Four different words, same meaning. Both according to Wiktionary as well as Google Images. Which one's preferred in regular speech in Mexico? I don't want to know what official dictionaries or RAE say. I want to know what people say.
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2The RAE is descriptive, not prescriptive, so I'm not sure what you mean by what dictionaries or the Academies "dictate". You'll find that throughout Latin America, all four words are used, though gafas is the least common generally, and the usage boundaries aren't nicely bound by country borders. Accordingly, though the DRAE lists them as all synonyms of each other and doesn't specify geographic information because of their generalized use.– user0721090601Nov 30, 2014 at 6:25
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@guifa Modified the language– TheLearnerNov 30, 2014 at 13:09
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Note to everyone who has contributed to this question: The question asked specifically for Mexico, then generally for all of Latin America, which is too broad (see this meta post). Therefore I have also removed the answers, which were not technically incorrect, under the old question, but now which do not answer the new specific question. Feel free to update your answer, if you wish, and flag for moderator attention to undelete any deleted answers.– FlimzyFeb 16, 2015 at 14:58
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3 Answers
In North México we say "lentes" for glasses, and "lentes de sol / lentes oscuros" for sunglasses.
This Ray-Ban site for Mexico is using gafas de sol for sunglasses, but lentes for the lenses. Costo México seems to be using lentes for both seeing glasses and sunglasses. It seems Mexican Spanish favors lentes but they understand both gafas and lentes
If you want additional info about other speaking countries:
In his song Pedro Navaja the Panamanian salsa singer Rubén Baldes sings that Pedro Navaja uses
Lentes oscuros pa' que no sepan que está mirando sunglasses so they don't know what he is looking at
Lentes is widely used and understood in Latin America.
In Spain, where I'm from, we use gafas for seeing glasses, sunglasses and even googles and the like (gafas de bucear). If you are putting them in your face, they are called gafas.
Lente (in singular) can be used for each one of the glasses that are part of an optic instrument, such a telescope. Although lentes in plural, could be understood as a word used to refer to eyeglasses, spaniards don't use this word to refer to eyeglasses. "lentillas" is a way to designate contact lenses (lentes de contacto).
Lentes, anteojos and espejuelos sound archaic in the Castilian Spanish. Hearing the word makes me think of really old fashioned glasses. To add confusion, according to the DRAE the "espejuelos" can also be the lenses that are put in the "anteojos", but can be understood as a synonym of anteojos too (as opposed to the gafas, which are cristales put in a montura (frame). It seems that gafa (in singular) can also be understood as the piece used to hold the anteojos to your ears).
I think that the first 3, although have different matices in different places, can be understanded if you interchanged it; with the last one ("espejuelos"), at least in Argentina, I think you won't be.
"Anteojos" (before eyes) is a very descriptive name, that can be understand by anyone who speak Spanish. AFAIK, it's only used for the complete device.
"Gafas", which also refer to the complete device, although not used in some places, it is known in many Latinamerican countries because of Spanish and Mexican movie translations.
"Lente" in a stricto sensu refers to the pieces of glass which has some optical properties (meaning in Physics). In some places it is used colloquially as the whole device.
But "espejuelos" literally means little mirrors; so, if it's not used with that meaning, it will be very confusing.
