Knowing the Names of Latin American Currencies
Some Latin American countries use the same name, peso (peh-soh), for their currency. However, other countries have their own Spanish word for the name of their money. Here are the names of many currencies:
La moneda de Argentina es el peso. (lah moh-neh-dah deh ahr-Hehn-tee-nah ehs ehl peh-soh) (The currency of Argentina is the peso.)
En Bolivia se usa el peso boliviano. (ehn bvoh-lee-bveeah seh oo-sah ehl peh-soh bvoh-lee-bveeah-noh) (In Bolivia, they use the Bolivian peso.)
La moneda de Colombia también se llama peso. (lah moh-neh-dah deh koh-lohm-bveeah tahm-bveeehn seh yah-mah peh-soh) (The currency of Colombia is also called peso.)
En Chile pagan sus cuentas con pesos chilenos. (ehn chee-leh pah-gahn soos kooehn-tahns kohn peh-sohs chee-leh-nohs) (In Chile they pay their bills with Chilean pesos.)
En Costa Rica la moneda que usan se llama colón. (ehn kohs-tah ree-kah lah moh-neh-dah keh oo-sahn seh yah-mah koh-lohn) (In Costa Rica, the currency they use is called the colón.)
La moneda de Cuba sigue siendo el peso. (lah moh-neh-dah deh koo-bvah see-gheh seeehn-doh ehl peh-soh) (The Cuban currency is still the peso.)
La moneda de Ecuador era el sucre, pero hoy se usa el dólar americano. (lah moh-neh-dah deh eh-kooah-dohr eh-rah ehl soo-kreh, peh-roh ohy seh oo-sah ehl doh-lahr ah-meh-ree-kah-noh) (The currency of Ecuador used to be the Sucre, but now the U.S. Dollar is used.)
La moneda de El Salvador, como la de Costa Rica, se llama colón. (lah moh-neh-dah deh ehl sahl-bvah-dohr koh-moh lah deh kohs-tah ree-kah seh yah-mah koh-lohn) (El Salvador’s currency, like that of Costa Rica, is called the colón.)
Guatemala tiene la moneda con el bello nombre: Quetzal. (gooah-teh-mah-lah teeeh-neh lah moh-neh-dah kohn ehl bveh-yoh nohm-bvreh keh-tsahl) (Guatemala has a currency with a beautiful name: Quetzal.)
Honduras usa una moneda de nombre extraño: Lempira. (ohn-doo-rahs oo-sah oo-nah moh-neh-dah deh nohm-bvreh ehks-trah-nyoh lehm-pee-rah) (Honduras uses a currency with a strange name: Lempira.)
En México se usa el peso. (ehn meh-Hee-koh seh oo-sah ehl peh-soh) (In Mexico they use the peso.)
En Nicaragua se paga con córdobas. (ehn nee-kah-rah-gooah seh pah-gah kohn kohr-doh-bvahs) (In Nicaragua you pay with córdobas.)
En Panama se paga con balboas. (ehn pah-nah-mah seh pah-gah kohn bvahl-bvoh-ahs) (In Panama you pay with balboas.)
El Guaraní es la moneda del Paraguay. (ehl gooah-rah-nee ehs lah moh-neh-dah dehl pah-rah-gooahy) (The guaraní is the Paraguayan currency.)
En Perú compré con soles. (ehn peh-roo kohm-preh kohn soh-lehs) (In Peru I purchased with sols.)
Puerto Rico usa el dólar americano. (pooehr-toh ree-koh oo-sah ehl doh-lahr ah-meh-ree-kah-noh) (Puerto Rico uses the U.S. dollar.)
El peso pasa por la República Dominicana. (ehl peh-soh pah-sah pohr lah reh-poo-bvlee-kah doh-mee-nee-kah-nah) (The Peso is used throughout the Dominican Republic.)
En Uruguay se compra la leche con pesos. (ehn oo-roo-gooahy seh kohm-prah lah leh-cheh kohn peh-sohs) (In Uruguay you buy milk with pesos.)
En Venezuela se ganan el pan en bolivares. (ehn bveh-neh-sooeh-lah seh gah-nahn ehl pahn ehn bvoh-lee-bvah-rehs) (In Venezuela they make their dough [Literally: they earn their bread] with bolivars.)
Spain itself is part of the European Union and therefore conducts business in euros.

Spanish Glossary
adjective
A word that describes a noun or pronoun, giving it specific attributes or characteristics.

Spanish Glossary
adverb
A word used to modify a verb, adjective, or another adverb by expressing time, place, degree, and so on. Many Spanish adverbs end in -mente.

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bartering
Giving goods or services in return for other goods and services, as opposed to the exchange of money.

Spanish Glossary
cardinal number
Any number used in counting or showing how many.

Spanish Glossary
comparative
A form of an adjective or adverb which indicates that one thing has some feature to a greater or lesser extent than the thing it is being compared to. Example: slower, more believable.

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conditional
A verb tense that expresses an action that should have, could have, or would have happened if the conditions were right.

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conjugate
To give different forms of a verb according to voice, mood, tense, number, and person. A conjugated verb is a verb that has been changed from its infinitive form to a form that agrees with the subject.

Spanish Glossary
consonant
Any of the letters b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, ñ, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z; the double letters ch, ll, and rr may also be considered consonants in Spanish.

Spanish Glossary
customs
1. The government agency in charge of collecting taxes or duties imposed on imported and/or exported goods. 2. The common social acts and conventions of a particular area.

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declare
To inform customs officials of any goods you’re carrying that may be taxable.

Spanish Glossary
definite article
Any one of the words el, la, los, or las used as adjectives to point out a specific noun.

Spanish Glossary
demonstrative adjective
An adjective that indicates or points out this, that, these, or those people, places, or things to which a speaker is referring.

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demonstrative pronoun
Replaces a demonstrative adjective and its noun.

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diminutive
1. Small. 2. A word that has been altered with a suffix to indicate a degree of smallness, often ending with -ito or -ita.

Spanish Glossary
diphthong
A complex vowel sound made by gliding from one vowel sound to the next within the same syllable.

Spanish Glossary
direct object noun
A sentence element that answers the question, Whom or what is the subject acting upon? and may refer to people, places, things, or ideas.

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direct object pronoun
Replaces a direct object noun and agrees with it in number and gender.

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duty
A tax imposed on imports, exports, or manufactured goods.

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future
Verb tense indicating an action to come.

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gerund
A verb form that ends in -ing and works like a noun. Spanish gerunds are also derived from verbs.

Spanish Glossary
haggling
Negotiations between a seller and a buyer to come to an agreement upon the price of an item for sale. The vendor typically proposes a high price while the buyer suggests a significantly lower price, and, through bartering, the two typically meet somewhere in the middle.

Spanish Glossary
imperative
A verb mood that indicates a command or request.

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imperfect
Verb tense indicating a continuing, uncompleted, customary, or simultaneous past action.

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indefinite article
Any one of the words un, una, unos, or unas used as adjectives to point out some person, place, thing, or idea, but not a specific one.

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indirect object noun
Answers the question To or for whom is the subject doing something? and refers only to people or beloved pets.

Spanish Glossary
indirect object pronoun
Replaces an indirect object noun, but is also used when the indirect object noun is mentioned.

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infinitive
The unconjugated form of a verb — dormir (to sleep), for example.

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interrogative adverb
An adverb used to ask a question.

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interrogative pronoun
A word that replaces a noun and is used to ask a question.

Spanish Glossary
market
1. (noun) In Spanish cultures, a traditional market is where vendors gather to sell their goods. Markets may be open or under a roof, and they offer a less formal shopping environment than typical supermarkets or grocery stores. Prices are usually negotiable. 2. (verb) To advertise and sell an item.

Spanish Glossary
mood
1. A characteristic of a verb that indicates the manner in which the action occurs. 2. A characteristic of a person that indicates the overall emotional state of that person.

Spanish Glossary
ordinal number
A number used to indicate order in a particular series.

Spanish Glossary
past participle
A form of a verb that expresses a completed action or a time gone by.

Spanish Glossary
possessive adjective
A word that goes before the noun that’s possessed in order to express my, your, his, her, its, our, or their.

Spanish Glossary
possessive pronoun
A word that replaces a noun and its possessive adjective and indicates ownership.

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preposition
A word that connects nouns to nouns, verbs to verbs, or verbs to nouns/pronouns and shows their relationship to one another.

Spanish Glossary
prepositional pronoun
A pronoun that serves as the object of a preposition and always follows the preposition.

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preterit
Verb tense expressing a past action or state.

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pronoun
A word that takes the place of a noun in a sentence.

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reflexive pronoun
A pronoun used in conjunction with a reflexive verb to express that an action is performed by a subject on itself.

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reflexive verb
A verb that indicates that the sentence's subject is acting upon itself. Reflexive verbs require reflexive pronouns.

Spanish Glossary
stem-changing verb
A verb that requires an internal change in the vowel before the -ar, -er, or -ir infinitive ending in all the singular and third-person plural forms of certain tenses.

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subject pronoun
A pronoun used as a subject.

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subjunctive
A grammatical mood indicating uncertainty, desire, supposition, hypothetical and theoretical situations, or impersonal opinions.

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subordinate clause
A part of a sentence containing a subject and verb that can’t stand on its own but describes something in the larger sentence.

Spanish Glossary
suffix
Letters added to the end of a word that change its meaning, give it a different grammatical function, or form a new word.

Spanish Glossary
superlative
A form of an adjective or adverb which indicates that one thing has some feature to a greater degree than anything it is being compared to. Example: greatest, most honorable

Spanish Glossary
syllable
A word or part of a word pronounced with a single sound, usually consisting of a vowel and one or more consonants.

Spanish Glossary
tilde
A mark (~) used in Spanish over an n to indicate the ny sound.

Spanish Glossary
vowel
Any of the letters a, e, i, o, and u. The letter y is never a vowel in the Spanish language, unlike its use in English.