Both can mean 'antiguo', but one is relative in age and the other implies thousands of years.
"Old" describes something or someone that has existed for a certain amount of time. It is relative: it can range from a few years to centuries. "An old car" = a car that is not new.
My grandfather is very old. He is 92.
That is an old building. It was built in 1920.
We are old friends. We met as children.
"Ancient" describes something from thousands of years ago, from a very remote past. "Ancient Rome" = Rome more than two thousand years ago. Not used for things from recent decades.
The ancient Egyptians built the pyramids.
We visited ancient ruins in Rome.
This is an ancient tradition dating back thousands of years.
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The distinction between OLD and ANCIENT reflects an interesting philosophical question: at what point does something stop being merely "old" and become "ancient"? Historians generally use "Antiquity" to refer to the period of great classical civilizations up to approximately the 5th century A.D. Ancient Greece was ANCIENT Greece; the old house on the corner is OLD. In Spanish, "antiguo" covers both registers (which makes the English distinction difficult for Spanish speakers), while in English OLD and ANCIENT are clearly separate.
Exercise 1 · Pick the right one
My grandmother is quite _____ — she turned 89 last month.
Exercise 2 · Pick the right one
The archaeologists found an _____ temple that was over 3,000 years old.
Exercise 3 · Form the word
One is an event that made history, the other simply belongs to the past.
"Above" is at a higher level without contact; "over" implies covering, movement, or crossing.
"Actually" corrects or contrasts an assumption; "really" intensifies or confirms.
'Currently' means 'at the present time'; 'actually' means 'in reality', not 'nowadays'.
Bryan López
Founder of SpeakUP Academy