El Pescado

Eating very fresh fish is one of the treats of cruising. Here are some words to help you talk about your catch – whether you catch your fish at sea or in the fish market.

There are two words for fish – pescado and pez (plural: peces). The one you will use most commonly is pescado. A pescado is a fish that has been caught for eating. Pez is a fish that is in the water. Pez is the general zoological word for fish.

	el pescado pehss-kah-doh (fish – caught, for eating) This lovely pescado (fish) is a dorado (in English: mahi-mahi or dolphin fish).
	This taco stand in Mexico is advertising their tacos de pescado (fish tacos). They also make tacos with camarón (shrimp), pulpo (octopus), calamar (squid), langosta (lobster), jaiba (crab), almejas (clams) …

On the other hand, when you’re talking about fish in the water, you use pez or peces (plural):

	el pez pehss (fish – as animal in water) los peces peh-sehss (fishes, fish plural)

Here are some more handy words related to fishing:

	la pescadería pehss-kah-deh-ree-ah (fish market) You buy pescado (fish) in a pescadería (fish market). This one offers “Quality and Good Price”
	el pescadero pehss-kah-deh-roh (fishmonger, fish seller) This pescadero proudly held up this beautiful corvina (sea bass) when we asked for a photo.
	el pescador pehss-kah-dohr (fisherman) These fishermen in the remote Aves islands of Venezuela came by to ask us to charge their cell phone.

The act of fishing is la pesca.

Fishing as an adjective is pesquero or de pesca.

el pesquero pehss-keh-roh (fishing boat) A fishing boat is a pesquero or a barco de pesca. (Locally they may have many other names…)

For an easy-to-use phrase book that will give you all the words and phrases to enjoy fish and fishing in Mexico, the Caribbean, Spain or any other Spanish-speaking country, get  Spanish for Cruisers: The Boater’s Complete Language Guide