The Spanish influence on the English language was especially important in the sixteenth century, when Spain was a global military and political power, and in conflict with Britain at the same time. More Spanish words entered English following the American acquisition of Puerto Rico after the 1898 Spanish-American War.

In recent times, Spanish has borrowed many words and expressions from English, especially in the fields of computers and the Internet. In many cases, technical expressions that superficially employ common Spanish words are in fact calques from English equivalents.

English is developing as a dominant language, with an ever-growing number of Latin American kids learning it in their home countries as part of their regular academic studies. While some of these words are simply inspired by an English word, others are lifted verbatim.

The greatest difference one might hear between the Spanish spoken in Spain and the Spanish in Latin America is the pronunciation of the Z and C (before I or E). In Latin America, these two letters are pronounced as S, while in Spain you would hear a TH sound.

Why all countries. Why all countries in south America speak spanish except Brazil? The Spanish and Portuguese needed to split the “new world” so that they each had their own areas to colonize and explore. They drew a line from north to south, in the Treaty of Tordesillas.

Hispanic and Latino are often used interchangeably though they actually mean two different things. Hispanic refers to people who speak Spanish and/or are descended from Spanish-speaking populations, while Latino refers to people who are from or descended from people from Latin America.

Here are some facts:

• Mexico has the most speakers with 110 million.
• Colombia is second in line.
• The USA is tied with Argentina at about 41 million.
• Next, comes Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala and Cuba.
• The Americas are home to around 470 million Spanish speakers.

Ethnologue (2019, 22nd edition)

Close Language: German This is why English and German share a great deal of vocabulary. All of this overlap in pronunciation and meaning means that despite German’s complicated grammar, English and German are still considered 60% lexically similar.

German. For many English speakers, German is a difficult language to pick up. Its long words, four noun case endings, and rough pronunciation gives your tongue quite the workout each time you speak. German is recognized as a very descriptive language.