"Trae" and "traje"

Question

The words "trae" and "traje" are pronounced the same. However, "trae" is a third person singular simple present verb meaning "brings" and "traje" is either a noun meaning "suit" or a first person singular simple past verb meaning "I brought".

So when I hear a sentence with this word, how will I know whether the third person singular simple present verb "trae" or the noun or the first person singular simple past verb "traje" is being spoken? What kinds of sentences will use the third person singular simple present verb "trae" and what kinds of sentences will use the noun or the first person singular simple past verb "traje"?

Answer 1

Trae and traje are not pronounced the same. The standard pronunciation of traje is /ˈtɾa.xe/, where /x/ is a voiceless velar fricative (as in German Loch). There are some dialects of Spanish where this sound (the one represented by the letter j) is instead pronounced /h/ (just like an English h as in hand). Sometimes this /h/ sound is so soft that it might appear there's nothing there, but there's definitely a difference. In trae /ˈtɾa.e/ the vowel /a/ runs into the following /e/ smoothly.

There are, of course, pairs and even trios of words in Spanish that mean different things and actually sound exactly the same, like libro "book" vs. libro “I free, I deliver”, or (in most dialects) vaya “let him go” vs. valla “fence” vs. baya “berry”. This happens in every language and is not a problem because the context (the position of the words, the presence of other words and the general meaning of the sentence) lets you decide which word is really meant.