Lost postman
The first night of our trip to Madrid, my friend lost his wallet. The next day, we went to a police station to report the loss.Unfortunately, my grasp of masculine/feminine nouns is sometimes confused, as it was when I announced to the desk sergeant A mi amigo se le ha perdido el cartero.The sergeant corrected me with la cartera, as he quickly realised that my friend had lost his wallet and not his postman. D'oh ...
Sent by: Pete
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While in Barcelona in May this year, my partner's wallet was unfortunately stolen. As a surprise, I sneaked out to buy a replacement. My Spanish wasn't very good, so I practised and practised the phrase ¿Tiene usted carteras? from my guide book. When I arrived at the shop, I asked ¿Tiene usted carreteras? by mistake. They just stared at me, so I said it again, only louder. Eventually, an English speaking local told me I was asking if the shop had any roads for sale. Needless to say, I will never confuse those two words again.
If el cartero means 'postman' surely the feminine version is la cartera. How does one differentiate between 'wallet' and 'postwoman'?
A female postman is indeed la cartera - fortunately there's that wonderful thing called context. :-)
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