Apartamento vs. apartamiento
Is there a difference? Which one is better to use? Thanks!
6 Answers
To me Apartamiento sounds wrong, I am native Spanish speaker never hear Apartamiento to say Apartment, but only to apart something. But is very rarely used in spain here is the definition from the Real Academia de la Lengua Española.
apartamiento.
m. Acción y efecto de apartar o apartarse.
m. Lugar apartado o retirado.
m. Celdilla, cavidad o seno en animales y plantas.
m. Der. Acto judicial con que alguien desiste y se aparta formalmente de la acción o recurso que tiene deducido.
5. m. Esp. p. us. apartamento (? piso pequeño para vivir).
m. p. us. piso (? vivienda).
m. desus. habitación (? lugar destinado a vivienda).
Apartamiento comes from the verb apartar in Spain 
.
"El jugador no entendía su apartamiento del equipo"
"The player didn't understand that he was taken out the team"
Edit: Departamento is used to describe a different section of an office, a shop...
"Vaya usted al departamento de textil"
"Go to the clothes section"
Apartamento = flat or apartment.
Apartamiento = small flat or apartment
There is also:
departamento = flat or apartment
Hope this helps!
Thanks everyone! I think it's pretty clear from the responses that "apartamiento" is not the best choice for flat, whatever the dictionaries may tell you. Sorry for not making it clear, but I did check a few dictionaries before I asked and they give these words as pretty much synonyms
I don't know where I heard "apartamiento", but I must have heard it somewhere, because it got stuck in my head even though I remember initially learning that apartment is apartamento.
Zizoun, this may be where regional differences come into play! When I read your post I double checked with an online Spanish dictionary that uses three well-recognized dictionaries as it's base. These dictionaries confirmed the information I gave as correct.
The reason I say it may be regional differences is because I have friends from Mexico that only use the word "departamento" to speak of their apartment. I have also heard the usage "apartamiento" from Mexicans but not as frequently as the other two terms. I am sure that in Spain this may not be the case, but then again Spain is a very different country culturally speaking than Mexico. I am sure we are both correct just depending on which country we are talking about! Thanks for the input.
It probably depends on where you live and what other people say in your region. Personally, I've never heard "apartamiento" (I live in TX).
