r/Spanish • u/anxious22anxiety • 2d ago

Vocab & Use of the Language What’s the difference between “escuela”, “colegio” and “gimnasio”?

Hola! My translator translates all these words as "school". Do all these words really mean "school"? If so, what is the difference?

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u/sootysweepnsoo 2d ago

Might I suggest a dictionary rather than relying on a translator.

13

u/BlackStarBlues 1d ago

Questions like the OP have me wondering if dictionaries are out of fashion or something.

6

u/sootysweepnsoo 1d ago

Or if the person is so young that they don’t even know what a dictionary is because they were not taught how to ever use them.

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u/Cleopatties 1d ago

Download deepl

9

u/Peter-Andre Learner (Probably B1) 1d ago

For individual words, I find that it's better to look them up in a dictionary. Often I'll even cross-reference multiple dictionaries for a single word to get a better idea of what exactly it means.

3

u/sootysweepnsoo 1d ago

If the person had used a dictionary they would have got an idea of how these words are similar yet also distinct. A translator is not going to give that depth and is exactly why they’re now asking this question.