Thread: Masculine/Feminine words pairs in spanish...

Sometimes I get a little lost with these, anyone have a good list of the ones that you should really know, so as not to make a mistake?

Here's a few examples, correct me if I get the words wrong:

Puerto/Puerta: Port/Door

Caso/Casa: Case/House

Pato/Pata: Duck/Paw

My suggestion would be follow the context of the sentence or paragraph, e.g:

Meti la pata. (I messed it up)

La pata nada en el estanque. (The female duck swims in the pond.)

Do those words have a stress mark above a particular vowel? I think that for some Spanish words that have two meanings, the emphasis may be on a different syllable. (?)

eg. p

[quote=brett]Do those words have a stress mark above a particular vowel? I think that for some Spanish words that have two meanings, the emphasis may be on a different syllable. (?)

eg. p

Okay, I whipped out the dictionary, here's a few. Yes, some of the adjectives can go both ways, I know. I ignored ones with the same or similar meanings.

acera - sidewalk
acero - steel

cara - face
caro - expensive

casa - house
caso - case

cera - wax, earwax
cero - zero

cerca - near
cerco - fence

clara - eggwhite
claro - clear

la coma - comma
el coma - coma
como - how
all are forms of comer as well

costa - coast
costo - cost

cuba - Cuba
cubo - bucket

cuenta - count, account, bill
cuento - story

cuerda - rope, cord
cuerdo - sensible, wise

data - date
dato - datum, a piece of data

dicha - happiness, good luck
dicho - saying

faja - band, girdle
fajo - bundle

falla - failure, fault
fallo - sentence, judgement, decision

foca - seal
foco - focus

fonda - inn, hotel
fondo - bottom, background, fund

fuera - out, outside
fueros - local laws

hada - fairy
hado - destiny, fate

(I'll add more later)

libro/libra book/pound
cigarro/cigarra cigar/grasshopper
coco/coca coconut/a bakery product given to children
coto/cota enclosure/
llanto/llanta crying/rubber tire
ramo/rama bunch/branch
rayo/raya lighting thunderbolt/line
rasgo/rasga feature/ rips
seto/seta hedge/mushroom
fajo/faja bundle (of banknotes)/ girdie

BTW there are not differences in stress between pata (leg) and pata (female duck). An example with different stress is
mas/m

The stress mark is quite important to diferentiate these words:

Mendigo=pauper
M

I was just using the article on coma to show it was masculine.

Same as English, you would rarely say "the coma". You say "He's in a coma".

Congratulations on the list. Good job, and it helps us find gramatical similarities between English and Spanish.

Another list of words:

taza=cup
tasa=rate

caza=hunting/game
cazo=pot
casa=house

In Spain the pronounciation would make the difference, not in Latin America.

La papa is a potato.

El Papa is the Pope.

That could be a disaster if you messed that one up!

Drew

[quote]
Mendigo=pauper
M

[
M

Tienes raz

A mi simplemente se me hace un ejemplo fenomenal de la importancia de los acentos. Adem