Abro la heladera y guardo el jugo.

I open the fridge and store the juice.

Breakdown of Abro la heladera y guardo el jugo.

• yo: I
• abrir: to open
• y: and
• guardar: to store
• el jugo: the juice
• la heladera: the fridge

Questions & Answers about Abro la heladera y guardo el jugo.

Why is there no yo in the sentence? In English I have to say “I open the fridge…”

In Spanish, subject pronouns (like yo, tú, él) are often omitted because the verb ending already tells you who the subject is.

• abro = I open
• abres = you (singular, informal) open
• abre = he/she/you (formal) open(s)

So Abro la heladera already means I open the fridge. Adding yo is only needed for emphasis or contrast:

• Yo abro la heladera, no tú.
  I open the fridge, not you.

In neutral sentences, dropping yo is more natural: Abro la heladera y guardo el jugo.

What exactly does guardar mean here? Doesn’t it mean “to guard”?

Guardar is a classic false friend. It can mean “to guard” or “to keep safe,” but in everyday usage it very often means:

• to put away
• to store
• to keep (somewhere)

In this sentence:

• guardo el jugo = “I put the juice away / I store the juice (in the fridge).”

Other common uses:

• Guarda tus cosas. – Put your things away.
• Guardo los documentos en esta carpeta. – I keep/store the documents in this folder.

If you want to be explicit about location, you can say:

• Guardo el jugo en la heladera. – I put the juice away in the fridge.

Could I say refrigerador or nevera instead of heladera?

Yes. The word for fridge varies by region:

• heladera – very common in Argentina, Uruguay, and some nearby areas.
• refrigerador (often refri in speech) – common in Mexico, Central America, parts of South America.
• nevera – common in the Caribbean (e.g., Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico), Colombia, Venezuela, etc.

All of them are normally feminine:

• la heladera
• la nevera
• la refrigeradora / el refrigerador (this one can be masculine or feminine depending on the word used locally).

So you might also see:

• Abro el refrigerador y guardo el jugo.
• Abro la nevera y guardo el jugo.

The original sentence with heladera sounds particularly natural in Rioplatense Spanish (Argentina/Uruguay area).

Why is it la heladera and el jugo? Do I always need the article?

Spanish uses definite articles (el, la, los, las) more frequently than English uses the.

Here, la heladera and el jugo refer to specific things that both the speaker and listener can identify: the fridge in the house, the juice the speaker is dealing with.

Alternatives:

• Guardo jugo. – sounds like “I store juice (in general)” and is unusual in this context unless you mean it generically.
• Guardo el jugo. – “I put away the juice” (some specific juice you both know about).
• Guardo un poco de jugo. – “I put away a bit of juice.”
• Guardo mi jugo. – “I put away my juice.”

In everyday speech, for a concrete situation like this, el jugo is the natural choice: you’re putting away that juice, not juice in general.

Why is jugo masculine? Is there some rule I can follow?

Most nouns that end in -o are masculine, so jugo follows a common pattern:

• el jugo – the juice
• el vaso – the glass
• el libro – the book

There are exceptions in Spanish, but the -o → masculine pattern is strong and very reliable for new vocabulary. Whenever you learn a new noun, it’s good to learn it with its article:

• el jugo
• la heladera

That way you remember the grammatical gender naturally.

Can I say Abro la heladera y lo guardo? What does lo refer to?

Yes, you can say:

• Abro la heladera y lo guardo.

Here, lo is a direct object pronoun that replaces el jugo (a masculine singular noun).

• Guardo el jugo. – I put the juice away.
• Lo guardo. – I put it away. (lo = el jugo)

If you’d already mentioned the juice in the previous sentence, it would sound very natural to replace el jugo with lo to avoid repeating:

• Saco el jugo de la mesa. Abro la heladera y lo guardo.
  I take the juice off the table. I open the fridge and put it away.

Why is abrir conjugated as abro and guardar as guardo?

Abrir and guardar are both regular verbs in the present tense.

For -ir verbs like abrir (to open):

• yo abro – I open
• tú abres – you open
• él / ella / usted abre – he/she/you (formal) opens
• nosotros abrimos – we open
• ellos / ustedes abren – they / you all open

For -ar verbs like guardar (to put away/store):

• yo guardo – I put away
• tú guardas
• él / ella / usted guarda
• nosotros guardamos
• ellos / ustedes guardan

The important part for this sentence is:

• yo abro
• yo guardo

Both end in -o, the standard ending for yo (I) in the present tense.

How would I say “I am opening the fridge and putting away the juice”? Is the present progressive used the same way in Spanish?

You can use the present progressive:

• Estoy abriendo la heladera y (estoy) guardando el jugo.

However, Spanish uses the simple present much more often than English does. In Spanish, the original sentence:

• Abro la heladera y guardo el jugo.

can correspond to both:

• “I open the fridge and put away the juice.”
• “I am opening the fridge and putting away the juice.”

The progressive (estoy abriendo…) is usually reserved for emphasizing that the action is happening right now or is temporary. In many everyday contexts, a Spanish speaker would just use the simple present.

Is the word order fixed? Could I say Guardo el jugo y abro la heladera?

Grammatically, you could say Guardo el jugo y abro la heladera, but logically it sounds strange: you can’t really put the juice away before you open the fridge.

The conjunction y (“and”) can connect actions in any order, but the natural order is usually the real-world order of events:

• Abro la heladera y guardo el jugo.
  (First you open it, then you put the juice inside.)

If you change the order, you’d normally be describing a different sequence, not the same one.

How do you pronounce heladera and jugo?

Approximate Latin American pronunciation:

• heladera: /e.laˈðe.ɾa/

  • h is silent.
  • Stress is on -de-: e-la-DE-ra.
  • The d between vowels is softer than in English, often like a quick th in “this”.

• jugo: /ˈxu.ɣo/

  • j is pronounced like a strong h from the throat, similar to the ch in German Bach.
  • g between vowels is a soft g, not as hard as in English go.
  • Stress is on JU: JU-go.

Very rough English approximation:

• heladera → “eh-lah-DEH-rah”
• jugo → “HOO-go” (with a rougher h sound)

Could I use poner or meter instead of guardar here?

Yes, both are common, with slight nuances:

• poner = to put, to place

  • Pongo el jugo en la heladera. – I put the juice in the fridge.

• meter = to put in, to stick inside, to insert

  • Meto el jugo en la heladera. – I put the juice into the fridge.

Guardar adds the idea of storing/putting away for later:

• Guardo el jugo en la heladera. – I put the juice away in the fridge (so it’s kept there).

All three are understandable; which one sounds most natural can vary slightly by region and by context. In many parts of Latin America, meter and poner are extremely common for this action; guardar highlights the idea of storing it.

Does y ever change to e in a sentence like this?

Spanish changes y (“and”) to e only when the next word sounds like it starts with i:

• padre e hijo – father and son
• agua e hielo – water and ice

It’s about sound, not spelling. You use e before a word starting with the /i/ sound (like i, hi + vowel).

In Abro la heladera y guardo el jugo, the next word after y is guardo, which starts with a g sound, so there’s no change:

• y guardo is correct.
• e guardo would be wrong.