Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): Si madrugo demasiado y no descanso, voy acumulando cansancio durante la semana. - If I get up very early too often and don't rest, I keep accumulating tiredness during the week.

You can translate it as “to get up early,” but in Spanish madrugar usually implies it feels too early or especially early, not just any early time.

Could I say levantarme temprano instead of madrugar? Is there any difference?

You can say both, but they don’t sound exactly the same:

madrugar: emphasizes that it’s very early, almost dawn-ish, or earlier than you’d like.
- Si madrugo demasiado… = “If I get up way too early…”
levantarme temprano: more neutral, just “to get up early,” without the strong “dawn” nuance.
- Si me levanto muy temprano… = “If I get up very early…”

In many contexts they are interchangeable, but madrugar sounds more intense and is a bit punchier and more idiomatic in this type of sentence.

Why is it madrugo and not me madrugo? Shouldn’t getting up be reflexive?

Madrugar is not reflexive. You just conjugate it like a normal intransitive verb:

Yo madrugo – I get up very early
Tú madrugas – You get up very early

With levantarse, you do use the reflexive pronoun:

Yo me levanto temprano – I get up early

So:

madrugar → no reflexive pronoun: madrugo
levantarse → reflexive: me levanto

Spanish treats madrugar as “to be up very early” rather than the physical act of lifting yourself out of bed, so it’s non‑reflexive.

How do you conjugate madrugar? Are there any spelling changes?

Madrugar is a regular -ar verb, but like other -gar verbs, it has a spelling change before e to keep the hard g sound.

Key forms:

Present
- yo madrugo
- tú madrugas
- él/ella/usted madruga
- nosotros madrugamos
- ellos/ustedes madrugan
Preterite (simple past) – note the spelling change in yo:
- yo madrugué (not madrugé)
- tú madrugaste
- él/ella/usted madrugó
- nosotros madrugamos
- ellos/ustedes madrugaron

That gu in madrugué is just to keep the same g sound in front of e.

What is the role of demasiado in madrugo demasiado? Could it go somewhere else?

Here demasiado is an adverb meaning too much / excessively.

madrugo demasiado = “I get up too early / I get up too much (too often) before dawn.”

Position:

The normal, natural position is verb + adverb:
- madrugo demasiado

You could say demasiado madrugo, but that sounds poetic, emphatic, or unusual in everyday speech. For a normal sentence, madrugo demasiado is the standard word order.

Why is it no descanso and not no me descanso? Is descansar reflexive?

Descansar is normally not reflexive when it means to rest:

No descanso – I don’t rest
Descansa un rato – Rest a bit

Me descanso exists but is rare and sounds regional or old-fashioned in many places; most learners should simply use descansar without a reflexive pronoun.

Also, descansar is different from dormir:

descansar – to rest, to relax, not necessarily sleeping
dormir – to sleep

In your sentence, no descanso = “I don’t rest (I don’t allow myself rest).”

Why is the verb after si in the present indicative (madrugo, descanso) and not subjunctive?

After si (if) in Spanish, the verb is normally indicative, not subjunctive, when you’re talking about:

real, habitual, or likely conditions.

Your sentence describes a general habit:

Si madrugo demasiado y no descanso, voy acumulando cansancio…
= “If I get up too early and don’t rest, I (tend to) build up tiredness…”

So Spanish uses present indicative: madrugo, descanso.

Subjunctive appears with si in different patterns (e.g., si madrugara… “if I were to get up early…”), but that expresses more hypothetical/unreal situations.

What does voy acumulando mean exactly? Why not just acumulo?

Voy acumulando is ir + gerundio, a construction that emphasizes gradual, progressive change over time.

voy acumulando cansancio = “I keep building up tiredness / I gradually accumulate tiredness.”

If you used plain present:

acumulo cansancio = “I accumulate tiredness.”

This is grammatically correct, but it sounds more static or factual.
Voy acumulando makes you feel the process happening bit by bit during the week, which matches durante la semana very nicely.

Could I say estoy acumulando cansancio instead of voy acumulando cansancio?

Yes, but there’s a nuance:

estoy acumulando cansancio – “I am accumulating tiredness (right now / these days).”
Focus: an ongoing action or state.
voy acumulando cansancio – “I gradually keep building up tiredness (as time goes by).”
Focus: a step‑by‑step increase over a period (here: the week).

In this exact sentence, voy acumulando fits a bit better because of the idea of tiredness adding up little by little as the week progresses.

Why is it cansancio and not estar cansado? Is there a difference?

Yes, there’s a difference:

cansancio – a noun: tiredness, fatigue.
- acumular cansancio = “to accumulate tiredness.”
estar cansado – an adjective phrase: to be tired.
- estoy cansado = “I am tired.”

Your sentence emphasizes the amount of tiredness as something that piles up (a “quantity” you accumulate). That’s why Spanish prefers the noun:

voy acumulando cansancio = “I go on accumulating tiredness.”

You could also describe the result afterward with estar cansado:

Al final de la semana, estoy muy cansado.

Why is there no article before cansancio? Why not el cansancio?

In Spanish, abstract or mass nouns often drop the article when you talk about them in a general, non-specific way:

acumular cansancio – to accumulate (some/any) tiredness (in general)
tengo hambre – I’m hungry (literally “I have hunger” without article)

If you say acumular el cansancio, you’re pointing to a specific, already-known tiredness (“that tiredness we talked about”), which doesn’t fit as naturally here.

So voy acumulando cansancio is the most natural, generic expression: you’re not accumulating some particular, defined set of tiredness, just tiredness in general.

What does durante la semana convey exactly? Why singular semana, not las semanas?

Durante la semana means “during the (typical) week / over the course of the week.”

Here, Spanish uses singular to talk about something that happens regularly every week:

durante la semana – during (the) week, as opposed to weekends
los fines de semana – on weekends (here plural makes sense: multiple weekends)

If you said durante las semanas, it would sound more like “during those particular weeks” (specific weeks you have in mind), which is a different meaning.

So durante la semana is the idiomatic way to express this habitual, weekly pattern of accumulating tiredness.