Breakdown of Yo lavo la verdura antes de comer.
yo
I
comer
to eat
antes de
before
lavar
to wash
la verdura
the vegetable
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Questions & Answers about Yo lavo la verdura antes de comer.
Why is yo used here when Spanish often drops the subject pronoun?
Spanish verbs are conjugated for person, so the subject pronoun is technically redundant. It’s included here for emphasis or clarity—Yo lavo la verdura stresses that I (and not someone else) am doing the washing.
Why do we say la verdura instead of just verdura?
In Spanish, general or mass nouns often take the definite article. La verdura refers to vegetables (or produce) in a general sense. In English we might drop the article (“wash vegetables”), but in Spanish you commonly use el/la with uncountable or general categories.
Could we use the plural las verduras?
Yes. If you want to treat them as countable items, you can say Yo lavo las verduras antes de comer. That translates as “I wash the vegetables before eating.” Both la verdura (mass idea) and las verduras (individual items) are valid, depending on nuance.
Why is the verb lavo in the present tense? Could this be a different tense?
The present indicative in Spanish expresses habitual actions (“I wash regularly”) and immediate sequences (“I wash now, then eat”). Here, it likely indicates a routine: “I wash the vegetables before I eat.”
How does antes de comer work grammatically?
Antes de is a preposition meaning “before.” When the subject of both verbs is the same, you follow antes de with an infinitive. So antes de comer literally means “before to eat,” which we render in English as “before eating.”
Why not use antes de que coma (with the subjunctive)?
Antes de que + subjunctive is used when the subject changes or to emphasize uncertainty/future sequence. Since here the subject is the same (I wash, I eat), Spanish prefers antes de + infinitive for simplicity.
Can we attach an object pronoun to comer?
Yes. You can say Yo lavo la verdura antes de comerla, attaching la to the infinitive. In Spanish, pronouns can be appended to infinitives: comer + la = comerla.