![[P]](http://cache.lexico.com/g/d/premium_mh.gif){kind=small}
Spanish Word of the Day Archive
Saturday January 27, 2007
rey, noun:
king
The king is el rey in Spanish and the queen is la reina but when they’re together, they’re los reyes. It may seem chauvinistic, but that’s just the way it is in Spanish.
Los reyes visitaron China.
The king and queen visited China.
Another word like this is los padres parents, referring to el padre father and la madre mother together. Similarly, mis hermanos means my brothers or my brothers and sisters.
El Día de Reyes falls on January 6th, the day of the Feast of the Epiphany. Much of the Spanish-speaking world exchanges Christmas presents on this date, not on Christmas Day. When children go to bed on the night of 5 January they leave their shoes outside their bedroom doors or by their windows for the Reyes Magos the Three Wise Men to leave presents beside. They may already have written letters to the Wise Men with a list of what they would like.
Content By
© HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2006. All rights reserved.