In another blog post on Spanish nouns whose gender varies according to meaning we look at the commonest senses of margen.
You can listen to the pronunciation of margen in the audio clip below:
Margen is usually feminine when it means the bank of a river or the shore of a body of water:
Caminamos por la margen del río disfrutando del paisaje.
We walked along the riverbank, enjoying the scenery.
la margen norte del Ebro
the north bank of the Ebro
El castillo estaba situado en la margen opuesta del lago.
The castle was situated on the opposite shore of the lake.
Margen is usually masculine in most other senses, including when it means margin.
- This might be any of the blank spaces between the edges of a page and what’s on it:
Sacó un lápiz y escribió algo al margen.
She took out a pencil and wrote something in the margin.
- Or it could be the difference between amounts:
El partido va a ganar con un amplio margen.
The party’s going to win by a wide margin.
Se impuso al final por un margen menor del que se esperaba.
In the end, he won by a smaller margin than expected.
Actualmente existe un margen de 70 centímetros en las defensas contra las inundaciones.
There’s currently a margin of 70 centimetres in the flood defences.
Deja un margen de tiempo suficiente al partido para buscar otro candidato.
It leaves enough (of a margin of) time for the party to find another candidate.
- Or it could be the profit on a business transaction:
Genera un atractivo margen de ganancias.
It’s generating an attractive profit margin.
Margen is also masculine when it means the scope, room, opportunity etc to do something:
Le puedo asegurar que queda muy poco margen para la mala utilización de los fondos.
I can assure you there’s very little scope or opportunity for misuse of funds.
Hay que dejar un margen suficiente que permita al conductor ver las ruedas del vehículo delantero.
You need to leave enough room for the driver to be able to see the wheels of the car in front.
Note that the stress falls on the first syllable of margen. To keep the emphasis the same in the plural, a written accent is required regardless of gender:
en las márgenes del arroyo
on the banks of the stream
Aparece una nota en uno de los márgenes.
There’s a note in one of the margins.
Los árboles están muy cercanos a los márgenes de la carretera.
The trees are very close to the sides of the road.
No es tan competitivo porque se vende poco y los márgenes son más reducidos.
It isn’t so competitive because sales are low and margins are smaller.
Why not come back next week for another in our series of posts on nouns whose gender varies according to meaning!
