Enjoy some hermaphrodite compound words in this free Spanish lesson..........

A Spanish lesson of some interesting compound words made of 2 nouns, one masculine and one feminine

like hermaphrodite compound words!

Well that is what we have called them, anyway.

Here we look at a bunch of interesting words that are compound words with two nouns, but with a twist.

1. The two compounds do not have an adjective like:el plato combinado, where combinado is an adjective.

2. The compound word is made of two nouns, and each of the nouns is a different gender.

So the word has a male and a female noun together to form like a compound word.

Here are some of these examples.

Note the gender is determined by the first noun.


el pez espada

which is Spanish for swordfish.
el pez is masculine and la espada is feminine.

So because the first bit, the el pez bit is masculine the word is masculine.

spanish-for-fish-pez

el pez = fish
Imagine the male fish (m) is PESSimistic about his future!


el pez sierra

which is Spanish for sawfish.
el pez is masculine and la sierra (saw) is feminine.

Again, because the first bit, the el pez is masculine the word is masculine.


el taco aguja

which is Latin American Spanish for high heel (as in high heeled shoe) or spike-heel. It refers to a sharp heel.

el taco is heel easily remembered by imagining your heel crushing a Mexican taco. It is masculine and la aguja, which is a feminine word, is the Spanish word for needle.

Note that el taco, as in the thing you buy from a Mexican restaurant is actually a Mexican word when used in the foody sense.

Also used el tacón de aguja.


el sofá-cama

is the Spanish word for sofa bed. El sofá is masculine, and la cama is feminine.

As taught earlier in this free lesson the new word takes the gender of the first word, which in this case is el sofá .


la silla hamaca

is a Spanish compound word for hammock chair.


el hombre-araña

is Spiderman!


el hombre rana

is a frogman - el hombre being masculine and la rana (spider), a feminine word in Spanish.


el coche-cama

is the coach that you sleep in, as in one of those buses with sleeping capabilities.


la casa muséo

is a museum house in Spanish. This might be for example the former house of a famous person, which has been made in to a museum to commemorate the person's life.

Note: la casa is feminine, and el muséo is masculine.


If you find any more let us know! so we can add them to the lessons.

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Spanish Compound Words with a feminine and a masculine side!
A Free Spanish Lesson to help you Learn Spanish© 2004-2011 Learn Spanish Help – A Resource for the those Learning to speak Spanish

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