the murder weapon

Question

What's the proper way for saying "the murder weapon" in spanish?

La arma de asesinato'

Answer 1

El arma del asesinato.

More common:

El arma del crimen.

Answer 2

lazarus1907 said:

El arma del asesinato.

More common:

El arma del crimen.

Thanks!

Didn't know the "gender" of the word changed with the addition of the second part.

What is the difference between de and del'

Answer 3

Bernardo Pincheira said:

For example, in the sentence "el arma del crimen" you can also say "el arma de el crimen" which is correct, but it's not very used, at least here in Chile

Not a real argument (I don't buy it myself most of the time), really, but an interesting statistical fact:

El arma del crimen - 14200 hits in Google
El arma asesina - 884 hits in Google

This is a ratio of about 16 to 1.

Anyway, the word "asesino", most of the time, suggests premeditation, or something that hurts badly, but I've never seen it used it to mean "used to kill".

Answer 4

Just so you know, Dale, the gender didn't 'change'. 'Arma' is masculine.

I thought so, too, but it is feminine. It takes the masculine article, though, as do agua and hacha, for the same reason.

Answer 5

Dale said:

lazarus1907 said:

El arma del asesinato.More common:El arma del crimen.

Thanks!Didn't know the "gender" of the word changed with the addition of the second part.What is the difference between de and del?

Just so you know, Dale, the gender didn't 'change'. 'Arma' is masculine

Answer 6

LadyDi said:

Just so you know, Dale, the gender didn't 'change'. 'Arma' is masculine

"Arma" is actually feminine!

There is a cacophony, so instead of "la arma", we say "el arma", like in "agua".

Answer 7

lazarus1907 said:

LadyDi said:

Just so you know, Dale, the gender didn't 'change'. 'Arma' is masculine

"Arma" is actually feminine!

Oh well...I stand corrected yet again!

Answer 8

Hey, how come my reply to LadyDi shows up before her post, with an earlier time stamp'

Answer 9

James Santiago said:

Hey, how come my reply to LadyDi shows up before her post, with an earlier time stamp?

That post was just a figment of your imagination. Just kidding. I was fumbling around trying to quote just the one sentence about the gender of 'arma' changing so I ended up having to delete and repost it again. All that and I was wrong anyway. Hehehe.

Answer 10

James Santiago said:

Hey, how come my reply to LadyDi shows up before her post, with an earlier time stamp?

Como dicen algunos amigos míos: ¿Qué pasa? ¿Soy negro, o qué? (mis amigos son negros, por cierto).

Answer 11

Hi, Dale!

I think the proper translation for "the murder weapon" is "el arma homicida".

Regards.