Breakdown of Su método favorito es repetir las frases en voz alta mientras camina o toca el piano.
Questions & Answers about Su método favorito es repetir las frases en voz alta mientras camina o toca el piano.
Su is a possessive adjective that can mean:
- his
- her
- its
- your (formal singular: usted)
- your (plural: ustedes, in Latin America)
- their
Spanish doesn’t mark gender in su, so su método favorito could be:
- his favorite method
- her favorite method
- your favorite method (speaking formally to one person)
- your favorite method (speaking to a group, in Latin America)
- their favorite method
Only the context tells you which one is intended.
In Spanish, when you talk about activities in a general way (“X’s favorite method is repeating phrases…”), you normally use the infinitive:
- es repetir = is to repeat / is repeating (as an activity)
Spanish uses the infinitive as a noun-like form of the verb here, where English often uses -ing:
- Leer es divertido. → Reading is fun.
- Su método favorito es repetir. → His/Her favorite method is repeating.
Repitiendo is the gerund/participle (like English “repeating”) and is used mainly to form continuous tenses:
- Está repitiendo las frases. → He/She is repeating the phrases.
But after es to define “what the method is,” you use the infinitive: es repetir, not es repitiendo.
In Spanish, when you talk about a type of thing in general, you often use the definite article (el, la, los, las) where English uses no article:
- Las frases aquí doesn’t have to mean some very specific phrases; it can be more generic, like “the phrases (he/she is working with)” or “phrases.”
Alternatives:
- repetir frases – grammatically correct, but sounds a bit more vague or more like “repeat phrases (in general).”
- repetir sus frases – “repeat his/her/your/their phrases” (emphasizing that the phrases belong to that person), which slightly changes the meaning.
Las frases is a natural way to talk about the phrases that are part of the known context (for example, the ones from the lesson, from a book, etc.), without emphasizing possession.
En voz alta literally means “in a loud voice,” and it’s the standard idiom for “out loud” / “aloud”:
- repetir las frases en voz alta → to repeat the phrases out loud
Some notes:
- You don’t normally say “repetir las frases alto” for “repeat the phrases out loud.”
- You might hear a voz alta sometimes, but the standard, most natural form is en voz alta.
- It doesn’t necessarily mean “shouting,” just “audibly, not silently in your head.”
Both en voz alta and a voz alta can occasionally appear, but:
- en voz alta is the normal, idiomatic choice in modern Spanish.
- a voz alta sounds more literary or less common in everyday speech.
So:
- ✅ repetir en voz alta – natural, standard
- ❓ repetir a voz alta – understandable, but not the usual phrasing
For daily conversation and typical learning materials, you should stick with en voz alta.
In Spanish, the simple present is commonly used to talk about habits and routines, where English would often use “when he walks / when he’s walking” or “while he walks / is walking”:
- mientras camina o toca el piano
→ while he/she walks or plays the piano
→ in meaning: when he/she walks or is walking, or when he/she plays or is playing the piano
You can say:
- mientras está caminando or mientras está tocando el piano,
but with mientras + a general habit, the simple present (camina, toca) sounds more natural and concise. The progressive está caminando / está tocando tends to focus on a specific ongoing action, not a general method or routine.
Spanish is a “pro-drop” language: subject pronouns are often omitted when the verb ending already shows who the subject is.
- camina and toca are both 3rd person singular forms (he / she / it / you formal).
The subject here is the same one implied by su and by context (the person whose favorite method this is). So:
- mientras él camina o (él) toca el piano
is grammatically correct, but - mientras camina o toca el piano
is more natural and not ambiguous in context.
You generally only say él/ella/usted if you need to emphasize or clarify who you’re talking about.
In:
…mientras camina o toca el piano.
both verbs, camina and toca, share the same implied subject:
- (Él/Ella/Usted) camina
- (Él/Ella/Usted) toca el piano
The subject is the person referred to by su (“his/her/your/their”). In Spanish, when two verbs appear in this kind of structure (A o B) after mientras, they naturally refer to the same subject unless something clearly indicates otherwise.
To change the subject, Spanish would add an explicit pronoun or a new noun:
- …mientras él camina o ella toca el piano.
→ now there are two different subjects.
For musical instruments, Spanish almost always uses the definite article:
- tocar el piano – to play the piano
- tocar la guitarra – to play the guitar
- tocar el violín – to play the violin
So:
- ✅ toca el piano – natural
- ❌ toca piano – sounds incomplete or foreign (though in very informal speech or some regions you might hear it, the standard form is with el).
English usually omits the article (“play piano”), but Spanish usually requires el / la with instruments.
Both are possible, but they have slightly different feels:
- mientras camina o toca el piano
– most natural, flows smoothly; one mientras governs both verbs. - mientras camina o mientras toca el piano
– correct, but sounds a bit more emphatic or heavy because of the repetition.
In normal speech and writing, Spanish tends to avoid repeating mientras when it governs a short pair of verbs like this, so:
- ✅ mientras camina o toca el piano is the best choice here.
The indicative (camina, toca) is used because the sentence describes a real, habitual action — a method he/she actually uses:
- mientras camina o toca el piano
→ while he/she walks or plays the piano (as a real, factual routine)
The subjunctive (camine, toque) would be used if you were expressing something like a wish, command, condition, or uncertainty, for example:
- Es bueno que camine o toque el piano mientras repite las frases.
→ It’s good that he/she walks or plays the piano while repeating the phrases.
In the original sentence, we’re just describing what happens, so the indicative is correct.
Yes, su can refer to “their”. Grammar-wise:
- Su método favorito es…
could mean:- His favorite method is…
- Her favorite method is…
- Their favorite method is… (one method shared by several people)
In all these cases, método is singular, so:
- The verb with método is singular: es, not son.
- The verbs later (camina, toca) are also singular, matching the implied subject he/she/they (singular)/you (formal).
If you really wanted to stress plural people with possibly different methods, you’d need to make other parts plural too, e.g.:
- Sus métodos favoritos son repetir las frases en voz alta mientras caminan o tocan el piano.
→ Their favorite methods are to repeat the phrases out loud while they walk or play the piano.
But with the original wording (singular método and singular verbs), we interpret one person or a group sharing one method, described with singular verbs.