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
"Secret" (sustantivo) y "secrete" (verbo)= "secreto" y "secretar".
bear = soportar
beer = cerveza
Natalia dice, "No puedo soportar el sabor de la cerveza amarga."
Natalia says, “I cannot bear the taste of bitter beer.”
(Please correct my Spanish, if necessary.)
Torta= Sandwich
Otra, otro= Other, Another
Quiero otra torta.
I want another sandwich.
Cerrar, serrar- close, saw.
Para cumplir su truco de magia, el mago tenía que cerrar/serrar la caja de madera.
In order to carry out his magic trick, the magician had to close/ saw the wood box.
Asta- horn, flagpole, etc.
Hasta- up to, even, including
Hasta la el asta fue dañada por el tornado.
Even the flagpole was damaged by the tornado.
Bello- adjective beautiful
Vello- noun body hair
A ella le encantaba el vello bello de su pecho.
She loved the beautiful hair on his chest.
reed ~ read & (past tense ) read ~ red
. . . . . ? . . . . . ? . . . . . ? . . . . . ?
junco, caña; lengüeta ~ leer & leí, leyó ~ rojo, tinto
Then - entonces
Than - que
Another one that natives English speakers mistake a lot. I guess because of pronunciation.
Vaca : cow
Baca: luggage rack
¿No estarás pensando en llevarte la vaca en la baca, no?
You are not thinking of taking that cow on the luggage rack, are you?
Taint – ain’t
He ain't here. / No está aquí.
His reputation was tainted by the scandal. / Su reputación quedó manchada por el escándalo.
I chose this because I remember in tutorials saying to the lecturer 'it's not fair' and he saying to me 'You will learn that the law is not fair'
Fair
just 1. justo/imparcial
book fair /antique fair 2. feria
hair or complexion 3. rubio/güero
weather 4. buen tiempo
Fare
ticket - full fare, train fare 1. precio de billete
passenger 2.tarifa
food - plain fare/traditional fare 3.comida
To fare well/badly 4 pasar bien/mal
Lots more - try Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary
Bought (compró) y brought (trajo)
Aun habiéndolo sabido no se lo habría dicho. / Even if I’d known about it, I wouldn’t have told him.
¿Aún estás aquí? / Are you still here?
Dios - God, god adiós - goodbye
I have a story to tell about this. I was listening a dialogue on SpanishPod.net.
One lady kept saying. Gracias adiós.
I thought this was a Spanish idiom meaning, thanks, but no thanks.
As if if were, Thanks, goodbye, I'm out of here, no thanks.
They were talking about cosmetic surgery and she was basically saying that she had never had any plastic surgery and wanted to avoid it.
Only later did I realize that she was saying Gracias a Dios. Thanks to God. 
It turns out she just meant she was thankful that she has not had to have such surgery.
Gracias a Dios, ahora entiendo esta frase
Abría- imperfect abrir form, was opening, used to open
Habría- would have.
Si Juan había hubiera sabido que un murciélago iba a volar por la ventana mientras la abría nunca la habría abierto.
If Juan had known that a bat was going to fly through the window while he was opening it he never would have opened it.
