It’s time to spice up our lives with another pair of Spanish nouns meaning very different things despite differing only in ending and gender. This week it’s the turn of masculine pimiento and feminine pimienta.
Pimiento with an -o (masculine) is pronounced as follows:
Un pimiento means a pepper or bell pepper, that typically red, yellow, orange or green fruit or capsicum that you slice or chop up for use in savoury dishes:
Cortar el pimiento en cuadraditos.
Cut the pepper into little squares.
pimientos rellenos
stuffed peppers
Pimienta with an -a (feminine) is pronounced as follows:
Frequently paired with another feminine noun, la sal (salt), la pimienta means the type of pepper you season dishes with. It’s a spice:
Por último se les añade sal y pimienta blanca al gusto.
Lastly you add salt and white pepper to taste.
pimienta negra
black pepper
Don’t forget to make any articles and adjectives agree with the noun they modify:
pimientos amarillos y de color naranja
yellow and orange (bell) peppers
pimienta molida
ground pepper
To chew over another pair of nouns whose meaning varies substantially depending on their gender and ending, come back next week.
