Aprendiendo el español de Puerto Rico y el Caribe

Learning Puerto Rican and Caribbean Spanish

I'm Puerto Rican. I lived there for a good amount of my childhood, but I was born in the US and live there now. I'm lucky to have gotten the chance to be more involved in my culture, have parents willing and able to teach it to me, and for it to not be a painful thing for me to be involved in my culture.

I speak to a lot of young people who are hispanic, but never were involved in their culture, and now feel sad or guilty about that. It is difficult to go back and be involved in it, especially if your only exposure to Spanish has been Spanish classes where they teach you Spanish that isn't from your region.

I have recently been trying to be more involved in my culture. It is difficult! I have been collecting resources for learning Puerto Rican spanish specifically, but much of this will apply to the Caribbean in general, and Latin American in general.

I would also like to start a page on Puerto Rican culture, music, and food.

A note and disclaimer: This will apply to Puerto Rican culture as it exists on the island, and in many families and communities in the US. But New York/Newyorican culture is an entirely different beast, and I have no personal knowledge of that. Different parts of the island are also different, but I haven't been there since I was a kid, and such distinctions are hard to learn retroactively.

From whatever culture you are from, or whatever area, I encourage you to speak to folks and elders in your family or community about your culture and where they come from. It is difficult, and often inspires sadness and guilt, but it's a great resource, and the homesick love to reminisce.

What is the difference between different kinds of Spanish?

This may seem like an obvious distinction to many, but I want this to be accessible to anybody regardless of current knowledge.

When websites have a distinction between dialects, the difference is usually between Latin America and Spain.

Spain Spanish is practically a different language. My native speaking parents can barely understand it sometimes. The alphabet is pronounced differently, vocabulary is different, grammar is different...

If you're learning Spanish practically to communicate with people in your life or area, and you live in the US in a predominantly Latin community... I'd say learning Spain's dialect is sort of useless. It'd be like learning English to get a job in California, but only learning Irish vocabulary and accent. It's not incorrect, but people are gonna really get confused.

If a website (or your school) has limited options, Mexican spanish is pretty commonly taught and is similar enough to Carribbean spanish in most areas to get by. There are some word changes that may cause confusion, but this will be quickly learned in conversation with other Carribbean people.

What's up with Puerto Ricans and saying R's

I totally didn't know this was a thing until recently. Allegedly, part of a Puerto Rican spanish accent is pronouncing R's differently. Allegedly we don't say them. I just thought this was normal. People say we say them as l's, I don't think we do. I've described it before as... a puff of air. I see the R. I acknowledge it. I move on without giving it much of a spotlight. I haven't practiced my listening nearly enough and so I don't know if this is really a weird thing. But keep in mind for any slang I write here, if you see an R, it may not be pronounced as much as you think.

Puerto Rican slang

There are other places to find these, but these are just some I know and am fond of, with the definicions I've heard used in my house. Many of these are more general slang, not just Puerto Rican.

Al garete
To do something in a frenzy.

Malcriado
Literally meaning "poorly raised". Mal (bad) criado (raised). Translated as "spoiled" by most dictionaries. I've always heard it as a joke response from my parents after I knock something over or drop something on accident.

Aguacero
A downpour. Really intense rain. Like... "It's raining cats and dogs". "Hay un aguacero"

Un revolú A mess, or a complicated situation. "Ah, que revolú" or "Hay un revolú en la cocina.." I feel like this sometimes gets pronounced kinda like "revolúz" but I may be wrong.