Spanish word of the week: fondo

This week’s Spanish word of the week is fondo

Fondo is a noun that means bottom; end. To hear how fondo is pronounced, you can click the icon below:

Fondo has two main meanings, bottom and end, so it’s another interesting case where Spanish uses one word, and English two.

Descendieron al fondo del cráter. They got down to the bottom of the crater.

La caja se hundió en el fondo del lago. The box sank to the bottom of the lake.

From its idea of being at the bottom of something, en el fondo is used to say how you really think or feel:

En el fondo es buena persona. Deep down he’s a good person.

The other main meaning of fondo is end:

Tu habitación está al fondo del pasillo. Your room is at the end of the corridor.

La barra está al fondo de la cafetería. The bar is at the (far) end of the cafe. 

Notice that the phrase al fondo de is the exact parallel of at the end of in structure.

To help you remember the link between the two meanings, both are the most distant point of something, but one is thought of vertically, = bottom, and the other horizontally, =end.

Come back next week to learn a new word!