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2.1: El Español

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    1.1 El Español

    Rita Palacios

    Below is a map of indicating where Spanish is spoken throughout the world, followed by a brief reading. Underline the words that you recognize. At the end of the page, you will find a translation of the reading passage.

    map of spanish-speaking countries indicated in red
    Figure 1.1. Distribución Geográfica de la Lengua Española. From Argento, 2015. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

    Media 1.1. Chapter 1 reading. Press play to listen to the pronunciation of the reading in the paragraph written below.

    Casi 500 millones de personas hablan español en todo el mundo y, por eso, el español es la segunda lengua más hablada del planeta, después del chino y antes del inglés. El español es la lengua oficial de España, pero también se habla en muchos países de América: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, México, Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Perú, República Dominicana, El Salvador, Uruguay, Venezuela, Puerto Rico y en algunas zonas de Estados Unidos. También se habla en las Filipinas, Guinea Ecuatorial y el Sahara Occidental.

    Nota importante

    Cognates are words in two or more languages that share origins and thus have similar spelling and often the same meaning. These words are key when learning a second language; look for them to help you understand!

    Traducción/Translation

    Almost 500 million people speak Spanish throughout the world, which is why Spanish is the second most spoken language on the planet, after Chinese and before English. Spanish is the official language of Spain, but it is also spoken in many countries in the Americas: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Uruguay, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and some parts of the United States. It is also spoken in the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea and Western Sahara.

    This section includes content derived from “Interculturalidad y Lengua Española” by Comunidad Autónoma Andaluza, Consejería de Educación.


    This page titled 2.1: El Español is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Rita Palacios via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.

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