Today’s Spanish word of the day is “posible”.
As you might have guessed, it’s an adjective meaning “possible”. It can also translate as “potential” or “feasible” depending on the context.
It comes from the Latin word possibilis (“capable of being done”), which is also the root of the English word “possible”.
Unsurprisingly, the opposite of “posible” is “imposible”.
Example sentences
No fue posible contactarte ayer.
It wasn’t possible to contact you yesterday.
Es posible que no lleguen a tiempo.
It’s possible that they won’t arrive on time.
Haremos todo lo posible para ayudarte.
We will do everything possible to help you.
¿Es posible terminar hoy?
Is it possible to finish today?
Quiero hacerlo lo más rápido posible.
I want to do it as quickly as possible.
Why does “possible” have a double “s” in English, and a single “s” in Spanish?
The Real Academia Española standardized Spanish spelling for the first edition of its dictionary published in 1780.
One of the ways in which spelling was standardized was to remove all double s’s since they are unnecessary for showing how a word is pronounced. In this regard Spanish contrasts to Italian, where double consonants are held for longer than single consonants in speech.
English spelling hasn’t been reformed to make it more phonetic and consistent in the way Spanish has, which explains why the English spellings of words are sometimes closer to those of the word’s language of origin (for example Latin or French), but don’t always accurately reflect modern pronunciation.
