Trabalenguas = singular o plural?

[laepelba]

Yo se que trabalenguas está "tongue twister". Pero el final de la palabra está "s". Está singular o plural? Si singular, que es la plural?

¡Muchas gracias!

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by laepelba

Yo sé que trabalenguas significa "tongue twister". Al final de la palabra hay una "s". Es singular o plural esta palabra? Si es singular, cual es la plural?

el trabalenguas
los trabalenguas

[laepelba]

¡Muchas gracias, Rusty! Especialmente para las correcciones muy útil.

¿Tan el singulares y el plural son iguales? Eso es fácil.

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by laepelba

¡Muchas gracias, Rusty! Especialmente por las correcciones muy útiles.

¿Tanto la forma singular como la plural son iguales? Eso es fácil.

tanto ... como = both ... and

¿Tanto la forma singular como la plural son iguales?
(So,) both the singular form and the plural (form) are the same?

Yes! When you encounter a Spanish word that is singular AND ends in the letter s, the word will always be masculine! Changing the article from el to los is all you have to do to make the word plural. That is easy!

The la that precedes plural in my corrected sentence is not an article, by the way. It is a relative pronoun and refers back to la forma. I steered you wrong in my previous post where I wrote el plural. It should have been la (palabra) plural. Plural is an adjective, not a noun, so the el or the la that you see in front of the word is a relative pronoun and it always refers back to something else masculine or feminine. I'll correct my earlier post to reflect the proper relative pronoun. Sorry about that.

[laepelba]

No apology necessary, Rusty. I'm a bit oversaturated at this point anyway. I got off work early today (weather stuff), and came home and have been reading and attempting to write stuff here on Tomísimo for a few hours now. I get to a certain place and I know that I won't remember anything else if I keep it up, so I think I'm done for the evening. (Or maybe not.......)

[Tomisimo]

Grammatically, these are referred to as invariable nouns, in that they have the exact same form in singular and plural. Likewise, invariable adjectives do not change to match the noun in gender or number, but always have the same form.

[laepelba]

Cool! Can you give me an example or two of an invariable adjective? Thanks, David!

[Tomisimo]

Sure. Invariable adjectives are usually nouns being used as adjectives. For example:

rosa - los vestidos rosa = the pink dresses
hembra - las elefantas hembra = the female elephants
macho - las culebras macho = the male snakes
web - las páginas web = the web pages

These are true invariable adjectives that do not change for number or gender. Some people refer to adjectives that do not change for gender but do change for number as invariable adjectives as well. For example interesante which stays the same when modifying a masculine or feminine noun, but you do add an s in the plural.

[chileno]

Tomisimo,

Casi me vuelve loco! :-)

Originally Posted by Tomisimo

Sure. Invariable adjectives are usually nouns being used as adjectives. For example:

rosa - los vestidos rosa = the pink dresses
hembra - los elefantes hembra = the female elephants
macho - las culebras macho = the male snakes
web - las páginas web = the web pages

En el caso de hembra, seria "Las elefantas hembra".

Ya me dolio la cabeza... :^)

Hernan.

[sosia]

You can say or "las elefantas" or "los elefantes hembra", but both at the same time doesn't match

[chileno]

Originally Posted by sosia

You can say or "las elefantas" or "los elefantes hembra", but both at the same time doesn't match

Right! :-))

I said it gave me a headache. It was true!

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

And invariable adjectives, in the case of animals, become necessary because there are no "sapas", "ranos" or "ratonas", but "sapos hembra", "ranas macho" and "ratones hembra"...


As for the compounds with a plural, it's easy to identify their structure ("verb + substantive in plural") and a specific "purpose".

el/los cortaúñas (nail clipper) --> it clips many nails, not only one
el/los portafolios (briefcase)--> keeps many documents inside, not just one
el/los trabalenguas (tongue twister) --> supposed to twist more than one tongue
el/los cascanueces (nut cracker), el/los guardabosques (forest ranger), el/los pelapapas (potato peeler), etc.

[laepelba]

FABULOUS, Angelica!! Thank you SO much for sharing your first post with my simple little question about trabalenguas. Gracias!

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

My pleasure... I enjoy languages.

[chileno]

Originally Posted by AngelicaDeAlquezar

And invariable adjectives, in the case of animals, become necessary because there are no "sapas", "ranos" or "ratonas", but "sapos hembra", "ranas macho" and "ratones hembra"...


As for the compounds with a plural, it's easy to identify their structure ("verb + substantive in plural") and a specific "purpose".

el/los cortaúñas (nail clipper) --> it clips many nails, not only one
el/los portafolios (briefcase)--> keeps many documents inside, not just one
el/los trabalenguas (tongue twister) --> supposed to twist more than one tongue
el/los cascanueces (nut cracker), el/los guardabosques (forest ranger), el/los pelapapas (potato peeler), etc.

You are so right. I had forgotten about all that.

And it is so logical! :-)

Thanks Angelica.

Hernan.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Stretching logic to the limits may lead to very absurd conclusions, but it often gives out simple rules to apply (not an infallible method though).

[chileno]

Originally Posted by AngelicaDeAlquezar

Stretching logic to the limits may lead to very absurd conclusions, but it often gives out simple rules to apply (not an infallible method though).

And it helps. I swear!