Treintena

Tomisimo

May 20, 2009 01:21 PM

Treintena

I overheard the word treintena today: "Tengo una treintena de alumnos". My question is, (1) how common is this usage,as opposed to saying "Tengo (unos) treinta alumnos", and (2) can you use this with other numbers-- cuarenta, cincuenta, sesenta, setenta etc? One problem would be cuarentena, which has another meaning.

AngelicaDeAlquezar

May 20, 2009 02:05 PM

"Decena", "veintena"... "centena" are rather commonly used and correct.

The original meaning of "cuarentena" is "cuarenta días", "una cuarentena de días".

"Una cuarentena de alumnos" would also be correct.

Tomisimo

May 20, 2009 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AngelicaDeAlquezar (Post 36702)

Would this mean 40 students or quarantine?

Had another look at some dictionaries, and here's some related vocab:

decena = ten, about ten
docena = dozen
docena del fraile = baker's dozen
veintena = a score, twenty, about twenty
treintena = thirty, about thirty
cuarentena = quarantine, Lent, forty, about forty.
cincuentena = fifty, about fifty
centena = one hundred
centenada = one hundred
centenar = one hundred

Ambarina

May 23, 2009 08:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tomisimo (Post 36724)

Would this mean 40 students or quarantine? Both

Had another look at some dictionaries, and here's some related vocab:

decena = ten, about ten
docena = dozen
docena del fraile = baker's dozen
veintena = a score, twenty, about twenty
treintena = thirty, about thirty
cuarentena = quarantine, Lent, forty, about forty.
cincuentena = fifty, about fifty
centena = one hundred
centenada = one hundred
centenar = one hundred

Like Angelica said, it is quite common to use centena, treintena, etc to mean "about+number". e.g. Está en la treintena - He's in his thirties.

Though I don't agree that you'd use "una cuarentena de días" as "cuarentena" implies "días". It was the amount of time that a ship was held at port to avoid transmitting infections onshore, i.e. 40 days.
Cuaresma=Lent. Never heard "cuarentena" used for Lent.

AngelicaDeAlquezar

May 23, 2009 05:29 PM

"Cuarentena" by itself means quarantine. "Cuarentena de (algo)" means a group of forty (something).

I agree with Ambarina that "cuarentena" is never used as "cuaresma".

And it's true, we never use "una cuarentena de días", but I only used to clarify the notion.

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 12:58 PM.