I'm doing some research on the city of Toledo and have been perplexed by the name of the river running alonside the old city. On most Spanish sources it's listed as "Río Tajo" but in other places, usually English language sources it's listed as the "Tagus River". I look up the English word "Tagus" and translate it to Spanish and it does come out to be "Tajo". "Tajo", in Spanish, apparently means "a slice".

This topic could also be placed in the "Studying in Spain, Language, & Education, & Language" forum category but this one fits too in this case.

What do people "out there" in the world call this river? Is it best know to you as TAJO or TAGUS? I've most often heard it called TAJO.

Saludos, MadridMan

Hi MM
It would seem that TAGUS is the Latin name for the river, TAJO is the Spanish name and TEJO is the Portuguese name.
See this link to Answers.com
Regards
Robbieroy

In English it's officially the Tagus River, and you're right MadridMan, that's probably directly from the Latin. "Tajo" appears in Websters where it says, not so surprisingly, "The Spanish name for the Tagus"!!

I think most people recognize the Tajo, but that's just a guess.