Linguistics cannot obviate the fact that, according to a vast majority of the population not well versed in linguistic issues, normativity constitutes the key aspect both of languages and of language. The high number of daily consultations regarding language registered by the Espanol al dia Service of the Real Academia Espanola serves as an example of the great importance that popular metalinguistics confers upon speaking well. No wonder. The linguistic norm is a changing one and linguistic tradition provides valuable evidence that today’s mistakes can become tomorrow’s norm. It is no easy task though to identify these good usage models and the way in which they are established. Furthermore, it is difficult to establish how the so-called normative or prescriptive grammars - inevitably linked to the tasks performed by the Academias de la Lengua Espanola - reconcile the variation that is inherent to every linguistic system with the codification of the standard variety or varieties mainly used in the formal, administrative, institutional and academic contexts of communicative distance.