It’s really common for a student learning a new language to get confused by words that are very similar and have different meanings. Some other words have more than one meaning, and they are all used. Some of these meanings can be easier to distinguish (for example: ‘segundo’, meaning 1 sec and also 2nd), but some other are more rare and therefore can be harder to learn. In Spanish, we call this “polisemia”. As a native speaker, we normally don’t notice these words, but I understand it can be challenging for students.
One friend of mine was surprised about how many different meanings does the Spanish word ‘cuenta’ have. Because of this, I am going to list the most used meanings of ‘cuenta’:
- cuenta: bill (for example: ¡camarero, la cuenta, por favor!)
- cuenta: calculation (for example: la profesora de matemáticas enseña a hacer cuentas)
- cuenta: bead (for example: tengo un collar de cuentas amarillas)
- cuenta bancaria: bank account (for example: tengo una cuenta ahorro joven)
- cuenta: account (for example: no me sé la contraseña de mi cuenta de chatterbug)
- darse cuenta: to notice (for example: me he dado cuenta de que he dejado la casa abierta)
- ella/él cuenta, ¡cuenta tú! (from verb contar): to tell (e.g.: mi abuela nos cuenta historias de cuando era pequeña), to count (e.g.: el coche cuenta los kilómetros), to count on somebody (e.g.: ¡cuenta conmigo!)
…and so many other meanings…
Do you know any other palabras polisémicas in Spanish? Any words that seem similar but have totally different meanings? Answer in the comments!
This is a really good topic. I love the words banco and bolsa. Confusing for my students but easy to remember 
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but it can also mean “(gas) tap” or “(water) faucet” 
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