What is the diference between poco & pequeño? 5 minutes of Spanish + Audio

 

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Un poco

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Thank you very much for being here participating in this podcast about Spanish, a language that we love and that today summons us. I am Eduardo Satorno, Spanish teacher at SpanishUp2U and manager of Unique Trips, your travel agency.

 

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I am Malena Algorta, Spanish teacher at Spanish in Cabo and at SpanishUp2U. If you want to know more about your Spanish practice site click here and you will see all the podcasts, videos and lessons that we prepare for you, so you can master Spanish. We are in 5 minutes of Spanish and this is episode number 124.

 

Welcome! Thank you for being with us week after week, for your comments, for listening and participating in this family that is Spanish in Cabo. Again, we will speak in Spanish, if you need the English version click on the image of Bruno Pegoretti's painting, thanks for your art Bruno!

 

But, if you listen to us week by week, you don't need the English translation anymore; you don't have to click on Bruno's fantastic chicken, do you? You saw that we no longer have the catrinas as a symbol because we are done with the Day of the Dead celebrations!

 

Galería de Bruno Pergoretti, San José del Cabo

And now we are getting ready for the end of the year and Christmas. But the Holidays are still a little while away. What is the topic of today's podcast?

 

At the end of October, we talked about the word poco, in our podcast poco a poco,

 

If you didn't listen to it you can do so on Spotify, RRs.com, Apple podcast, Amazon Podcast and more.

 

But, you did listen to us, didn't you? So today we're going to reflect a little bit on the difference between little and small.

 

Poco dinero

Yes, it's common, for students of Spanish, to confuse these words, as both can be translated as "little" in English, depending on context and usage.

 

But they are not interchangeable, so it is important to differentiate between them. After listening to us, you will have the necessary tools to do it, so stay with us!

 

Poco refers to small quantities and the intensity of an action. It can be used as an adjective or as an adverb and translates into English as: little, few, a little, a bit of, not much or not many. Pequeño refers to size is generally adjective and means: little, small, short, tiny or young.

 

Let's see examples:

 

Fabri is the smallest of our children.

 

Minimalists have few ornaments in their houses.

 

These pants are too small for him and they are new, too bad!

 

This person speaks very little Spanish, he should be invited to listen to this Podcast.

 

In what context can we listen to them?

We said that poco, used as an adjective, measures or describes the quantity of objects or people.

Few people throw things in the street nowadays, good thing!

 

We have little detergent, please buy more.

 

There are few people at the free Friday workshop, were you there?

 

As an adverb poco modifies the verb

I slept very little last night, ¡qué sueño!

 

It is normal to use an augmentative like muy or a diminutive like poquito, they only serve to intensify and you will hear them a lot because you know, we are quite dramatic when speaking...

.

We don't have much time left; shall we go on?

 

Very little time, I would say, the 5 minutes are already finishing!

 

Small is almost always used as an adjective. It describes the size of people or objects.

 

For example: a size can be big, medium or small, which one do you use?

 

My granddaughter likes small dogs

 

This book has very small print, I can't read it. Here we use an augmentative and a diminutive, just to intensify.

 

Small houses are easier to clean.

 

The little boy is very cute.

El niño pequeño es muy tierno

 

Let's go with an expression of surprise very used in Mexico and that is ¡a poco!

 

A poco ya se pasaron los 5 minutos! It's like saying: really?

 

And a phrase with little?: "Good perfumes come in tiny bottles" That is to say, good things come in small packages. This is what short women say.

 

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