Breakdown of Pongo la pera y el durazno en un recipiente separado, porque a mi sobrino no le gusta la textura agria de la uva.
Questions & Answers about Pongo la pera y el durazno en un recipiente separado, porque a mi sobrino no le gusta la textura agria de la uva.
In Spanish, the verb ending already shows who the subject is.
- pongo = I put
- pones = you put
- pone = he/she/it puts
Because pongo can only mean I put, you don’t need yo.
You would add yo only for emphasis or contrast, for example:
- Yo pongo la pera y el durazno… = I put the pear and the peach… (not someone else).
Spanish uses definite articles (el, la, los, las) more often than English does.
- Pongo la pera y el durazno… suggests you are talking about specific, known fruit (for example, the ones on the table).
- Pongo una pera y un durazno… = I put a pear and a peach… (non‑specific, just any pear and peach).
- Saying Pongo pera y durazno… (no articles) is possible but sounds more like talking about fruit in general or as ingredients (e.g. Mezclo pera y durazno en la ensalada).
So here, la and el match natural Spanish usage where English would often drop the.
Both mean peach, but usage is regional:
- durazno – common in most of Latin America.
- melocotón – common in Spain.
They’re interchangeable in meaning; you just choose the one that matches the regional variety you’re learning. A Latin American speaker will normally say durazno.
Because the sentence says both fruits go together into one separate container:
- Pongo la pera y el durazno en un recipiente separado
= I put the pear and the peach in one container that is separate (from the others).
If you want each fruit in its own container, you would say:
- Pongo la pera y el durazno en recipientes separados.
= I put the pear and the peach in separate containers.
Adjectives in Spanish must agree with the noun they describe in gender and number.
- recipiente is masculine and singular.
- So the adjective must also be masculine singular: separado.
Examples:
- un recipiente separado (masc. sing.)
- unos recipientes separados (masc. plural)
- una caja separada (fem. sing.)
- unas cajas separadas (fem. plural)
The form of separado depends on recipiente, not on pera or durazno.
Spanish uses en to cover both English in and on in many cases.
- en un recipiente = in a container
- en la mesa = on the table
The preposition a is usually used for direction or movement (to, toward), or for people (a mi sobrino), not for location inside something.
So pongo X en un recipiente is the standard way to say I put X in a container.
Here a mi sobrino marks the indirect object, the person who experiences the liking/not liking.
With verbs like gustar, the person who likes something is expressed with a + person:
- A mi sobrino no le gusta… = To my nephew, it is not pleasing… → My nephew doesn’t like…
This a is similar to the so‑called personal a you see with people in other structures:
- Veo a mi sobrino. = I see my nephew.
So a mi sobrino is required here by the structure of gustar.
In Spanish, this “doubling” is normal and usually required when the indirect object is a person or is named explicitly.
- A mi sobrino no le gusta la textura agria…
- a mi sobrino: clarifies who we’re talking about.
- le: indirect object pronoun that the verb gusta needs.
You can say only No le gusta la textura agria… if the person is already clear from context, but once you add the full phrase a mi sobrino, you almost always keep le as well. This is called clitic doubling and is very common with verbs like gustar.
The verb gustar agrees with what is liked, not with the person.
In this sentence, the grammatical subject is:
- la textura agria de la uva (singular)
So the verb is singular:
- no le gusta because la textura is singular.
Compare:
- A mi sobrino no le gusta la textura. (singular thing)
- A mi sobrino no le gustan las uvas. (plural thing)
Even though grapes are plural in reality, the phrase la textura agria de la uva is grammatically one singular noun phrase.
Spanish negation with object pronouns follows this order:
no + (indirect/direct object pronoun) + verb
So:
- no le gusta
- no lo veo (I don’t see him/it)
- no me interesa (It doesn’t interest me)
You can’t say le no gusta; no must come first, then the pronoun, then the verb.
You’re right that agrio/a most naturally describes flavor (taste):
- el sabor agrio de la uva = the sour taste of the grape
la textura agria de la uva is understandable, but it sounds a bit unusual because textura is about how something feels in the mouth (smooth, grainy, mushy, etc.), while agrio is mainly about taste.
More typical alternatives would be:
- …no le gusta el sabor agrio de la uva.
- …no le gusta lo agria que es la uva. (he doesn’t like how sour grapes are.)
The original sentence is still grammatically correct; it just mixes a “texture” noun with a “taste” adjective in a way some speakers might not naturally choose.
Spanish often uses the singular with a definite article to talk about something in general:
- la uva can mean the grape in general, as a type of fruit.
- la textura agria de la uva = the sour texture of (the) grape → how grapes are sour, generally.
If you say:
- la textura agria de las uvas
it sounds more like you’re talking about some specific grapes (for example, the ones in this bowl). Both are possible; la uva is just the more generic way to talk about grapes as a category.
No, that specific order is incorrect. With gustar, you normally need the a + person phrase if you mention the person explicitly:
- Porque a mi sobrino no le gusta la textura agria de la uva.
You cannot replace a mi sobrino with just mi sobrino here. Correct variations include:
- Porque a mi sobrino no le gusta… (full, clear)
- Porque no le gusta… (if it’s already clear you’re talking about your nephew)
But Porque mi sobrino no le gusta… is not grammatical Spanish.
No, recipiente is a general, correct word for container, but you have other natural options, depending on what you mean:
- tazón / bol – bowl
- plato – plate
- vaso – glass (drinking)
- envase – container (often for food products or packaging)
- contenedor – container (more technical/larger, like a trash container or shipping container)
So you could say, for example:
- Pongo la pera y el durazno en un tazón separado… if you specifically mean a bowl.