Mente

Today’s Spanish word of the day is “mente”.

It’s a feminine noun meaning “mind”.

The word comes from Latin mens or mentis in the genitive form, which meant “mind” or “thought”. This is also the root of several English words including “mental”, “mention” and “dementia”.

Many Spanish adverbs are formed by adding -mente to feminine adjectives, for example:

• Rápida (fast) → Rápidamente (quickly)
• Clara (clear) → Claramente (clearly)

This way of constructing adverbs comes from Latin. In classical Latin, the Latin equivalent of “rápidamente” originally meant literally “with a fast mind”, while the equivalent of “claramente” would have meant “with a clear mind”. This explains why adverbs such as “rápidamente” are constructed using the feminine form of the adjective (“rápida” rather than “rápido”) – in this example, “rápida” modifies the feminine noun “mente”, and is similar to saying “con la mente rápida” (“with a fast mind”).

Example sentences