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Five-minute Spanish Lessons - Lesson 28.Two by two.The animals went into the ark "two by two" but that's, "de dos en dos" in Spanish. Here I'm going to talk about the words "couple" and "pair" and their translations as nouns referring to two things. We say: Se fue hace un par de días. Me quedan dos en mi bolso. Me quedan un par de ellos en mi bolso. The false friend of "un par", "a pair" is used only when there are two in a set such as shoes, socks, also in cards and they are probably matching. Where "un par" can mean either matching or just two of something. He encontrado / un par de / dos / calcetines en mi cajón pero no son iguales Tiene un par de ases. A teacher might say to her students: ¿Podéis trabajar en parejas? Two people who are together for sentimental reasons: Hacen una buena pareja. They make a handsome couple. Yet when married: Aquí vive un matrimonio. A married couple live here. I leave you with a couple of common uses of "par" in Spanish: Antes de limpiar la casa hay que abrir de para en par. Before cleaning the house you should open up all the windows. Fernando Alonso es un piloto de Fórmula Uno sin par; no hay nadie que puede ganarle. Fernando Alonso is a matchless Formula One driver; nobody can beat him. (Not true any more!)
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