"Los elefantes beben agua."
Translation:The elephants drink water.
34 Comments
the word elephante is too fast , it said, el elefante -> elelelefante -_-
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More than can be typed out here! :)
You are correct that some animals have both masculine and feminine word counterparts, like with 'un/los gato(s)' or 'una/las gata(s)'. That said though, not all animal genders follow this pattern.
In your second example, 'el caballo' can refer to simply a horse that you don't know the gender of, or a male horse/stallion. 'La caballa', on the other hand is not a horse at all, but a type of fish (mackerel)! 'La yuega' would be the word you are looking for if you wanted to say a female horse/mare.
(Nitpicking now, but a filly is actually a young female horse, and would be 'la potranca') :) Included below is an excerpt from more in-depth explanation of the topic, with the link included at the end!
- Some animals have both a masc. & fem. form that look very similar (e.g. '
un/una perro/a' or 'un/una gato/a')- And some use the same word regardless of animal's gender, even though they may look similar to other gendered nouns. (e.g. '
un cangrejo(m.)', 'una jirafa(f.)' or 'un rinoceronte(m.)')- Some may have different words for both genders (e.g. '
un toro(m.)'/'una vaca(f.)' or 'un caballo(m.)'/'una yegua(f.)')- And sometimes the word that looks like the word for the opposite gender means something totally different (e.g. '
un pato(m.; 'a duck')' & 'una pata(f.; 'a leg')')
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Not sure I've ever heard that before! Less of a mouthful for sure, haha.
Thanks for sharing! :)
"¡Un caballo caballa bocadillo, por favor!"
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It is 'beben '. Try thinking about it like this,
'The elephants (they) drink water.'
'Los elefantes (ellos) beben agua.'
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Because 'Los elefantes' tells you it is multiple elephants (as opposed to 'El elefante'. The elephant drinks water would be, 'El elefante bebe agua.'
Hope this helps :)
is there anyone from Latin America? please tell me how beben is pronounced in Latin America. Should it be pronounced as [beben] or as [beven]? Gracias.
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When there is a vowel as the last letter of the noun, to get the plural, just add an "s" and keep the vowel the same. With a constanant as the last letter, add "es". Because elephante ends with the vowel "e", all you would do to get the plural is add an "s", making it elephantes.