Breakdown of Las nubes desaparecen con el viento.
con
with
el viento
the wind
la nube
the cloud
desaparecer
to disappear
Questions & Answers about Las nubes desaparecen con el viento.
Why is the article las used with nubes?
The noun nube is grammatically feminine. In Spanish, the definite article must agree in gender and number with the noun. Since you’re talking about more than one nube, feminine plural, you use las.
Why is the verb desaparecen in that form?
Desaparecen is the present-tense, third-person plural (ellos/ellas/ustedes) form of the regular -er verb desaparecer. The subject here is las nubes (they), so you conjugate desaparecer as desaparecen.
Why isn’t there a reflexive pronoun se (as in desaparecerse)?
Desaparecer is already intransitive, meaning “to vanish” or “to disappear.” You don’t need se to make it work. There is a pronominal variant desaparecerse, but in many cases Spanish speakers drop the se unless they want to emphasize that the subject is actively “making itself vanish.”
What does con mean in this sentence?
Here con means with, indicating accompaniment or instrument. It tells us that the clouds vanish together with the wind.
Why con el viento and not al viento?
Al is a contraction of a + el, meaning “to the.” If you said van al viento, it would mean “they go to the wind,” implying direction toward it. To express that something happens with the wind, you use con el viento.
Could we say por el viento instead of con el viento?
You could, but por shifts the nuance to cause or reason: “they disappear because of the wind.” Using con emphasizes that the clouds vanish along with the wind as a companion or instrument.
Can we drop the article and say nubes desaparecen con viento?
Yes, but con viento without the article often functions adverbially (“when it’s windy”) rather than pointing to a specific “wind.” It becomes more of a general weather comment than a poetic image of clouds vanishing with the wind.
Why is there no accent over nubes?
Spanish spelling rules say that words ending in a vowel, “n,” or “s” are normally stressed on the penultimate syllable. Nu-bes follows that rule, so no written accent is needed.
Is there another way to express this idea, for example using irse?
Absolutely. You could say “Las nubes se van con el viento.” That uses the reflexive irse (“to go away”) and highlights movement rather than the idea of “vanishing.” It’s a perfectly natural alternative.
More from this lesson
AI Language TutorTry it ↗
“How does verb conjugation work in Spanish?”
Spanish verbs change form based on the subject, tense, and mood. Regular verbs follow predictable patterns depending on whether they end in ‑ar, ‑er, or ‑ir. For example, "hablar" (to speak) becomes "hablo" (I speak), "hablas" (you speak), and "habla" (he/she speaks) in the present tense.
Sign up free — start using our AI language tutor
Start learning SpanishMaster Spanish — from Las nubes desaparecen con el viento to fluency
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods.
- ✓ Infinitely deep — unlimited vocabulary and grammar
- ✓ Fast-paced — build complex sentences from the start
- ✓ Unforgettable — efficient spaced repetition system
- ✓ AI tutor to answer your grammar questions