Grammatical gender means that a language classifies words into masculine, feminine, or neuter categories and forms an agreement system with other aspects of the language, such as adjectives, pronouns, or verbs ( source).

In English, “bravo” has limited meanings, and English speakers rarely use “brava.” In Spanish, however, the word has a more extensive list of uses, and brava, as the feminine, is quite common. These two words are used differently in English and in Spanish. We are going to go deeper into this in the next section. This means that brava carries the same meaning as bravo, and we only use it when we speak about different gender classes in Spanish. Las barras bravas en el juego arruinaron nuestro día (The hooligans at the game ruined our day).ĭid you notice the use of the word brava in the last two examples instead of bravo? If you did, well-spotted! It is not a typo but a gender classification that Spanish uses. Lavé los platos a la brava (I washed the dishes, but I didn’t want to).īarra brava refers to a group of hooligans in soccer or other sports: A la brava refers to the way you do something you really didn’t want to do: Spanish also uses this word in two very specific situations. Wild or Fierce: El tigre bravo da miedo (The fierce tiger is scary). It is an adjective that we use to describe people and things and also to cheer or applaud, just like we do in English.Īs an adjective, we can use this word to describe people, as in the following examples:īrave or courageous: Miguel es el más bravo de todos (Miguel is the bravest of all).Īngry, mad, or upset: Mi padre está bravo conmigo (My father is mad at me).Īgitated or rough: El agua estaba muy brava (The water was very choppy). Bravo in Spanishīravo appears in Spanish more often than in English.

Finally, English speakers also use “bravo” to refer to the letter “b” in the ICAO radiotelephony spelling alphabet, which starts:Ī lpha, Bravo, C harlie, D elta (A, B, C, D).

You are very brave in spanish