1

How do you translate "the first Easter Hare" correctly?

Someone (a native) told me:

La pimer liebre de Pascua

but I think it must be:

La primera liebre de Pascua

Since it's a female hare, but i am not sure if that makes any difference.

0

2 Answers 2

2

If you look for "liebre" in the dictionary

liebre

  1. f. Mamífero del orden [...]

That f there tells you that it's a feminine noun (if you hover over it it will display "nombre femenino"), so you'll use "primera" and not "primer" with "liebre".

It is a feminine noun, which means we use it both for male and female hares

La liebre macho es más alta y roja que la liebre hembra, que suele ser más pequeña y blanca.

(this is not actually true, but I just wanted to point out that I used female adjetives in all cases, because the noun is feminine, regardless of the actual gender of the animal)

Notice that, unless some exception cases, you'll say

El primer X (being X a masculine noun)

or

La primera Y (being Y a feminine noun)

Adjectives must agree in gender with the noun (except some exception cases).

As Alvalongo explains in his answer, in Spanish speaking countries traditions vary and where they have this reference they might call it the "conejo" and not "liebre". Since "conejo" is a masculine noun we say

El primer conejo

in this case the dictionary entry is for "conejo, ja" which is "nombre masculino y femenino" (respectively) so you could say

La primera coneja

so, just for fun and to compare with the previous example

El conejo (macho) es más alto y rojo que la coneja (hembra), que suele ser más pequeña y blanca

1
  • 1
    Aside: there's a widespread (and spreading) tendency to elide the final -a in feminine ordinals. I've just heard the President of Argentina welcome Donald Trump to the G20 Summit "en su primer visita a Argentina". So it's mistake, but a very common one that often goes unnoticed.
    – pablodf76
    Nov 30, 2018 at 15:57
2

la traducción sería:

La primera liebre de Pascua

Sin embargo es más común oir que se usa la palabra "conejo", entonces quedaría:

El primer conejo de pascua

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.