Continuing our posts on Spanish nouns that can be either masculine or feminine depending on meaning we look at coral.
You can listen to the pronunciation of coral in the audio clip below:
As a masculine noun, coral has several meanings.
Un coral may be a coral, a small marine soft-bodied animal (invertebrate), which forms a hard outer skeleton and, in colonies, may form reefs:
Los corales viven asociados a algas, las cuales son vitales para su desarrollo.
Corals live in association with algae, which are vital for their development.
Estaba estudiando el coral, un organismo cuyo esqueleto se desarrolla de una forma interesante.
She was studying coral, an animal whose skeleton develops in an interesting way.
un arrecife de coral
a coral reef
El coral is also coral, the hard substance made by these marine animals which is sometimes used to create beads, jewellery and other items:
Musically, un coral can be a chorale, a religious composition often involving part singing:
un coral en el estilo Bach
a chorale in the style of Bach
As a feminine noun, una coral can be a group of singers, in other words a choir. Another Spanish term for una coral is un coro (choir):
Yo canté varias veces con la coral de la iglesia.
I sang with the church choir on several occasions.
To read about other nouns whose gender varies according to sense, come back next week.
