Also in Spanish the distinction between 'Amigo' and 'Compañero' or 'Compa' - 'Amigo' is what people think of as 'friend' in english but it's really more like a

Also in Spanish the distinction between 'Amigo' and 'Compañero' or 'Compa' - 'Amigo' is what people think of as 'friend' in english but it's really more like a friendly acquaintance while 'compa' is much, much closer to how 'Friend' is used in English. Single-word distinctions in familiarity even stretches out to that level of interaction. I think that's the whole language in a lot of ways, though, like you just have a larger dictionary in Spanish because you can modify or combine words in ways that avoid you having to say stuff like "my sister in law, like yeah my brother's wife". That's literally how many more syllables you have to say in English just to say what's said in one word in Spanish, the verbosity is just way higher. I think this leads English speakers to perceive Spanish as a 'fast' language (and some dialects certainly are) but I chalk it up to being able to say more with less words. This is also the case in every other language I've learned compared to English (Japanese, German - Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher anyone? ... and now Russian).