Vocabulario básico de profesiones en español
A1 Spanish listening practice · Spanish · Curated for beginners
What does “bombera” mean in Spanish?
A bombero or bombera is a firefighter, and the word has nothing to do with fire. It comes from bomba, the water pump that early fire crews hauled to a blaze, plus -ero / -era, the ending Spanish uses for “the person who works with X.” So a firefighter is a “pump person,” the way a panadero is a “bread person” and a carnicero a “meat person.” Bomba also means bomb, which is why the word can startle learners.
The clip introduces each job with ser and no article: Ella es bombera. Él es médico. Ella es informática. Él es policía. Ella es política. Some job words change their ending with the person, bombero / bombera, médico / médica, fotógrafo / fotógrafa; others do not: policía is el policía or la policía for a man or a woman, and words in -ista such as periodista stay the same for everyone. One false friend in the list: política here is a politician, not “politics.” The teacher’s own line at the top, Yo soy profesora de español, is the model for answering ¿Cuál es tu profesión?