Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): Compro la pasta de dientes en la farmacia cada mes. - I buy toothpaste at the pharmacy every month.

In Spanish, we normally include the definite article before nouns when talking about things in general. Saying la pasta de dientes sounds natural, even though in English you’d say “toothpaste” without “the.” Omitting the article (just pasta de dientes) is grammatically possible but less common in everyday speech.

Can I use el dentífrico instead of la pasta de dientes?

Yes. El dentífrico is perfectly correct and understood throughout Latin America, though pasta de dientes is more colloquial. Some regions even say pasta dental, but el dentífrico is a bit more formal.

Why is dientes plural in pasta de dientes?

Because you usually refer to the collective set of teeth, not a single tooth. In Spanish, body parts are often plural when you mean “the whole group” (e.g., me lavo las manos = I wash my hands).

Why do we use en la farmacia instead of another preposition?

En indicates location (“at/in the pharmacy”). If you said a la farmacia, you’d be emphasizing movement toward it: Voy a la farmacia (I’m going to the pharmacy). But since compro already implies you go there, you use en to say where the purchase happens.

Could I say Voy a la farmacia a comprar la pasta de dientes cada mes instead?

Yes, that’s perfectly fine and even more explicit. It literally means “I go to the pharmacy to buy toothpaste every month.” It adds the act of going, whereas Compro… focuses just on the purchase.

Why is the subject pronoun yo omitted before compro?

Spanish verb endings already tell you who’s doing the action. Compro ends in -o, so it clearly means “I buy.” You only add yo for emphasis or contrast (e.g., Yo compro, pero ella no compra).

Why is cada mes at the end of the sentence? Could I put it at the beginning?

Yes, you can place cada mes at the beginning for emphasis: Cada mes compro la pasta de dientes en la farmacia. Spanish has flexible word order, but putting time expressions later is very common in neutral statements.

Are there other ways to say “every month” in Spanish?

Yes. You can say mensualmente (monthly) or cada treinta días (every thirty days), though cada mes is the most common everyday expression.

Why is it farmacia and not tienda or supermercado?

Because you normally buy pasta de dientes in a farmacia (pharmacy/drugstore), where they carry personal-care items and medicines. You could buy it in a supermercado or tienda, but farmacia is the most typical place in many Latin American countries.