Some words and phrases used in the Dominican Republic confuse the heck out of me. Más Duro is one of them.
Ok. The phrase “Más Duro (a)” always confuses me.
Definition:
más means plus, more, most, other, else
duro means hard, tough, harsh, rough, difficult
A friend often tells me I have a Cabaza Dura – It means Hard Head.
Ripe bananas in Dominican Republic are called banana mas dura
But, when you want a yellow ripe banana you say either banana or guieno (both words are used here) “mas dura”. The hard bananas or green banana are “guieno verde”.
In Dominican Spanish when you want a soft ripe banana you ask for a banana more hard / mas dura. But, the banana is yellow, ripe and soft not hard.
This means that if the person that told me cabeza dura (hard head) told me that my head is extra hard he would say “cabeza es mas dura”. But in Dominican Spanish this would mean that my head was soft? I’m confused.
If I say something is hard I would say dura but if I want to say something is not hard I would say mas dura. This is one of those phrases that I will never understand but I just have to accept. Go figure. It is another of what I call “Weird Wild Stuff”.
Some Dominican Spanish words and phrases Dominicanismos / Dominican Spanish Discionary.
Hi, for your plantain example, it’s not “más duro”, it’s maduro, from madurar, meaning ripe. Yellow plantains are ripe, hence why they’re called guineos maduros or just maduros.
Funny. I even asked someone to spell it for me. Always learning something new. Thanks for the info.