Have you ever noticed that sometimes very opposite people wind up together? There is an unseen magnet that seems to pull them together. Opposites, however, make life very interesting. Sure, a nice sunny day if beautiful but what if that is all that you ever had? After a while it would get kind of boring. And, what if it rained every day? It might be nice for the plants but after a while – too much rain will kill the plants and grass and weaken the roots of trees, toppling them over. The truth is, we need opposites to make sense out of almost everything. So in the light of opposites, in this Spanish Medium Review quiz you will be looking at words that are opposites of each other.
Do you remember what opposite words were called in English? The definition was that two words that mean the opposite thing of each other or nearly the opposite are known as antonyms. For example, we could say: The plate is full. The opposite would be: The plate is empty. Full and empty have the opposite meanings making them antonyms.
The other thing to remember is that antonyms are adjectives in that they further describe a person, place or thing. Therefore, in Spanish you need to remember that adjectives take on the masculine and feminine forms of the words they are describing.
As you had to learn antonyms in English, so too do you need to learn antonyms in Spanish. Therefore, let’s take a look at some Spanish antonyms to add to your vocabulary bank of words.
ENGLISH | SPANISH |
---|---|
full | lleno / llena |
empty | vacío / vacía |
hungry | hambriento / hambrienta |
dark | oscuro / oscura |
light | ligero / ligera |
high | alto / alta |
low | bajo / baja |
rich | rico / rica |
poor | pobre (same for masculine and feminine) |
old | viejo / vieja (note that the J has an H sound) |
young | joven (same for masculine and feminine) (note that the J has an H sound) |
thin | delgado / delgada |
fat | gordo / gorda |
short | corto / corta |
tall | alto / alta (note that this is the same as high) |
up | arriba (same for masculine and feminine) |
down | abajo (same for masculine and feminine) |
top of | arriba de |
under | debajo de |
ahead | por delante |
behind | detrás de |
straight | recto / recta |
crooked | torcido / torcida |
flat | plano / plana |
bumpy | disparejo / dispareja (uneven) and/or lleno de baches (bumpy) |
top | superior (same for masculine and feminine) |
bottom | inferior (same for masculine and feminine) |
above | encima de (same for masculine and feminine) |
below | debajo de (same for masculine and feminine) |
near | cercano / cercana |
far away | lejos (same for masculine and feminine) |
many | muchos / muchas |
few | pocos / pocas |
Once you have studied each of the words above, move on to the quiz below. There are ten sentences that each have a word that has been shown in all capitalized letters. Your task is to find the opposite word of the word that has been capitalized. Remember spelling and form to find the correct answer.