Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): ¿Está disponible una mesa adentro o esperamos afuera? - Is there a table available inside or do we wait outside?

¿Hay una mesa adentro? sounds like a neutral Is there a table inside?
¿Está disponible una mesa adentro? focuses more on availability for you right now, not just existence. It sounds very natural at a restaurant when you’re asking if they can seat you.

So yes, you could say ¿Hay una mesa adentro?, but ¿Está disponible una mesa adentro…? is slightly more specific and polite about seating availability.

Why is the word order ¿Está disponible una mesa…? instead of ¿Una mesa está disponible…??

In Spanish yes–no questions, the verb usually comes before the subject:

Statement: Una mesa está disponible. (A table is available.)
Question: ¿Está disponible una mesa? (Is a table available?)

¿Una mesa está disponible? is understandable but less natural; it can sound like you’re repeating or checking something someone just said. For a neutral, first-time question, ¿Está disponible una mesa…? is the standard word order.

Why is it una mesa and not un mesa? Is mesa always feminine?

Mesa is a feminine noun in Spanish, so it takes feminine articles and adjectives:

la mesa, una mesa, esa mesa, mesa grande, etc.

It is always feminine; you never say el mesa or un mesa.

You just have to memorize grammatical gender. Many nouns ending in -a are feminine (casa, silla, puerta, mesa), and mesa follows that pattern.

Why is it adentro and not dentro here? Is there a difference?

Both adentro and dentro can mean inside.

In Latin American everyday speech:

Adentro is very common as a simple adverb:
- ¿Quieres sentarte adentro o afuera?
Dentro is also correct, but it more often appears in phrases like dentro de (inside of):
- dentro de la casa (inside the house)

In this sentence, you’re contrasting two locations: adentro vs afuera (inside vs outside), so adentro / afuera is the natural pair.

If you specified the place, you could say:

¿Está disponible una mesa adentro del restaurante o esperamos afuera?
¿Está disponible una mesa dentro del restaurante o esperamos afuera?

Both are grammatical; adentro just feels more conversational and symmetrical with afuera.

Why is there no de after adentro or afuera, like adentro del restaurante?

You only need de when you’re saying inside of / outside of something specific:

adentro del restaurante = inside the restaurant
afuera de la casa = outside the house

In the sentence ¿Está disponible una mesa adentro o esperamos afuera?, adentro and afuera are used in a very general way:

adentro = inside (the restaurant, implied)
afuera = outside (in the waiting area, sidewalk, etc.)

Because the place is obvious from context, Spanish often drops de + noun and just uses adentro / afuera as plain adverbs.

Why is it esperamos (we wait) instead of an infinitive like esperar or something like debemos esperar?

Esperamos is the we form of the verb esperar in the present:

esperamos = we wait / we are waiting

The sentence is literally:

Is a table available inside, or do we wait outside?

You could also say:

¿Está disponible una mesa adentro o debemos esperar afuera?
(…or must we wait outside?)
¿…o tenemos que esperar afuera?
(…or do we have to wait outside?)

Those versions sound slightly more formal or explicit. The original o esperamos afuera is shorter and very natural in spoken Spanish: it presents two options for what we do next.

Does esperamos here mean we hope? I’ve seen esperar mean to hope as well.

Esperar can mean both to wait and to hope, but context disambiguates it.

In ¿Está disponible una mesa adentro o esperamos afuera?:

You just mentioned a very practical situation (getting a table / waiting), so esperamos is naturally understood as we wait.
We hope outside doesn’t make sense in this context, so no native speaker would interpret it as hope here.

If you wanted to hope, you’d usually specify more, for example:

Esperamos que haya una mesa adentro.
(We hope there is a table inside.)

So in this sentence, esperamos = we wait.

Why is it o esperamos and not u esperamos? When do you use o vs u?

Spanish changes y → e and o → u before certain sounds to make pronunciation smoother:

y becomes e before words starting with the /i/ sound:
- padres e hijos
o becomes u before words starting with the /o/ sound:
- siete u ocho

You only change o → u when the next word starts with the sound /o/ (spelled o- or ho- and pronounced o).

Esperamos starts with /e/, not /o/, so it stays:

o esperamos, not u esperamos.

Why is it está disponible and not es disponible?

In Spanish, ser and estar are different:

ser is used for permanent characteristics or identity.
estar is used for states, conditions, locations, and temporary situations.

Availability is treated as a temporary state, so you use estar:

La mesa está disponible. = The table is available (right now).

Es disponible is not used in this sense; it sounds incorrect or foreign.

Is this sentence polite enough for talking to restaurant staff, or should I add something like por favor?

¿Está disponible una mesa adentro o esperamos afuera? is polite and normal in a restaurant context, especially if your tone of voice is friendly.

To make it sound extra courteous, you can add buenos días / buenas tardes and por favor:

Buenas tardes, ¿está disponible una mesa adentro o esperamos afuera?
Disculpe, ¿está disponible una mesa adentro o debemos esperar afuera, por favor?

But even without por favor, the structure itself isn’t rude. Tone and context matter a lot.

Where would nosotros go if I wanted to include it, and is it normal to omit it?

Spanish normally omits subject pronouns because the verb ending shows the subject:

esperamos already tells you it’s we.

If you include nosotros for emphasis or clarity, the most natural placements are:

¿Está disponible una mesa adentro o nosotros esperamos afuera?
Less common but possible: ¿Nosotros esperamos afuera o está disponible una mesa adentro? (if you really want to emphasize we).

In everyday speech, you’d almost always omit nosotros here: …o esperamos afuera is enough.

Could I say ¿Hay una mesa disponible adentro o tenemos que esperar afuera? instead? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can. It’s perfectly natural:

¿Hay una mesa disponible adentro o tenemos que esperar afuera?
= Is there an available table inside, or do we have to wait outside?

Differences:

Hay una mesa… focuses on existence of a table.
Está disponible una mesa… focuses on whether a table is available to you right now.

Tenemos que esperar (we have to wait) sounds a bit stronger/more explicit than simple esperamos (we wait).

Both versions are correct and commonly used with slightly different nuance, but in everyday conversation they’re functionally very similar.

How should I pronounce adentro and afuera? Where is the stress?

Both words are stressed on the second syllable:

adentro → a–DEN–tro
afuera → a–FUE–ra (the ue is one syllable, like we in English wet but with a slight oo glide: fweh)

Syllables:

a-DEN-tro
a-FUE-ra

Each word has three syllables, and the middle one is stressed.

Is verb–subject order (like ¿Está disponible una mesa…?) the normal pattern for yes/no questions in Spanish?

Yes. In neutral yes/no questions, Spanish typically uses verb before subject:

Statement: Una mesa está disponible.
Question: ¿Está disponible una mesa?

Other examples:

Tú vienes mañana. → ¿Vienes tú mañana?
Ella vive aquí. → ¿Vive ella aquí?

Subject pronouns and nouns can appear, but they usually come after the verb in questions unless you’re emphasizing the subject.