Thread: How do spanish people say...

"The concrete is dry" or "The concrete is too dry" - in the building-trade. I searched some dictionaries but there are many synonyms for both words, I have no clue if the simple workers use "concreto" or "hormigón" for concrete. Also "dry" has a lot of synonyms in spanish.

Could someone help me out on this one please?

Thanks in advance.

Hi Tobin,

"hormigón" is the correct term (it is the only one that appears as a building material in the Real Academia Española's dictionary). As for dry, it should be translated as "seco". Hope that helps!

Thank you.

"El hormigón es seco" or "El hormigón esta seco" by the way? I still have issues to learn the difference properly. Alos how do they say it the concrete is too dry?

Well, in Colombia you hear "cemento" or "concreto", never "hormigón" (which is the proper standard word).

We need some context here. The first thing that comes to mind with "the concrete is too dry" is that they are informally saying that such concrete couldn't be properly compacted when the form is filled, but we'd need to confirm that is the intention. In that case, in an informal level it would be "el hormigón/concreto es demasiado seco" or "es pobre en agua" or better said "el hormigón asienta poco".

The other circumstance one may hear that sentence is when concrete is strengthening -it needs water for chemical reactions- causing it to become weaker. In such case it would be "el hormigón/concreto está demasiado seco".

Thanks for all the responses.

So it seems to me the most difference - as talking to workers on a jobsite - is that in Mexico and Columbia people use Cemento/Concreto instead of Hormigón.

Does anyone have experience here which word is the most commonly used by workers in Spain?

A friend from Mallorca tells me that they use "hormigón" or "cemento", though they tend to use "hormigón" for big construction works and "cemento" for smaller ones.

Thank you!