Little animals: -ito and -ita
Animals are a natural home for diminutives. El conejito is a small or cute rabbit, and el patito is the everyday word for a duckling: the fairy tale is el patito feo. Watch the spelling: la mosca becomes la mosquita, with qu keeping the hard k sound, just like poco → poquito.
| My daughter has a little white rabbit. | Mi hija tiene un conejito blanco. |
| Do you know the story of the ugly duckling? | ¿Conoces el cuento del patito feo? |
Male and female
Many animals change -o to -a for the female: la coneja, la burra, la pata. Some pairs are two different words:
| male | female |
|---|---|
| el toro | la vaca |
| el gallo | la gallina |
| On the farm there is a bull and ten cows. | En la granja hay un toro y diez vacas. |
| Our hens lay a lot of eggs. | Nuestras gallinas ponen muchos huevos. |
Small creatures usually have one gender for both sexes: even a male fly is una mosca, and you say la araña and la mariposa whatever the sex.
| My sister is afraid of spiders. | Mi hermana tiene miedo a las arañas. |
| Butterflies fly among the flowers. | Las mariposas vuelan entre las flores. |
El toro de Osborne
Driving through Spain, you may spot huge black bulls on hills beside the road. They began in the 1950s as ads for a brandy; today they carry no words at all and have become a well-known symbol of the country.
| On many Spanish roads there is a black metal bull. | En muchas carreteras españolas hay un toro negro de metal. |
Your questions are stored by us to improve Elon.io
