Spanish Language Trivia

The Spanish language is spoken by over ____ million people worldwide.

• 200

• 300

• 400

• 500

Answer explanation

Spanish is spoken by more than 559 million people globally. Of those, 460 million are native speakers, making Spanish the language with the second largest population of native speakers in the world.

This country has the most Spanish speakers in the world with around 115 million speakers.

• México

• Argentina

• Colombia

• España

Answer explanation

Mexico is the country with the largest number of native Spanish speakers in the world. As of 2021, 124.85 million people in Mexico spoke Spanish with a native command of the language. Colombia was the nation with the second highest number of native Spanish speakers, at around 50.6 million. Argentina came in third, with almost 45 million, and Spain fourth, with 43.6 million.

This country has the second highest population of Spanish speakers in the world.

• Canada

• The United States

• The United Kingdom

• Italy

Answer explanation

The U.S. also has the 2nd largest population of Spanish speakers in the world (Mexico has the largest). And the way the data is trending, by 2050, one in three people in the U.S. will speak Spanish (this data includes bilingual people who also speak English).

Spanish is a language originally from this country.

• Puerto Rico

• México

• España

• Perú

Answer explanation

Spanish is the official language of Spain, the country after which it is named and from which it originated.

Spanish is the ____________ most spoken language in the world.

• 1st

• 2nd

• 3rd

• 4th

Answer explanation

Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world and is spoken in 31 countries which are mostly around the Latin America and in Spain. This language has about 475 million native speakers in addition to the nonnative speakers.

Spanish originated in Spain at the Castile region. Spanish is regarded as an easy language to learn because of its phonetic nature meaning that its pronunciation is in the way it looks.

"Español" is one term some countries use to describe the Spanish language. What is another popular term?

• Latín

• Portugués

• Vasco

• Castellano

Answer explanation

Castellano is used to refer only to the language as spoken in Spain, and Español to the language as it is spoken in Latin America.

Are castellano and español really that different? Isn’t Spanish all the same? Well yes, and no. Like English speakers from the UK, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and the United States, there are obvious differences but people can still effectively communicate with and understand each other.

How many countries have Spanish as their official language?

• 18

• 20

• 21

• 25

Answer explanation

21 countries have Spanish as their official language.

Mexico

Colombia

Spain

Argentina

Perú

Venezuela

Chile

Ecuador

Guatemala

Cuba

Bolivia

Dominican Republic

Honduras

Paraguay

El Salvador

Nicaragua

Costa Rica

Panama

Uruguay

Puerto Rico

Equatorial Guinea

Around 30-40 percent of the words in Spanish look and sound similar to English, and have the same meaning. What are these types of words called?

• Cognates

• Verbs

• Sinonims

• Antonims

Answer explanation

Cognates help make Spanish one of the easiest languages for English speakers to master. You may be wondering what the cognate definition is. Spanish cognates are words that sound the same (or almost the same) in English and have the same meaning in both languages.

Memorizing Spanish cognates is the fastest way to expand your vocabulary!

The official Spanish alphabet has the same letters as English, except it has one letter extra. Which letter is it?

• ç

• ă

• ll

• ñ

Answer explanation

There’s no español without ñ. Ñ is the 15th letter in the Spanish alphabet and is used in more than 15,700 words.

The letter ñ was first included in the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) in 1803. But its origins stretch to the Middle Ages. Indeed, the letter appears in a text dating back to 1176.