Breakdown of En el coro de la iglesia, un amigo toca el saxofón mientras mi tía canta.
Questions & Answers about En el coro de la iglesia, un amigo toca el saxofón mientras mi tía canta.
In Spanish, you normally need a definite article (el, la, los, las) before most singular countable nouns, even after de.
- de la iglesia = of the church
- de iglesia (without the article) generally sounds incomplete or ungrammatical here.
So:
- en el coro de la iglesia literally: in the choir of the church
- This is the natural way to say in the church choir in Spanish.
Spanish uses the article more often than English does, especially with specific places and groups:
- el parque (the park)
- la escuela (the school)
- el coro de la iglesia (the church’s choir / the church choir)
Not really. If you want to talk about a church choir in general, you usually change the structure, for example:
- en un coro de iglesia = in a church choir (any church)
- en el coro de la iglesia = in the church choir (a specific church you have in mind)
The pattern is:
- un/una
- noun = “a” / “one” (non‑specific)
- el/la
- noun = “the” (specific)
So you either say:
- un coro de iglesia (a church choir, in general)
or - el coro de la iglesia (the choir of the church we both know about).
In this context, coro means choir, specifically a group of people who sing together, usually in a church.
- el coro de la iglesia = the church choir
- cantar en el coro = to sing in the choir
In other contexts, coro can also mean “chorus” (the repeating part of a song), but here, because of de la iglesia, it clearly refers to a church choir.
- un amigo = a (male) friend (not specified which one)
- mi amigo = my (male) friend (specific and belonging to the speaker)
The Spanish sentence is saying a friend in a general way, not my friend. That’s why it uses un.
You also cannot normally drop the article and just say amigo toca el saxofón in this position; that would be incorrect in standard Spanish. You need un amigo or mi amigo, este amigo, etc.
If it were a female friend:
- una amiga toca el saxofón
Spanish distinguishes between different kinds of “play”:
tocar = to play a musical instrument / to touch
- tocar el saxofón (play the saxophone)
- tocar la guitarra (play the guitar)
jugar = to play a game or sport
- jugar fútbol (play soccer)
- jugar ajedrez (play chess)
So un amigo toca el saxofón is correct because it’s a musical instrument.
un amigo juega el saxofón would sound wrong to a native speaker.
toca is:
- the 3rd person singular,
- present tense of tocar.
It matches un amigo (he):
- un amigo toca = a friend plays
- él toca = he plays
The sentence describes something that happens regularly or generally (habitual present):
- un amigo toca el saxofón = a friend plays the saxophone (as a usual activity, for example whenever they’re at church).
If you wanted to show that it’s happening right now, you could say:
- un amigo está tocando el saxofón = a friend is playing the saxophone.
Spanish almost always uses the definite article with musical instruments when speaking in general:
- tocar el piano = to play (the) piano
- tocar la guitarra = to play (the) guitar
- tocar el saxofón = to play (the) saxophone
English is flexible:
- play the piano / play piano
Spanish is not; you normally keep the article.
So el saxofón is just the standard way to mention the instrument, even though English might omit the.
The accent mark in saxofón tells you where the stress falls:
- Without an accent, a word ending in n, s, or vowel is normally stressed on the second‑to‑last syllable: SA‑xo‑fon.
- The accent mark (ó) changes that: sa‑xo‑FÓN (stress on the last syllable).
So you pronounce it sa-xo-FÓN.
The accent is part of correct spelling and is important to show the correct stress pattern.
For tía:
- Without the accent, written tia would follow the normal stress rule (stress on ti: TI‑a).
- With the accent: tí‑a → tía, stress is clearly on tí.
Also, the í in tía breaks what could otherwise be read as one syllable; it clearly makes it two syllables: tí‑a.
For mi:
- mi (my) is a short word that is naturally stressed on the only syllable, and it follows the rules, so it doesn’t need an accent.
- There is another word mí with an accent, meaning me (after prepositions), as in para mí (for me). That accent distinguishes the two different words.
In mi tía, we’re using mi = my, so there is no accent.
In Spanish, with singular family members, you usually use the possessive without an article:
- mi tía = my aunt
- mi hermano = my brother
- tu madre = your mother
- su padre = his/her/their/your (formal) father
Saying la mi tía is generally incorrect or at least very unusual in modern standard Spanish (it can show up in some dialects or old literature, but not in normal contemporary speech).
So mi tía canta = my aunt sings is the standard structure.
mientras means while and introduces a time clause:
- un amigo toca el saxofón mientras mi tía canta
= a friend plays the saxophone while my aunt sings.
In this sentence, mientras has a purely temporal meaning (two actions happening at the same time). In that case, Spanish uses the indicative:
- mientras mi tía canta (canta = indicative present)
Mientras can sometimes trigger the subjunctive if it has a more conditional or “as long as” meaning, but here it simply says at the same time, so indicative is correct.
Spanish verb endings show who the subject is, so the subject pronoun is often unnecessary and omitted unless you want to emphasize or clarify.
- toca by itself already means he/she/it plays or you (formal) play.
- canta by itself already means he/she sings or you (formal) sing.
In your sentence:
- un amigo toca → the noun un amigo is clearly the subject.
- mi tía canta → the noun mi tía is clearly the subject.
So you don’t need él or ella:
- Él toca el saxofón = He plays the saxophone.
- Un amigo toca el saxofón = A friend plays the saxophone.
(Both are correct; in the second, un amigo replaces él.)
The comma in:
- En el coro de la iglesia, un amigo toca el saxofón mientras mi tía canta.
separates an introductory phrase (En el coro de la iglesia) from the main clause.
In Spanish, using a comma after a longer introductory phrase like this is common and considered good style, though in a short sentence like this it’s not absolutely mandatory.
Both are possible:
- En el coro de la iglesia un amigo toca el saxofón…
- En el coro de la iglesia, un amigo toca el saxofón…
The version with the comma is a bit clearer and more standard in writing.
Yes, that’s perfectly correct and natural:
- Mientras mi tía canta, un amigo toca el saxofón en el coro de la iglesia.
Spanish word order is flexible. Both:
- En el coro de la iglesia, un amigo toca el saxofón mientras mi tía canta.
- Mientras mi tía canta, un amigo toca el saxofón en el coro de la iglesia.
mean essentially the same thing. The difference is just what you want to emphasize first: the place (en el coro de la iglesia) or the time relationship (mientras mi tía canta).
The simple present in Spanish (toca, canta) can express:
A habitual action (what normally happens):
- At church, a friend plays the saxophone while my aunt sings (whenever there’s a service).
Or something that is happening right now, depending on context.
Without extra context, learners often interpret it as habitual. If you wanted to clearly show that it is happening right now, you could use the present progressive:
- En el coro de la iglesia, un amigo está tocando el saxofón mientras mi tía está cantando.
But in everyday speech, people still often use the simple present for actions happening “right now” if the context makes it obvious.