This week we start looking at pairs of Spanish nouns whose meanings can be completely different depending on whether they are masculine (and end in -o in the singular and -os in the plural) or feminine (and end in -a in the singular and -as in the plural). First up are cuento and cuenta and their commonest meanings.
Let’s start with cuento, whose pronunciation you can listen to in the audio clip below:
Un cuento with an –o (masculine) usually has something to do with storytelling.
So un cuento may be a story or tale, often a fictional one:
Te voy a contar un cuento.
I’m going to tell you a story.
Figura en todos los cuentos de hadas.
It features in all the fairytales.
Todos estos cuentos giran en torno a tres temas.
All these stories revolve around three themes.
And un cuento may also be a short story, such as those collected in anthologies:
una colección de cuentos
a collection of short stories
Then taking a darker direction, un cuento may be a story deliberately made up to deceive:
No te creas sus cuentos, no dice la verdad.
Don’t listen to her stories; she doesn’t tell the truth.
Ese niño siempre inventa cuentos para justificar sus travesuras.
That boy is always making up stories to justify his naughtiness.
Now let’s turn to cuenta. Firstly, here’s the pronunciation:
You may not always enjoy receiving una cuenta with an –a (feminine), since it can be a bill (sometimes known in the US as a check), referring to an amount to be paid:
La cuenta, por favor.
Can we have the bill, please?
Volvió al hotel y pagó la cuenta.
She went back to the hotel and paid the bill.
Most adults probably have at least one cuenta (feminine) as it also means an account, referring to the arrangement between a client and a financial institution, shop or service provider:
Por favor, envíeme los detalles de su cuenta de PayPal.
Please send me your PayPal account details.
Usted debe tener su propia cuenta de correo.
You must have your own email account.
Mathematically, cuenta with an –a (feminine) relates to the process of counting or the figure arrived at through such a process, and often translates as a count, calculation, sum (or similar), depending on the context:
Perdí la cuenta de cuántas veces me lo dijo.
I lost count of the number of times he told me.
Que algún matemático haga la cuenta.
Let some mathematician do the calculations or sums.
Le hizo la cuenta de los gastos.
She tallied up his expenses.
Some of us have an irrational dread of having to do las cuentas (feminine plural), which in finance and bookkeeping can mean the accounts:
según las cuentas anuales auditadas por la firma Price Waterhouse
according to the annual accounts audited by Price Waterhouse
Todavía hay que preparar las cuentas.
We still have to prepare the accounts.
Religious people sometimes use beads to keep count of the prayers they’ve said. What do you think they call these rosary beads in Spanish?
Well done if you guessed cuentas, which can mean other kinds of beads too:
un collar de cuentas
a string of (rosary) beads
Cuenta (feminine) is also used in expressions, such as a cuenta de (at the expense of), a fin de cuentas (at the end of the day), caer en la cuenta (to catch on), darse cuenta (to notice, realize), and tener en cuenta (to bear in mind):
A fin de cuentas, esto resulta mucho más fácil.
At the end of the day, this is a lot easier.
Cuando finalmente se dieron cuenta de nuestra presencia, nos saludaron.
When they finally noticed we were there, they greeted us.
No se da cuenta de que esta operación ha sido un fracaso.
He doesn’t realize this operation has been a failure.
Los trabajadores comieron a cuenta de la empresa.
The workers ate at the firm’s expense.
For more expressions with cuenta, see the dictionary entry.
Remember to make any articles and adjectives agree with the noun they modify:
un cuento brevísimo de Augusto Monterroso
a very short story by Augusto Monterroso
Todos estos cuentos son muy cortos.
All these stories are very short.
Necesito abrir una cuenta bancaria.
I need to open a bank account.
las cuentas financieras
financial accounts
DID YOU KNOW?
The nouns cuento and cuenta are both related to the verb contar, which means both to tell and to count:
¿Por qué nos cuenta todo esto?
Why’s she telling us all this?
No saben contar.
They can’t count.
Even though cuenta (feminine) is a more usual word for count, cuento (masculine) is used particularly in the expression sin cuento (countless). And undescuento (masculine) is a discount:
Tiene fotos sin cuento de su marido.
She has countless photos of her husband.
La oferta incluye un descuento del 4% sobre el precio de mercado.
The offer includes a 4% discount on the market price.
To read about another pair of nouns whose meaning varies substantially depending on their gender and ending, come back next week.
