Spanish Word Pairs: Gender can make a lot of difference
Did you know you can change the last letter of some Spanish words and get an entirely new word with new meaning and gender?
People
There’s a whole class of words that end in either o or a depending on the gender of the person, such as camarera, camarero, tía, tío, and hermana, hermano. These words aren’t so hard to deal with since the gender corresponds to the person the word represents.
Trees
There’s also a bunch of fruit where the fruit is feminine and the corresponding tree that produces it is masculine. These aren’t too hard to remember either, once you catch on to the pattern. For example:
manzana (apple) – manzano (apple tree)
cereza (cherry) – cerezo (cherry tree)
naranja (orange) – naranjo (orange tree)
almendra (almond) – almendro (almond tree)
The hard part
Now we get to the hard part. Words that end in o or a, and depending on that difference, have a totally or partially different meaning. Watch out for these or you’ll get tripped up.
barranca - ravine, gorge, canyon, cleft
barranco - cliff, precipice, drop-off point, obstacle
bolsa - woman’s purse, bag in general, bolsa de plástico = plastic bag, bolsa (de valores) = stock exchange
bolso - (also bolsillo) – pocket, pants pocket, change purse (also monedero), money bag
braza - fathom (maritime measurement). Don’t confuse this with brasa, which is a red-hot coal.
brazo - arm (anatomy), fork (of a river)
cabecera - header, heading, beginning, head, headboard, headpiece, headline
cabecero - foreman, headboard (of a bed)
cobra - cobra (snake)
cobro - charge, collection (money)
cuenca - wooden bowl, eye socket, valley, river basin
cuenco - earthen bowl, hollow, cavity, depression (in the earth)
fruta - fruit (the pieces of fruit from a plant or tree)
fruto - results, payoff, consequence, benefit, profit, fruit (the yield of a plant or tree)
hoya - dale, hollow, river basin, grave, hole in the ocean’s floor. Not to be confused with olla (cooking pot, stew pot).
hoyo - hole, pit.
libra - pound (weight), constellation Libra
libro - book
manga - sleeve or arm of a shirt or other piece of clothing
mango - the fruit mango, handle (of a tool etc)
poma - pome, apple
pomo - flask, knob, cluster
ribera - shore, bank (of a river etc)
ribero - dike, levee (to hold back water)
ría - river delta, river mouth
río - river
saca - extraction, taking out, bag, sack
saco - sack, bag, sac, plunder, loot, suit coat, suit jacket
There’s probably a lot more of these word pairs as well. Watch out for them as you perfect your Spanish.
