Countries in Spanish: Vocab lists and grammar rules

Exploring new countries and cultures is one of the main reasons that many people choose to learn Spanish. So whether you’re in the midst of a world tour or just planning a trip to one or two of your top destinations, knowing the names of countries in Spanish will certainly come in handy along the way.

Our guide to all the Spanish speaking countries is one of our most popular posts, for obvious reasons. Those countries are pretty easy for language learners, since most of their names are the same in both Spanish and English. But did you know that a lot of Spanish country names are different from their equivalents in English? That’s why we’ve prepared this post, to help you learn every country name in Spanish!

We’ll start off with some basic grammar rules regarding countries in Spanish. We’ll mention gender, articles, and capitalization, and then we’ll spend a bit of time on the prepositions we use with countries in Spanish. Then we’ll get to the main sections of this post on Spanish country names, which we break down by region of the world. For each region, we provide a comprehensive list of country names in Spanish!

We spent a lot of time building these lists, so even if you’re looking for an obscure country it’s probably here. If you’re interested in a third language, we can also recommend a similar post with all the country names in French. Now, let’s dive in and learn the names of all the countries in Spanish!

Countries in Spanish: Grammar rules

Before we get into our Spanish country lists, let’s just cover a few basic rules for talking about countries in Spanish. We’ll start with genders, we’ll mention capitalization, and then we’ll introduce the main prepositions for talking about countries in Spanish.

Genders

Even if you’re just starting out in learning Spanish, you probably know that all Spanish nouns have a gender. And since countries are nouns, each one has a gender too: either masculine or feminine. Spanish country genders are strictly a reflection of how the words are spelled and pronounced. In addition, some are plural.

In our lists of Spanish country names below, we include a column next to each one to indicate whether the word is masculine (m) or feminine (m).

Articles

As a general rule, articles are omitted when talking about countries in Spanish. Even for country names that are in plural, like The Netherlands or The Bahamas, we don’t normally use the definite article los or las like you do in English.

There are a few exceptions to the rule of omitting the article in the Spanish city or country name, such as El Salvador. In this case, the article is considered an integral part of this country’s name.

For some plural countries, like los Estados Unidos, it’s optional to include the article. Sometimes we include it, and sometimes we don’t. For these ones, we include the article in parentheses in our Spanish country lists below.

Capitalization

Just like you do in English, Spanish country names are always capitalized. Where there are multiple words to a country name, we capitalize each word.

For the plural countries where we decide to include the article, the article is in lowercase since it’s not an integral part of the country name.

Prepositions

We use specific prepositions to say that we’re in a country, we’re from a country, we’re arriving from a country, or we’re going to a country. Let’s look at each of these here to see the equivalent prepositions for talking about countries in Spanish. For others, check out our grammar post on prepositions in Spanish.

En is the Spanish preposition used to describe a static position in a country.

• Yo nací en Chile, pero ahora vivo en Argentina. – I was born in Chile, but now I live in Argentina.

• Los parques nacionales en Costa Rica son increíbles. – The national parks in Costa Rica are incredible.

De is the Spanish preposition for talking about the state of being from or coming from a country.

• Hay tres barcos en el puerto de Oakland esta semana que son de Panamá. – There are three ships in Oakland’s port this week that are from Panama.

• Yo soy de los Estados Unidos y mi esposa viene de México. – I’m from the United States and my wife comes from Mexico.

Desde is the Spanish preposition used for describing movement from a country.

• Otro barco llega hoy desde Panamá. – Another ship is arriving from Panama today.

• En Madrid hay tres trenes al día que llegan desde Francia. – In Madrid there are three trains per day that arrive from France.

A is the Spanish preposition of movement for talking about going to a country.

• Mi tío viaja a Chile para hacer unas semanas de senderismo. – My uncle is travelling to Chile to do a few weeks of hiking.

• Esta aerolínea iniciará vuelos a Trinidad en septiembre. – This airline will start to offer flights to Trinidad in September.

You may be familiar with the Spanish contraction al, normally used to combine any instance of a el. Spanish country names that begin with El are an exception to this rule, since the article is an integral part of the country’s name.

• Esas pajaros migran a El Salvador cada invierno, y vuelvan a Argentina en la primavera. – Those birds migrate to El Salvador every winter, and return to Argentina in the spring.

All the country names in Spanish

Now that we’ve covered the grammatical details for talking about countries in Spanish, we’re ready to introduce our vocab lists with all the country names in Spanish.

We started with the 193 member states of The United Nations – Las Naciones Unidas (also known as The UN – la ONU), and then added a few more (like England and Greenland) that are also generally recognized as nations. This post is certainly not intended as a political statement but strictly as a useful reference, so please forgive any inclusions or omissions. The goal here is to learn how to refer to countries, and the following Spanish countries lists probably include every nation you’re looking for!

To make things easier to find, we’ve broken down our Spanish country lists by region of the globe. These sub-regions are slightly subjective, so try a neighboring list if the country you’re looking for is in the middle of a big continent.

We’ll start with a section on continents and regions, and then introduce every country name in Spanish!

Continents in Spanish

Here we introduce the seven continents – los siete continentes as we get ready to cross the world – el mundo and explore the planet Earth – el planeta Tierra.

You’ll notice that we start our list with The Americas. This refers essentially to the whole western hemisphere, from Canada to Chile and even the Caribbean. Many Spanish speakers refer to this entire region simply as América. This may confuse some native English speakers who often abbreviate the United States of America as America. In Spanish, you’re better off referring to that country as los Estados Unidos, since América refers to the entire region.

We’ll introduce other region names as we get to them in their respective sections below. We’re including Australia in with the rest of Oceania, even though it’s generally also considered a continent in its own right.

The Americas	América	f
North America	América del Norte	f
South America	América del Sur	f
Europe	Europa	f
Asia	Asia	f
Africa	África	f
Oceania	Oceanía	f
Antarctica	Antártida	f

North America – América del Norte

We’ll start our tour of countries in Spanish with North America, since many of our readers come from Canadá, los Estados Unidos, and México. Note that while the abbreviation of USA is generally understood by Spanish speakers, you’re more likely to see the Spanish abbreviation of EE. UU.

Canada	Canadá	m
Mexico	México	m
United States of America	(los) Estados Unidos	m
Greenland	Groenlandia	f

Central America – América Central

Moving southwards through the Americas, our next list of countries in Spanish covers the isthmus of América Central. The main language of this region is Spanish, though English is common in Belize, and many indigenous languages are spoken across the region.

Belize	Belice	m
Costa Rica	Costa Rica	f
El Salvador	El Salvador	m
Guatemala	Guatemala	f
Honduras	Honduras	f
Nicaragua	Nicaragua	f
Panama	Panamá	m

The Caribbean – El Caribe

This next region is composed entirely of island states. Here’s our list of Caribbean countries in Spanish. A number of languages are spoken in this region, including Spanish, English, and French.

Antigua and Barbuda	Antigua y Barbuda	f
Bahamas	(las) Bahamas	f
Barbados	Barbados	m
Cuba	Cuba	f
Dominica	Dominica	f
Dominican Republic	República Dominicana	f
Grenada	Granada	f
Guadeloupe	Guadalupe	f
Haiti	Haití	m
Jamaica	Jamaica	f
Martinique	Martinica	f
Puerto Rico	Puerto Rico	m
Saint Barth	San Bartolomé	m
Saint Kitts and Nevis	San Cristóbal y Nieves	m
Saint Lucia	Santa Lucía	f
Saint Martin	San Martín	m
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	San Vicente y las Granadinas	f
Trinidad and Tobago	Trinidad y Tobago	f
Virgin Islands	(las) Islas Vírgenes	f

South America – América del Sur

We’ll finish up our tour of the Americas with this list of South American countries in Spanish. Most of these are Spanish speaking countries!

Argentina	Argentina	f
Bolivia	Bolivia	f
Brazil	Brasil	m
Chile	Chile	m
Colombia	Colombia	f
Ecuador	Ecuador	m
Guyana	Guyana	f
French Guyana	Guayana Francesa	f
Paraguay	Paraguay	m
Peru	Perú	m
Suriname	Surinam	m
Uruguay	Uruguay	m
Venezuela	Venezuela	f

Africa – Africa

Heading straight across the South Atlantic, we reach the African continent. The countries here are extremely diverse, ranging from the deserts to rainforests to island nations. Here’s our complete list of African countries in Spanish.

Algeria	Argelia	m
Angola	Angola	m
Benin	Benín	m
Botswana	Botswana	m
Burkina Faso	Burkina Faso	m
Burundi	Burundi	m
Cabo Verde	Cabo Verde	m
Cameroon	Camerún	m
Central African Republic	República Centroafricana	f
Chad	Chad	m
Comoros	(las) Comoras	f
Côte D’Ivoire	Costa de Marfil	f
Democratic Republic of the Congo	República Democrática del Congo	f
Djibouti	Yibuti	m
Egypt	Egipto	m
Equatorial Guinea	Guinea Ecuatorial	f
Eritrea	Eritrea	f
Eswatini	Esuatini	m
Ethiopia	Etiopía	f
Gabon	Gabón	m
Gambia	Gambia	f
Ghana	Ghana	m
Guinea	Guinea	f
Guinea Bissau	Guinea-Bisáu	f
Kenya	Kenia	f
Lesotho	Lesoto	m
Liberia	Liberia	f
Libya	Libia	f
Madagascar	Madagascar	f
Malawi	Malaui	m
Mali	Malí	m
Mauritania	Mauritania	f
Mauritius	Mauricio	m
Mayotte	Mayotte	m
Morocco	Marruecos	m
Mozambique	Mozambique	m
Namibia	Namibia	f
Niger	Níger	m
Nigeria	Nigeria	f
Republic of Congo	República del Congo	f
Reunion	La Reunión	f
Rwanda	Ruanda	f
Western Sahara	Sahara Occidental	m
Sao Tome and Principe	Santo Tomé y Príncipe	m
Senegal	Senegal	m
Seychelles	Seychelles	f
Sierra Leone	Sierra Leona	f
Somalia	Somalia	f
South Africa	Sudáfrica	f
South Sudan	Sudán del Sur	m
Sudan	Sudán	m
Tanzania	Tanzania	f
Togo	Togo	m
Tunisia	Túnez	m
Uganda	Uganda	f
Yemen	Yemen	m
Zambia	Zambia	f
Zimbabwe	Zimbabue	m

Europe – Europa

Now that we’ve covered the Americas and Africa, we’re ready to head across the vast land mass of Eurasia – Eurasia. We’ll provide each list of countries in Spanish roughly by region, making our way eastwards from the Atlantic all the way to the Pacific.

Let’s start with our list of Spanish names of countries in Europe – Europa. We include Russia here even though it spans from Europe to Asia, since its political weight is heavily European.

Albania	Albania	f
Andorra	Andorra	f
Armenia	Armenia	f
Austria	Austria	f
Belarus	Bielorrusia	f
Belgium	Bélgica	f
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Bosnia y Herzegovina	f
Bulgaria	Bulgaria	f
Croatia	Croacia	f
Cyprus	Chipre	m
Czech Republic	República Checa	f
Denmark	Dinamarca	f
England	Inglaterra	f
Estonia	Estonia	f
Finland	Finlandia	f
France	Francia	f
Germany	Alemania	f
Greece	Grecia	f
Hungary	Hungría	f
Iceland	Islandia	f
Ireland	Irlanda	f
Italy	Italia	f
Latvia	Letonia	f
Liechtenstein	Liechtenstein	m
Lithuania	Lituania	f
Luxembourg	Luxemburgo	m
Malta	Malta	f
Moldova	Moldavia	f
Monaco	Mónaco	m
Montenegro	Montenegro	m
The Netherlands	(los) Países Bajos	m
Northern Ireland	Irlanda del Norte	f
North Macedonia	Macedonia del Norte	f
Norway	Noruega	f
Poland	Polonia	f
Portugal	Portugal	m
Romania	Rumania	f
Russia	Rusia	f
San Marino	San Marino	m
Scotland	Escocia	f
Serbia	Serbia	f
Slovakia	Eslovaquia	f
Slovenia	Eslovenia	f
Spain	España	f
Sweden	Suecia	f
Switzerland	Suiza	f
Ukraine	Ucrania	f
United Kingdom	Reino Unido	m
Vatican City	La Ciudad del Vaticano	f
Wales	Gales	f

The Middle East – El Medio Oriente

Some definitions vary on which countries are in The Near East – El Cercano Oriente or The Middle East – El Medio Oriente, so we’ll just stick with the ones on and around the greater Arabian peninsula.

Bahrain	Baréin	m
Gaza	Gaza	f
Iran	Irán	m
Iraq	Irak	m
Israel	Israel	m
Jordan	Jordania	f
Kuwait	Kuwait	m
Lebanon	Líbano	m
Oman	Omán	m
Palestine	Palestina	f
Qatar	Catar	m
Saudi Arabia	Arabia Saudita	f
Syria	Siria	f
Turkey	Turquía	f
United Arab Emirates	Emiratos Árabes Unidos	m
West Bank	Cisjordania	f

Central Asia – Asia Central

Here again, there’s not a strict definition of which countries are located in Central Asia – Asia Central, so we’ll just list the Spanish countries here that are generally around the Caspian Sea. We include Mongolia here since its geography and culture is closer to that of its central Asian neighbors than that of its east Asian neighbors farther south.

Azerbaijan	Azerbaiyán	m
Georgia	Georgia	f
Kazakhstan	Kazajistán	m
Kyrgyzstan	Kirguistán	m
Mongolia	Mongolia	f
Tajikistan	Tayikistán	m
Turkmenistan	Turkmenistán	m
Uzbekistan	Uzbekistán	m

South Asia – Asia del Sur

Here’s the list of countries in Spanish for South Asia – Asia del Sur, comprising India and its neighbors.

Afghanistan	Afganistán	m
Bangladesh	Bangladés	m
Bhutan	Bután	m
India	India	f
Maldives	Maldivas	f
Nepal	Nepal	m
Pakistan	Pakistán	m
Sri Lanka	Sri Lanka	f

East Asia – Asia de Este

For East Asia – Asia del Este, we have China in the center, and then all the countries east and south of it along the South China Sea and to the Malacca Strait. The cultures and landscapes are vast and diverse, from the forested mountains of Japan to the tropical rainforests of Indonesia to the innumerable beaches on the archipelago of the Philippines.

Brunei	Brunéi	m
Cambodia	Camboya	f
China	China	f
Hong Kong	Hong Kong	m
Indonesia	Indonesia	f
Japan	Japón	m
North Korea	Corea del Norte	f
South Korea	Corea del Sur	f
Laos	Laos	m
Macau	Macao	m
Malaysia	Malasia	f
Myanmar	Myanmar, Birmania	f
Philippines	Filipinas	f
Singapore	Singapur	m
Thailand	Tailandia	f
Vietnam	Vietnam	m

Oceania – L’Océanie

The last region of this world tour of countries in Spanish is Oceania – Oceanía. Here we have so many island nations that are scattered across the North and South Pacific Ocean. Australia is the biggest, considered a continent on its own, while Papua New Guinea surely boasts the highest biodiversity.

Australia	Australia	f
Fiji	Fiyi	m
French Polynesia	Polinesia Francesa	f
Kiribati	Kiribati	m
Marshall Islands	Islas Marshall	f
Micronesia	Micronesia	f
Nauru	Nauru	f
New Caledonia	Nueva Caledonia	f
New Zealand	Nueva Zelanda	f
Palau	El Palaos	m
Papua New Guinea	Papua Nueva Guinea	f
Samoa	Samoa	m
Solomon Islands	Islas Salomón	f
Timor-Leste	Timor Oriental	m
Tonga	Tonga	m
Tuvalu	Tuvalu	m
Vanuatu	Vanuatu	f

Conclusion: Countries in Spanish

Wow, we’ve just been through a whirlwind tour across the world! We enjoyed taking you to every country in the world in Spanish, across every continent and every region.

We started off with some of the basic grammar rules for talking about countries in Spanish, namely the rules about gender, articles, and capitalization. Then we learned the different prepositions we use for going to, coming from, and being in a country in Spanish.

Then came the big vocab section on Spanish country names. We based our list on the countries recognized by the United Nations, and then added a few other well-known territories for completeness. We broke our lists down by region, and then went on our world tour to learn every single one of the world’s country names in Spanish!

You can use this post for reference, or perhaps even for inspiration. Now you can talk about where you live, where you travel, and where you’d like to go, with all the vocab for every country in Spanish!