Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): Desde la azotea vemos un valle verde donde vuelan muchos pájaros y mariposas. - From the rooftop we see a green valley where many birds and butterflies fly.

Desde la azotea = From (up on) the rooftop → very idiomatic.
De la azotea is grammatically possible, but here it sounds less natural and clear; in Latin America people strongly prefer desde for this meaning.

Use desde when you mean from a place toward what you see / where you go:

Desde mi casa veo el mar. – From my house I see the sea.
Desde aquí hasta allá hay diez kilómetros. – From here to there…

De is much more general and used in many other ways: possession, origin, material, etc. Here, desde is the best fit.

What exactly does azotea mean? Is it the same as techo or terraza?

In Latin American Spanish:

azotea: a flat rooftop you can stand or walk on, often like a roof terrace.
techo: the roof (outside) or ceiling (inside) as a structure, not a place you normally go to hang out.
terraza: terrace / patio / deck, which can be on the ground or on a roof.

So in this sentence, desde la azotea suggests you are on top of the building, on a flat roof area, looking out. If you said desde el techo, it would usually sound strange, as if you’re sitting on the sloped tiles.

Why is there no nosotros before vemos?

Spanish usually drops subject pronouns when the verb ending already shows who the subject is.

vemos is first person plural → it already means “we see”.
Adding nosotros (Nosotros vemos…) is possible, but it adds emphasis, like “We see…” (as opposed to someone else).

So the most natural, neutral version is simply Vemos un valle verde… without nosotros.

Why is it vemos and not estamos viendo if the action is happening right now?

Spanish uses the simple present much more than English does for actions happening right now.

Desde la azotea vemos un valle verde…
= From the rooftop we see / we are seeing a green valley…

You can say estamos viendo (present progressive), but it puts extra emphasis on the action in progress, like:

Ahora mismo estamos viendo un valle verde. – Right now we’re (in the act of) looking at a green valley.

In a neutral description of a scene, vemos is more natural.

Why is the adjective verde placed after valle and not before (un verde valle)?

In Spanish, most adjectives normally go after the noun:

un valle verde – a green valley
una casa grande – a big house

Putting verde before the noun (un verde valle) is poetic or very literary. It can add a special stylistic flavor or emphasis, but in everyday speech you usually put descriptive adjectives after the noun.

So un valle verde is the regular, neutral order.

Why is it un valle verde and not el valle verde?

The difference is the same basic idea as a vs the in English:

un valle verde = a green valley, some green valley (not previously identified or shared knowledge).
el valle verde = the green valley, a specific valley that both speaker and listener are expected to recognize (from context, previous conversation, shared experience, etc.).

In the sentence, the speaker is simply describing the view, not talking about a particular known valley, so un is natural.

What is donde doing here in un valle verde donde vuelan muchos pájaros y mariposas?

Here donde works as a relative adverb, similar to “where” in English. It introduces a clause that describes the valley:

un valle verde donde vuelan muchos pájaros y mariposas
= a green valley *where many birds and butterflies fly*

You could also say:

un valle verde en donde vuelan… – also correct, a bit more explicit, often used in Latin America.
un valle verde donde están volando… – grammatically fine, but the simple present vuelan is more natural in descriptive narration.

So donde links valle with the extra information about what happens there.

Why is the verb vuelan plural? How does agreement work with muchos pájaros y mariposas?

The verb vuelan (they fly) is third person plural, which matches the plural subject:

Subject: muchos pájaros y mariposas (many birds and butterflies)
→ two plural nouns joined by y → overall plural subject
Verb: vuelan (they fly) → plural to agree with that subject

In Spanish, when two or more nouns are joined with y, the verb normally goes in plural:

El perro y el gato duermen. – The dog and the cat sleep.
Las casas y los edificios son antiguos. – The houses and the buildings are old.

Why is it muchos pájaros and not pájaros muchos?

Quantifiers like muchos, pocos, varios, algunos almost always go before the noun:

muchos pájaros – many birds
pocas personas – few people
algunos libros – some books

Putting muchos after the noun (pájaros muchos) is unusual in modern everyday Spanish; it can sound archaic, poetic, or forced. For normal speech and writing, use muchos pájaros, muchas mariposas, etc.

Does muchos apply only to pájaros, or also to mariposas in muchos pájaros y mariposas?

By default, muchos here is understood to apply to both:

muchos pájaros y mariposas ≈ many birds and (many) butterflies

Spanish often lets a shared adjective or quantifier in front of the first noun cover the whole list after y.

If you want to be extra clear or emphatic, you can repeat it:

muchos pájaros y muchas mariposas

Both are correct; the original version is perfectly natural and commonly interpreted as “many of both.”

What is the difference between pájaros and aves?

Both refer to birds, but the usage is a bit different:

pájaro / pájaros: very common, everyday word, often for small to medium birds, especially the kind you see flying around trees, gardens, etc.
ave / aves: more formal / technical / general, used in scientific contexts, official signs, or when talking about birds as a class of animals.

In a descriptive, everyday sentence like this, pájaros is more natural than aves in Latin American Spanish.

How is valle pronounced in Latin America, especially the ll?

In most of Latin America, there is yeísmo: ll and y are pronounced the same.

So valle is usually pronounced like:

VA-ye, with ll sounding like the y in English yes.

In parts of Argentina and Uruguay (Rioplatense Spanish), ll and y often sound like sh or zh:

VA-she or VA-zhe (depending on the speaker).

Spelling is always valle; only the sound of ll changes by region.

Why is it la azotea, un valle, muchos pájaros, mariposas? How do their genders work?

Spanish nouns have grammatical gender:

la azotea – feminine (ends in -a; most -a nouns are feminine)
un valle – masculine (doesn’t end in -o, but is still masculine: gender is lexical, must be learned)
pájaro → el pájaro, los pájaros – masculine (ends in -o; most -o nouns are masculine)
mariposa → la mariposa, las mariposas – feminine (ends in -a; typical feminine)

Articles and adjectives must agree:

la azotea (fem. sing.)
un valle verde (masc. sing.)
muchos pájaros (masc. plural)
mariposas without an article here, but if you added one: muchas mariposas (fem. plural)

So the forms you see are chosen to match each noun’s grammatical gender and number.