Plants & Trees

Did you know that hoja is used for both a leaf on a tree and a sheet of paper? When a teacher in Latin America says saca una hoja (take out a sheet), students reach for notebook paper, not a branch. The same word also appears in hoja de vida, the standard term for a resume or CV across most of Latin America.

Heads up: hierba is not limited to grass. It also refers to culinary and medicinal herbs, which is why hierba buena (literally good herb) is the everyday Latin American word for mint.