Los animales

This is the session that shows most clearly what a frequency-ordered course does to you. Perro is in the first hundred words. Gato follows quickly. Then nothing, for a very long time, because people simply do not say sheep very often.

You have been able to discuss money, work and feelings for fifteen chapters. You have not been able to name a cow. That is not a flaw in the ordering; it is what the ordering is for.

Gender is not always about sex

Most animals have a fixed grammatical gender that has nothing to do with the animal in front of you. La serpiente is a snake, male or female. El pez is a fish. If you need to specify, Spanish says macho or hembra: una serpiente macho is a male snake, and the noun stays feminine.

But the common domestic animals do have pairs, because people have needed them: perro and perra, gato and gata, caballo and yegua, toro and vaca. The more useful the animal has been to humans, the more likely it has two words.

Be a little careful with perra and zorra. Both have the same secondary meaning they have in English, and both are stronger in Spanish.

pez and pescado

Pez is a fish that is swimming. Pescado is a fish that is dinner. The distinction is absolute and Spanish speakers never blur it. Pescado is literally the past participle of pescar, to fish: the fished thing.

English has this for meat and never extended it. We say pork and beef, from French, but we say fish for both states.

ave and pajaro

Pájaro is a small bird, the everyday word. Ave is a bird in the formal or scientific sense, and it takes el for the same sound reason as el agua.

Aves on a menu means poultry.