Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): El tobogán está mojado después de la lluvia, así que esperamos un poco. - The slide is wet after the rain, so we wait a little.

Está mojado = is wet (right now) → temporary, result of the recent rain.
Es mojado would sound like “it is a wet thing by nature,” which is odd for a slide.

So está mojado is correct because the slide is wet only because it just rained, not as a permanent quality.

Why is it mojado and not mojada?

Adjectives in Spanish agree in gender and number with the noun they describe.

El tobogán → masculine singular noun
The adjective must also be masculine singular: mojado

If the noun were feminine, like la silla (the chair), you’d say la silla está mojada.

Does tobogán mean a “slide” or a “sled”? It looks like English toboggan.

In Spanish, tobogán usually means a slide (like in a playground or a water park):

el tobogán del parque – the playground slide
un tobogán de agua – a water slide

For a sled (for snow), Spanish normally uses trineo.

So be careful: English toboggan (sled) ≠ Spanish tobogán (slide).

Why is it después de la lluvia and not just después de lluvia?

In Spanish, you normally include the definite article la with nouns like lluvia in this kind of context.

después de la lluvia literally: “after the rain”
→ natural, standard Spanish

Después de lluvia sounds incomplete or ungrammatical in most contexts. Spanish tends to use el / la with many abstract or generic nouns where English drops “the.”

Can I say después de llover instead of después de la lluvia? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say both, and both are correct, but there’s a small nuance:

después de la lluvia – “after the rain (shower)”
→ focuses on the event as a thing (the rain itself)
después de llover – “after it rains / after raining”
→ focuses on the action of raining

In many everyday situations they’re interchangeable:

El tobogán está mojado después de la lluvia.
El tobogán está mojado después de llover.

Both would be understood the same way here.

What exactly does así que mean, and how is it different from entonces or por eso?

Así que is a connector meaning “so” / “therefore”, expressing result or consequence.

…está mojado, así que esperamos un poco.
→ “…it’s wet, so we wait a bit.”

Rough comparison:

así que – clearly cause → effect (“so / therefore”)
por eso – “for that reason / that’s why”; very similar to así que
entonces – often “then / so / in that case”; can be more about sequence in time or logic, not always a direct cause.

In this sentence, all three are possible:

…está mojado, así que esperamos un poco.
…está mojado, por eso esperamos un poco.
…está mojado, entonces esperamos un poco.

Así que and por eso feel more clearly causal; entonces can feel slightly more like “then.”

Does esperamos here mean “we wait” or “we waited”? How can I tell?

Esperamos can be either:

present: we wait / we are waiting
preterite (simple past): we waited

For -ar verbs like esperar, the nosotros form is the same in present and preterite:

present: (nosotros) esperamos
preterite: (nosotros) esperamos

So the meaning (present vs past) depends on context or time expressions (like ayer, después, luego, a narration in past, etc.).

In isolation:

El tobogán está mojado…, así que esperamos un poco.

Most learners will read this as present (we wait a bit) because está mojado is in the present. To make it clearly past, you could say:

El tobogán estaba mojado después de la lluvia, así que esperamos un poco.
(everything clearly in the past)
or add a time word: Ayer estaba mojado…, así que esperamos un poco.

Why isn’t there a nosotros before esperamos?

Spanish usually omits subject pronouns (yo, tú, él, nosotros, etc.) because the verb ending already shows the subject.

Esperamos un poco. → clearly means we wait(ed) a little.

You normally add nosotros only for emphasis, contrast, or clarity:

Nosotros esperamos, pero ellos no. – We waited, but they didn’t.

Why is it esperamos un poco and not esperamos por un poco?

In standard Spanish, esperar is transitive and does not need por to mean “wait for” or “wait (a while)”:

Esperamos un poco. – We wait(ed) a little (while).
Esperamos el bus. – We wait for the bus.

Using por here (esperamos por un poco) sounds wrong to most speakers in this context.

Notes:

For people, you often see esperar a alguien (with the personal a):
Espero a Juan. – I’m waiting for Juan.
In some dialects (e.g., parts of the Caribbean), esperar por is used in some contexts, but for learning general Latin American Spanish, esperar without por is the safest option.

What does un poco refer to here? A little what?

Literally, un poco is “a little / a bit / a little bit.”

With a verb like esperar, if there’s no noun after un poco, it usually means a short amount of time:

Esperamos un poco. → We waited a little (while / bit).

With adjectives or adverbs, it modifies the degree:

Está un poco mojado. – It’s a little wet.
Hablamos un poco rápido. – We speak a bit fast.

Could I say El tobogán se mojó instead of El tobogán está mojado? What’s the difference?

Yes, but there’s a nuance:

El tobogán se mojó. – The slide got wet.
→ focuses on the action / change (it became wet).
El tobogán está mojado. – The slide is wet.
→ focuses on the current state (the result right now).

You might combine them:

El tobogán se mojó con la lluvia, así que ahora está mojado.
– The slide got wet with the rain, so now it’s wet.

Are there other common words for tobogán in Latin America?

Yes, vocabulary for “slide” varies a lot by country. Some common ones:

tobogán – widely understood, common in many countries
resbaladilla – very common in Mexico
resbalín / resbaladera – used in parts of Central America and Chile
chorrera – used in some Caribbean varieties (e.g., Puerto Rico, Panama)

If you use tobogán, you’ll generally be understood across Latin America, even if locals have their own usual word.