Breakdown of Mi nueva compañera de cuarto tiene que trabajar de noche en el hospital.
Questions & Answers about Mi nueva compañera de cuarto tiene que trabajar de noche en el hospital.
Both mi nueva compañera and mi compañera nueva are grammatically correct, but there is a nuance in meaning and emphasis.
mi nueva compañera (adjective before the noun)
- Usual way to say my new roommate.
- Focus is on “new” as a relative idea: she is my new roommate (as opposed to my old one).
- This is the most natural way to say it in this context.
mi compañera nueva (adjective after the noun)
- Grammatically fine, but less typical here.
- It can sound like you’re describing the compañera more as “the roommate who is new (in general)” rather than the relationship being new to you.
- Sometimes sounds slightly more descriptive than relational.
Very often, adjectives like nuevo/nueva, buen/buena, viejo/vieja, gran/grande go before the noun when we talk about them in a more “subjective” or relational way (my new roommate, a good friend, etc.).
In everyday speech, mi nueva compañera de cuarto is exactly what people would say for my new roommate.
Spanish nouns usually mark grammatical gender:
- compañera = female companion / partner / classmate / roommate
- compañero = male companion / partner / classmate / roommate
In the sentence:
- Mi nueva compañera de cuarto…
clearly indicates the roommate is female.
If your roommate is male, you would say:
- Mi nuevo compañero de cuarto tiene que trabajar de noche en el hospital.
Notice the agreement:
- nuevo matches compañero (both masculine, singular)
- nueva matches compañera (both feminine, singular)
If you want to be explicitly gender‑neutral (less common and not standard everywhere), written forms like compañere sometimes appear in some communities, but in mainstream Latin American Spanish you’ll typically just choose compañera or compañero.
Compañera de cuarto literally means companion of (the) room → roommate.
In Latin America, typical ways to say roommate include:
- compañera/compañero de cuarto – very common
- compañera/compañero de habitación – also understood; a bit more formal
- compañera/compañero de pieza – used in some countries (e.g., parts of Chile, Argentina, etc.)
In Spain, the common term for someone who shares your apartment is:
- compañera/compañero de piso = flatmate / roommate (even if you have separate rooms)
So:
- In much of Latin America, compañera de cuarto is a very natural way to say (female) roommate who shares my room.
- If you share an apartment but not the same bedroom, compañera de apartamento or compañera de departamento might be used, depending on the country.
Spanish has a contraction:
- de + el → del (only when el is the article the, not when it’s the pronoun él).
In de cuarto, there is no article:
- de cuarto = “of room” / “of a room” (functioning like a compound noun: room‑mate).
- If we said del cuarto, it would be de + el cuarto = “of the room”.
Here, de cuarto is part of a fixed expression compañera de cuarto = roommate. You’re not specifying a particular room (the room we talked about earlier), you’re describing the type of companion.
Compare:
- compañera de cuarto – roommate (general)
- la ventana del cuarto – the window of the room (a specific room)
In Spanish, the common way to express have to do something / must do something is:
tener que + infinitive
So:
- tiene que trabajar = she has to work / she must work
You cannot drop the que here.
tiene trabajar is incorrect in standard Spanish with this meaning.
Structure:
- tiene – 3rd person singular of tener (to have)
- que – fixed part of the construction
- trabajar – infinitive = to work
Other persons:
- tengo que trabajar – I have to work
- tenemos que trabajar – we have to work
If you want to say she has work (a job), you’d change the verb:
- Tiene trabajo. – She has a job.
- Tiene que trabajar. – She has to work (there is an obligation).
All three express obligation/necessity, but with different nuances:
tiene que trabajar
- Most common, neutral way to say she has to work.
- External obligation: schedule, job rules, circumstances.
debe trabajar
- Literally she ought to / must work.
- Slightly stronger or more formal; can imply a duty, recommendation, or moral obligation.
- In everyday speech, people still often prefer tiene que.
necesita trabajar
- Literally she needs to work.
- Focuses on necessity from her point of view (money, experience, etc.), not on an imposed rule.
In your sentence, tiene que trabajar is the most natural choice to talk about work shifts and schedules at a hospital.
After tener que, you must use the infinitive form of the verb:
- tener que + infinitive
So you say:
- tiene que trabajar – she has to work
- tiene que estudiar – she has to study
- tiene que dormir – she has to sleep
Using trabaja (conjugated) would break this pattern:
- tiene que trabaja – incorrect
- tiene que trabajar – correct
If you remove que, then you conjugate:
- Ella trabaja de noche en el hospital. – She works at night in the hospital.
Here there is no tener que, so trabaja (present tense) is correct.
All of these are used, but there are preferences and nuances:
de noche
- Very common and natural in both Latin America and Spain.
- Means at night / during the night, in general.
- Short, neutral: trabajar de noche, viajar de noche.
por la noche
- Also very common; many speakers use it interchangeably with de noche.
- Often translated as in the evenings / at night / during the night.
- Slightly more like “in the nighttime hours” as a period.
en la noche
- Also heard, especially in parts of Latin America.
- Can sometimes emphasize within the night period, but in many contexts it just means at night.
In your sentence:
- tiene que trabajar de noche en el hospital
sounds completely natural and idiomatic: she has to work at night in the hospital.
You could also say:
- tiene que trabajar por la noche en el hospital – also fine, very common.
- tiene que trabajar en la noche en el hospital – understood, but a little less typical in many regions.
en and a express different ideas:
- en = in / at / on (location, place where something happens)
- a = to (movement toward a place)
In your sentence:
- tiene que trabajar de noche en el hospital
- She is (located) at the hospital while she works.
- No movement is being expressed, so en is correct.
If you talk about going there, you’d use a:
- Tiene que ir al hospital. – She has to go to the hospital.
- a + el hospital → al hospital
So:
- trabajar en el hospital – work at / in the hospital
- ir al hospital – go to the hospital
Spanish normally requires the definite article in cases where English might omit it.
- en el hospital = at the hospital
- English can say in hospital (especially British English) without the, but Spanish doesn’t do that here.
You almost always say:
- trabajar en el hospital – work at the hospital
- está en el hospital – she is in the hospital
You would drop the article mainly in fixed phrases with certain institutions when they’re used in a more abstract sense:
- estudiar en la universidad vs sometimes ir a la universidad (still with article)
- ir a misa (no article)
- ir a clase (no article)
But hospital normally keeps the article in this kind of sentence:
- Mi abuela está en el hospital. – My grandma is in the hospital.
- Saying está en hospital sounds wrong to native speakers.
Yes, that word order is grammatically correct, and people do say it:
- Mi nueva compañera de cuarto tiene que trabajar en el hospital de noche.
Both:
- …trabajar de noche en el hospital.
- …trabajar en el hospital de noche.
are acceptable. The difference is slight and mostly about rhythm and emphasis:
de noche en el hospital
- Slightly emphasizes the time first (at night), then the place.
- Flows very naturally when talking about night shifts.
en el hospital de noche
- Slightly emphasizes the hospital as the place, then when she’s there.
In everyday conversation, trabajar de noche en el hospital is probably the more common version, but both are fine and clearly understood.