Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): Tengo un teléfono nuevo, pero no uso el anterior porque está dañado. - I have a new phone, but I don’t use the previous one because it is damaged.

In Spanish, most descriptive adjectives follow the noun. Saying un teléfono nuevo is the standard order. If you put the adjective before (un nuevo teléfono), it sounds poetic or emphasizes that this phone is “brand-new” in a more literary way, but it’s less common in everyday speech.

What does anterior mean here, and can I use viejo instead?

anterior means “previous” – the one you had before your new phone.
viejo literally means “old,” which focuses on age or wear.
If you say teléfono viejo, you imply it’s aged or outdated. If you say teléfono anterior, you clearly refer to the phone you used previously, no matter its condition.

Why is there an el before anterior? Could I drop it?

Here anterior acts like a noun (“the previous one”), so Spanish requires the definite article el to nominalize the adjective. Without it (no uso anterior), the phrase sounds ungrammatical. Always say no uso el anterior when you mean “I don’t use the previous one.”

Why is porque written as one word here? How is it different from por qué?

porque (one word, no accent) is the conjunction “because.”
por qué (two words, with accent) is used in questions to ask “why.”
Examples:
• ¿Por qué no lo usas? (Why don’t you use it?)
• No lo uso porque está dañado. (I don’t use it because it’s damaged.)

Why is está used with dañado instead of es?

Spanish uses estar + past participle to describe a resulting state or condition.

está dañado = “it is damaged” (state).
If you used es dañado, it would suggest a passive action (“it is being damaged”) or simply sound incorrect in this context.

What’s the difference between dañado and roto? Could I say está roto?

dañado covers all kinds of damage (water, software, small cracks).
roto specifically means “broken” (e.g. a shattered screen).
You can say está roto if it’s physically broken, but está dañado works for broader damage.

Could I use se dañó instead of está dañado?

Yes.

está dañado describes its current state.
se dañó describes the event: “it became damaged.”
Example: No uso el anterior porque se dañó hace un mes.

Can I say celular instead of teléfono?

Absolutely. In Latin America, celular is the most common word for a mobile phone. You could say:
Tengo un celular nuevo, pero no uso el anterior porque está dañado.

Could I avoid repeating teléfono by using the pronoun lo?

You could, but placement matters.

If you immediately say no lo uso, the pronoun refers to the new phone you just mentioned.
To use lo for the old phone, you’d first have to mention it as the subject:
Tengo un teléfono nuevo. El anterior está dañado, así que no lo uso.
In the original sentence, no uso el anterior clearly points to the previous phone without confusion.