Breakdown of Mi suegro no usa redes sociales, pero escucha con paciencia mis explicaciones sobre la tecnología.
Questions & Answers about Mi suegro no usa redes sociales, pero escucha con paciencia mis explicaciones sobre la tecnología.
Mi suegro is the standard, normal way to say my father-in-law in all varieties of Spanish, including Latin America.
- Suegro = father-in-law
- Suegra = mother-in-law
Expressions like padre político (literally “political father”) exist, but they’re rare or joking. In everyday speech you should always use suegro/suegra for in-laws.
Both verbs are possible, but they sound a bit different:
- Usar is the most common, neutral verb for “to use” in everyday speech.
- Utilizar is a bit more formal or technical; it’s often used in writing or more formal contexts.
No usa redes sociales sounds natural, casual, and exactly like what you’d hear in day-to-day conversation in Latin America.
You could say no utiliza redes sociales, but it would just sound more formal or “careful” for such a common action.
Both are grammatically correct, but there’s a nuance:
No usa redes sociales
– General: he doesn’t use social media at all, in general.
– This is how people usually say it.No usa las redes sociales
– More like “he doesn’t use the social networks / the social media,” as a known category.
– Could sound a bit more specific or slightly more formal.
In modern, natural speech, no usa redes sociales is very common when you mean “he doesn’t use social media.”
Pero and sino both translate to but, but they’re used differently:
Use pero when you’re just adding a contrast:
- No usa redes sociales, pero escucha con paciencia…
→ He doesn’t use social media, but he does listen patiently.
(Two separate facts that contrast.)
Use sino when you’re correcting or replacing the first part, usually after a negative:
- No usa redes sociales, sino correo electrónico.
→ He doesn’t use social media, but rather email.
(Second part replaces the first.)
In your sentence, we’re not correcting “doesn’t use social media”; we’re just adding a contrasting second fact, so pero is correct.
In Spanish, the personal a is used before a direct object that is a person (or sometimes a personified thing), not before inanimate things.
- Person: Escucha a mi suegro.
- Thing/idea: Escucha mis explicaciones.
Mis explicaciones (my explanations) is a thing/idea, not a person, so you do not use a:
- Escucha con paciencia mis explicaciones. ✅
- Escucha a mis explicaciones. ❌ (unnatural/wrong)
Both relate to hearing, but:
- Oír = to hear (the physical act, sometimes accidental).
- Escuchar = to listen (paying attention, intentional).
In your sentence, the idea is that he listens carefully and patiently, so escuchar is perfect:
- …pero escucha con paciencia mis explicaciones…
→ but he listens patiently to my explanations…
If you used oír (…pero oye mis explicaciones…), it would mean he hears them, but you’d lose the nuance of patient, attentive listening.
You can place con paciencia in more than one position, and all are correct:
- Escucha con paciencia mis explicaciones…
- Escucha mis explicaciones con paciencia…
Both are natural.
Spanish is flexible with adverbial phrases like con paciencia, especially when there’s no risk of confusion. The version in the sentence is very common and sounds smooth.
Both sobre and de can mean about in this context, but they have slightly different tendencies:
Sobre often means “about / on the topic of” and is very common for subjects of conversation or explanation:
- explicaciones sobre la tecnología = explanations about technology.
De is more general (“of, about, from”) and can also work:
- explicaciones de la tecnología = explanations of/about technology.
In this sentence, sobre la tecnología sounds very natural and maybe a bit more “topic-focused,” like “on the topic of technology.” De la tecnología would also be correct, just slightly different style.
Spanish uses definite articles (el, la, los, las) more often than English, especially with abstract nouns and general concepts:
- la tecnología = technology (in general)
- la música = music (in general)
- la paciencia = patience (in general)
So sobre la tecnología is the normal way to say “about technology.”
Saying sobre tecnología (without la) is possible in some contexts (titles, headlines, technical talk), but in everyday speech sobre la tecnología is more typical and natural.
Spanish and English use progressive forms differently.
- In English, you often say:
- “He doesn’t use social media, but he listens patiently…” (simple)
for habits, OR - “He isn’t using… / he is listening…” for right now.
- “He doesn’t use social media, but he listens patiently…” (simple)
In Spanish:
- No usa redes sociales, pero escucha…
– Simple present describes a habit or general truth (how he normally is). - No está usando / está escuchando
– Progressive (estar + gerundio) is for actions happening right now, like at this moment.
Here, we’re talking about his general behavior, so the simple present (usa, escucha) is correct.
You could say it, but you normally wouldn’t. In Spanish, once the subject is clear, it’s usually omitted in later clauses:
- Mi suegro no usa redes sociales, pero escucha con paciencia… ✅
(Subject understood to be the same: he.)
Repeating mi suegro:
- Mi suegro no usa redes sociales, pero mi suegro escucha…
sounds redundant or heavy unless you really want to emphasize it (for contrast, for example).
In natural conversation, we drop the second mi suegro.
In Spanish punctuation, a comma is normally required before coordinating conjunctions like pero, sino, aunque when they connect two clauses:
- Mi suegro no usa redes sociales, pero escucha con paciencia…
Each side has its own verb (no usa, escucha), so they are two clauses joined by pero, and you put a comma before pero.
If pero only connects small phrases without separate verbs, the comma can be optional, depending on style and length, but here you do need it.
Yes, redes sociales is the standard term for social media in Latin American Spanish (and in Spain).
Literally, redes sociales means “social networks,” but in modern usage it strongly implies social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, etc. In everyday speech, people almost always use redes sociales to talk about those platforms.