Breakdown of En el campeonato, cada jugador espera su turno con paciencia.
Questions & Answers about En el campeonato, cada jugador espera su turno con paciencia.
In Spanish, you generally need the definite article (el, la, los, las) before nouns much more often than in English.
- En el campeonato ≈ In the championship / tournament
- If you said En campeonato, it would sound incomplete or ungrammatical in this context.
You can drop the article in some fixed expressions (for example: en clase = in class, en casa = at home), but campeonato is not one of those. Since we’re talking about a specific event, Spanish uses el:
- En el campeonato de este año, hubo muchos equipos.
In this year’s championship, there were many teams.
The comma separates an introductory phrase from the main clause, similar to English.
- En el campeonato, cada jugador espera su turno con paciencia.
In the championship, each player waits…
Starting with En el campeonato sets the context (where / when), and the comma marks a short pause before the main idea: cada jugador espera su turno con paciencia.
You could also say it without fronting the phrase:
- Cada jugador espera su turno con paciencia en el campeonato.
This version doesn’t need a comma.
In Spanish, cada (each) is always singular and is followed by a singular noun and a singular verb:
- cada jugador espera
- cada persona tiene
- cada día es
Even though logically we’re talking about more than one player, grammatically cada + singular noun takes a singular verb, just like in English:
- Each player waits (not each player wait).
Both refer to a group, but the focus is a bit different:
cada jugador = each player
Focus on individuals, one by one. It suggests that this applies to everyone individually.todos los jugadores = all the players
Focus on the group as a whole.
Compare:
En el campeonato, cada jugador espera su turno con paciencia.
Emphasizes that every single player, individually, is patient.En el campeonato, todos los jugadores esperan su turno con paciencia.
Emphasizes that as a group, they all do this (and the verb is plural: esperan).
In Spanish, esperar already includes the idea of “wait for” or “expect”, so you do not add por when you mean “wait for”:
- esperar algo / a alguien = to wait for something / someone
Correct:
- Cada jugador espera su turno.
Each player waits for his/her turn.
Incorrect in standard Spanish:
- Cada jugador espera por su turno. (in most regions, this sounds wrong or very foreign)
Esperar por does exist, but it usually has a different nuance (to wait because of or on behalf of someone/something), and it’s less common.
The possessive su / sus agrees in number with the noun, not with the owner.
- su turno = his / her / their turn (one turn)
- sus turnos = his / her / their turns (multiple turns)
Here, each player waits for one turn at a time, so we use the singular:
- Cada jugador espera su turno.
Each player waits for his/her turn.
If you were talking about multiple turns per player:
- Cada jugador juega dos partidos y espera sus turnos con paciencia.
Each player plays two matches and waits for their turns with patience.
Su is ambiguous in Spanish; it can mean:
- his
- her
- its
- your (formal: usted / ustedes)
- their
Su turno just means “that person’s turn” in a neutral way. Context tells you whose.
To be more explicit, you can use de + pronoun or noun:
- el turno de él = his turn
- el turno de ella = her turn
- el turno de cada jugador = each player’s turn
But in a general statement like the sentence you gave, su turno is the normal, natural way to say it.
Spanish often uses con + noun instead of an adverb ending in -mente to describe how something is done.
Both are correct, but con paciencia is more common, more neutral, and often sounds more natural:
- espera su turno con paciencia
- espera su turno pacientemente
Similar patterns:
- Habla con cuidado. = He/She speaks carefully.
- Escuchó con atención. = He/She listened attentively.
Adverbs with -mente (pacientemente, cuidadosamente, atentamente) exist and are correct, but they can sound a bit more formal or literary depending on the context.
Yes, you can say En el torneo, and it will usually sound fine. The nuance depends on context and region:
campeonato
Often implies a competition to decide a champion (a championship).
Example: a national championship, a league championship.torneo
Often used for tournaments, usually structured events with several matches or rounds.
In many everyday situations, people use campeonato and torneo almost interchangeably in Latin America, but if you want to be precise, pick the one that best matches the type of event in your context.
Grammatically:
- jugador = male player
- jugadora = female player
For mixed or unspecified groups, standard Spanish traditionally uses the masculine plural:
- los jugadores = the players (mixed or all male)
If you specifically want to talk about women:
- cada jugadora espera su turno con paciencia.
Some people and institutions use inclusive forms like jugador/a, jugadorxs, jugador@s, or las y los jugadores, but these are stylistic / political choices, not standard grammar. In most textbooks and neutral contexts, jugador / jugadora and los jugadores are what you’ll see.