The Võro language is historically a dialect of the South Estonian language. Compared to other South Estonian dialects (Tartu and Mulgi), it has retained its characteristic features and has remained furthest from the standard written Estonian language.

Thanks to the activities of the Võro Institute and summer universities of the Võro language and culture, the Võro language has by now been standardised. The earlier South Estonian literary language, which until the early 20th century strove to form the basis for the standard Estonian literary language, was founded on the Tartu dialect. The Võro language differs from the standard Estonian by its pronunciation, word alteration, syntax and vocabulary.

Some morphological features of the Võro language are considered to be very old. For instance the 3rd person singular of the indicative mood can be either without an ending e.g. and 'gives', or, alternatively, with a s-ending e.g. kirotas 'writes'; in standard Estonian respectively annab and kirjutab. Among the Finnic languages, such double verb conjugation can be found only in the Võro, Seto and Karelian languages.

Another significant difference between standard Estonian and the Võro language is vowel harmony. There is a general rule in Finnic languages which determines that a front vowel in the first syllable (i.e. ä, ö and ü) can only be followed by front vowels in the successive syllables, whilst a back vowel in the first syllable (a, o and u) is followed by back vowels. There is no vowel harmony in the majority of North Estonian dialects and standard Estonian, but it exists in the Võro language; compare standard Estonian küla and Võro külä.

Differences in vocabulary between standard Estonian and the Võro language can be clearly seen in everyday speech:

Another significant difference can be noted in negations. If in Võro the negative particle often follows the verb, then in standard Estonian it always precedes the verb:

In standard Estonian, the particle ei is used in both present and past negation, e.g. ei kirjuta 'do(es) not write', ei kirjutanud 'did not write'; whereas in the south of the country the same is expressed by different particles, e.g. the present forms ei kirota or kirota aiq and the past forms es kirota or kirota es.

The Inessive case in the Võro language has an n-ending or an h-ending (almost disappeared from usage), in standard Estonian an s-ending, e.g.

The nominative plural in Võro is formed by a glottal stop (marked by the letter q), in standard Estonian with the help of the t-sound (marked by d):

The glottal stop makes the spoken idiom of the South-East distinctively jerky as compared to the more 'even' language of the North Estonia, and especially to the almost 'singing' dialect of the islanders of the Western Estonian Archipelago.