Common nouns: the home and food

Thirty-odd everyday objects, each learned together with its gender — which Spanish usually tells you honestly.

Colours live this week

8 of 10 in play

Noun

A thing, a person or a place.

Verb

An action or a state — what is happening.

Pronoun

Stands in for a noun — I, you, he, it.

Article

the / a / some — and possessives like mon, ma.

Preposition

Links words together — to, in, of, for.

Adjective

Describes a noun.

Question wordnew

Opens a question — where, when, how, why.

Fixed chunk

Learn it whole. Do not take it apart.

Question words join this week. Adverbs and conjunctions are the last two, and they arrive in Week 4.

Around the home

Learn each noun with its article. In Spanish the ending usually agrees with the article, which gives you a fourth cue on top of the usual three.

la casathe house
mi casamy house
la cocinathe kitchen
en la cocinain the kitchen
el salónthe living room
el dormitoriothe bedroom
la puertathe door
Cierra la puerta.Close the door.
la ventanathe window
la mesathe table
la sillathe chair
el bañothe bathroom / the toilet
The word to ask for in a café or a station.

Food and drink

el panbread
el cafécoffee
un café con lechea white coffee
el tétea
el aguawater
Feminine — but it takes el, not la. See the note below; this is the one real trap in the list.
el vinowine
una copa de vinoa glass of wine
la cervezabeer
el quesocheese
la cartathe menu
La carta, [por favor].The menu, please.
la cuentathe bill
La cuenta, [por favor].The bill, please.

El agua is still feminine

A handful of feminine nouns beginning with a stressed a- take el instead of la, purely because la agua is awkward to say. The word has not changed gender: it is el agua fría, with a feminine adjective. So el here is shown slanted, carrying the feminine the way it always did. Exactly the same problem as l'eau in French, solved by exactly the same cue.

Sentence frames

1
¿Dónde está la cocina / el baño?
Where is ___?
2
Quisiera un café / pan.
I would like ___.
Quisiera is the polite would like. Use it and you will always sound courteous.
3
La cuenta, [por favor].
The bill, please.

Daily mini-tasks

Listening this week

Easy Spanish — street interviews

YouTube

Real speech with Spanish and English subtitles. Do not try to understand everything. Aim to catch the words you already know.