Terms in English and Spanish For Various Periods of Time
In English, the terms "bimonthly" and "biweekly" are, unfortunately, ambiguous since they can mean twice a month/week or every other month/week. This ambiguity does not exist in Spanish. The following table illustrates this phenomena and shows the appropriate Spanish words to use in these situations. In English, in most cases, the same word can be used as a noun, an adjective or an adverb, while Spanish has different words for each. When it comes to saying twice a year vs. every other year, there is no ambiguity in either English or Spanish. There are separate terms for each. To avoid the possibility of confusion, some dictionaries advise English speakers to use semimonthly (rather than bimonthly) for twice a month, and to only use bimonthly to refer to every other month.
Another interesting thing I discovered while researching this topic is that the Spanish word for fortnight - quincena - literally means every 15 days, while the standard definition of fortnight in English is 14 days or two weeks. If a Spanish speaker really wants to say every two weeks, which would be fortnightly or biweekly (one meaning) in English he would have to say "cada dos semanas." There is no single Spanish word for every other week...the closest thing to it is quincenal / quincenal, but the meaning of this is closer to half-a-month rather than two weeks.
By the way, if I were the King of English, I would enforce a new rule that bimonthly can ONLY mean every other month. After all, there is a perfectly good word for "twice a month" -- semimonthly.
| English | Meaning | Spanish
| bimonthly (adjective) | every other month, every two months | bimestral, cada dos meses
| bimonthly (adverb) | every other month, 6 times per year | bemestralmente, cada dos meses
| bimonthly, semimonthly (adjective) | twice a month, two times per month | bimensual, dos veces por mes
| bimonthly, semimonthly (adverb) | twice a month, two times per month | bimensualmente, dos veces por mes
| fortnight (noun) | 14 days, two weeks | quincena (quince dias), dos semanas
| fortnightly (adjective) | every other week, every two weeks | quincenal, cada dos semanas
| fortnightly (adverb) | every other week, every two weeks | quincenalmente, cada dos semanas
| biweekly (adjective) | every other week, every two weeks | quincenal, cada dos semanas
| biweekly (adverb) | every other week, every two weeks | quincenalmente, cada dos semanas
| biweekly, semiweekly (adjective) | twice a week, two times per week | bisemenal, dos veces por semena
| biweekly, semiweekly (adverb) | twice a week, two times per week | bisemenalmente, dos veces por semana
| weekly newspaper or magazine | published weekly | semanario, periódico o revista semanal
| biannual, semiannual (adjective) | twice a year, every six months | semestral, bianual, dos veces por año
| biannually (adverb) | twice a year, every six months | semestralmente, bianualmente, dos veces por año
| biennial (adjective) | every other year, every two years | bienal, cada dos años
| biennially (adverb) | every other year, every two years | bienalmente, cada dos años
| quarterly (adjective) | every three months, four times per year | trimensual, cada tres meses
| quarterly (adverb) | every three months, four times per year | trimensualmente, cada tres meses
| |
|---|
