I had learned that gripe was more the word for the flu, but that it is also the word commonly used for a cold. This week I finally learned that catarro was a better word for the common cold.
An English speaker’s perspective
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My Collins dictionary also mentions ‘resfrío’ as a word for the common cold as used in South America. And the verb is ‘resfriarse’.
I have heard that used too. When I have heard it though, it always seemed to me like they were using it because it was equivalent to the English word ‘cold’. I always thought they were making it easy for me to understand what they were saying.
According to WordReference.com, where I do a lot of my research of words I am not certain on, ‘resfriarse’ is a perfectly valid word. Just seems like an odd word to use since I have always thought the word ‘cold’ was strange.