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So my nickname, El Tortuga, has been around a while. Which is fine, but I just learned today that the correct grammar in Spanish is "La Tortuga". UGGH.
It's ok I worked with a female dancer from Madrid "La Truco". Also we have males like el cigala, el torta and guitarist el perla though the guys often leave off the "el". Habichuela too.
So my nickname, El Tortuga, has been around a while. Which is fine, but I just learned today that the correct grammar in Spanish is "La Tortuga". UGGH.
So my nickname, El Tortuga, has been around a while. Which is fine, but I just learned today that the correct grammar in Spanish is "La Tortuga". UGGH.
Spanish is fairly consistent in the gender of nouns, but, as you have discovered, there are exceptions and anomolies. One of the most interesting is "Mar" or sea. Usually, the definite article preceding "Mar" is masculine, "el Mar." Nevertheless, the feminine "la Mar" is also correct and is used in a more poetic sense.
Cheers,
Bill
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And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
...then there are Gypsy nicknames: Rafael Romero "El Gallina" for example. Apparently doubly confounded gender, but in fact a contraction of "El de la Gallina." His mother was called "La Gallina [the Hen]', so "El Gallina" is short for "son of the Hen".
There's "El Sordera", also a singer, whose name is another apparent gender contradiction, but also paradoxical, since "sordera" is the feminine form of the adjective "deaf", an odd name for a singer. Of course his mother was "La Sordera".
The guitar dynasty of "Los Habichuela" puts a masculine article in front of the feminine name for kidney beans.
On the subject of beans and nicknames, Agustin Castellon "Sabicas" was said to be named for his fondness for broad beans [habas] as a child. "Habicas", diminuitive, "Sabicas" with a childish lisp. Feminine in all instances, though "Niño Sabicas" modifying a masculine noun early in his career.
Etc. etc.
So if you don't mind implying that your mother was a turtle....
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