Spanish Words of the Week: Resto or Resta?

This week, let’s dive into the distinct meanings of two Spanish nouns that often confuse learners: resto (masculine) and resta (feminine). Although they share linguistic roots, their uses are quite different.

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1. Resto (Masculine)

El resto refers to what is left or remains after something has been removed. It translates as "the rest" or "the remainder" in English.

• Examples:
  • Pasé el resto de la mañana triste.
    I spent the rest of the morning feeling sad.
  • El resto de los pasajeros eran funcionarios o soldados de permiso.
    The rest of the passengers were civil servants or soldiers on leave.

In mathematics, el resto represents the amount left over when a number cannot be divided evenly – the remainder.

• Example:
  • Si se divide 239 por 7, el resto es 1.
    If you divide 239 by 7, the remainder is 1.

Los restos (Plural)

In its plural form, restos can mean leftovers, remnants, or remains:

• Food scraps or remnants:

  • Es difícil que de una pequeña lata de mejillones queden restos.
    It’s unlikely there’d be leftovers from a small tin of mussels.
  • Utiliza el hilo dental para eliminar los restos que quedan entre los dientes.
    She uses dental floss to remove food remnants between her teeth.

• Historical or physical remains:

  • restos romanos – Roman remains
  • restos de murallas medievales – remains of medieval walls

• Debris or wreckage:

  • los restos del avión – the plane wreckage
  • En la calle quedaron los restos de la tragedia.
    Debris from the tragedy was still on the street.

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2. Resta (Feminine)

La resta is primarily a mathematical term meaning subtraction, the operation of taking one quantity away from another.

• Examples:
  • Errores en la suma y la resta.
    Errors in addition and subtraction.
  • Hago la resta 45678 menos 45654 y me da 24.
    I do the subtraction 45678 minus 45654, which gives me 24.
  • una suma, una resta, una división y una multiplicación
    an addition, a subtraction, a division, and a multiplication

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Recap: The Key Differences

Word	Gender	Primary Meaning	Example
Resto	Masculine	The rest, remainder, remains	El resto de la comida quedó en la mesa. (The rest of the food stayed on the table.)
Resta	Feminine	Subtraction (math operation)	Hice una resta simple para encontrar la respuesta. (I did a simple subtraction to find the answer.)

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Join us next week as we explore more nuances of Spanish vocabulary!