Breakdown of Mis amigos y yo colaboramos en un proyecto comunitario en la escuela.
Questions & Answers about Mis amigos y yo colaboramos en un proyecto comunitario en la escuela.
Both are grammatically correct, but Spanish strongly prefers to mention other people before oneself as a matter of politeness and style.
So:
- Mis amigos y yo = more natural, more polite
- Yo y mis amigos = understood, but sounds a bit self-centered or childish in many contexts
In normal speech and writing, Mis amigos y yo is the standard order.
You could say Nosotros colaboramos en un proyecto comunitario en la escuela, and it’s correct.
However, mis amigos y yo is more specific: it tells you who nosotros are. It emphasizes the group composition, not just “we” in general.
Use nosotros when it’s already clear who “we” are, and mis amigos y yo when you want to spell it out.
Spanish usually omits subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.
The verb colaboramos already tells us the subject is nosotros / mis amigos y yo.
You only add nosotros for emphasis or contrast, e.g.:
- Nosotros colaboramos, pero ellos no.
(We collaborate, but they don’t.)
For -ar verbs, the nosotros form is the same in the present and the simple past (preterite):
- Present: colaboramos = we collaborate / we are collaborating
- Preterite: colaboramos = we collaborated
So colaboramos is ambiguous by form. Only context (time expressions like ayer, siempre, etc.) tells you whether it’s present or past.
Colaborar (to collaborate) is a regular -ar verb.
Present indicative (simple “do / are doing”):
- yo colaboro
- tú colaboras
- él / ella / usted colabora
- nosotros / nosotras colaboramos
- ustedes colaboran
- ellos / ellas colaboran
Preterite (simple past “did”):
- yo colaboré
- tú colaboraste
- él / ella / usted colaboró
- nosotros / nosotras colaboramos
- ustedes colaboraron
- ellos / ellas colaboraron
Notice colaboramos is the same in present and preterite for nosotros.
Both colaborar en and colaborar con can be correct, but they pair with different ideas:
- colaborar en un proyecto = take part in a project, work on that project
- colaborar con alguien = collaborate with someone
So in this sentence, you’re participating in a project, so en is the natural preposition:
colaboramos en un proyecto comunitario.
You might also hear:
Colaboramos con la comunidad en un proyecto.
(We collaborate with the community on a project.)
In Spanish, most descriptive adjectives normally go after the noun:
- proyecto comunitario = community project
- escuela primaria = primary school
Putting the adjective before the noun (comunitario proyecto) is either wrong or would sound poetic/very marked.
Also notice gender/number agreement:
- proyecto comunitario (masculine singular)
- proyectos comunitarios (masculine plural)
The adjective matches the noun in gender and number.
Un is the masculine singular indefinite article (“a / an”):
- un proyecto = a project
Uno is mainly:
- The number one:
- uno, dos, tres…
- A pronoun (standing alone):
- Quiero uno. = I want one.
Before a masculine noun, you use un, not uno:
- un proyecto, un amigo, un libro
Spanish normally uses a definite article with general nouns like “school”:
- en la escuela = at school / in the school
Omitting the article (en escuela) sounds ungrammatical in this sense.
- en la escuela = at school / in the school
en la escuela means at / in the school (location).
a la escuela means to the school (movement/direction):- Voy a la escuela. = I go to school.
- Colaboramos en la escuela. = We collaborated at school / in school.
So here we’re talking about where the project happens, not movement toward the school.
Yes, Mis amigos y yo trabajamos en un proyecto comunitario en la escuela is correct and natural.
Nuance:
- trabajar = to work; more general, can be any kind of work
- colaborar = to collaborate; emphasizes working together, cooperation
So colaborar highlights the idea of teamwork or joint effort, which fits well with a proyecto comunitario.
In practice, yes, you normally use a determiner here (mis, unos, los, etc.):
- Mis amigos y yo = my friends and I
- Unos amigos y yo = some friends and I
- Los amigos y yo = the friends and I (unusual, very specific context)
Just Amigos y yo without anything sounds incomplete or unnatural as a subject. Mis is the most usual choice when you mean “my friends and I.”
The personal a is used with direct objects that are people:
- Veo a mis amigos. = I see my friends.
But in this sentence, mis amigos y yo is the subject, not an object. Subjects never take the personal a:
- Mis amigos y yo colaboramos… = Mis amigos y yo (subject) + colaboramos (verb)
So no a is needed.
Colaboramos is pronounced: co-la-bo-RA-mos.
- It has five syllables: co-la-bo-ra-mos
- The stress falls on ra, the next-to-last syllable, which is the regular rule for words ending in -s.
You don’t need an accent mark because the word follows the standard stress rule.