My small laptop
Mateo writes three sentences on his small laptop at his grandmother's narrow table in Valencia. The big computer stays at the other house.
Mi laptop pequeña
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About this article
What you'll learn
Spanish present tense and caber: laptop and ordenador name the same machine.
Mateo is at his grandmother's flat in Valencia and wants three sentences about his neighborhood. The table is narrow, so the big computer does not fit and his laptop does. She says ordenador and he says laptop. The text says many people in Spain say ordenador. He reads the sentences aloud, does not bring the screen to her face, saves the text, and opens it again.
After reading
Article learning block
Phrases, words, grammar, and quick practice from this text.
Phrases for training
Add useful phrases to SRS or mark them as already known.
de color plateado
newsilver-coloured
De color + adjective names the colour of a thing: de color plateado, de color negro, de color rojo.
The standard way to describe what an object looks like in Spanish.
muy ligera
newvery light
Muy + adjective intensifies it. The adjective agrees with the noun: la laptop is feminine, so ligero becomes ligera.
Adjective agreement, on a word you meet in the very first line of the text.
e imágenes claras
newand clear images
The word for "and" is y, but it turns into e in front of a word that begins with i- or hi-: colores brillantes e imágenes, padre e hijo. It stops two i sounds running together.
A rule you meet the moment you read real Spanish, and y imágenes gives a beginner away at once.
Me gusta mucho
newI really like
With gustar the thing you like is the subject: mi computadora is what does the pleasing. Me marks the person, mucho intensifies.
Gustar works the opposite way round from English "like", so learn the pattern whole.
pantalla de trece pulgadas
newthirteen-inch screen
Pantalla de + number + pulgadas gives the screen size. A pulgada is an inch, about two and a half centimetres.
Screens and televisions are measured in pulgadas across the Spanish-speaking world, never in centimetres.
no hacen mucho ruido
newthey do not make much noise
Spanish says hacer ruido, literally "to make noise", with hacer + noun. The negation no goes in front of the verb: no hacen.
Hacer + noun builds many everyday expressions: hacer ruido, hacer tareas, hacer preguntas.
sin conectarla a la electricidad
newwithout plugging it in
After a preposition Spanish uses a plain infinitive, never a conjugated verb: sin conectar, para escribir, antes de salir. English puts an -ing form in the same slot.
Sin + infinitive replaces a whole English "without ...-ing" clause.
Key words
Vocabulary that carries the school-day topic.
El ratón
ratón
mouse (the device, and the animal)
Spanish reused the animal word: el ratón is the mouse in a field and the mouse on a desk. In much of Latin America people say el mouse instead.
Two words for one object, and which one a text uses tells you roughly where it was written.
Ordenador or computadora
ordenador
computer
In Spain the word is el ordenador. In Mexico, Argentina and most of Latin America it is la computadora. Both are correct, and each region uses only its own.
One machine, two everyday names: you will hear whichever one belongs to the country you are in.
La arroba (@)
arroba
the at sign, @
The @ in an email address is la arroba in Spanish. You read juan@correo.com aloud as "juan arroba correo punto com".
You cannot give someone your email address in Spanish without this word.
Audífonos or auriculares
audífonos
headphones
Latin America says los audífonos; Spain says los auriculares. In Spain an audífono is usually a hearing aid, so the same word points at a different object.
One of the few words where the two regions genuinely misunderstand each other.
La mochila
mochila
backpack
La mochila is a backpack. Notice the verb next to it: cabe, from caber (to fit), whose yo form is the irregular quepo.
Caber is short and very common, and its yo form catches everyone out.
El teclado
teclado
keyboard
El teclado holds las teclas, the keys. A Spanish keyboard has its own key for ñ, which keyboards sold in the United States do not have.
If you type in Spanish you will meet this layout, and the ñ key is its visible difference.
El cargador
cargador
charger, power adapter
El cargador comes from the verb cargar: cargar la batería (to charge), cargar un camión (to load), cargar una mochila (to carry).
One short verb, cargar, covers charging, loading and carrying.
Grammar in context
Patterns from the text worth noticing after reading.
Ser or estar: es ligera / está baja
la batería está baja
the battery is low
Both verbs mean "to be". Ser gives a lasting trait: la laptop es ligera, es plateada. Estar gives a state that changes: la batería está baja, está cargando.
The most useful contrast in beginner Spanish, and this text shows both verbs on the same page.
Gustar: me gusta and te gusta
Te gusta tu computadora portátil
do you like your laptop?
Gustar does not change for the person who does the liking. Only the small pronoun in front changes: me gusta (I like), te gusta (you like), le gusta (he or she likes).
Once you can swap me for te you can ask the question and answer it with the same verb form.
Poder + infinitive
puedo llevarla a todas partes
I can carry it everywhere
Poder is followed by a plain infinitive: puedo llevar. The object pronoun la (la laptop) attaches to the end of that infinitive: llevar + la = llevarla.
Where the pronoun goes is the word order beginners get wrong first.
Present tense for habits
Practico todos los días
I practise every day
The plain present carries habits in Spanish: practico todos los días. There is no separate form for this meaning, so one tense does both jobs.
Time markers such as todos los días, siempre and nunca are what signal the habit.
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