A grandmother's photo on the phone
Lucía wants one photo of her grandmother before a bus trip. The first is dark; with more light she keeps the smile and the cup.
La cámara de fotos
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About this article
What you'll learn
Present indicative, the verb querer, and the feminine noun foto, short for fotografía.
In the kitchen, Lucía takes two photos on her phone. She steps closer, the light reaches her grandmother's face, and she keeps that picture for the night.
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.
Es fácil hacer fotos con solo tocar un botón en la pantalla
newit is easy to take photos by just tapping a button on the screen
Es fácil + infinitive says an action is simple; con solo tocar means by merely tapping. Hacer fotos is the Spain wording for taking photos.
Opening tip of the text, and a pattern you can reuse with any infinitive.
Puedo hacer zoom para acercar las cosas lejanas
newI can zoom in to bring distant things closer
Spanish says hacer zoom: the verb hacer plus the borrowed noun zoom. Acercar means to bring closer.
Lets you describe a camera feature with the very common hacer + noun pattern.
Cambio a la cámara frontal para hacerme una foto
newI switch to the front camera to take a photo of myself
Hacerse una foto means to take a photo of yourself; the pronoun me is attached to the infinitive, giving hacerme.
The natural way to say you are photographing yourself.
El modo retrato deja el fondo borroso y la cara nítida
newportrait mode leaves the background blurry and the face sharp
Dejar + adjective means to leave something in a state: deja el fondo borroso. Borroso and nítido are opposites.
A pair of opposites you need to describe any photo.
Para hacer una foto, pulso el botón circular blanco
newto take a photo I press the white round button
Pulsar means to press a button; note the order botón circular blanco, with both adjectives after the noun.
Word order you need for every description of an object.
Puedo recortar la imagen si hay cosas que no quiero mostrar
newI can crop the image if there are things I do not want to show
Si hay + noun states a real condition and stays in the present tense, with no conditional form.
The everyday way to add an if-clause about something that may be there.
Todas mis fotos se guardan en el teléfono organizadas por fecha
newall my photos are saved on the phone sorted by date
Se guardan is the passive se: the subject is todas mis fotos, which is plural, so the verb is plural too; organizadas agrees with fotos.
Shows how Spanish reports an action without naming who performs it.
A mi hermana le gustan los filtros de colores
newmy sister likes the colour filters
In gustar sentences the thing liked is the subject: los filtros is plural, so the verb is gustan, and le points back to a mi hermana.
The structure learners get wrong most often: not she likes them, but they please her.
Key words
Vocabulary that carries the school-day topic.
Screen
pantalla
screen
La pantalla is the screen of a phone, a laptop or a cinema.
You cannot describe any device without it, and it looks nothing like the English word.
Blurry
borroso
blurry, out of focus
Borroso describes an image you cannot see clearly; its opposite in the text is nítido, sharp.
The word you need to say a photo did not come out well.
Selfie / selfi
selfie
selfie
The phone menu shows the English selfie, but Spanish also writes it selfi, with one i; autofoto is the fully Spanish word for the same thing.
Shows how Spanish adapts an English word to its own spelling.
Folder
carpeta
folder
Una carpeta is a folder, on a phone or on a desk; it is a false friend for anyone who reads it as carpet.
Needed to say where a file is kept, and easy to mistranslate.
Brightness
brillo
brightness
El brillo is how light or dark an image is; ajustar el brillo means to change it.
Word from the editing paragraph, and the one your phone menu uses.
I press (pulsar)
pulso
I press
Pulso is the yo form of pulsar, to press a button. It covers a physical button and a button drawn on the screen; tocar is the wider verb for touching the screen at any point.
The verb for every button, and it is regular in the present.
Edit it (editarla)
editarla
to edit it
The pronoun la stands for la foto and is attached to the end of the infinitive: editar + la. It is feminine because foto is feminine.
Pronoun attachment is a constant feature of Spanish infinitives.
Grammar in context
Patterns from the text worth noticing after reading.
Present: uso
Yo uso la cámara casi todos los días
I use the camera almost every day
Uso is the yo form of usar in the present; casi todos los días marks a regular habit.
How to describe something you do repeatedly.
Poder + infinitive
Puedo grabar vídeos con la misma aplicación
I can record videos with the same app
Puedo is followed directly by the infinitive grabar, with nothing between them.
The standard way to say what a person or a device is able to do.
Para + infinitive
Uso dos dedos para acercar la imagen
I use two fingers to bring the image closer
Para + infinitive answers what for; who does it is shown by the main verb, uso.
Every instruction in this text is built this way.
Passive se: se guarda
la foto se guarda automáticamente
the photo is saved automatically
Se guarda is the passive se (pasiva refleja): la foto is the subject of the sentence, the verb agrees with it, and nobody is named as doing the saving.
Very common in instructions and in descriptions of how a device works.
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