Lexical Differences: Food

Vocabulary is where regional differences in Spanish hit you hardest in everyday life. Pronouns and conjugations can be figured out from context; the word for "peach" usually can't. This page collects some of the food words that most often surprise learners who travel, move, or switch media diets between countries.

Fruits and Vegetables

Corn — The Classic Example

Corn is the textbook case of Latin American lexical variation. Different countries use different words for the plant, the ear, the kernel, and the cob.

Everyday Kitchen and Restaurant Words

Notice that torta means cake in most of Latin America but a type of Mexican sandwich in Mexico. A Mexican asking for una torta de jamón wants a sandwich, not a ham cake.

Meat and Staples

False Friends Within Spanish

A few words mean different things in different countries — sometimes humorously.

• Papaya: a fruit in most places, but a vulgar slang term in Cuba. Cubans call the fruit fruta bomba.
• Coger: "to take, grab, pick up" in Spain and some regions; a vulgar verb in Mexico, Argentina, and much of Latin America, where tomar or agarrar is preferred.
• Concha: a type of pastry in Mexico; a vulgar term in Argentina. A Mexican bakery selling conchas is perfectly ordinary, but ordering one by name in Buenos Aires will get a reaction.