Guide to Costa Rican Spanish

The use of vaious Spanish expressions for “excuse me” is one of the most frequent pitfalls of native English speakers. Each expression in Spanish has a certain situation in which it must be used. Disregard for such conditions make your intended courtesies appear ridiculous.

Study the following ways to say “excuse me” so that you don’t get confused in the future.

Dispénseme or perdóneme should be used to excuse yourself when you have already committed some discourteous act. Perdóneme is somewhat more polite. If, for example, you should accidently step on someone’s foot, you would say, “¡Oh, perdóneme Ud., por favor!” (”Oh, please excuse me!). Sometimes, the phrases ¡Disculpe! or !Perdón! are also used, under the same circumstances.

Con permiso should be used when begging pardon for something which you are about to do. If, for instance, you must leave your guests for a moment , you should say, “con permiso.” This form of common courtesy is resorted to whenever you take any liberty which requires approval of the people who you are with. It is most often used when one has to get up from the dinner table. Don’t make the mistake of using this expression after you have committed some discourteous act like stepping on someone’s foot.

Tiquismo of the week:
Orinar fuera del tarro means someone doesn’t know what they are talking about.

In Mexico and Central America a gringo is usually defined as a U.S. citizen, but can refer to any foreigner. Most Gringos stand out by the way they dress, social customs, behavior and common errors they make when speaking Spanish.

If your goal is to sound like a native Spanish speaker and not be viewed as a foreigner, try the following suggestion:

• Learn the correct Spanish vowel sounds. Most English speakers “stick out like a sore thumb” beacuse they don’t know their Spanish vowels. Learning the correct vowel sounds can make a world of difference.
• Also practice rolloing your r’s. Remember that an r at the beginning of a word or two r’s together are pronounced the same - much like a car purring.
• The d between vowels or at the end ot a word sounds more like the th in ‘thus’ than the English d. Nada is pronounced ‘natha.’
• Both the c and z are pronounced like the English s. But c is pronounced like a k before a, o or u.
• The double ll or y are pronounced like the y in ‘yes.’
• In Spanish, the letters b and v are pronounced almost like the English b.
• J is pronounced as an h. ‘H‘ at the beginning of a word is silent.
• Spanish requires more spoken formalities than English so you should make every effort to say “hello”, “good-bye”, “good morning”, etc. Skipping over these formalities will label you as a foreigner.
• Avoid using “yo-ismos.” Instead of saying yo quiero say quiero or creo instead of yo creo. Most native speakers eliminate “yo” unless they want to emphasize the subject of a statement.
• Try to learn as many idioms and useful phrases as you can. Like English, Spanish is very idiomatic. Most Spanish courses don’t teach you these handy phrases.
• Also, learn the proper gestures that Spanish speakers use.
• Spend as much time as you can with native Spanish speakers. This will help you learn Spanish like it’s really spoken and to become familiar with all the necessary social customs.

Tiquismo of the week:
Al pueblo que fueres, haz lo que vieres - When in Rome do as the Romans.