Many Yabla users have been wondering about the difference between 'vivir en' and 'vivir a' when you are talking about a particular place. In this lesson, we will explain how to properly use the verb vivir (to live) with either of these two prepositions. Let's start this lesson with a little quiz. Put the missing preposition(s) in the following sentence:
Porque si te cansas de vivir ___ Cádiz, te puedes ir a vivir ___ Málaga.
Because if you get tired of living in Cadiz, you can go to live in Malaga.
Would you use the preposition a or the preposition en? Or both? Let's find out the answer.
We use 'vivir en' when we want to indicate a place. Let's see some examples:
Hice mis amigos, tengo mi novia
I made friends, I have my girlfriend,
y me encanta vivir en Miami.
and I love to live in Miami.
Captions 35-36, Fiesta en Miami - Antonio
Play Caption
Siempre he tenido mi idea de vivir en Alemania.
I have always wanted to live in Germany.
Caption 82, Gonzalo el Pintor - Vida
Play Caption
We use 'vivir a' when we want to indicate that someone is moving towards a place: a destination. Because of that, 'vivir a' is preceded by verbs that indicate movement such as ir (to go) or venir (to come). In fact, the preposition 'a' before the destination is required by the verb that indicates movement and not by the verb vivir (to live). Let's take a look:
Me voy a ir a vivir a Barcelona.
I'm going to go live in Barcelona.
Caption 23, Arume - Málaga, España
Play Caption
¿Viene a vivir a Buenos Aires?
She's coming to live in Buenos Aires?
Caption 38, Yago - 8 Descubrimiento
Play Caption
Now that we understand the difference, it is time to solve our quiz:
Porque si te cansas de vivir en Cádiz,
Because if you get tired of living in Cadiz,
te puedes ir a vivir a Málaga.
you can go to live in Malaga.
Captions 10-11, 75 minutos - Gangas para ricos
Play Caption
That's it for now. We hope you like this lesson and don't forget to send us your comments and suggestions.
Let's talk about family! Do you know how to say words like "father" or "cousin" in Spanish? Today, we will learn how to say the names of the most important family members in Spanish. In particular, we will see how to write and pronounce those names. Let's take a look.
Familia is the Spanish word for family. It is important to say that this is a feminine collective noun. Collective nouns are words that we use for particular groups. However, these nouns are treated as singular words. Let's see how this works:
Mi familia es pequeña y cálida.
My family is small and warm.
Considerando que "familia" es un sustantivo colectivo femenino,
Considering that "familia" is a feminine collective noun,
conjugamos el verbo en tercera persona del singular
we conjugate the verb in third person singular
y utilizamos adjetivos femeninos, "pequeña" y "cálida",
and use feminine adjectives, "pequeña" [small] and "cálida" [warm],
para elaborar la concordancia de manera correcta.
to create agreement in the correct way.
Captions 16-20, Carlos explica - Sustantivos colectivos
Play Caption
The following are the names of the most important family member in Spanish.
Comes bastante verdura, tu madre que te quiere.
Eat enough vegetables, your mother who loves you.
Caption 38, Extr@: Extra en español - Ep. 1 - La llegada de Sam
Play Caption
Very often, however, people refer to their mothers using the following terms:
Mamá, quería preguntarte algo.
Mom, I wanted to ask you something.
Caption 2, Yago - 10 Enfrentamientos - Part 7
Play Caption
OR
¿Haciendo la tarea con mami? -Sí.
Doing your homework with Mommy? -Yes.
Caption 24, Yago - 11 Prisión - Part 5
Play Caption
"A mi padre siempre le toca trabajar mucho todos los viernes".
"My father always has to work a lot every Friday."
Caption 53, Carlos explica - Vocabulario: El verbo “tocar”
Play Caption
However, just like for the word "mother", there are some other terms people use when talking with or about their fathers:
Fue cuando me di cuenta no tenía ni idea de lo que hacía mi papá.
It was then that I realized I had no idea what my dad did.
Caption 30, Los Años Maravillosos - Capítulo 3 - Part 3
Play Caption
OR
Papi, cualquier hora es buena.
Daddy, any hour is good.
Caption 5, X6 1 - La banda
Play Caption
Quiero presentarles a mi hijo; Kevin, él es Felipe.
I want to introduce you to my son; Kevin, this is Felipe.
Caption 16, Los Años Maravillosos - Capítulo 3 - Part 6
Play Caption
Y muy feliz de tener a mi lado a mi hija.
And very happy to have my daughter by my side.
Caption 38, Yolimar Gimón - sobre el concurso Mrs. Venezuela
Play Caption
Después aquí tengo a mi hermano, José.
Then here I have my brother, Jose.
Caption 11, Curso de español - Vamos a hablar de la familia
Play Caption
...pero que estaba alejando a mi hermana de nosotros.
...but it was taking my sister away from us.
Caption 21, Los Años Maravillosos - Capítulo 4
Play Caption
¡Abuelo, abuelo!
Grandpa, Grandpa!
Caption 9, Guillermina y Candelario - Un regalo de Estrellas
Play Caption
Abuela, podemos hablar dos minutos por favor.
Grandmother, can we talk for two minutes, please.
Caption 4, Muñeca Brava - 18 - La Apuesta
Play Caption
Mi nieto no existe.
My grandson does not exist.
Caption 53, Muñeca Brava - 33 El partido
Play Caption
La nieta de María.
Maria's granddaughter.
Caption 30, Zoraida en Coro - El pintor Yepez
Play Caption
Y su tío Aldo cree que está muerto, su tío Lucio confía en que esté vivo.
And his Uncle Aldo believes that he's dead, his Uncle Lucio has faith that he's alive.
Caption 22, Yago - 8 Descubrimiento - Part 3
Play Caption
Esa es mi tía Silvia.
That is my Aunt Silvia.
Caption 24, Español para principiantes - Demostrativos
Play Caption
¿Hace cuánto tiempo que dejó de ver a su sobrino?
How long ago did you stop seeing your nephew?
Caption 69, Yago - 8 Descubrimiento - Part 1
Play Caption
Sobrina. Muy bien.
Niece. Very good.
Caption 43, Curso de español - Vamos a hablar de la familia
Play Caption
Sí, me gusta mucho mi primo Pedro.
Yes, I like my cousin Pedro very much.
Caption 40, El Aula Azul - Mis Primos
Play Caption
Esta mañana mi prima se ha roto la pierna jugando al fútbol.
This morning my cousin has broken her leg playing soccer.
Caption 15, Lecciones con Carolina - Participios - Ejemplos de uso
Play Caption
Finally, keep in mind that when using the plural forms of these nouns, you should use the male form when the group is made of both male and female members:
Two cousins (both male): Dos primos
Two cousins (both female): Dos primas
Two cousing (one male and one female): Dos primos
That's it for today. We invite you to take a piece of paper and design your family tree with the names of the family members in Spanish. And don't forget to send us your comments and suggestions.
Our previous lesson focused on the proper use of reflexive pronouns. We discussed when and how to use them and how the meaning of what we say is affected by them. We also mentioned that there are some Spanish verbs that can be used with or without reflexive pronouns, and that the verb comer (to eat) and other "ingestion verbs" are excellent examples.
In theory, verbs like comer (to eat), tragar (to swallow), beber and tomar (to drink), etc., can either be used with or without reflexive pronouns. For example:
Yo como la zanahoria = Yo me como la zanahoria (I eat the carrot)
Nosotros bebimos el tequila = Nosotros nos bebimos el tequila (We drank the tequila)
Tú tomas la leche = Tú te tomas la leche (You drink the milk)
Ella traga la pastilla = Ella se traga la pastilla (She swallows the pill)
However, this equivalence is not 100% accurate. Most Spanish speakers would more likely use the second option with reflexive pronouns than the first one without them. Saying yo como la zanahoria may not be wrong, but it's surely more common to say yo me como la zanahoria.
Cuando te comes una seta venenosa...
When you eat a poisonous mushroom...
Caption 23, 75 minutos - Del campo a la mesa
Play Caption
Nos bebemos la Coca Cola
We drink the Coca-Cola
Caption 85, Zoraida en Coro - Artesanos
Play Caption
On the other hand, sometimes you cannot use a reflexive pronoun at all—for example, when you don't use an article before the direct object. There's a difference between saying yo como la zanahoria (I eat the carrot) and yo como zanahoria ("I do eat carrot" or "I'm eating carrot"), right? But you can never say yo me como zanahoria.
So, you can say yo bebo el alcohol (I drink the alcohol), but it's more normal to say yo me bebo el alcohol (I drink the alcohol). You can also say yo bebo alcohol ("I do drink alcohol" or "I'm drinking alcohol"), but you can never say yo me bebo alcohol. Got it?
What about if we use indefinite articles (un, una, unos, unas)? Well, it's the same. You can't use reflexive pronouns when you don't use an article before the direct object. For starters, and by definition, you cannot use indefinite articles before nouns that describe an undetermined amount of something, like leche (milk). You don't say tomé una leche (I drank a milk)—you say tomé leche (I drank milk). But with countable nouns like pastilla (pill), you can say una pastilla (a pill) and la pastilla (the pill). So in Spanish you could say ella traga una pastilla , but it's even better to say ella se traga una pastilla (both meaning "she swallows a pill"). What you can never say is ella se traga pastilla. Here's a challenging example that combines the use of tragar (to swallow) with a reflexive pronoun, the reflexive verb pudrirse (to rot), and a pronoun (lo) playing the role of direct object:
Lo que uno se traga se pudre.
What one swallows rots [Keeping things in is bad for you].
Caption 16, Yago - 8 Descubrimiento
Play Caption
To make it simpler, you can substitute the pronoun lo with a proper direct object. Since this is a figure of speech, let's say we are talking about miedo (fear). The expression could be: el miedo que se traga se pudre (the fear one swallows rots). So it's two sentences combined: uno se traga el miedo (one swallows fear) / el miedo se pudre (fear rots).
Now, a tricky question for you. Is it correct to say ella traga pastilla, since we just said that yo como zanahoria (translated either as "I do eat carrots" or "I'm eating carrot”) is correct? The answer is no, it's not correct to say ella traga pastilla. This is because nouns like zanahoria (carrot) can be used either as a countable noun (if you use an article) or an uncountable noun (if you don't use an article). But the singular pastilla (pill) is always a countable noun in Spanish: it's always one pill. The only way to refer to an indeterminate amount of pills in Spanish is by using the plural pastillas (pills). So in Spanish you could say ella traga unas pastillas, but it's even better to say ella se traga unas pastillas (both meaning "she swallows some pills"). But you don't say ella se traga pastillas.
If you want to express that a certain girl does swallows pills regularly, you could say ella traga pastillas. That's correct, but you must know that, just like in English, Spanish prefers the use of the verb tomar (to take) for this particular expression: ella toma pastillas (she takes pills). But you can correctly say yo trago miedo ("I swallow fear" or "I'm swallowing fear") because miedo (fear) is an uncountable noun.
You also can't use a reflexive pronoun if you don't use a direct object at all with these verbs—for example, when you just use an adverb with the verb instead of a direct object. You can say yo bebo hoy (I drink today) but you can't say yo me bebo hoy (that would mean something that doesn't make sense, unless you are writing poetry: "I drink myself today").
Los españoles comen a las dos de la tarde.
Spaniards eat at two in the afternoon.
Caption 6, La rutina diaria - La tarde
Play Caption
Another example: you can say nosotros comemos despacio (we eat slowly), but you can't say nosotros nos comemos despacio (unless you mean "we eat each other slowly"!). You can use reflexive pronouns again if you add a direct object. The second option in the following examples is the more common:
Yo bebo rápidamente el tequila = Yo me bebo rápidamente el tequila (I drink the tequila quickly).
Nosotros comemos despacio el atún = Nosotros nos comemos despacio el atún (We eat the tuna slowly).
French
German
Italian
Chinese
English
English 
Français
Deutsch
Español
Italiano
Português
