Breakdown of Mis amigos van al parque infantil después de la escuela.
Questions & Answers about Mis amigos van al parque infantil después de la escuela.
The subject is mis amigos (my friends), which is third person plural (they). The verb ir (to go) in the present tense is:
- yo voy (I go)
- tú vas (you go)
- él/ella/usted va (he/she/you formal go)
- nosotros/nosotras vamos (we go)
- vosotros/vosotras vais (you all go – mainly in Spain)
- ellos/ellas/ustedes van (they / you all go)
Since mis amigos = ellos (they), you must use van.
In this context van can mean either go or are going, depending on context (here it describes a regular habit after school).
Al is a mandatory contraction of the preposition a (to) and the masculine singular article el (the):
- a + el = al
So:
- van al parque infantil = they go to the playground.
You cannot say a el parque infantil; native speakers always contract it to al.
This only happens with a + el and de + el:
- de + el = del (for example, después del recreo = after recess).
Parque infantil is a common collocation meaning a children’s playground (a park area designed for kids, usually with swings, slides, etc.).
You can also hear:
- parque para niños – literally park for children
- parque de juegos – literally park of games / play park
All are understandable, but parque infantil is a short, natural way to say children’s playground in many parts of Latin America. It uses the adjective infantil (for children / child-related) instead of a longer phrase with de or para.
Yes, you can say:
- Mis amigos van al parque después de la escuela.
This means My friends go to the park after school.
However, parque by itself is just park, without specifying it’s a playground. Context might make it clear that they are using the kids’ area of the park, but if you specifically want to say playground, parque infantil (or parque de juegos, etc.) is more precise.
In Spanish, when después is followed by a noun, you almost always need de:
- después de + noun
So:
- después de la escuela = after school
- después de la cena = after dinner
- después de clase = after class
You also need the article la with escuela in this phrase, so:
- ✅ después de la escuela
- ❌ después la escuela (missing de)
- ❌ después escuela (missing de and la)
English often omits the in expressions like after school, but Spanish usually keeps the article: después de la escuela.
Usage varies by country, but some general tendencies:
escuela
- Often refers to elementary/primary school.
- Can also be used more generally for school as an institution or building.
colegio
- Often used for private schools (primary or secondary).
- In some countries it’s the usual word for high school / middle school.
For this sentence, después de la escuela is a natural, neutral way to say after school in most of Latin America. In some places, people might also say después del colegio, depending on how they refer to that particular school.
Yes. Spanish word order is somewhat flexible, so both are correct:
- Mis amigos van al parque infantil después de la escuela.
- Después de la escuela, mis amigos van al parque infantil.
When you put después de la escuela at the beginning, you normally add a comma after it. The meaning is the same; moving it just slightly changes the emphasis to the time (after school).
In Spanish, possessive adjectives (mi, tu, su, nuestro, vuestro, su, and their plural forms) normally replace the article; you don’t use both together in front of the same noun:
- ✅ mis amigos = my friends
- ❌ los mis amigos (ungrammatical in modern standard Spanish)
If you want to use an article with a possessive, you change the structure:
- los amigos míos = my friends / friends of mine
Here míos is a possessive pronoun, not the usual adjective before the noun, so adding los is fine. But with mi / mis before the noun, you don’t use el / la / los / las.
Spanish has grammatical gender:
- amigos = male friends, or a mixed group (at least one male)
- amigas = a group of all female friends
So:
- Mis amigas van al parque infantil… = My (female) friends go…
- Mis amigos van al parque infantil… = My friends go… (all male or mixed group)
If at least one boy/man is included, the plural is typically amigos.
Spanish uses the simple present much more than English does, including for:
regular habits
- Mis amigos van al parque infantil después de la escuela.
= They regularly go / usually go after school.
- Mis amigos van al parque infantil después de la escuela.
immediate or scheduled future (in some contexts)
- Mañana mis amigos van al parque.
= Tomorrow my friends are going to the park.
- Mañana mis amigos van al parque.
The form están yendo exists, but it’s used mainly when the action is in progress right now:
- Ahora mismo, mis amigos están yendo al parque infantil.
= Right now, my friends are on their way to the playground.
In your original sentence (a routine after school), the simple present van is the natural choice.
For destinations, Spanish normally uses a (to), not para:
- ✅ Mis amigos van al parque infantil. (standard)
- ❌ Mis amigos van para el parque infantil. (not standard in most of Latin America)
Para focuses on purpose or final goal, and in many dialects it can appear with verbs of movement, but in neutral Latin American Spanish, the typical and safest preposition for going to a place is a:
- Voy a la escuela. = I go to school.
- Vamos al cine. = We go to the movies.
So stick with van al parque infantil here.
Every noun in Spanish is either masculine or feminine, and the article must agree with the noun:
- la escuela – feminine noun → feminine article la
- el parque – masculine noun → masculine article el
Many nouns ending in -a are feminine, and escuela is one of them. That’s why the phrase is:
- después de la escuela (after school), not después de el escuela.