As sure as eggs is eggs, today we’ll be separating out how the nouns huevo and hueva are used in Spanish.
Starting with the masculine noun huevo, you can listen to how it is pronounced here:
Laid by a female bird, un huevo is an oval or roundish object in a hard shell which, if fertilized and kept warm, may hatch to produce a chick. Some kinds of birds’ eggs are eaten by humans.
Estaba en el gallinero recogiendo los huevos que las gallinas acababan de poner.
She was in the henhouse collecting the eggs that had just been laid by the hens.
Dejan sus huevos en los nidos de otras aves de su misma especie.
They leave their eggs in the nests of other birds of the same species.
la producción de carne, huevos y leche
meat, egg and milk production
Un huevo is a similar object laid by other animals for their young to develop in:
Los pequeños reptiles salen de los huevos y se encaminan al mar.
The little reptiles emerge from the eggs and head for the sea.
huevos de rana
frogspawn
Just like egg, un huevo can also mean an ovum produced by a female mammal which, if fertilized by a male’s sperm, can result in new life:
Cuanto más tiempo haya fumado la mujer, menos huevos y embriones se producen.
The longer a woman has smoked, the fewer eggs and embryos are produced.
In vulgar language, huevos can mean testicles or balls:
¡Hace falta tener huevos!
You have to have balls!
Moving on to hueva (feminine) you can hear how it’s pronounced here:
La hueva is closely related to huevo. Both la hueva (singular) and las huevas (plural) are used to mean the mass of little eggs or spawn produced by female fish as well as by some other aquatic animals:
Las hembras depositan aquí las huevas.
The females leave their eggs or spawn here.
In the context of food and cookery, we translate hueva and huevas as roe. Both hueva and roe may also mean the whole fish ovary together with the eggs inside it:
la hueva de bacalao ahumada
smoked cod roe
huevas de salmón
salmon roe(s)
un saboroso paté de huevas de pescado
a tasty fish roe paté
huevas de bacalao prensadas
pressed cod roe
In some Latin American countries, hueva is a slang word used for that feeling of laziness and ennui you experience when you can’t be bothered to do something or find something boring:
¡Qué hueva!
What a drag!
¡Me da hueva! or ¡Tengo hueva!
I can’t be bothered! or I just don’t feel like it!
QUIZ TIME
How many of the underlined Spanish words connected with eggs do you know or can you guess?
un huevo pasado por agua
Añadir la yema de un huevo y un chorretín de agua.
Se comió seis huevos cocidos or huevos duros.
Se bate una clara de huevo en medio litro de agua.
De desayuno, huevos revueltos, bacón, patatas fritas y café con leche.
ANSWERS
un huevo pasado por agua
a boiled egg
Añadir la yema de un huevo y un chorretín de agua.
Add the yolk of one egg and a little dash of water.
Se comió seis huevos cocidos or huevos duros.
He ate six hard-boiled eggs.
Se bate una clara de huevo en medio litro de agua.
You beat the white of one egg in half a litre of water.
De desayuno, huevos revueltos, bacón, patatas fritas y café con leche.
For breakfast, scrambled eggs, bacon, chips and white coffee.
To crack open the differences in usage between some more similar-looking Spanish words, join us again next week.
