desperdicio vs despilfarro

Question

When would you use desperdicio
and
when would you use despilfarro ?

Is one better than the other?

If one said "It is a waste" like a waste of time or waste of money which would be better to use:

Es un despilfarro o
Es un desperdicio

Thanks

Rachel

Answer 1

"Desperdicio" is when money, goods, foods,... are misused and wasted, so no profit is obtained out of it. It also applies to residues and waste products, scraps,...
"Derroche" is pretty much the same, but applied mostly to money (and sometimes other things)used up quickly and without any control. It is rarely to food, and it cannot be used to mean residues, waste products or scraps.
"Despilfarro" is only used for money used in excess in unnecessary things.

Answer 2

Perhaps a hint - and to underscore what Lazarus has already written...
For some months I have had no Internet access at home and so I purchased one large dictionary, "Gran Diccionario Oxford" and borrowed a second from my local library (Velazquez).' The Oxford (mine is the "Third Edition") provides a lot of example sentences to show the context in which a word is used. I find it very helpful.

The entry for despilfarrar (the verb related to the word you asked about) restricts itself to money: "to waste or squander money. And one sees related words right there on the page such as despilfarrado, -dora, "spendthrift":->)

For desperdicio, we find (de comida/papel/tela/oportunidad) Es un desperdicio tirar esta carne. Or no tener desperdicio: Este carne no tiene desperdicio. There's no waste on this meat; El elepé no tiene desperdicio. The LP doesn't have a single bad track on it: En esta casa nada tiene desperdicio.

And the plural desperdicios (residuos)means scraps.

'Incidentally, another impetus to my dictionary purchase was that I was determined to find all the "ü" words from a list with which I had been challenged. And ps, ni Oxford ni Velazquez eran/son tan completo para cumplir esa tarea.

Answer 3

Thanks . That helps a lot. Sometimes there are so many different words to use, its hard to know which is appropriate. You gave a very detailed answer and that helps.

Rachel

Answer 4

Thanks a lot Janice. I also want to get a good dictionary. I especially want one for the Latin/ South American Spanish - not Spain since my community is mostly, Mexico, El Salvador, Peru, Cuba...
Haven't run across anyone from SPAIN in years.

Rachel

Answer 5

'Incidentally, another impetus to my dictionary purchase was that I was determined to find all the "ü" words from a list with which I had been challenged. And ps, ni Oxford ni Velazquez eran/son tan completo para cumplir esa tarea.

Janice, that list was taken from the Diccionario de la Real Academia, a two volume dictionary that contains words that have not been in common use for over a century, and includes specific regional terms from parts of Spain and America which are unknown everywhere else. In other words, it would be extremely difficult to find a native who actually knows some of those words, and virtually impossible to find one who knows them all. I wouldn't blame your dictionaries. You asked for words with ü, and I gave you all I could find.

Answer 6

Thanks a lot Janice. I also want to get a good dictionary. I especially want one for the Latin/ South American Spanish - not Spain since my community is mostly, Mexico, El Salvador, Peru, Cuba...

Haven't run across anyone from SPAIN in years.

I am from Spain.

Anyway, you have fallen for the typical misconception that everyone believes about Spanish from Spain, and from America. I have a dictionary for Spanish in Mexico, and it has hundreds of terms that are not used, nor understood everywhere else, so they would be of no use in El Salvador, Peru or Cuba. You'll find that some words have completely different meanings depending on the country:

cuero (all countries) = leather
cuero (México) = beautiful woman
cuero (Ecuador) = prostitute
cuero (Cuba) = a musical instrument
cuero (Honduras) = fear
cuero (P. Rico, Colombia) = ugly and old woman

Beautiful woman in one place, and prostitute on another. Latin American Spanish you said? From what country exactly? How are you going to use "cuero" in "Latin America", then? The Spanish in Latin America is not uniform and completely different from that of Spain: formal and literary Spanish, like that in novels and newspapers, is exactly the same everywhere, but each country has its own idioms and slang, and they differ from country to country, not just between Latin America and Spain.

You don't need a Latin American dictionary, but a dictionary that tells you what expressions are regional, and if they are, in what countries they are used. Any good dictionary, including those purchased in Europe, will do the trick. You can't find a dictionary that has the Spanish from Spain "removed", because 95% of a dictionary is the same for all countries. That 5% (or whatever the exact number is) is different from country to country, and if you check carefully, you'll find terms that are used only in Cuba and the South of Spain, but not everywhere else, for example, or used in Honduras and Nicaragua, but not everywhere else.

Answer 7

...you have fallen for the typical misconception that **everyone **believes about Spanish from Spain, and from America...

What misconception is that'

Answer 8

Thanks lazarus1907

I have used some sentences/words in practice on a client form El Salvador and there have been times when he didn't understand me. Then when I brought it up on the computer which list other words for that thing, he would only then understand and say, we don't use that word, we say "'''". So that is why I am trying to narrow it down better. That list you gave for cuero is really something! Do all spanish speaking people know that this word is different in other parts of the spanish speaking world?
I guess they may know what you are speaking of by its context. (hopefully) I'd hate to say something insulting or a bad word! Sometimes, it seems impossible to learn spanish!

Answer 9

What misconception is that? Ok, not everybody, but a lot of people.

I have used some sentences/words in practice on a client form El Salvador and there have been times when he didn't understand me. Then when I brought it up on the computer which list other words for that thing, he would only then understand and say, we don't use that word, we say "'''". So that is why I am trying to narrow it down better. That list you gave for cuero is really something! Do all spanish speaking people know that this word is different in other parts of the spanish speaking world?

I guess they may know what you are speaking of by its context. (hopefully) I'd hate to say something insulting or a bad word! Sometimes, it seems impossible to learn spanish!

Most natives are unaware of the differences in other countries, except maybe for a few well known words, but I have never had any problem getting perfectly understood with Spanish speakers from all over the world; I simply switch to my most standard Spanish, and I avoid anything that appears to be idiomatic or slang, because terms and expressions are the ones that are normally different. As I said, reading a newspaper, a novel, or a textbook, it is virtually impossible for me to tell whether it has been written in Spain, or anywhere else in Latin America.

Answer 10

... reading a newspaper, a novel, or a textbook, it is virtually impossible for me to tell whether it has been written in Spain, or anywhere else in Latin America.

These are the things that I study in the hope that I will learn a "standard" and "educated" Spanish, one which is understood everywhere in the Spanish-speaking world.

I realize that I have to learn to recognize *some *slang for listening comprehension; however, I don't really want to learn to speak in that manner. The exceptions I see to this are colloquial expressions like ¡vale! which are used so often.

P.s. When I say "slag" I mean it to have a negative connotation, not to be confused with a region's colloquialisms, which are something interesting to learn.

Answer 11

What misconception is that? Ok, not everybody, but a lot of people.

I have used some sentences/words in practice on a client form El Salvador and there have been times when he didn't understand me. Then when I brought it up on the computer which list other words for that thing, he would only then understand and say, we don't use that word, we say "'''". So that is why I am trying to narrow it down better. That list you gave for cuero is really something! Do all spanish speaking people know that this word is different in other parts of the spanish speaking world?

I guess they may know what you are speaking of by its context. (hopefully) I'd hate to say something insulting or a bad word! Sometimes, it seems impossible to learn spanish!

Most natives are unaware of the differences in other countries, except maybe for a few well known words, but I have never had any problem getting perfectly understood with Spanish speakers from all over the world; I simply switch to my most standard Spanish, and I avoid anything that appears to be idiomatic or slang, because terms and expressions are the ones that are normally different. As I said, reading a newspaper, a novel, or a textbook, it is virtually impossible for me to tell whether it has been written in Spain, or anywhere else in Latin America.

Hi: This is why I'm trying to learn

the most standard Spanish as you say. But I don't know enough to know whether I am learning the most standard or not.
I guess I'll just keep checking here with you guys!

Rachel

Answer 12

.

I realize that I have to learn to recognize *some *slang for listening comprehension; however, .

Exactly! If you don't know all these ways of speaking and words, then you do not always understand what you hear. So even if you don't want to speak that way, you really have no choice but to learn it. That is what I'm struggling with.

Rachel