Love-Spanish.com: Metro

Tuesday, 21 July 2015

Today's word is: "metro" = metre

In Spanish, “metro” is a masculine noun of Greek origin, which means metre/ meter and used as in:

The word “metro” is combined with standard prefixes to form units of length. Common units of length thus formed are:

Spanish	English	Symbol	Length
milímetro	millimetre/ millimeter	mm	1/1000m
centímetro	centimetre/ centimeter	cm	1/100m
decímetro	decimetre/ decimeter	dm	1/10m
decámetro	decametre/ decameter dekametre/ dekameter	dam/ Dm/ dkm	10m
hectómetro	hectometre/ hectometer	hm	100m
kilómetro	kilometre/ kilometer	km	1000m

The word “metro” is also a shortening of “metropolitano”, also a masculine noun meaning underground or subway, and used as in:

El metro es cómodo y rápido (the underground/ subway is comfortable and fast)

The describing word/ adjective “métrico” is a related word which means metric, and is used as in:

El Sistema Métrico Decimal (the Metric System or International System of Units -SI)
Cinta métrica (measuring tape)

Some Spanish expressions with the word “metro” are:

Billete de metro (metro/ subway ticket/ fare)
Boca de(l) metro (metro/ subway entrance)
Línea de metro (metro/ subway line)
Metro cuadrado (square metre/ meter)
- Un piso de 90 metros cuadrados (a 90 square metres/ meters flat)
- Precio del metro cuadrado^* (price per square metre/ meter)
Metro cúbico (cubic metre)
- Dos metros cúbicos de agua (two cubic metres/ meters of water)
Metro lineal (linear metre/ meter)
- Precio por metro lineal (linear metre/ meter price)

Notes

*Commonly used unit of price/ value of property

Love-Spanish.com loves the word "metro" in the YouTube clip: Café Tacuba - El Metro

For more on the word "metro", visit: Wordreference.com/es/en/ Metro

*NB 'Click' on the speaker icon next to the word “metro”in the link to hear the word pronounced.

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Tuesday, 21 July 2015