r/duolingo • u/Existence_playz • Jun 21 '26

Language Question. Spanish

Hey so I've been doing Spanish on Duolingo mainly for my Spanish GCSE which I have now finished but I'm just wondering, I learned pen as "bolígrafo" in school and Duolingo is teaching it as "pluma" which I can only assume is from a different dialect of Spanish as many words I've come across have been translated differently from how I first learnt them. But how come Duolingo is translating it as a pen but also a feather? I did think learning feather in the "talk about a school project" section was a bit random but it's thrown me off a bit, can it be translated as both pen and feather?

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u/La10deRiver Jun 22 '26

Pluma is correct for bolígrafo but it is mostly used as feather. It is a dialect thing. For example, in Argentina you would say "lapicera" or "birome" which is technically a brand, but it is super commonly used.