Monday, November 15, 2010

¿Vaso o copa?

At some point we all learn the words vaso and copa. Usually we're taught a vaso is defined as a glass or cup, and then we're told if you want a glass of wine, then you need to use the word copa. Easy enough, but they never even bother to explain why, much less what the difference is between a vaso and a copa.

Well, 5 years later, I finally got the answer to that question, which I stumbled across from sheer dumb luck. To be honest, it never occurred to me to the ask the question. Today we're going to talk about copas.

A copa is what we call a wine glass. In Spanish you order (pedir) a  "copa de vino", a glass of wine. It might a "copa de vino tinto" red wine, or "vino blanco", white wine.  The difference here is in Spanish you're specifically mentioning the type of glass wine is served in, while in English we're fine with just using the generic term "glass".

Let's take a closer look at what a copa actually is.   Not that you need one, but here's a photo:

A copa actually consists of several parts:

Recipiente de vidrio - This is the part you drink from.  

Cálliz, tallo or pie - The stem.

Base - The base.  Remember to use your Spanish pronunciation.

Copas have stems and bases, where as vasos don't.  There is actually more than one type of copa, such as:

copa de agua, copa de whiskey, copa ancha, and copa de vino

Those are just a few.  Click here if you want to see what other kinds of copas there are.  This page is in Spanish, and I found interesting.

Well, I think that's enough about copas. Let's move on to vasos.  And technically, a copa is still a vaso.   Really, there isn't a whole for me to say about vasos, except that a vaso doesn't have a pie (stem), and like copas, there are many different kinds.  Here's a few to get you started:

vaso largo 
A tall glass

vaso ancho
A short, wide glass

vaso de plastico
A plastic cup

There are several types of vasos, like a vaso de agua, water glass, but I won't torture you with any more photos.  I'm pretty sure you already what these things look like anyway.

Ya!  That's it for today!

¡Hasta la próxima!


  1. Muchas gracias, Rodney, por esta explicación muy útil. Siempre me preguntaba cuál es la diferencia entre vaso y copa, y ahora yo sé.

  2. Yes, thank you. Don't be afraid to post the pictures it helps the mind associate the object with the word.