La harina integral alimenta la levadura salvaje.

The wholemeal flour feeds the wild yeast.

Breakdown of La harina integral alimenta la levadura salvaje.

• alimentar: to feed
• la harina integral: the wholemeal flour
• la levadura salvaje: the wild yeast

Questions & Answers about La harina integral alimenta la levadura salvaje.

Why does Spanish use la before both nouns here?

Spanish often uses the definite article more broadly than English, especially when talking about things in a general sense.

So:

• La harina integral = wholemeal flour / wholewheat flour as a general thing
• la levadura salvaje = wild yeast as a general thing

English often drops the in these general statements, but Spanish usually keeps it.

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What does integral mean here? It doesn’t look like the English word integral.

In food vocabulary, integral in Spanish means wholegrain / wholemeal / wholewheat, depending on the food.

So:

• harina integral = wholemeal flour or wholewheat flour

This is a very common “false friend” for English speakers, because it usually does not mean integral in the mathematical or abstract English sense.

In Spain, integral is the normal everyday word you see on bread, flour, pasta, etc.

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Why is it alimenta and not alimentan?

Because the subject is singular:

• La harina integral = one thing, grammatically singular

So the verb must also be singular:

• alimenta = it feeds

If the subject were plural, then you would use alimentan:

• Las harinas integrales alimentan...

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