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Spanish Word of the Day Archive
Thursday November 2, 2006
competencia, noun:
rivalry; competition
The ‘false friend’ that we will be looking at today is competencia. Be careful not to use competencia as a translation for competence (although, by the way, competente does mean competent).
Competencia can mean rivalry:
la competencia entre dos hermanos
the rivalry between two brothers
or competition:
una campaña para descreditar a la competencia
a campaign to discredit the competition
If you actually want to say competence, use either of the Spanish words capacidad or aptitud. In LAm competencia could also be used in this sense as in dudaron de su competencia como professional/médico/testigo
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