Here’s another opportunity to cut through the differences between a pair of related, similar-looking Spanish words. The two on the examination table today are herido and herida.
Starting with the feminine form herida, listen to how it’s pronounced here:
Una herida is damage to someone’s body caused by an accident or by deliberate intent. Depending on the context, it might be a wound (particularly if caused by a weapon) or an injury (particularly if caused accidentally):
Sufrieron heridas leves en el accidente.
They suffered minor injuries in the accident.
Las heridas sanarán, pero esto se quedará conmigo para siempre.
The physical injuries will get better, but this will stay with me for ever.
Moriría a causa de las heridas un mes más tarde.
He would die of his injuries a month later.
Allí le curaron las heridas y parecía recuperarse.
There his wounds were tended to and he seemed to recover.
Fue tratada en la escena por heridas de bala.
She was treated at the scene for bullet wounds.
Heridas can also be emotional or psychological:
Tuvo un exnovio que la causó heridas emocionales y psicológicas.
She had an ex-boyfriend who caused her emotional and psychological damage or harm.
Additionally, una herida is a woman or girl who has been injured or hurt:
El atropello se produjo a las 20 horas y la herida fue trasladada en ambulancia al hospital.
The accident happened at 8pm and the injured woman was ambulanced to hospital.
Moving on to herido, you can listen to how it is pronounced here:
Un herido is a man or boy who has been injured, wounded or hurt:
El herido había sido hospitalizado.
The injured man had been taken to hospital.
In the plural heridos can obviously refer to a mixed group of injured people too:
Entre los heridos había un niño de cinco años.
Among those injured was a five-year-old boy.
No hay datos de cuántos heridos hubo.
There are no details about how many were injured or hurt.
En total, hubo 59 muertos y aproximadamente 500 heridos.
In total there were 59 dead and around 500 injured or wounded.
As well as being a noun, herido is also an adjective meaning injured, wounded or hurt. It comes from the verb herir, meaning to wound or injure.
¿Estás herido?
Are you hurt?
Cuatro personas resultaron heridas en el ataque.
Four people were injured or wounded in the attack.
Dos mujeres heridas están en unidades de cuidados intensivos.
Two injured women are in intensive care.
El soldado enemigo estaba herido y ni siquiera intentó levantar su rifle.
The enemy soldier was wounded and didn’t even attempt to raise his rifle.
DID YOU KNOW?
In English we refer to the casualties, meaning those injured or dead in an incident. In Spanish los heridos (or las heridas if they are all female) is used to refer to injured casualties and las víctimas (also meaning victims) is often used to refer to dead ones. Fatal military casualties are called las bajas.
La mayoría de los heridos fueron tratados en los hospitales de la ciudad.
Most of the casualties or those injured were treated at the city’s hospitals.
Este ataque produjo 308 víctimas oficialmente identificadas.
This attack resulted in 308 casualties who’ve been officially identified.
Las bajas fueron muy grandes por ambos lados.
There were heavy casualties on both sides.
To sew up the differences in usage between some more similar-looking Spanish words, join us again next week.
