What is the difference between "el ave" and "el pájaro"?

Question

What is the difference between "el ave" and "el pájaro"? Is one word used more than the other for birds? Do they refer to different types of birds or are they completely interchangeable? (Edited - "la ave" corrected to "el ave".)

Answer 1

Un pájaro is a kind of ave, un ave pequeña, from a woodpecker to a sparrow or a robin... un águila (eagle) is "un ave", but not "un pájaro", because it is too big to be considered "un pájaro"...

Why do we say "un ave" instead of "una ave" even if "ave" is feminine? Because otherwise the sound would be weird; the same with "un alma", "un agua", etc. The same rule applies to the definite article "el" or "la"; we would say "el alma", "el agua", and not "la alma" nor "la agua"...

fernandoburguete hotmail

Answer 2

also don't know how to put in a link to the other question :(

Find the other discussion.

In the author's original question or in any answer that you wish to refer to, click the "link" enlace. [next to the Flag button]

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Paste the link into your answer (you can use the link icon, the globe with the arrow, in the menu above this editor to assist you if you wish to label the link.) The link will show the name of the thread that it refers to.

Answer 3

I think this was recently answered. Try searching on pájaro in the answers section.

• Thanks. I'd looked up "la ave". - Purdee Sep 24, 2009
• I tried that, but the other question didn't show up. I don't know why? - schub Sep 24, 2009
• I also don't know how to put in a link to the other question :( - schub Sep 24, 2009
• I thought that maybe it didn't turn up because it didn't use "la ave" but that still doesn't turn up any results. Then I thought it might be that the search term was too short. - Purdee Sep 24, 2009
• Maybe that's it....I tried other short search terms and they didn't find anything either. By the way, I think it is el ave, not la ave, as ave starts with an 'a'. - schub Sep 24, 2009
View 1 more commments >>

Answer 4

Albert, this is not correct:

pájaro. (Del ant. pássaro). 1. m. **Ave, especialmente si es pequeña**

Answer 5

HI Alberto, well I am afraid that your friends are mistaken. This is the definition of ave in the dictionary:

ave1.

(Del lat. avis).

1. f. Zool. Animal vertebrado, ovíparo, de respiración pulmonar y sangre de temperatura constante, pico córneo, cuerpo cubierto de plumas, con dos patas y dos alas aptas por lo común para el vuelo. En el estado embrionario tiene amnios y alantoides.

Now, we do commonly think that ave is a somewhat bigger bird. What your friend was thinking about is

Ave rapaz o de rapiña, carniverous birds.

Answer 6

I am trying to figure out how to put that little mark above the first "A" in pajaro.

Well, to put it in a reply like this one, look below the box that you wrote your answer in. It has a list of the Spanish letters with tildes that you can copy. For other places, look in the Reference Library for articles on typing Spanish characters

one method There are other methods. See the other Library article. Lots of previous threads on this topic.

• Glad you answered this, Quentin! It brought the actual question to the top and I learned about "ave" and "pájero" :-) - Janice Feb 5, 2011

Answer 7

Awww, I asked this question last week! I understood that they're interchangeable.

Answer 8

HI Purdee, have a look at this thread.

it is el ave by the way

Answer 9

ave =bird pajaro =bird but thats where the similarity ends,an ave is a carnivore ( bird of prey ) , a pajaro is a herbivore although some pajaros like crows eat flesh.

• What?! - --Mariana-- Sep 25, 2009

Answer 10

Hello Heidita . Before I posted my answer to ave or pajaro yesterday , I discussed the subject of the post with three mexican natives that I happened to be eating lunch with .All three were in agreement that there is a difference between the use of the words pajaro and ave and they said ave is used for rapina ( bird of prey ) which is a carnivore ,so I asked them ,is a crow considered a rapina too since it also eats flesh, their answer was no a crow is a pajaro too . Why is it not considered a rapina if it eats flesh, their answer was because it also eats fruit, berries and whatever it can digest ,its a ( scavenger ) I have tried to research this subject and have not come to a ( resolve yet ) but I am not a quitter .Enter my girlfriend that does not speak or understand english.and when i asked her the same question told me that the difference was in the size. y no pun pretendido .

Answer 11

sorry for the multiple posts . my computer is going haywire .

Answer 12

Which is the pajaro and which is the ave (rapaz) here?

• Well according to the answers given above, the red-tailed hawk (underneath) would be the ave and the little guy on top is the pajaro. Correcto? - amykay Jun 13, 2010
• Yeah, but judging from the pecking order (sorry, I couldn't resist) shown in the photo, I would have guessed that the little guy was the "ave rapaz." - Izanoni1 Feb 5, 2011

Answer 13

I am trying to figure out how to put that little mark above the first "A" in pajaro. I don't know if I can do it on my keyboard - but I'd sure like to know how to do this. I have a Spanish learning program, and it will not count me as correct and/or let me continue unless I type it correctly.

• On Windows 7 you can use the Ctrl+Alt+a key combination for á. - paturg Dec 30, 2011