Levanto mi vaso de agua antes de beber.

I lift my glass of water before drinking.

Breakdown of Levanto mi vaso de agua antes de beber.

• yo: I
• mi: my
• de: of
• beber: to drink

Questions & Answers about Levanto mi vaso de agua antes de beber.

What does levanto mean in this sentence, and why isn’t it me levanto?

Levanto is the 1st-person singular present tense of levantar and means “I lift” or “I raise.”
Me levanto is the reflexive form and means “I get up” (e.g. from a chair or out of bed). Since you are lifting your glass (an external object), you use levanto without the reflexive me.

What’s the difference between levantar and alzar? Could I say alzo mi vaso de agua?

Both levantar and alzar can mean “to lift” or “to raise.”
• Levantar is more common in everyday Latin American Spanish.
• Alzar is slightly more formal or literary, and you’ll also hear it in Spain a bit more often.
Yes, you could say Alzo mi vaso de agua antes de beber, but Levanto sounds more neutral and conversational in Latin America.

Why do we say mi vaso de agua and not mi vaso del agua or mi vaso de la agua?

When you express the content of a container in Spanish, you use de + noun with no article:
• vaso de agua = “glass of water”
You only use del (de + el) if the thing is specific or previously mentioned (e.g. el vaso del agua que dejaste ayer). And although agua is grammatically feminine, singular agua takes el only with the definite article to avoid a double-a sound (e.g. el agua fría), but after de you simply say de agua.