One of the most widely consumed foods in the word is rice, known as arroz in Spanish. Interestingly, Spain accounts for nearly 30% of rice production in the EU, only second to Italy!
Latin American Pronunciation
European Pronunciation
The word arroz is borrowed from Andalusian Arabic الرَّوْز (ar-rawz), which ultimately comes from Arabic أَرُزّ (ʔaruzz, “rice”), itself derived from Ancient Greek ὄρυζα (óruza, “rice”), with its origin traced back to Iranian.
Arroz is a masculine noun, which means it takes the following definite and indefinite articles:
- el arroz = the rice
- los arroces = the rices
- un arroz = a rice
- unos arroces = some rices
La paella contiene mucho arroz.
Paella contains lots of rice.
If you want to refer to a single grain of rice in Spanish, you need to use the term grano de arroz. The rice plant itself is also known simply as arroz, as is a rice dish.
A paddy field, or campo de arroz / arrozal in Spanish, is the place where rice grows, and an arrocero/a can be either a rice grower or cultivator depending on the context.
Some different kinds of rice and rice-based products include:
- arroz blanco = white rice
- arroz integral = whole / brown rice
- arroz largo = long-grain rice
- arroz con leche = rice pudding
- arroz frito = fried rice
- torta de arroz = rice cake
- papel de arroz = rice paper
- arroz a la italiana = risotto
- arroz de sushi = sushi rice
- arroz al horno = baked rice
- arroz caldoso = soupy rice
- arroz graneado = grainy rice
- arroz basmati = basmati rice
- arroz pilaf = pilaf rice
- arroz colorado / rojo = red rice
- licor de arroz = rice wine
- guiso de arroz = Spanish rice
- arroz salvaje = wild rice
¿Prefieres arroz integral o arroz blanco?
Do you prefer brown rice or white rice?
Arroz also appears in the figurative expression como arroz (like rice), which is predominantly used in Colombia and Venezuela. It refers to something that is everywhere, in abundance, or available in great quantities. You’ll often see it in the idiom vender como arroz (literally “to sell like rice” but equivalent to the English “to sell like hotcakes”). In Spain, the equivalent expression would be como churros or como rosquillas.
