Historias and Cuentos

John O.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Historias and Cuentos

Hola,

Is there a reason why "cuento" cannot be used for "story."

My translator says that "cuento" is used for a fictional tale and "historia" is used for a narrative account. I always thought that they were more or less interchangeable.

Kind Regards

John

Asked 5 years ago
InmaNative Spanish expert teacher in Kwiziq

Hola John

historia and cuento are pretty much interchangeable, but we wouldn't use "cuento" for a real story, only for fiction. Historia is used for both fiction and real. We used historia here in this exercise because for "historia de miedo" the word that we normally use is "historia", the same way that we tend to use "cuento" for "cuento de hadas" (fairy tales), but they are interchangeable. I have included the option "cuentos de miedo" in the exercise as a possible correct answer.

Un saludo

Inma

John O. asked:

Historias and Cuentos

Hola,

Is there a reason why "cuento" cannot be used for "story."

My translator says that "cuento" is used for a fictional tale and "historia" is used for a narrative account. I always thought that they were more or less interchangeable.

Kind Regards

John

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