- What's the difference between
masandmás? - What rules should I follow to know which one to use?
- Could you provide examples showing their uses?
asked Feb 21, 2012 at 22:16
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2Interesting(?) note, 'mas' also means 'but' in Portuguese, I'm no etymology expert though, so just pointing out the connection.– KageFeb 22, 2012 at 4:51
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@Kage so is in Spanish as well; but that's not the only meaning it has.– c.p.Apr 29, 2014 at 21:10
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@aparente001 I observe (spanish.stackexchange.com/tags?tab=new) you have created several tags lately, with no description of use in its wiki page, nor tagging other questions with them. This is not very useful. Let's use Meta to regulate tags and agree on how to use them when it is not trivial.– fedorquiApr 29, 2018 at 21:27
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3 Answers
Más means 'more'
No quiero más comida (I don't want more food)
Mas means 'but', usually it can be replaced by 'pero'
Fui a casa, mas estaba vacía (I went home, but it was empty)
They both have the same pronunciation(*) despite the accent, the accent is here to make clear what meaning is actually used. Note that 'mas' is uncommon in a casual conversation, it is mostly used in literature.
(*) That's only true if they are alone. In a complete sentence, the pronunciation may vary. As written in some comments:
They are pronounced in the same way when they are alone.
Mas is "átona" and más is "tónica", so they're not pronounced exactly the same.
Words that are "tónicas" are stressed in the context of a sentence while the "átonas" are linked to whatever "tónica" word appears next in the sentence (forming a group that is treated like a "whole word" in pronunciation). Here is a good article about that: blog.lengua-e.com/2011/palabras-tonicas-y-palabras-atonas
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2I don't think their pronunciation is the same.
Masis "átona" andmásis "tónica", so they're not pronounced exactly the same. But I don't know how to explain the difference, really.– MikMikFeb 22, 2012 at 9:50 -
4@MikMik yeah you're right. They are just pronounced in the same way when they are alone. The "tónicas" are stressed in the entonation of a sentence while the "átonas" are linked to the next "tónica" word (forming like a "whole word" in pronunciation). Here is a good article about that: blog.lengua-e.com/2011/palabras-tonicas-y-palabras-atonas– JaviFeb 22, 2012 at 14:31
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1"Mas" can mean "pero" but also "sino". But "mas" is a very formal way for both meanings; for that reason people tend to use the other options.– JaviFeb 22, 2012 at 14:35
"Mas" is rather unfrequent - at least in every day speech, here in Argentina, but I suspect it's the same in many other places, based on movies, TV, books, etc. It even sounds a bit archaic.
You almost always will see and want to use "más", not "mas" (most of the times you read "mas", it's probably a "más" missing an accent).
How to tell them apart? A quick rule (that I'm making up right now so it's obviously not thorughly tested!) is remembering that "mas" means "but". So if you can replace it with "pero", it's "mas"; otherwise, it's "más".
A dumb example of both words in a sentence:
Las dos son palabras perfectamente válidas, mas una se usa mucho más que la otra.
answered Feb 21, 2012 at 22:49
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Agreeing with Juan, I never heard 'mas' as in 'but' once when I was in Argentina.– KageFeb 22, 2012 at 4:50
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It doesn't make any sense comparing "más" and "mas" in the frequency of use. They don't mean the same! It would be like saying that "hello" is more frequent than "helo" in English. You can say that "pero" is much more used than "mas" (they mean the same).– JuanilloFeb 22, 2012 at 14:14
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"más" and "mas" is not the same. "Más" is a comparative adverb while "mas" is a adversative conjuction.– JuanilloFeb 22, 2012 at 14:19
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When you use "más" it means more.
When you use "mas" you are contrasting ideas, like "but".
