Los fines de semana, mis amigos y yo vamos al mercado para comprar ingredientes frescos.

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Breakdown of Los fines de semana, mis amigos y yo vamos al mercado para comprar ingredientes frescos.

• yo: I
• para: to
• el: the
• ir: to go
• a: to
• y: and
• fresco: fresh
• el mercado: the market
• comprar: to buy
• de: of
• el fin: the end
• la semana: the week
• mis: my
• el ingrediente: the ingredient

Questions & Answers about Los fines de semana, mis amigos y yo vamos al mercado para comprar ingredientes frescos.

Why do we say Los fines de semana instead of something like En los fines de semana?

In Spanish, Los fines de semana is a very common way to say "On weekends." Spanish often omits the preposition before a day of the week or a phrase referencing days (like fines de semana) when expressing a habitual action. So you’ll hear Los lunes... or Los domingos..., meaning "On Mondays..." or "On Sundays...."

Why is it mis amigos y yo instead of mis amigos y mí?

In Spanish, we use (nombre) y yo as the subject of the sentence. The phrase mis amigos y mí wouldn’t make sense as a subject because mí is used as an object form (like the equivalent of "me" in English), not as a subject. So, when saying "my friends and I" in Spanish, you must use mis amigos y yo.

Why do we say vamos al mercado rather than vamos a el mercado?

In Spanish, a (to) plus el (the) contracts to al. So, whenever you see "a" followed immediately by "el," they become al. If you kept them separate, you'd have a grammatical error. For example:

• a + el mercado → al mercado
• a + el parque → al parque

What does para indicate in para comprar ingredientes frescos?

Para in this context shows purpose or intention. It answers "why" we go to the market: "to buy fresh ingredients." It’s common to use para + infinitive to express the goal or intention of an action.

Why do we pair ingredientes (masculine plural) with frescos (masculine plural)?

In Spanish, adjectives must agree in gender and number with the nouns they describe. Since ingredientes is a plural masculine noun, the adjective must also be plural and masculine (frescos). If it were a feminine plural noun (e.g., las frutas), you’d say frescas.