Why does Spain say “fijaos” while Latin America says “fíjense”?
Paseo nocturno por Granada y vuelta a Londres
A2 Spanish listening practice · Spanish from Spain · Picked for people who know a little
Spain keeps a second-person plural pronoun, vosotros, that Latin America has dropped almost everywhere. The verb forms split too: when a Spaniard wants to tell a group to “look, all of you,” they say fijaos (the vosotros imperative of the reflexive verb fijarse). Latin Americans use fíjense (the ustedes form) for the same idea. The -aos ending is a clear Castilian marker; you almost never hear it in Mexico, Argentina, or Colombia. Other examples: callaos (“be quiet, all of you”), sentaos (“sit down, all of you”).
In this clip, a Spaniard from Granada tells viewers “aquí se está muy bien, fijaos” (“it’s really nice here, look”).
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Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-ESP 2011 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.
- ▸In Spanish TV news and morning shows (TVE, Antena 3)
- ▸In Spanish sitcoms set in Spain (La Casa de Papel, Aída, Cuéntame)
- ▸In Spanish parent-and-child conversations across Spain
- ▸In Spanish travel YouTube and tour-guide content
- ▸In Spanish-language schools and language-school textbooks