Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): Compramos verdura suficiente para toda la semana. - We buy enough vegetables for the whole week.

Compramos is the first‐person plural form of comprar, and context tells us it’s in the simple past (pretérito). Although compramos looks identical in the present (“we buy”) and the preterite (“we bought”), the meaning “for the whole week” implies you completed the purchase, so it’s past.

Why is verdura singular? Could we say verduras instead?

In Spanish, mass nouns like “vegetables” often appear in the singular when you’re talking about them in general. Verdura here means “vegetable matter.” You can say verduras to stress individual types (“we bought vegetables”), but verdura feels more like “produce” as a category.

Why is suficiente placed after verdura? Can it go before?

Quantity adjectives such as suficiente typically follow the noun in neutral Spanish: verdura suficiente. You could front it—suficiente verdura—for stylistic reasons, but it’s less common and can sound more formal or poetic.

Can we replace suficiente with bastante? What’s the difference?

Yes. Bastante also means “enough,” but it often carries a nuance of “quite a lot.” Compramos bastante verdura is perfectly natural and perhaps a bit more colloquial, whereas suficiente is neutral and literally “sufficient.”

Why do we use para in para toda la semana instead of durante?

Para expresses the intended purpose or the time span something is meant to cover: “enough to last the whole week.” Durante toda la semana means “during the week,” focusing on something happening throughout that period, not that it’s intended to cover it.

Why isn’t there an article before verdura? Shouldn’t it be la verdura?

When you speak of an unspecified amount of an uncountable noun, Spanish omits the article. La verdura would refer to specific vegetables you and the listener both know about. Here, you’re just saying “vegetables in general,” so no article is used.

Is it acceptable to start the sentence with para toda la semana?

Yes. You can front time or purpose phrases for emphasis: Para toda la semana, compramos verdura suficiente. That stresses the duration. But the most neutral word order places para toda la semana at the end.

Could we say compramos toda la semana verdura suficiente?

That order is awkward in Spanish. The neutral pattern is Subject–Verb–Object–Adverbial: Compramos verdura suficiente para toda la semana. You can move short adverbials around, but clarity and idiomatic flow usually suffer.