local who talks the way the table says — and coaches you back in your own language.

Start speaking — free

How these tables are made

No cell is filled from memory or from an AI's recall. Each word is backed by ASALE's Diccionario de americanismos, the RAE's DLE, El Colegio de México's Diccionario del español de México, the Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, the Peruvian Academy's DiPerú, or a forum post by a native speaker who states where they're from — quoted on each word's page. Where we couldn't source a cell it stays blank, and where natives disagree we say so. Corrections: hello@loquala.com.