Inklingo

How to Say "white elephants" in Spanish

The Spanish word forwhite elephantsis elefantesA1 level. This is a very common word in everyday Spanish.

English → SpanishA1
nounA1
referring to costly but useless possessions (elefantes blancos)
Two large grey elephants standing together in a grassy savanna with small trees in the background.

Examples

Los elefantes son conocidos por su gran inteligencia.

Elephants are known for their great intelligence.

Vimos una manada de elefantes en el parque nacional.

We saw a herd of elephants in the national park.

Esos edificios abandonados son elefantes blancos.

Those abandoned buildings are white elephants (useless and expensive).

Making it Plural

To talk about more than one 'elefante', just add an '-s' at the end because the word ends in a vowel.

Which 'The' to use?

Even though it refers to animals, 'elefantes' is a masculine word. Always use 'los' for 'the' or 'unos' for 'some'.

Gender confusion

Mistake:las elefantes

Correction: los elefantes (In Spanish, the default word for the species is masculine, even if there are females in the group).

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