This week we dip into the meanings of another pair of Spanish nouns that are used in dizzyingly different ways 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). This week’s words are marea and mareo.
Let’s start with the feminine: marea. You can listen to the pronunciation here:
A natural phenomenon linked to the gravitational pull of la luna (moon) and el sol (sun), la marea means tide, that advancing and retreating of the sea so familiar to those living along the coast:
Todavía está subiendo la marea.
The tide is still coming in.
La marea había bajado durante la noche.
The tide had gone out in the night.
Con la marea alta la escultura permanece cubierta por el agua.
At high tide the sculpture is covered by water.
Antes hay que consultar las tablas de mareas.
You need to check the tide tables beforehand.
Now let’s turn to the masculine, mareo, whose pronunciation can be heard here:
El mareo is a much less pleasant phenomenon, or rather a symptom. It can mean the light-headed feeling you get when you think you may be about to faint, the dizziness you experience when your surroundings appear to be going round and round, or a feeling of sickness, as when you’re sailing on a heavy sea, experiencing turbulence on a plane, or perhaps just travelling in a car or coach:
Como no había comido nada desde las tres de la tarde, a media mañana sufrió un mareo.
As he hadn’t eaten anything since 3pm, by mid-morning he felt faint.
Le dio un mareo y cayó al suelo.
He felt faint and fell to the floor.
No mejoraba y sufría mareos y sudores.
He wasn’t getting any better and was suffering from dizziness and sweating.
Los auxiliares de vuelo atienden a los pasajeros que sufren mareos.
Flight attendants attend to those passengers suffering from airsickness.
Me dio un mareo en el barco.
I got seasick on the boat.
Los túneles estaban tan contaminados que los obreros sufrían continuamente mareos.
The tunnels were so contaminated that the workers constantly felt sick.
DID YOU KNOW?
Related to the above are the verb marear and the adjective mareado. They may come in handy especially if you ever need to see a doctor in a Spanish-speaking country (though let’s hope you don’t!):
¿Qué tal está el mar? Mi amiga se marea con facilidad.
How’s the sea looking? My friend tends to get seasick.
Me mareo cuando me levanto.
I feel dizzy/faint when I stand up.
A quien tres gotas de sangre le marean no podrá ser nunca cirujano.
Anyone who feels faint at a few drops of blood would never make a surgeon.
Aquel día estaba mareado, con el estómago revuelto.
He was feeling sick that day, with an upset stomach.
Me sentía mareada y con nausea.
I felt dizzy and sick.
To read about another pair of nouns whose meaning undergoes a sea change depending on their gender and ending, come back next week.
