Style Guide
Read the room, pick the right 'you', and hold the register — out loud.
Spanish has two levels of you, and the verb must match your choice: tú is informal (¿Puedes ayudarme?, te llamo, siéntate), usted is formal (¿Puede usted ayudarme?, le llamo, siéntese). The safe default: usted with strangers, elders and anyone professional, switching only when invited — ¿Nos tuteamos?. And the map matters: Argentina replaces tú with vos (¿tenés un momento?), Costa Rica uses usted even with friends, and in Bogotá usted between close friends isn't formal at all.
Below: greetings, requests and even email openers at each register, the vocabulary that shifts with them, the slips that mix registers mid-sentence — and a way to rehearse the switch out loud, not on a worksheet.
Say this
Regional Spanish
Textbooks teach one word. Locals use several — pick your region's and stay consistent.
| English | Mexico | Argentina |
|---|---|---|
| work / job (casual) | la chamba | el laburo |
| money (casual) | la lana | la guita |
| hey, what's up? | ¿qué onda? | ¿qué hacés, che? |
| that's great | qué chido | qué copado |
Watch out
The part no drill site can do
Carla
Your grammar teacher for this pack
No flashcards, no matching exercises — in the Style Guide lessons you talk, and Carla keeps flipping the social context under you. She hands you a request in street register and asks for it in a suit: ¿Puedes ayudarme? becomes ¿Podría usted ayudarme? — full verb agreement, no mixing. Then a slangy sentence to formalize on the spot: curro → trabajo, pasta → dinero, mola → es excelente. And when she finally offers ¿Nos tuteamos?, you have to make the switch mid-conversation — out loud, without dropping a verb ending.
Blank mid-sentence and nothing bad happens — she waits. That's the practice, without unnecessary judgement.
Finish the 6 lessons and Style Guide is yours — earned, not given.
First 10 lessons free · 10-minute spoken lessons · your AI coaching team remembers you
Quick answers
Start with usted — with strangers, elders, and in any professional setting. Let the other person invite the change with ¿Nos tuteamos?. In much of Latin America being too informal too fast costs you more than being briefly too formal.
In Argentina and Uruguay, vos replaces tú with its own verb forms: ¿tenés un momento? is the neutral everyday register, and asking permission to switch sounds odd between peers. Chile has a spoken version without the pronoun: ¿tenís un rato?.
Politeness scales with the verb: ¿Me pasas la sal? (informal) → ¿Podría ayudarme con esto? → ¿Sería tan amable de pasarme la sal? or ¿Tendría la amabilidad de ayudarme? at the very formal end — the kind of phrasing that sounds impeccable in banks and offices.
Open with Estimada Sra. García: — in Mexico with a colon, not a comma — then Me dirijo a usted para…. Close with Atentamente or Quedo a su disposición. To a friend it's simply ¡Hola, María! ¿Qué tal? Te escribo porque… and ¡Un abrazo!.
It depends where you are. Costa Rica uses usted even with friends and family; in Bogotá usted between close friends is normal, not stiff; in Mexico tú is fine with friends but usted is expected with in-laws and older clients. Whichever you choose, stay consistent within the conversation.
