Opposites — Antónimos
 

This is a basic, non-exhaustive list of opposites in English and Spanish.

Spanish	English
derecha – izquierda	right – left
arriba – abajo	up – down
dentro – fuera	inside – outside
caliente – frío	hot – cold
grande – pequeño	big – small
blanco – negro	white – black
limpio – sucio	clean – dirty
feliz – triste	happy – sad
alto – bajo	tall – short
claro – oscuro	light – dark
fuerte – débil	strong – weak
rápido – lento	fast – slow
bonito – feo	pretty – ugly
guapo – feo	handsome – ugly
simpático – antipático	kind – unkind
simple – complicado	simple – complicated
fácil – difícil	easy – hard
hábil – torpe	skillful/skilful – clumsy
amable – grosero	polite – rude
nuevo – usado	new – used
joven – viejo	young – old
recto – curvo	straight – curved
interesante – aburrido	interesting – boring
abierto – cerrado	open – close
femenino – masculino	feminine – masculine
seco – mojado	dry – wet
suave – áspero	soft – rough
sano – enfermo	healthy – sick
cuerdo – loco	sane – crazy
cerca – lejos	near – far
ganador – perdedor	winner – loser
luz – oscuridad	light – darkness
bien – mal	good – bad
norte – sur	North – South
este/oriente – oeste/poniente	East – West
risa – llanto	laughter – crying
entrada – salida	entrance – exit
salud – enfermedad	health – sickness
amigo – enemigo	friend – enemy
amor – odio	love – hate
noche – día	night – day
optimismo – pesimismo	optimism – pessimism
perder – encontrar	to lose – to find
abrir – cerrar	to open – to close
amar – odiar	to love – to hate
vivir – morir	to live – to die
encender – apagar	to light – to put out
dulce - amargo	sweet – bitter
dulce - agrio	sweet – sour
aquí/acá - ahí/allí/allá	here – there
cielo/paraíso - infierno	heaven – hell

e	i
noche o día	day or night
norte o sur	north or south
este u oeste	east or west
amor u odio	love or hate
optimismo o pesimismo	optimism or pessimism
bien o mal	good or bad
amigo o enemigo	friend or enemy

:)

Bueno o malo

Simpático o feo

Símpatico - Antipático

Bonito - Feo

:)

feo - guapo

guapo - contento

hmmm guapo = bravucón, aunque en algunas parte lo usan como enojado.

Bravo = fiero

I'd say triste - contento.

Why opuestos instead of antónimos, which would be the correct word? I think that in English antonym is also the correct word. :thinking:

Yes, but at least here in the US they call it "opposites"

Well, I think that there is a slight difference. I think that "antonyms" are specifically words with opposite meanings. I think that "opposites" are opposing ideas.

It may be a semantic difference, but I really am asking for "opposites" as they are taught to children. (Seriously!) Like on Sesame Street. :)


Black & white. Happy & sad. Up & down. Right & left. Good & bad. Etc.

These are pairings that come naturally to children learning to talk because they are so often used together. But to adult learners of a second language, they aren't always taught together, so they're not coming so naturally to me.

Re: Guapo - In the Caribbean ( Rep. Dom.) when I first learned Spanish,
the meanings I remember were good-looking and/or angry.

Ejemplos:

Ella es muy guapa. She's really nice-looking.

Él está guapo conmigo. He's mad at me.

Correcto.

Generalmente, por lo menos en Chile se usa como good-looks, bravucón/pendenciero y osado/valiente.

Bueno y la selección de palabras chileñas suena bien...

:-)

Thanks, I try.

Más opuestos

Ganadores - Perdedores

As Irma said, in Spanish they're called "antónimos". A Spanish speaker wouldn't be comfortable with "opuestos", I think. :thinking:

Are children taught words in pairs like this, call it whichever you will...??

Sure, they learn synonyms and antonyms in first years of school... and in Plaza Sésamo (Sesame Street) :D ...but it's nothing "specially special". ;)

I'll add to the list as soon as I have some time to check the English translations. :)

I have more trouble understanding "Plaza Sésamo" than I do the Spanish "Noticias"..... :) Well, call them whichever is the most acceptable word in Spanish, I want to learn these things like children would. Thanks, Malila!! :)

What I meant is that they do learn them, because they learn word classifications (sinónimos, antónimos, homófonos, etc.), but that's not something that keeps any special dedication in school programs.
AND: they are not "whichevers", but "antónimos". :p

I've added some pairs to the list. Please note, however, that there can be nuances in meanings and intensity for each word.

Thanks, Malila!! :) You ROCK!! :)

Esta tema es muy enteresante!

aqui - hay, alli

dulce - amargo

paraiso - infierno

blanca - negra

This is all I can think for now. :)
vita32

Thanks for these.

The opposite of aquí could be ahí, allí, or allá. (hay = there is/there are)

blanca - negra (this has already been entered (we use the masculine form when listing adjectives that have both a masculine and a feminine form))

hombre - mujer
dador - tomador
tranquilo - ruidoso
ahorrador - gastador
humilde - orgulloso
humilidad - orgullo
adelante - hacia atras
valiente - cobarde
introvertido - extrovertido
si - no
verdad - mentira
sonrisa - foncir el ceño


Corregir me por favor.

There you have it.
On the "corregidme" that is typical Spanish. For Latinamérica is better "Corríjanme, por favor" :)

JPablo,
Gracias por tus correciones y clarificaciones. Una mas pregunta (one more question):
?hay un equivalente en español por estos antonimos: forward - backward? (is there an equivalent in Spanish for these antonyms: forward - backward)?
Gracias.

Hacia delante - hacia atrás.

:)

irmamar, gracias.:)

@Pablo: According to the DRAE, what you said is true about "extravertido" preferred over "extrovertido", but not about "introvertido". :)

@Angélica, thank you. (Sorry for the :footinmouth:.)
Yes, "introvertido" :good:
NOT "*intravertido" :bad:

De nada y gracias por clarificaciones.:)

I noticed that the english translation of "amargo" on the list of antonyms is "sour". I thought that amargo = bitter in English.

Thank you, Vita. It's been corrected. :)

Yes, but if this a list of opposites, I'm not sure it is correct, because the 'opposite' of sweet is always sour = agrio, ácido.

Also, simpático – antipático kind – unkind
is surely nice - unpleasant, which is not quite the same thing.

@Perikles: :banghead: That's the reason why I hate making this kind of lists. :D

"Antipático" is for me an unkind behaviour of people, and I learnt "ácido"/"salado" y "dulce"/"amargo", but if everyone agrees on the changes you propose, the list will be edited and corrected. :)

I really don't mind one way or the other, but I think if you asked 100 people what the opposite of 'sweet' is, 99 would say 'sour'. (The other one would say ¿qué? :D). And for me, being unpleasant is not the same as being unkind, but it's really not worth discussing the difference for a list.

Perhaps you should remove the request for comments below the list. :D

Oh God - I've just asked my wife what the opposite of 'sweet' is, and she went into a 5-minute trance :hmm: and said 'sweet' has no opposite. Either 'sour' or 'bitter' :banghead::banghead: But she did agree that most would say 'sour'.

To me "Agrio" does not have an opposite, per se.

Food turns sour when it decays. Or it is a phase of the decaying process.

Sweet<> Not sweet

Salty <> Not salty.

Etc. :)

The opposite of sweet is sour. Yes, one can refer to things "souring" as they go bad, but that is not the main usage of the word.

In a technical way, there may be no opposite of "sweet". I'm not a chemist nor a biologist, so I have no way of determining if something that tastes sour is causing an "opposite" reaction in the human body. I can tell you for certain though, in the minds of the majority (the *vast* majority) of native English speakers the taste of "sour" is opposite to "sweet". One might make the same observation of one's disposition; "He's a very sweet man" or "He's a very sour man" are used as opposites. We eat sweet and sour sauce, sweet and sour candies.

I hope this helps confirm that the most commonly referred to antonym of "sweet" is "sour".

This link may be useful. :)

Why nobody said "salado"? :thinking:

I did, but in English.

I thought these weren't antonyms.

If I'm not mistaken, not all opposites are antonyms but all antonyms are opposites. This particular combination may not be an antonym, so if I'm wrong about that I apologize.

One thing of note I should mention. While the opposite of "sweet" always turns up "sour" in my mind, the opposite of "bitter" is certainly "sweet". So while I wouldn't think "bitter" is the best word to list as the opposite, it matches the description. I asked a few other people those questions and got the same answers ("What is the opposite of sweet? Sour. What is the opposite of bitter? Sweet."), for whatever it's worth.

'Antonym' can have a more restricted definition than 'opposite', but outside the realm of lexical semantics, they are usually treated as being identical.

The problem is that a lot of words do not have an exact opposite. If sweet is a taste sensation, it does not necessarily have an opposite sensation such as hot versus cold.

Not all opposites are complementaries (ie hot vs cold, good vs bad). That is only one type of opposite. For example, a "parent" vs a "child" are not complementaries, but they are a type of opposite. So even if it's not as straightforward as "tall" vs "short", the word "sweet" still does have an opposite. It might, in fact, have multiple opposites as I pointed out in a previous post (example: "stationary" vs "moving" "speeding" "flying" or a number of other words).

To add to what I said before, antonyms are gradable opposites; I'm still not 100% certain whether sweet to sour is gradable (I'm sure there are ways to measure how sweet or sour something is, I just don't know them), which is why I said I'm not sure if it was an antonym or not. It is, however, an opposite, and either way my statement regarding antonyms stands: All antonyms are opposites, but not all opposites are antonyms.

I think the opposite of sour is bitter.:twocents:

If we think of antonyms as true opposites (that is they must be on the opposite ends of a stick or pole, so to speak and not one lying somewhere in between the two ends). On the taste gradient, sweet will lie on one end of the pole and bitter will lie on the opposite end; and sour will lie somewhere between these two(sweet/bitter) why? Because, sweet is a very pleasant taste and I don't know that there are other tastes that would surpass this attribute. Bitter is very unpleasant and all other tastes (salty/sour etc.) will be found in this imaginary gradient but not at the extreme end. I think of antonyms as always lying on opposite extremes.

The figurative use of sweet/bitter as opposites is also logical. For example, one may say: Oh how sweet it would be to be reunited with my loved one/ones; and also: I fought bitterly with my spouse ( we don't say I fought sourly); Although sour is sometimes used to describe a relationship that had gone bad. It does not describe it in an extreme way. The word "Bitter" had been used to describe extreme divorce procedures between husbands and wives. This is just my opinion and I'm open to be persuaded otherwise.:):thinking:

I totally understand the (ongoing) debate about "opposites" vs. "antonyms". But when I originally proposed this thread, I was only going for the kinds of things that are taught to school children ... at least taught to school children in the US ... up/down, black/white, crazy/sane, left/right, east/west, etc.....

Just two small corrections: no space before a comma and if you change the place of the accent mark, the word will have to be pronounced differently. :)

Apático - Dinámico