Today’s Spanish word of the day is “trabajar”.
It’s a verb meaning “to work”.
Unlike in English, where the verb “to work” can refer both to human labor and whether or not something such as a machine “works”, in Spanish these are two different verbs:
- Trabajar – To work. Used to refer to people performing tasks and jobs.
- Funcionar – To function/To work (properly). Used for machines, tools, ideas etc.
Another verb that can be used in a similar way to “funcionar” is “andar”, which literally means “to walk”, but can be used in a similar way to how the verbs “to run” and “to go” are sometimes used in English to refer to inanimate objects running or working correctly, for example:
- La aplicación no me anda en el celular. – The app doesn’t run/work on my phone.
It’s thought that the word “trabajar” comes from Latin tripalium, which referred a torture device made from three stakes (hence why the word looks a bit like “triple”. It’s not hard to see how the idea of torture could have been linked to the concept of work!
“Trabajar” is a regular -ar verb, so it’s conjugated in the same way as other regular -ar verbs.
Example sentences
Me gustaría trabajar en la Amazonia protegiendo la selva.
I’d like to work in the Amazon protecting the forest.
Ella trabaja como enfermera en un hospital.
She works as a nurse in a hospital.
Mi perro trabaja a tiempo completo como mi terapeuta personal.
My dog works full-time as my personal therapist.
Está trabajando en su tesis doctoral.
He’s working on his doctoral thesis.
Me gusta trabajar con las manos.
I like working with my hands.
