Today, despite the relatively small size of the country, each province maintains unique characteristics in pronunciation and lexicon.

For instance, Guanacaste Province's variety bears similarity to that of Nicaragua, while the tú form can be found more toward the border with Panama.

The distinguishing characteristics of Costa Rican phonetics include the following: Note: This does not apply to the single-R phoneme which is typically pronounced as an alveolar tap [ɾ] as in most varieties of Spanish.

Young men have been leading a trend in addressing close friends and peers with usted, which is not typical of other Spanish dialects.

Learning colloquial expressions can be a guide to understanding the humor and character of the Costa Rican culture.