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Spanish Word of the Day Archive
Monday June 2, 2008
grano, noun:
grain; bean
Sometimes Spanish use one word for what English expresses with several different ones, and grano is a case in point. It can refer to a grain of rice, wheat, sugar, salt, or sand:
Tiene el tamaño de un grano de sal.
It’s the same size as a grain of salt.
un grano de trigo
a grain of wheat
When talking about coffee and cocoa, it is a bean:
un grano de cacao
a cocoa bean
Grano is used in a very idiomatic phrase: ir al grano, to get straight to the point.
Voy a ir al grano.
I’m going to get straight to the point.
Fue directo al grano.
He went straight to the point.
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