Guardamos el descalcificador de agua junto al almidón.

Guardamos is the first person plural form of guardar, so it means we store, we keep, or we put away, depending on context.

A useful thing to know: guardamos can be either:

• present tense: we store / we keep / we put away
• preterite: we stored / we put away

So by itself, guardamos is ambiguous. The surrounding context normally tells you which meaning is intended.

It can mean both, but the exact meaning depends on context.

Common uses of guardar include:

• to keep: Guardo tus cartas.
• to store: Guardamos la harina en un armario.
• to put away: Guarda los juguetes.
• to save: Guardar dinero

In this sentence, it most naturally means to store or to keep.

Because both nouns are masculine singular:

• el descalcificador
• el almidón

Spanish uses articles more often than English does, so where English might sometimes drop the, Spanish often keeps it.

Also, descalcificador ends in -dor, and nouns ending in -dor are very often masculine:

• el secador
• el ordenador
• el descalcificador

Descalcificador comes from:

• des- = reversal/removal
• cal = limescale
• -ificador = something that causes or performs an action

So descalcificador is something related to removing limescale or softening water. Depending on context, it may refer to a water softener, a descaling product, or a limescale-removing device.

De agua is a very common way in Spanish to specify what something is for or related to.

So:

• descalcificador = descaler / softener
• descalcificador de agua = water descaler / water softener

This is similar to how Spanish often builds noun phrases:

• botella de vino = bottle of wine
• filtro de café = coffee filter
• depósito de agua = water tank

English often uses noun + noun compounds, while Spanish very often uses de.

Because a + el contracts to al.

So:

• junto a + el almidón → junto al almidón

This contraction is mandatory in normal cases.

Compare:

• Voy al supermercado = Voy a el supermercado is incorrect
• Junto al almidón = Junto a el almidón is incorrect

Junto a means next to, beside, or by.

In this sentence, junto al almidón means next to the starch.

A very common alternative is:

• al lado de = beside / next to

So you could also say:

• Guardamos el descalcificador de agua al lado del almidón.

Both are natural. Junto a can sound a bit more concise or slightly more formal, but both are common.

Because the stress falls on the last syllable: al-mi-DÓN.

Without the accent mark, standard Spanish stress rules would make you pronounce it differently. The written accent shows the correct stress.

So:

• almidón = stress on -dón

This is important both for pronunciation and spelling.

In Spain, almidón is pronounced approximately al-mee-DON.

A rough guide:

• al as in ahl
• mi like mee
• dón with the stress there

The d in Spanish is softer than in English, especially between vowels, but for learning purposes al-mee-DON is a good starting point.

Because the direct object is a thing, not a person.

The personal a is normally used before specific people (and sometimes pets or personified beings), for example:

• Veo a María.
• Ayudamos a nuestro vecino.

But here the thing being stored is el descalcificador de agua, so no personal a is used.

The normal, neutral order here is:

• Guardamos
  • el descalcificador de agua
    • junto al almidón

That is very natural in Spanish.

You could change the order for emphasis, for example:

• Junto al almidón guardamos el descalcificador de agua.

This puts more focus on the location. It is grammatical, but less neutral than the original sentence.

In normal reading, it refers to where it is stored.

So the structure is understood as:

• We store [the water softener] [next to the starch].

Spanish usually attaches that location phrase to the main action unless context strongly suggests otherwise.

Because almidón here is a specific noun phrase and needs its article: el almidón.

After junto a, you still use the noun phrase normally:

• junto a la puerta
• junto al armario
• junto al almidón

So Spanish is not dropping the article there; it keeps it, and a + el becomes al.

Yes, if the context already makes it clear what kind of descalcificador you mean.

For example, in a room where there is only one obvious descaling product or device, el descalcificador might be enough.

But de agua makes the noun more specific and avoids ambiguity.

It is basically a normal noun phrase built in a very common Spanish way.

Spanish frequently uses:

• noun + de
  • noun

to express type, purpose, or relation.

So descalcificador de agua is not grammatically unusual at all; it follows a very common pattern.