In Spanish, what is the difference between normal and regular?

Question

The separate definitions of the words are not helping me to distinguish between them, when to use one and when the other. My take on the definitions is that i can use them interchangeably.

Answer 1

As with most words you need to provide context to contrast/compare meanings.

Normal in Spanish is used the same as in English where in mathematics it is synonymous with perpendicular. This would have nothing in common with regular (quite a coincidence that both words are spelled the same in English and Spanish) therefore, No, the words are not interchangeable except in certain contexts.

There are many contexts where normal (as in normal distributions or bell shaped curves in statistics) has no relationship to "regular". It would take an exceptional dictionary to find all of these contexts listed.

regular as a saludo=so so

Answer 2

Hola madelbrox and if nobody has already done so, let me welcome you to the SpanishDict forum!

Have a look at this link to a discussion which, I believe, might shed some light on the subject for you....normal vs. regular