Game: One letter changes all !
This is a bit of an exercise in vocabulary both English and Spanish.
Some words are often misspelled and have a completely different meaning.
Let's take these:
through - trough (a trevés - abrevadero).
lie - lye (mentira - lejía).
I would like you to write a pair of English or Spanish words that are almost identical except for one letter. Next to it please write the most common Spanish/English meaning.
I'm looking for examples like the above, where the words can be easily confused. Pairs like "train - rain" are not as much fun.
If you can think of Spanish words that work the same way, by all means go ahead and write the Spanish pair, with the English meaning next to them!
Only O N E pair in each post , thanks
333 Answers
Casado Married
Cansado Tired
¿Estás cansado/a?
¿Estás casado/a?
This happened to me! When a lady I was staying with while doing a language course collected me from the station after a long journey I honestly couldn't figure whether she was asking me whether I was tired or married - I know I got it wrong! I now remember cansado as tired because it has the sn of snore back to front in it.
I take the view whatever works for you in remembering a word is fine
There are also three words: libre, libro, and libra.
libre = free
el libro = book
la libra = pound
Scent - el perfume
Sent - mandar, pretérito
Cent - un centavo
Mandó a su hija a la tienda para comprar el perfume nuevo que estaba en venta por un centavo.
She sent her daughter to the store to buy the new scent that was on sale for one cent.
This following doesn’t precisely follow the thread but It’s close enough. First, an explanation:
My father served in the Army Air Corp (predecessor of the Air Force) during WWII as a bombardier. While in Italy on R&R he was asked by a coronel to fetch his, the coronel’s, sweatheart. My dad took a jeep to complete the task. On the way back to the coronel with the young lady, he was driving kind of fast and he knew no Italian. She kept telling him “Basta! Basta!”. He thought she was trying to say, “Faster, faster!” in English. He received more than two cent’s worth from the coronel. This was after Italy’s surrender, of course.
herd - a large group of animals that are kept together as livestock.
heard - past tense of hear which is to be told or informed of; a sound made that is perceived by the ear.
Bowl - el bol
Boll, the seed pod of a cotton or flax plant - la cápsula
Bole, tree trunk - el tronco de árbol
Hizo un bol del tronco de un cerezo y luego lo llenó con cápsulas de algodón.
He made a bowl from the bole of a cherry tree then filled it with cotton bolls.
Ripe and Unripe Cotton Bolls
Flocculation=floculación (química)
Fluctuation=Fluctuación
Hoar=escarcha
Horror=horror
Pair one: Fate, fete- suerte/destio, fiesta
Pair two: feat, feet- hazaña, pies
Fate forced him to spend the whole time at the fete on his own two feet which was quite a feat.
La suerte lo obligó a quedarse de pie todo el tiempo en la fiesta, lo que era un logro difícil.
Week - la semana
Weak - débil
El niño le dijo a su madre que comer el brócoli la semana pasada le había hecho sentir débil.
The boy told his mother that eating broccoli last week had made him feel weak.
Groan- gruñir
Grown- form of grow, crecer, other
Cuando vio a su sobrino, tuvo que gruñir, Ay, has crecido mucho.
When he saw his nephew, he had to groan, My, you have grown a lot.
Sear- chamuscar, quemar
Seer- adivino, profeto, vidente
Sere- marchito, muy seco.
The seer predicted he would sear his hand on the metal car that he was going to find amongst the sere vegetation in the desert.
La adivina previo que se quemaría la mano en el coche de metal que iba a encontrar entre la vegetación marchita en el desierto.
flu. _. Strictly short for influenza, an illness. -. gripe
flue. In a chimney or heating system. Humero/ducto
flew. Past tense of fly - volé, voló
There have been some outbreaks of bird (avian) flu in the UK
Ha habido brotes de gripe aviar en el Reino Unido
Chord - el acorde
Cord - la cuerda
Cored - quitar el corazón a, pretérito
En una secuencia espontánea reminiscente de un dibujo de Rube Goldberg, la radio lo tocó un acorde ruidoso, lo cual sobresaltó un perro, lo cual tiró de una cuerda, lo cual volcó una herramienta de cocina, lo cual se cayó y le quitó el corazón a una manzana.
In a spontaneous sequence reminiscent of a Rube Goldberg drawing, the radio played a loud chord, which startled a dog, which pulled on a cord, which knocked over a kitchen tool, which fell down and cored an apple.
Lamb- cordero
lam- to be on the lam (US) ser fugitivo de la justicia
Después de perder uno de las animales a su cargo, el hijo del pastor tuvo que decirle a su padre: "hay un cordero que escapó".
After losing one of the animals in his charge, the son of the shepherd had to tell his father: "there's a lamb on the lam."
