Today we’ll be examining the commonest meanings of two more similar-looking Spanish nouns with different genders, endings and the rest: these are resto (masculine) and resta (feminine).
You can listen to the pronunciation of resto here:
El resto is whatever remains after a quantity or number has been removed. It translates as the rest or sometimes the remainder:
Pasé el resto de la mañana triste.
I spent the rest of the morning feeling sad.
El resto de los pasajeros eran funcionarios o soldados de permiso.
The rest or remainder of the passengers were civil servants or soldiers on leave.
si le queda un resto de decencia
if he has any decency left or if he has a shred of decency left
In arithmetic el resto is the amount left over when one number cannot be exactly divided by another – the remainder:
Si se divide 239 por 7, el resto es 1.
If you divide 239 by 7, the remainder is 1 or there is 1 left over.
In the plural, los restos has a variety of different uses. After a meal, you may have some restos – leftovers or scraps:
Es difícil que de una pequeña lata de mejillones queden restos a los pocos minutos de abrirla.
It’s unlikely there would be any leftovers from a small tin of mussels a few minutes after opening it.
un mantel de hule, en el que aún quedaban las migas y otros restos de comida
an oilcloth tablecloth on which there were still some crumbs and other scraps from the meal
Utiliza el hilo dental para eliminar los restos que quedan entre los dientes.
She uses dental floss to get rid of the remnants of food between her teeth.
In Spain and all over the Mediterranean area, you’ll find a lot of restos romanos and restos moros – Roman remains and Moorish remains, what’s left from these past civilizations. Restos can also refer to bodily remains.
restos de murallas medievales
remains of medieval walls
los restos de 25 esqueletos de la época romana
the remains of 25 skeletons from the Roman era
Los restos from an explosion might be the wreckage, debris or rubble, depending on what has been affected and how badly:
los restos del avión
the plane wreckage
En la calle quedaron los restos de la tragedia.
On the street visible signs of the tragedy were still in evidence or debris from the tragedy was still in evidence.
Moving on to resta you can listen to its pronunciation here:
La resta is a mathematical operation in which amounts are subtracted; it means subtraction:
errores en la suma y la resta
errors in addition and subtraction
Hago la resta 45678 menos 45654 y me da 24.
I do the subtraction 45678 minus 45654, which gives me 24.
una suma, una resta, una división y una multiplicación
an addition, a subtraction, a division and a multiplication
Join us again next week as we continue totting up the differences in usage between similar-looking Spanish nouns.
