What does “salvavidas” mean in Spanish?
Rescate cómico con salvavidas en El Chavo
A2 Spanish listening practice · Mexican Spanish · Picked for people who know a little
Salvavidas is Spanish word-building at its most transparent: salva (“saves”) + vidas (“lives”). One word covers both the rubber ring and the person paid to throw it. It follows Spanish’s favorite recipe for naming tools — a verb plus a plural noun: paraguas (“stops-waters,” umbrella), sacacorchos (“pulls-corks,” corkscrew), abrelatas (“opens-cans”). The word stays the same in singular and plural: un salvavidas, dos salvavidas.
In the El Chavo sketch, two swimmers are “drowning” and the rescue plan is pure chaos: “ahí están los salvavidas de Quico. Échaselos” — grab the life rings and throw them. Once you see the verb-noun pattern, new words decode themselves: rascacielos (“scrapes-skies,” skyscraper), lavaplatos (dishwasher), espantapájaros (“frightens-birds,” scarecrow).
How common are the words?
How common are the words in this A2 Spanish listening practice video?
How common in written Spanish
How common in spoken Spanish
Harder words in this video
These words are harder than A2. Here is what they mean.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-ESP 2011 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.