an Iberian Romance language.

It is spoken as a first language by about 352 million people, or by 417 million including non-native speakers (according to 1999 estimates). The majority of Spanish speakers live in Latin America.

the language is also commonly referred to as 'Castilian' or castellano.

Spanish is one of the official languages of the African Union, the European Union and the United Nations. Also, Spanish is an official language in some 20 countries.

Spanish is written using the Latin alphabet, with a few special letters.

Castilian Spanish has established itself as the accepted standard.