When I listened to the lesson about weather (3.3 I think) I noticed that Mauricio and Amy both were saying "mucha calor" which struck me as odd because I thought I remembered it as "mucho calor" in the "Behind the Wheel" lessons. I looked in the written lessons and they show "mucho calor". I decided "mucho calor" must be right and continued with the other lessons. But, it kept bothering me and I kept wondering why they had been saying "mucha", so I looked it up in my dictionary and it say:
"calor masculino [use of the feminine gender, although common in some areas is generally considered to be archaic or non-standard]".
I thought this was fascinating. Apparently either one may be right depending where you are (or are from). And, I assume that Mauricio must be from one of the areas where it is common to use the feminine form (please correct me if I'm wrong).
Now I am wondering if there are other words for which the gender may vary according to where one is (or is from)? And is there a pattern to which countries use masuline and which use feminine, or is it random?
thanks,
Jake
Mucha Calor

JakeDev
June 6, 2008

Gregorio
July 7, 2008
Hello,
My Puerto Rican girlfriend and her friends say "mucho calor" regardless of gender. I don't know about other dialects.
Greg