Talk:derrocar

Hello. Hola.

I am trying to learn Spanish, although there are some verbs in Spanish that are very confusing to me.

Especially verbs that may mean the same thing, for example, the verbs for "to demolish" are:

Abatir (to demolish), Demoler (to demolish), Derribar (to demolish)

Are they all used freely in the Spanish language (which means it does not matter which verb you use since it means the same as the other two verbs) or do these three verbs have different meanings (which means that these three verbs are distinct from each other and are used seperately of each other and mean something different)?

Thank you very much. Muchas gracias.

Lingualove 08:12, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately, they are not always completely interchangeable. abatir means demolish, or cut down (a tree), shoot down (a plane), haul down (a flag), crush (one's spirits), humiliate, dismantle. demoler means to demolish, but is more destructive than abatir...it also means to destroy, to pull down, to dismantle. derribar means to demolish (a house), to knock down (a person), tear down (a wall), shoot down (a plane), overthrow (a government), throw to the ground (a bull), to humiliate, to humble (thus more like abatir). derrocar means to demolish, to knock down, to overthrow, to bring down, to weaken, to hurl, to cast. So, although similar in various ways, they are also slightly different (exactly as the English verbs destroy, demolish, overthrow, dismantle, tear down, take down are similar yet different). —Stephen 08:59, 30 August 2009 (UTC)