The official language of Gran Canaria is Spanish. However, one hears many people speaking English and German in the tourist areas.
The local inhabitants speak Canario, a Spanish dialect characterized by a slightly more singing tone than the mainland, less clear pronunciation and incorporation of different verb tenses. Even for foreigners with a basic knowledge of Spanish, the varieties spoken on the islands can take some time getting used to. On Tenerife however, the pronunciation seems to be more neutral, and leans a bit more toward normalized Spanish. Technically speaking, Canarian is known by
loss of ending 's' in most plural unstressed words into a "h" or "sh" sound (relojej instead of relojes),
diphthonging words and verbs (callao for callado, pesao for pesado),
emphasis of the H sound when normally mute (hediondo pronounced jediondo and not ediondo),
different verb tense (ayer juguemos un partido instead of ayer jugamos un partido),
use of Haiga instead of haya (as the verb "to have") and
use of simple past tense instead of past participle tense, resulting in the occlusion and almost non-existence of the latter
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Gran Canaria
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Gran Canaria - updated May 2024
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Gran Canaria Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
