Food vocabulary is essential for daily life in any Spanish-speaking context. Common staples include el agua (water, which uses the masculine article el despite being feminine because it begins with a stressed "a"), el pan (bread), la carne (meat, with la carne de res or la ternera referring specifically to beef), el pescado (fish as food, as opposed to el pez for a live fish), el arroz (rice, the base of dishes like paella and arroz con pollo), la leche (milk), el huevo (egg, with a silent h), la fruta (fruit), la verdura or el vegetal (vegetable, with verdura more common for leafy greens), el pollo (chicken), el queso (cheese, including varieties like queso manchego and queso fresco), and el vino (wine, which becomes vino tinto for red and vino blanco for white).
Family vocabulary centers on a small set of nouns, each with informal alternatives used in everyday speech. La madre and el padre are the formal terms, while Mamá and Papá are the warm, everyday words for mom and dad. Los padres can refer to parents as a pair or to fathers in the plural. El hermano (brother) and la hermana (sister) form the plural hermanos and hermanas, but hermanos is also used for siblings in general, including sisters. Similarly, el hijo (son) and la hija (daughter, with a silent h) become hijos and hijas in the plural, with hijos sometimes meaning children of any gender.