Colombian Spanish · one sentence a day
Spanish that sounds like Colombia, not a textbook
One sentence a day, graded against how it would be said in Bogotá or Medellín — ¿quiubo?, bacano, con mucho gusto — with the local version shown next to yours. Free, no account needed.
Free every day · No account needed · Takes a minute
What Colombian Spanish actually sounds like
Colombians are famously polite and famously specific. Textbook Spanish sounds stiff to them; these are some of the differences the grader listens for.
| You want to say | Textbook Spanish | How it's said in Colombian Spanish |
|---|---|---|
| What's up? | ¿Cómo estás? | ¿Quiubo? / ¿Bien o qué? |
| That's awesome | Es genial | Qué bacano / qué chévere |
| Dude, buddy | Amigo | Parce short for parcero |
| Could I get a coffee? | ¿Me da un café? | ¿Me regala un tinto? regalar means "sell me" here, and tinto is black coffee |
| You're welcome | De nada | Con mucho gusto |
| Sorry / excuse me | Perdón | ¡Qué pena! not "what a shame" — it's the everyday apology |
| Right away | Enseguida | Ya mismo / ahorita |
What changes when you set your variety to Colombian
- Usted with everyone — In Bogotá and much of the interior, usted is used with friends, partners and children. Tú can sound distant or foreign — the grader knows the difference.
- Courtesy formulas — a la orden, con mucho gusto, qué pena, me regala — the small phrases that mark you as someone who has actually lived there.
- Vocabulary — tinto, parce, bacano, chévere, plata, chino (a kid), lucas (pesos) — and Spain-only words like vale or coche get marked as foreign.
- Diminutives and softeners — ahoritica, un momentico — the -ico ending is a Colombian fingerprint, and the grader rewards it where it belongs.
How RateMySpanish trains your Colombian Spanish ear
Graded against the local version
Translate today's sentence and get an instant 1–10 stamp. The grader is set to Colombian Spanish, so correct-but-foreign phrasing loses points and you see exactly why.
See how a local would say it
Every result comes with the sentence the way someone from there would actually put it — Colombian Spanish vocabulary, register and rhythm, not a neutral translation.
Sentences at your level
Set the difficulty on the card, from Beginner to Master. At the top end every sentence demands nuance — idiom, register, subjunctive — instead of ordering a coffee for the hundredth time.
A one-minute daily habit
There's one new sentence every day, and an optional morning email so you don't miss it. Sounding local is a hundred small corrections, not one big lesson.
Common questions
I'm already fluent. What does this add?
Fluent and local are different things. Plenty of fluent Spanish is grammatically clean but placeless — every native speaker can tell. Today's sentence is graded against how it would be said in Colombian Spanish, with the local phrasing shown next to yours, so you close that gap one sentence a day.
Is this Bogotá Spanish or paisa Spanish?
The grader targets general Colombian Spanish — what works across Bogotá, Medellín and Cali, and on Colombian TV. It leans on the courtesy and usted patterns of the interior and tells you when a phrase is regional or very informal.
Can I switch varieties later?
Yes — the variety is picked on the card and you can change it any time (Mexican, Colombian, Rioplatense, Castilian, Chilean, Central American, or general Latin American). Your stamps stay with you, and every variety is free to play.
How much does it cost?
Today's challenge is free every day, in Colombian Spanish or any other variety, no account needed, and so is your rating. The tutor's written correction is free on your first result and twice a week with a free account; the pass opens every correction, along with extra rounds and the archive of past challenges.
Learning a different variety?
Write Spanish a Colombian would claim as their own
One sentence a day, held to the local standard. Today's takes under a minute.