Pongo las fichas de ajedrez en el tablero antes de jugar.

I put the chess pieces on the board before playing.

Breakdown of Pongo las fichas de ajedrez en el tablero antes de jugar.

• yo: I
• en: on
• antes de: before
• jugar: to play
• poner: to put
• el tablero: the board
• la ficha de ajedrez: the chess piece

Questions & Answers about Pongo las fichas de ajedrez en el tablero antes de jugar.

Why is it pongo and not poner or pone?

Pongo is the first person singular, present tense of poner (to put, to place).

• poner = the infinitive (to put / to place)
• pongo = I put / I place
• pone = he / she / it puts, or you (usted) put

So in this sentence, the speaker is saying I put the chess pieces…, so pongo is the correct form.

Do I need to say yo pongo, or is pongo by itself enough?

Pongo by itself is completely natural and usually preferred.

In Spanish, the verb ending already shows the subject, so you normally omit the subject pronoun unless you want to:

• emphasize it: Yo pongo las fichas, no tú. (I put the pieces, not you.)
• contrast subjects: Yo pongo las fichas y tú las guardas.

In a neutral sentence like Pongo las fichas de ajedrez en el tablero antes de jugar, adding yo is optional and not necessary.

Why is it las fichas and not los fichas?

In Spanish, articles have to agree in gender and number with the noun.

• ficha is a feminine noun (la ficha)
• plural: las fichas

So the correct article is las, not los.

Los is the masculine plural article, used with masculine nouns like los libros, los tableros, etc., but ficha is feminine, so it must be las fichas.

What is the difference between fichas and piezas in chess? Which should I use in Latin America?

Both fichas de ajedrez and piezas de ajedrez are understood, but there are some nuances:

• ficha often means token / counter / chip / game piece (for many games: checkers, board games, casino chips, etc.).
• pieza is a more general piece / component / part and is also very common for chess pieces.

In many parts of Latin America:

• People casually talk about fichas de ajedrez when thinking of chess pieces simply as game pieces, similar to tokens.
• piezas de ajedrez can sound a bit more formal or specific, but it is also completely correct.

You can safely use fichas de ajedrez or piezas de ajedrez; both sound natural. The example sentence just chooses fichas, which is very common in everyday speech.

Why is it fichas de ajedrez instead of something like ajedrez fichas (like chess pieces in English)?

Spanish does not usually put nouns directly in front of other nouns the way English does (like chess pieces, computer screen, coffee cup).

Instead, Spanish normally uses:

[noun] + de + [noun]

So:

• fichas de ajedrez = literally pieces of chess → chess pieces
• tablero de ajedrez = board of chess → chessboard
• taza de café = cup of coffee → coffee cup

Putting ajedrez before fichas (ajedrez fichas) is not natural in Spanish. The de structure is the standard way to express this relationship.

Why is it en el tablero and not sobre el tablero?

Both en el tablero and sobre el tablero are grammatically correct, but:

• en is more neutral and more common. It can mean in / on / at, depending on the context.
• sobre emphasizes on top of (on the surface of something).

For placing pieces on a board, Spanish speakers very often say en el tablero, and everyone understands that the pieces are put on top of it. Sobre el tablero is also fine but sounds a little more explicit or literary in some contexts.

So Pongo las fichas de ajedrez en el tablero is the most usual version.

Can I say en la tabla instead of en el tablero?

No, that would sound strange for a game board.

• tablero is the normal word for a board used in games: chessboard, checkers board, etc.
• tabla usually means a board/plank of wood, or another specific type of board (surfboard = tabla de surf, etc.), but not a game board.

So for a chessboard, you should say el tablero (de ajedrez), not la tabla.

Why do we use las and el here? Could I say Pongo fichas de ajedrez en tablero antes de jugar?

In Spanish, you usually cannot drop articles the way you sometimes can in English.

In this sentence:

• las fichas de ajedrez: we are talking about the chess pieces needed for the game (all of them, specific ones), so las is natural.
• el tablero: the specific board on which we’re about to play, so el is also natural.

If you say Pongo fichas de ajedrez en tablero, it:

• sounds incomplete or ungrammatical to a native speaker
• feels like you are speaking very telegraphically

There are some contexts where Spanish omits articles (titles, labels, some generalizations), but this kind of everyday sentence normally needs the definite articles.

Why is it antes de jugar and not antes jugar?

In Spanish, antes by itself is usually an adverb (before / earlier), but when you want to say before doing something, you need the preposition:

• antes de + noun / infinitive

Examples:

• antes de la cena = before dinner
• antes de salir = before leaving

So you must say antes de jugar (before playing).
Antes jugar is incorrect.

Why is it antes de jugar and not antes de que juego?

Two different structures are possible in Spanish:

1. antes de + infinitive (when the subject is the same)

   • Pongo las fichas antes de jugar.
     = I put the pieces before playing.
     (I am the one who puts and the one who plays.)

2. antes de que + subjunctive (when usually you introduce a clause, often with a different subject)

   • Pongo las fichas antes de que mis amigos jueguen.
     = I put the pieces before my friends play.

Important points:

• After antes de que, you need the subjunctive, so antes de que juego is wrong; it should be antes de que juegue / juguemos / jueguen, depending on the subject.
• When the subject of both actions is the same (I put / I play), Spanish strongly prefers antes de + infinitive: antes de jugar.

That is why antes de jugar is the correct and natural form here.

Why is jugar in the infinitive and not juego?

Jugar is in the infinitive because it comes after a preposition (de) in the structure antes de.

In Spanish, when a verb comes directly after a preposition, it must be in the infinitive:

• antes de jugar = before playing
• después de comer = after eating
• sin hablar = without speaking

So antes de juego is not possible; it must be antes de jugar.

Can I move antes de jugar to the beginning and say Antes de jugar, pongo las fichas de ajedrez en el tablero?

Yes, that is perfectly correct and very natural.

Spanish word order is quite flexible for adverbial time phrases like this:

• Pongo las fichas de ajedrez en el tablero antes de jugar.
• Antes de jugar, pongo las fichas de ajedrez en el tablero.

Both mean the same thing. When you place Antes de jugar at the beginning, you usually add a comma after it, just as you would in English.

Is pongo here talking about a habitual action, or something happening right now?

The simple present in Spanish (pongo) can express both:

• a habitual action:
  Siempre pongo las fichas de ajedrez en el tablero antes de jugar.
  = I always put the chess pieces on the board before I play.

• or an action happening right now, depending on context:
  (Right now, as we speak) Pongo las fichas de ajedrez en el tablero antes de jugar.

Context usually tells you which meaning is intended. The form pongo itself covers both possibilities.