Breakdown of No hay mesas disponibles en la terraza; podemos sentarnos en un cojín.
Questions & Answers about No hay mesas disponibles en la terraza; podemos sentarnos en un cojín.
In Spanish, hay (from haber) is the impersonal form used to say there is / there are.
- No hay mesas disponibles = There are no tables available / There aren’t any tables available.
- You don’t say:
- No son mesas disponibles – sounds like “they are not available tables,” which is wrong here.
- No están mesas disponibles – ungrammatical; estar isn’t used that way.
Use hay whenever you’re talking about the existence or presence of something in general:
- Hay una mesa libre. – There is a free table.
- No hay sillas. – There are no chairs.
In Spanish, the normal word order is noun + adjective:
- mesas disponibles = available tables
- libros interesantes = interesting books
Putting the adjective before the noun is possible but less common and usually adds a special nuance (emphasis, style, or a change in meaning). For a neutral, everyday phrase like this, mesas disponibles is the natural order.
Disponibles mesas would sound very strange here.
Adjectives in Spanish must agree in number (singular/plural) and gender (masculine/feminine) with the noun they describe.
- mesas – feminine plural
- disponible – adjective, in its plural form disponibles
So:
- singular: mesa disponible
- plural: mesas disponibles
If the noun were masculine plural, you’d still use disponibles, because disponible has the same form for masculine and feminine:
- asientos disponibles – available seats
All can appear with tables, but they’re not identical:
- mesa disponible – available table: nobody is using it and it’s free to be used. Neutral, slightly formal; common in customer-service contexts.
- mesa libre – free table: nobody is sitting there; very common in restaurants and cafés.
- mesa vacía – empty table: literally nobody is at it. It might be empty but not necessarily available (maybe it’s reserved or dirty).
In your sentence, mesas disponibles feels like something a host or waiter might say. mesas libres would also sound very natural in everyday speech.
La terraza uses the definite article (la) because both speakers know which terrace they’re talking about — probably the terrace of that specific café/restaurant/house.
- en la terraza = on the terrace (the specific one here)
- en una terraza = on a terrace (some terrace, not specified)
In a real situation like this, the terrace is a known, specific place, so la terraza is the natural choice.
The semicolon is grammatically correct and works in Spanish much like in English: it links two closely related clauses.
You could write the sentence in at least three ways:
- No hay mesas disponibles en la terraza; podemos sentarnos en un cojín.
- No hay mesas disponibles en la terraza. Podemos sentarnos en un cojín.
- No hay mesas disponibles en la terraza, así que podemos sentarnos en un cojín.
In informal writing, Spanish speakers often use a comma or just a period instead of a semicolon. The semicolon feels a bit more formal or “written” than “spoken.”
Sentarse is a reflexive verb meaning to sit down (to seat oneself).
- sentar (non-reflexive) = to seat someone else
- Voy a sentar al niño. – I am going to seat the child.
- sentarse (reflexive) = to sit down (yourself)
- Voy a sentarme. – I’m going to sit down.
In your sentence:
- podemos sentarnos = we can sit (down)
You cannot say podemos sentar here; that would mean we can seat (someone else) and would need a direct object: podemos sentar a los niños.
Both are correct and mean we can sit (down).
With reflexive pronouns and a conjugated verb + infinitive structure, you have two options:
- Attach the pronoun to the infinitive:
- podemos sentarnos
- Put the pronoun before the conjugated verb:
- nos podemos sentar
Meaning and register are the same here; podemos sentarnos is perhaps slightly more common in speech, but both are perfectly natural.
Both en and sobre are possible, but they have slightly different typical uses:
- en un cojín – on/in a cushion; very common and neutral.
- sobre un cojín – literally “on top of a cushion”; a bit more explicit or descriptive.
In everyday speech, en is widely used for locations on surfaces:
- sentarse en la silla – sit on the chair
- poner el libro en la mesa – put the book on the table
Sobre often feels a bit more literal or formal (or is used to emphasize “on top of”), but here en is the most natural choice.
Spanish often uses the singular when talking about each person having one of something, or when the exact number doesn’t matter.
podemos sentarnos en un cojín can imply:
- each person will sit on a cushion, or
- there is a cushion (maybe a large one) where we can sit.
Using the plural is also possible:
- podemos sentarnos en unos cojines – we can sit on (some) cushions.
The singular here is natural and doesn’t sound like only one person will sit; it just refers to the idea of “on a cushion” in general.
Both are soft, padded objects, but they’re used in different contexts:
- cojín – usually a cushion used on sofas, chairs, benches, or on the floor to sit on or lean against.
- sofa cushions, decorative cushions, floor cushions.
- almohada – a pillow you use mainly in bed to rest your head while sleeping.
So in this context (sitting on something because there are no tables), cojín is the right word, not almohada.
Yes, that sentence is completely correct and natural.
No hay mesas disponibles en la terraza; podemos sentarnos en un cojín.
– Two related statements, neutral link.No hay mesas disponibles en la terraza, pero podemos sentarnos en un cojín.
– pero = but, introducing a contrast:
There’s a problem (no tables), but there is an alternative (we can sit on a cushion).
Adding pero makes the contrast more explicit and a bit closer to how many people would speak in an informal conversation.