Costa Rican Spanish
Costa Rican Spanish is the form of the Spanish language spoken in Costa Rica. It is one of the dialects of Central American Spanish. Phonetics. The distinguishing characteristics of Costa Rican phonetics include the following: "Note: this does not apply to the single-R phoneme which is pronounced as an alveolar tap [ɾ] like the rest of spanish speakers." Second person singular pronouns. Usted. "Usted" is the predominant second person singular pronoun in Costa Rican Spanish. Some speakers use only "usted" in addressing others, never "vos" or "tú". Others use both "usted" and "vos", according to the  situation. Vos. "Vos" is a second person singular pronoun used by many speakers in certain relationships of familiarity or informal contexts. Voseo is widely used between friends, family, people of the same age, etc. It is also commonly used in the university context between students. Some adults use "vos" to address children or juveniles, but other adults address everyone regardless of age or status with "usted". Costa Ricans tend to use "usted" with foreigners. Tú. "Tú" is rarely used in Costa Rican Spanish. However, due in part to the influence of Mexican television programming, Costa Ricans are familiar with tuteo , and some television viewers, especially children, have begun to use it in limited contexts. Tiquismos. Costa Ricans are colloquially called "ticos" (based on the frequent use of the diminutive ending "-ico" following a /t/, as in "momentico"), and thus colloquial expressions characteristic of Costa Rica are called "tiquismos". "Tiquismos" and "pachuquismos" are used frequently in Costa Rica. The latter are expressions of popular street Spanish which can be considered vulgar and offensive if used in the wrong context. Many of these words, even when found in a standard Spanish dictionary, do not have the same meaning there as in Costa  Rica. Learning colloquial expressions can be a guide to understanding the humor and character of the Costa Rican culture. Here are some examples of Costa Rican slang.