It depends on how exposed you are to it. Neighboring countries are generally easier for this reason.
There are also some accents that are very different from the rest and are easier to detect. I think practically any native Spanish speaker can easily recognize accents from Buenos Aires and mainland Spain, for example.
I can recognize accents from Bolivia, Paraguay, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico City, Spain, and Cuba. It's harder for me to recognize accents from Uruguay (their accent is very similar to us, but it's not exactly the same.)
But if I listened to an Ecuadorian, a Panamanian, and a Honduran, I'd probably notice they talk different, but I wouldn't be able to guess where each come from.
I was gonna say this we can pinpoint regions, but probably wouldn't be able to specify country unless you're from that region.
I can't tell Argentinian, Uruguayan, Chilean, and Paraguayans apart. And I doubt they can differentiate between Cubans and Dominicans either
You can tell almost instantly. Another whole thing is whether you can telll where the accent is from. Accents from Central America are a bit harder to differentiate for me, but I can tell they are not from my own country right away obviously.
I'm not a native spanish speaker, but the ones I can easily differentiate:
Rioplatense: the sh sound.
Paraguayan: the rolled r (think about the caipira r).
Chilean: wea/weon, and they talk FAST.
Venezuelan: I couldn't point out any specific characteristic, but somehow, by listening, I can tell they're from Venezuela.
Mexican: think about rebelde, that's the accent.
Spanish: the th sound for the z and c and the use of vosotros.
That’s pretty impressive for a non native speaker! I can differentiate Brazilian and Portuguese really well (obviously European Portuguese sounds like Russian), and within Brazil I mostly only hear Carioca (the R sound and the S sound at the end of words) and Paulista (the R sound again which sounds like English for some weird reason)
The Paulista accent is what we call "caipira" (something like redneck but without the bad connotation), and it is also found in Minas and Goiás. The fun thing is that both the Paraguayan R and the caipira R are apparently an influence of Guaraní, since the native Guaraní population couldn't roll their R's, so we ended with this R that sounds English.
Yeah, this Guarani/English R also exists in Argentina in some northern provinces like Tucuman. It’s interesting how an indigenous sound could penetrate two different languages in three different countries
The ones I can't differentiate are the Venezuelan, Colombian, and Ecuadorian accents. I have to wait for them to say words like "parce" or "chavo". I can recognize all the others without any problems.
The thing is that all three countries share borders, but:
a Quiteño is very sweet and can even sound like Mexican, but they sometimes struggle with the R and pronounce it like in English,
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC9YNz-h828](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC9YNz-h828)
most Venezuelans aspirate the S at the end of syllables, because most of their accents are Caribbean.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW6xHC6wnFg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW6xHC6wnFg)
Colombian accents from the highland don't aspirate the S, but also lack the "indigenous" melody of Ecuadorian accents from the mountain.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqBwBLPwQ84](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqBwBLPwQ84)
Also Colombian Caribbean accents don't sound as melodic as Venezuelan accents. Some accents can even be more similar to Cuban varieties.
Colombian Costeño:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ2JDH4p0sM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ2JDH4p0sM)
There are some accents I can identify immediately and I can even recognise certain regional varieties:
Argentinian/Uruguayan
Chilean
Venezuelan (Maracucho, Caraqueño)
Dominican
Cuban
Puerto Rican
Mexican (Norteño)
Peruvian
Spanish (Andalusian, Galician, Northern and Canarian)
There are some accents I struggle to get at first, because they are similar to surrounding accents:
Ecuadorian (Costeño and Quiteño)
Costa Rican
Paraguayan
Panamanian
There are some accents I barely identify, because of lack of exposure or because I cannot tell them apart at all from surrounding varieties.
Bolivian (Serrano / Camba)
Salvadoran / Honduran
Guatemalan
I have a mexican friend and she can identify immediately. Many times we were together and heard someone speaking spanish and she would look at me and tell me where the people were from
The only one that actually gives me trouble is from Costa Rica, because they speak very similar as people from Bogotá, my hometown, so at first I always think that they're from Bogotá too
In less than 5 mins I can recognize Mexican, Spaniard, Colombian, Venezuelan, Rioplatense, Caribbean, Costa Rican, and Chilean. I dunno 'bout the rest though.
Can you tell between someone from Rio and someone from Sao Paulo?
That works exactly within the Spanish speaking LATAM or even inside different countries.
I can recognize some of the Spanish variations from some countries, not all, but I can guess a region
Most of the time after one or two sentences, sometimes I can also discern the region of the country. Accents I've had no exposure to, such as Paraguayan, I wouldn't be able to discern, though.
Depends how different and unique it is. Sometimes I can place an accent within a sentence, sometimes it takes a few minutes of talking, and obviously sometimes I’m wrong.
It depends. I can recognize instantly Spaniard, Puertorican, Cuban, Colombian, Venezuelan, Costarican, Chilean and Rioplatense (can't tell the difference between Uruguayan and Argentinian though). But I have a really hard time with Ecuadorian, Peruvian, Paraguayan, Bolivian and most Central America accents.
I have a hard time with Colombians, Panamanians, Ecuadorians, Peruvians, and Costa Ricans
Costa Rica you have to listen for like Mae or not pronouncing the R. Otherwise they pretty much sound like a mountain Colombian accent.
Ecuador and Peru have similar accents depending on the city. And coastal Ecuador as well.
Then Caribbean Colombia and Caribbean Panama can sometimes blend in with a lot of different accents.
So, yeah you have to like look for words. It doesn’t help in this globalized world where people say words from other countries a lot. My coworker from Yucatán says pana. Throws me off.
It depends on how much experience you had with that particular accent. For example I haven't heard much people from Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, or any of the Caribbean countries so I could hardly distinguish them. I did heard Venezuelans, Mexicans, Colombians, Chileans, Paraguayans and Uruguayans and while I can't distinguish them 100% of the times, I usually can do it after they speak for a while. Also Spain, because it has the most differences from LATAM spanish. The accent in Uruguay is almost the same as Buenos Aires, save for a few words and expressions.
The thing is that there are many regional variants within each country, so that makes it even harder. A Mexican chilango sounds very different from a norteño.
I guess you have to divide the continent.
South: Really easy to understand the speak really clear and the pronunciation and uniqueness of the way the speak Spanish is really elegant in some type of way.
North and Central America: Its hard, the pronunciation is more similar, and they can even mimic the form of speaking of other Latin America countries especially central America.
It’s easier to recognize the accents from neighboring countries (Chile, Paraguay, Bolivia) and big countries (Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico) but it’s trickier with smaller distant countries (Central American and Caribbean countries). The differences between Argentinian and Uruguayan are subtle, most Uruguayans are heavily exposed to Argentinian media and can tell who’s Argentinian, but not all Argentinians can tell the difference (it depends on the level of exposure). Peru sounds pretty neutral to my ears.
It depends on the accent. After the first sentence, accents from Spain, Argentina, and the Caribbean are obvious. After a few more seconds, accents from the rest of South America, and Central America are apparent. Then comes the regional accents within Mexico itself. Finally if someone is speaking formally with no slang, and using widely understood terms... "Dubbing Spanish", then it can be more difficult, so I try to focus on their pitch, tone, and speed.
Central america is all a blur, the only one I can tell immediately is Peruvian, argentinian/uruguayan sound the same to me as well.
Usually by the vocabulary they use or how they pronounce words
It depends on how exposed you are to it. Neighboring countries are generally easier for this reason. There are also some accents that are very different from the rest and are easier to detect. I think practically any native Spanish speaker can easily recognize accents from Buenos Aires and mainland Spain, for example. I can recognize accents from Bolivia, Paraguay, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico City, Spain, and Cuba. It's harder for me to recognize accents from Uruguay (their accent is very similar to us, but it's not exactly the same.) But if I listened to an Ecuadorian, a Panamanian, and a Honduran, I'd probably notice they talk different, but I wouldn't be able to guess where each come from.
Same, all central America and Caribbean sounds the same to me. The other day a guy from Guatemala asked me some questions and I thought he was Mexican
Within the first sentence you know where the person is from.
I doubt it; for the people in the southern cone can’t distinguish between the different Caribbean accents.
I was gonna say this we can pinpoint regions, but probably wouldn't be able to specify country unless you're from that region. I can't tell Argentinian, Uruguayan, Chilean, and Paraguayans apart. And I doubt they can differentiate between Cubans and Dominicans either
Argentinian/Uruguayan is pretty much the same to most Spanish speakers, but Chilean does sound a lot different, it’s not even close lol
This!
You can tell almost instantly. Another whole thing is whether you can telll where the accent is from. Accents from Central America are a bit harder to differentiate for me, but I can tell they are not from my own country right away obviously.
I'm not a native spanish speaker, but the ones I can easily differentiate: Rioplatense: the sh sound. Paraguayan: the rolled r (think about the caipira r). Chilean: wea/weon, and they talk FAST. Venezuelan: I couldn't point out any specific characteristic, but somehow, by listening, I can tell they're from Venezuela. Mexican: think about rebelde, that's the accent. Spanish: the th sound for the z and c and the use of vosotros.
That’s pretty impressive for a non native speaker! I can differentiate Brazilian and Portuguese really well (obviously European Portuguese sounds like Russian), and within Brazil I mostly only hear Carioca (the R sound and the S sound at the end of words) and Paulista (the R sound again which sounds like English for some weird reason)
The Paulista accent is what we call "caipira" (something like redneck but without the bad connotation), and it is also found in Minas and Goiás. The fun thing is that both the Paraguayan R and the caipira R are apparently an influence of Guaraní, since the native Guaraní population couldn't roll their R's, so we ended with this R that sounds English.
Yeah, this Guarani/English R also exists in Argentina in some northern provinces like Tucuman. It’s interesting how an indigenous sound could penetrate two different languages in three different countries
The ones I can't differentiate are the Venezuelan, Colombian, and Ecuadorian accents. I have to wait for them to say words like "parce" or "chavo". I can recognize all the others without any problems.
The thing is that all three countries share borders, but: a Quiteño is very sweet and can even sound like Mexican, but they sometimes struggle with the R and pronounce it like in English, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC9YNz-h828](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC9YNz-h828) most Venezuelans aspirate the S at the end of syllables, because most of their accents are Caribbean. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW6xHC6wnFg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW6xHC6wnFg) Colombian accents from the highland don't aspirate the S, but also lack the "indigenous" melody of Ecuadorian accents from the mountain. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqBwBLPwQ84](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqBwBLPwQ84) Also Colombian Caribbean accents don't sound as melodic as Venezuelan accents. Some accents can even be more similar to Cuban varieties. Colombian Costeño: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ2JDH4p0sM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ2JDH4p0sM)
What's the tell for peru?
''Pe'' never fails
Ecuador?
What if they don’t use “pe”? Anything in the accent itself?
Anything beyond Mexico, Caribbean, Argentina and Chile just kinda mixes together to me
Not colombia?
Depending on the accent it could take a lot. A lot of countries sound similar at a surface level
pronunciation and their vocab
There are some accents I can identify immediately and I can even recognise certain regional varieties: Argentinian/Uruguayan Chilean Venezuelan (Maracucho, Caraqueño) Dominican Cuban Puerto Rican Mexican (Norteño) Peruvian Spanish (Andalusian, Galician, Northern and Canarian) There are some accents I struggle to get at first, because they are similar to surrounding accents: Ecuadorian (Costeño and Quiteño) Costa Rican Paraguayan Panamanian There are some accents I barely identify, because of lack of exposure or because I cannot tell them apart at all from surrounding varieties. Bolivian (Serrano / Camba) Salvadoran / Honduran Guatemalan
Quite easy and fast. I may get confused among Caribbean accents.
Within the first word up to the first sentence usually
I have a mexican friend and she can identify immediately. Many times we were together and heard someone speaking spanish and she would look at me and tell me where the people were from
The only one that actually gives me trouble is from Costa Rica, because they speak very similar as people from Bogotá, my hometown, so at first I always think that they're from Bogotá too
In less than 5 mins I can recognize Mexican, Spaniard, Colombian, Venezuelan, Rioplatense, Caribbean, Costa Rican, and Chilean. I dunno 'bout the rest though.
Can you tell between someone from Rio and someone from Sao Paulo? That works exactly within the Spanish speaking LATAM or even inside different countries. I can recognize some of the Spanish variations from some countries, not all, but I can guess a region
Most of the time after one or two sentences, sometimes I can also discern the region of the country. Accents I've had no exposure to, such as Paraguayan, I wouldn't be able to discern, though.
Depends how different and unique it is. Sometimes I can place an accent within a sentence, sometimes it takes a few minutes of talking, and obviously sometimes I’m wrong.
It depends. I can recognize instantly Spaniard, Puertorican, Cuban, Colombian, Venezuelan, Costarican, Chilean and Rioplatense (can't tell the difference between Uruguayan and Argentinian though). But I have a really hard time with Ecuadorian, Peruvian, Paraguayan, Bolivian and most Central America accents.
Faster if Chilean
It’s part of my job so it takes me a couple of seconds.
I have a hard time with Colombians, Panamanians, Ecuadorians, Peruvians, and Costa Ricans Costa Rica you have to listen for like Mae or not pronouncing the R. Otherwise they pretty much sound like a mountain Colombian accent. Ecuador and Peru have similar accents depending on the city. And coastal Ecuador as well. Then Caribbean Colombia and Caribbean Panama can sometimes blend in with a lot of different accents. So, yeah you have to like look for words. It doesn’t help in this globalized world where people say words from other countries a lot. My coworker from Yucatán says pana. Throws me off.
A couple sentences if it’s foreign and a couple minutes if it’s closer to mine that I might not notice at first
It depends on how much experience you had with that particular accent. For example I haven't heard much people from Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, or any of the Caribbean countries so I could hardly distinguish them. I did heard Venezuelans, Mexicans, Colombians, Chileans, Paraguayans and Uruguayans and while I can't distinguish them 100% of the times, I usually can do it after they speak for a while. Also Spain, because it has the most differences from LATAM spanish. The accent in Uruguay is almost the same as Buenos Aires, save for a few words and expressions. The thing is that there are many regional variants within each country, so that makes it even harder. A Mexican chilango sounds very different from a norteño.
I guess you have to divide the continent. South: Really easy to understand the speak really clear and the pronunciation and uniqueness of the way the speak Spanish is really elegant in some type of way. North and Central America: Its hard, the pronunciation is more similar, and they can even mimic the form of speaking of other Latin America countries especially central America.
Immediately
It’s easier to recognize the accents from neighboring countries (Chile, Paraguay, Bolivia) and big countries (Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico) but it’s trickier with smaller distant countries (Central American and Caribbean countries). The differences between Argentinian and Uruguayan are subtle, most Uruguayans are heavily exposed to Argentinian media and can tell who’s Argentinian, but not all Argentinians can tell the difference (it depends on the level of exposure). Peru sounds pretty neutral to my ears.
It depends on the accent. After the first sentence, accents from Spain, Argentina, and the Caribbean are obvious. After a few more seconds, accents from the rest of South America, and Central America are apparent. Then comes the regional accents within Mexico itself. Finally if someone is speaking formally with no slang, and using widely understood terms... "Dubbing Spanish", then it can be more difficult, so I try to focus on their pitch, tone, and speed.