Spanish School Bilbao - Hospitality Management School Spain - Language School Bilbao / Learn Spanish / Blog of the Spanish Language

Spanish is the common language in Spain but there are other languages spoken in some regional areas. In regions, such as Cataluña, Galicia or the Basque Country, both Spanish and the regional language are official languages. Even though the number of bilingual speakers in Bilbao is growing, Spanish is still the most widespread, it is know by everyone and used by the vast majority of the population in everyday life.

As for the variant of Spanish spoken in Bilbao, it is remarkable the way people neatly articulate each vowel of every word, with the only exception of participles ending in – "ado", which never fail to drop the “d” and lose one syllable: "comprao" instead of “comprado”(bought); "Olvidao" instead of olvidado (forgotten)

At grammatical level, the language in Bilbao meets morpho-syntactic standards and it is free of examples of “laismo” and “loismo”, so prevalent in Castilla and La Mancha. There is only a remarkable misuse of tenses in conditional sentences involving the imperfect conditional, which is replaced with a conditional:

  • "Si sabría la respuesta te la diría" (If I would know the answer I would tell you) instead of "Si supiera la respuesta te la diría" (If I would know the answer I would tell you)

This also refers to the past perfect:

  • "Si habrían sabido la verdad te lo habrían dicho" (If they would have known the answer they would have told you) instead of "Si hubieran sabido la verdad te lo habrían dicho" ('If they had known the answer they would have told you...')

But the highlight of Spanish spoken in Bilbao is the very intonation and rhythm of all oral exchanges, the clarity of diction and superb correction.

At a socio-linguistic level, there are also peculiarities of the speech in Bilbao. The most important (shared by all the Basque Country) is the restricted use of formal ways of addressing involving 'usted' (only used in the Tourism and Hospitality industry). The use of 'tu' is widespread in the whole Basque Country, which makes daily communication easier for foreigners.



On many occasions, Castilian and Spanish are terms used as two different ways to refer to a language spoken today by about four hundred million people.

One of the forerunners of the Spanish language was Castilian Romance dialecto, which originated in the medieval county of Castile. It is for this reason that this "new" language was called Castilian. Later, it spread around the entire peninsula and ended up becoming the predominant language, thus acquiring the name "Spanish."

Currently, the issue of whether to call it Spanish or Castilian lies in the Spanish State itself, where many bilingual speakers do not approve the term ‘Spanish’ since it comprises other languages such as Valencian, Galician, Catalan and Basque, which have an official status within their territories.

That is why many of the state bilingual speakers usually call the language ‘Castilian’ instead of ‘Spanish’, and differentiating the other language they use.

It is worth noting that the term ‘Spanish’, though relatively recent, is used internationally (Spanish, espagnol, Spanisch ...).

However, both "Spanish" and "Castilian" are completely valid ways of referring to the common language of Spain and many Latin nations.

Today, the controversy over which of the names is the more appropriate is now outdated and the Royal Academy (whose members have agreed to use the term ‘Spanish language’) has established that it doesn’t make a difference whether you use Castilian or Spanish .

They add, however, that the word ‘Spanish’ "is more advisable for its lack of ambiguity, since it refers unequivocally to the language spoken by so many millions of speakers."

Also, the Royal Academy states that, although synonymous with Spanish, "it is preferable to reserve the term ‘Castilian’ to refer to the Castilian Romance dialect born in the Kingdom of Castile during the Middle Ages, or the Spanish dialect spoken today in this region."

Nevertheless, it is clear that both "Spanish" as "Castilian" are two synonymous terms used to refer to the language of Spain and Latin American countries alike.

accents Akzente alien words Anführungszeichen argot Argot Augmentativ Augmentative suffixes aumentativos Auslassungspunkte Bilbao Castellano castellano Castile Castilian Castilla colon coma comillas comma dash die Vergrößerungsform diminutives diminutivos Diminutivs Doppelpunkt ellipsis Emilian Glosses España Español eufemismos euphemism euphemismen extranjerismo female femenin femenino Fremdwörter género gramatical glosas emilianenses Glosas Emilianenses grammatical gender grammatikalische Geschlecht guión Halbgeviertstrich homonimia Homonymie homonymy hyphen Imperfect jargon Jargon jerga Kastilian Kastilien Kastillianisch Klammern Komma lexical borrowings Lexikalische und semantische Darlehen male masculino maskulin Neologismen neologismos neologisms Neue spanische Grammatik neue Wörter New spanish grammar new words Nueva gramática española nuevas palabras origen del español origin of Spanish paréntesis parentheses period polisemia Polysemie polysemy present perfect Present Perfect Simple préstamos pretérito imperfecto pretérito perfecto compuesto pretérito perfecto simple proverbios proverbs Präteritum Imperfekt Präteritum Perfekt punctuation Punkt punto punto y coma puntos suspensivos quotation marks RAE raya refranes Royal Academy Satzzeichen semicolon Semikolon. Signos de puntuación simple past slang Spain Spanien spanisch Spanisch spanische Akademie der Sprache Spanish Spanish language Sprichwörter suffixes sufijos taboo words Tabu-Wörter tabúes tildes Ursprung der spanischen Sprache Verkleinerungsform zusammengesetzte Präteritum

Visit our new website for EIDE Spanish School You can find all the information about our Spanish courses, as well as tourist information and tips for living in the area of Bilbao and making the most of it.

This blog is aimed as students of Spanish language, as well as at teacher. They will find interesting articles about this language. They will also be able to solve doubts and questions regarding the grammar, vocabulary, spelling...


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