cojear
/koxeˈaɾ/
To limp in Spanish is cojear.
cojear is used to describe the action of walking with difficulty due to an injury to a leg or foot.
How does it change in a sentence?
The third-person singular present indicative form is cojea (he/she limps), and the gerund used to describe the continuous action of limping is cojeando.
How do you pronounce it?
/koxeˈaɾ/
Did you know?
- In Spanish, the phrase cojear is often used metaphorically to describe a flawed argument or a project that is failing. If a plan cojea, it means it is unstable or lacking a crucial element.
- In some regions, cojear can be used colloquially to mean that something is slightly off-center or poorly aligned, such as a table that wobbles because one leg is shorter than the others.
- The word cojear comes from the Latin coxa, which refers to the hip joint. This makes it a distant relative of the English medical term 'coxa' and the 'coxae' used in anatomy.
Examples in context
- El deportista cojeaba después de la lesión en la pierna.The athlete was limping after the leg injury.
- El anciano andaba con cojera debido a su artritis.The elderly man walked with a limp due to his arthritis.
- Después de la caída, el montañista renqueaba por el sendero empinado.After the fall, the mountaineer limped along the steep trail.
- Él cojea porque se lastimó el tobillo.He limps because he hurt his ankle.
- Él empezó a cojear después de la caída.He started to limp after the fall.
- ¿Por qué empiezas a cojear así?Why are you starting to limp like that?
- No puedo caminar bien porque empiezo a cojear.I cannot walk well because I am starting to limp.
Sources
- Pronunciation: Wiktionary entry cojear, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries cojear, CC BY-SA 4.0.
