Breakdown of Si estás ocupada, te voy a llamar mañana y podemos leerla juntos en voz alta.
Questions & Answers about Si estás ocupada, te voy a llamar mañana y podemos leerla juntos en voz alta.
si without an accent means if and is used to introduce a condition, like in Si estás ocupada (If you are busy).
sí with an accent usually means yes (as in answering a question), and it can also mean oneself in some reflexive expressions (like para sí mismo = for himself).
In this sentence it must be si (no accent) because it introduces a conditional clause: if you are busy…
Spanish uses estar for temporary states and conditions, and ser for more permanent or defining characteristics.
Being busy is considered a temporary state, so you use estar:
- Estás ocupada = you are busy (right now / at this moment).
- Eres ocupada would sound like you are a busy person by nature, which is not what this sentence is saying.
So Si estás ocupada means If you are (currently) busy…
Adjectives in Spanish agree in gender and number with the person or thing they describe.
Here, ocupada is describing tú (you), and the sentence assumes the person being addressed is female. So:
- Speaking to a woman: estás ocupada
- Speaking to a man: estás ocupado
If the learner is male, they would say Si estás ocupado…; if female, Si estás ocupada…
The sentence has two parts:
- The if clause: Si estás ocupada
- The main clause: te voy a llamar mañana y podemos leerla juntos en voz alta
When the si clause comes first, Spanish normally uses a comma between the two clauses, just like English:
- If you are busy, I’m going to call you tomorrow…
- Si estás ocupada, te voy a llamar mañana…
Both are correct and very common:
- Te voy a llamar mañana
- Voy a llamarte mañana
In Spanish, object pronouns can go:
- Before the conjugated verb (te voy a llamar), or
- Attached to the infinitive (llamarte).
The meaning is the same: I’m going to call you tomorrow.
The choice is mostly about rhythm and personal preference.
te is the unstressed object pronoun for tú (informal you, singular). It usually means you as a direct or indirect object:
- Te llamo = I call you
- Te voy a llamar = I am going to call you
With llamar (por teléfono) in Latin American Spanish, te is used when you are talking to someone you address as tú.
le is used with usted (formal you) and third-person singular, but with tú you must say te.
(There is some regional leísmo in Spain, but in Latin American Spanish stick with te for tú.)
Both are grammatically correct:
- Te voy a llamar mañana
- Te llamaré mañana
In Latin American Spanish, ir a + infinitive (voy a llamar) is extremely common in everyday speech for future actions, especially when they are planned or relatively near in time.
Te llamaré sounds a bit more formal or written, and in many areas slightly less common in casual conversation. The meaning here is the same: I’ll call you tomorrow.
Yes, mañana can mean:
- tomorrow → mañana
- morning → la mañana
In this sentence there is no article, and it refers to a future time in general, so it clearly means tomorrow:
- Te voy a llamar mañana = I’m going to call you tomorrow.
- Te voy a llamar por la mañana = I’m going to call you in the morning.
leerla literally means to read it.
- leer = to read
- la = direct object pronoun, feminine singular (her / it)
So leerla = to read it / read it, where la refers to some feminine noun mentioned earlier in the conversation, for example:
- la carta (the letter)
- la historia (the story)
- la novela (the novel)
If the object were masculine singular (like el libro), you’d say leerlo instead.
In Spanish, with a conjugated verb plus an infinitive, object pronouns can go in two places:
- Before the conjugated verb:
- La podemos leer juntos en voz alta.
- Attached to the infinitive:
- Podemos leerla juntos en voz alta.
Both are correct and mean We can read it together out loud.
Attaching it to the infinitive (leerla) is very common and sounds natural.
juntos / juntas agrees in gender and number with the group of people who are together:
- juntos = together (masculine plural or mixed group)
- juntas = together (all-female group)
In most contexts, juntos is the default when there is at least one male in the group, or when gender is not specified or not important.
So:
- If the speaker is male and the other person is female → juntos
- If both are male → juntos
- If both are female → juntas
In the given sentence, juntos assumes a mixed group or uses the default masculine plural.
Literally, en voz alta means in a loud voice.
Idiomatic meaning: out loud or aloud (so that others can hear), especially when reading or speaking.
- leer en voz alta = to read out loud
- pensar en voz alta = to think out loud
It is about speaking audibly, not necessarily speaking very loudly in the sense of shouting. For loudly you might use fuerte or muy alto depending on context, but for out loud (as opposed to silently) you say en voz alta.
Spanish often uses the present tense to talk about future plans, especially when the future time is clear from context:
- Mañana podemos leerla juntos = Tomorrow we can read it together.
- Luego hablamos = We’ll talk later.
Here, mañana (tomorrow) already marks the action as future, so podemos (we can) in the present tense is enough. You could also say podremos, but podemos with a future time expression is very natural and common.
Spanish is a pro‑drop language: subject pronouns (yo, tú, él, nosotros, etc.) are often omitted because the verb ending already tells you who the subject is.
- (Yo) te voy a llamar → voy already shows yo
- (Nosotros) podemos leerla → podemos already shows nosotros
You only add yo, nosotros, etc. when you want to emphasize or clarify who is doing the action:
- Yo te voy a llamar mañana (I, specifically, will call you)
- Nosotros podemos leerla juntos (We—as opposed to someone else—can read it together)