Understanding vos in Nicaragua
I have been in Nicaragua for a bit over two weeks now, and have been humbled by the use of vos here.
While I confess my Spanish skills leave a lot to be desired, I can understand Spanish fairly well with 'tú', but with the combination of; fast-speaking, use of vos, and mezclando of palabras.... I must appear a little slow to the people here.
I suppose it will get easier with time, but wanted to share my experience for people who are considering Nicaragua as a place to experience and learn the language. Personally, I am here for other reasons - but for the aspiring student of Spanish, there may be better places to immerse oneself in the language, particularly a country that does not use 'vos'.
But I do wish there were some good resources for learning vos as it's spoken here. I watch TV which is a good resource, but very few (if any) shows have subtitles here -- which would be incredibly helpful if it were available.
Anyways, it is a beautiful country worth visiting!!
11 Answers
Primus, I am so happy that you have this opportunity to spend in Nicaragua. I have found this thread to be extremely helpful for understanding "vos". It doesn't seem too difficult, but then that is easy for me to say since I have only been to countries which don't use this form. 
The shocker for me was that it is used in Central America. I was under the impression that this form was exclusive to countries like Argentina and Uruguay in southern South America. Thanks for teaching me something new today. 
Hopefully, you will be able to share more about your experiences in Central America.
I currently live in El Salvador and have done so for the last 18mths. I spoke only basic Spanish when I arrived and I too, found it so overwhelming at first with the use of the word Vos (as well as many other words) which I had no idea about!
I initially didn't even know it was the word vos that was being said, conversations just sounded like they contained a lot of "os" sounds in words that I didn't understand! It wasn't until I found online a guide to El Salvadoran caliche, which is the form of slang they use here, and saw the word vos actually written that I literally had a light bulb moment and it all fell into place! El Salvadorans use so much caliche that I would almost go as far as to say that half of what I was initially learning in the text books etc was useless when trying to understand people here. I could speak and people would understand the words I was using, it's just that those aren't the words that are used in everyday speech by Salvadorans, so me trying to understand anyone else was a bit of a problem! My boyfriend had to constantly remind his mum to speak Spanish and not use so much caliche so I could understand!
That being said, Vos is not used as a plural third person in El Salvador, rather as another form of tu, less formal (Tu is still used though, so it's not an outright replacement)
I wish you all the best with your continued learning in Nicaragua. I wouldn't say the use of vos should be a reason for ruling out Nicaragua or any other country as a learning environment. Every country has it's own slang and manners of speech which you have to adapt to. Nicaragua is such a beautiful country and once you get a few more colloquialisms and local phrases of speech under you belt it should get easier, it just takes a bit of working at!
Primus, I must be totally dim, I have never been able to afford to go to Latinamerica. In what way does the use of vos differ from that in other countries?
Nosotros, nos,
vosotros, vos???
Is it a secret, like LOL?
I lived in Nicaragua for about 8 months and notice vos used a lot. Funny they don't conjugate with vosotros just us vos as a familiar tu. They have a lot of unique frases there I thought like when you pass someone on the street you say Adios not hola, Vale peus is used a lot, adios pues. Gallo Pinto is there rice and beans. Man I loved that place enjoy it while you are there.
If you have a chance San Juan Del Sur is beautiful and worth the trip.
If you learned Spanish in high school or college, in all likelihood you were never taught about vos. This is a local substitution for “tú,” but it has so much more personality! Vos is the pronoun for “you,” but it is only used among close friends. You can definitely feel free to utilize it when talking to children. But getting your Nicaraguan friends to use it with you will take some effort. Why? They often view foreigners with so much respect that they may feel uncomfortable calling you vos. To aid the process, you have to ask them to do it. It’s like when you go over to someone’s house, walk through the door, but you don’t want to sit down until your host invites you to do so. The same happens with vos. It doesn’t come automatically. In fact, the locals say to use it with you, they need to have confianza. This last word means “an intimate trust.” It means they have to feel comfortable with you. To aid them, you might say: “Por favor, vocéame.” Translation: “Please, use the pronoun ‘vos’ when you talk to me.” If you master the use of this pronoun, you will really fit in with the locals. This means, though, that you have to learn a few new verb conjugations. For example, the subjunctive or command form of verbs as well as the present tense is different with vos. Lee Jamison Author, Nicaraguan Spanish: Speak like a native!
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The partial vosotros form used in Honduras is much easier to understand than the radically different sounding accents of Argentina. The tú form of stem changing verbs is a little bit different (podés instead of puedes, for example) , but once you're heard them it's easy. In Honduras you're not going to hear third second person plural like you would in Spain. Buenos Aires about drove me crazy because of the strong 'sh' sound (for 'll') coupled with the vos conjugation, and when someone is talking really fast it's hard to make the transition. After a week my mind was settling down, but then I had to leave.
The "vos" isnt all that hard. Lets take the verb "tener" for example. vos tenes instead of tu tienes.
la palabra VOS se usan en centroamerica y argentina no se si en los otros paise de sur america, pero la palabra vos es comun especialmente en la gente de los pueblos se usa la palabra vos....
Yes, as Annierats has mentioned - I too had been taught to ignore 'vos'.... and now here I am in a country that ignores 'tu'. Qué irónico!!!
