madrugada
“madrugada” — the small hours in Spanish. Noun, level A1. Spanish splits the day into four named parts, not three — and this is the one before sunrise. In a live sentence: “Volvimos de madrugada” — We got back in the small hours. You can hear how it sounds right here. A word from the everyday Spanish course, level A1.
In short
| Written in Spanish | madrugada |
| Translation | the small hours |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
- madrugadathe small hours
What it is
The hours between midnight and dawn — a time of day with a name of its own. Las tres de la madrugada is three in the night; a Spaniard cannot say 'three in the morning', because morning is mañana and it starts later.
This word does not reduce to a translation: the thing it names is not part of everyday life here, so a “translation” would end up a description in brackets. The easiest way to learn it is together with its surroundings — where you meet it and what it is for.
Why it looks that way
Spanish splits the day into four named parts, not three — and this is the one before sunrise
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- Volvimos de madrugadaWe got back in the small hours
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “the small hours” in Spanish?
«madrugada». In a live sentence: “Volvimos de madrugada” — We got back in the small hours. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Noun, level A1.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Spanish splits the day into four named parts, not three — and this is the one before sunrise. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
Can I hear how it sounds?
Yes, right on this page: click the word and it will play. The sound works on any phone, and nothing needs to be installed.