Spanish Word of the Day Archive
Wednesday May 13, 2009

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cabo, noun:
end

In one of its uses cabo means the end of something:

con un cabo de cuchillo que le asomaba por la cintura
with the end of a knife which was showing at his waist

But it is much more often used in two phrases you are likely to come across. First of all, al cabo de followed by a noun - generally a time expression. This is a more formal way than después of saying after:

Regresó al cabo de unos instantes
After a few moments he came back

The phrase al fin y al cabo means after all, or at the end of the day

Al fin y al cabo lo que importa es que seguimos juntos
At the end of the day, what matters is that we’re still together

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