el tocina, tocino??

Question

Looking in the dictionary for bacon, the first heading comes up el tocina,,,but then further down in the definition is lists tocino... do I go with el tocina and los tocinas??? and is it even plural like that cause in english is is bacon singular and plural? Sorry one of these days I will really understand all this. thanks sharon

Answer 1

I was reading a book translated into Spanish today and saw the word beicon for tocino. No idea if it is a real word.

I would say that tocino is an uncountable noun because you always say a rasher of bacon, a pound of bacon, a strip of bacon, etc. as you do with most uncountable nouns. Uncountable nouns can be used in the plural (e.g. breads) when meaning different varieties, types, brands, etc.

beicon.

1. m. bacón.

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if you look up bacón=tocino

Also from the RAE dictionary:

La palabra tocina no está registrada en el Diccionario. Las que se muestran a continuación tienen una escritura cercana.

Answer 2

el tocino could be los tocinos in some situations where you were talking about of many kinds of tocino. But usually we don't use a plural form.