Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): En el salón hay un cuadro con un paisaje y un río muy tranquilo. - In the living room there is a painting with a landscape and a very calm river.

✅ En el salón hay un cuadro. (You’re introducing the existence of “a picture”.)
✅ El cuadro está en el salón. (You already know which picture; you say where it is.)
❌ En el salón está un cuadro. (grammatically possible, but sounds odd if you’re just introducing “a picture”.)

You would also not use es here, because ser is not used to talk about location of objects (except in some time/place of events: La reunión es en el salón).

Could I say Hay un cuadro en el salón instead? Is it different from En el salón hay un cuadro?

Yes, you can say both:

En el salón hay un cuadro.
Hay un cuadro en el salón.

Both are correct and mean the same. The difference is in emphasis:

En el salón hay un cuadro.
Emphasises the place first (we’re talking about the living room, and then what’s in it).
Hay un cuadro en el salón.
Emphasises the existence of the picture first (there is a picture, and it happens to be in the living room).

In normal conversation, both word orders are very common.

What exactly does salón mean in Spain? Is it the same as “living room”?

In Spain, el salón typically means:

the main living room / lounge in a house or flat

It can overlap with English living room or sitting room. Some related words:

salón – main living room (often larger, maybe where you receive guests)
sala de estar – literally “room for being”, similar to living room / family room; in everyday speech many people just say salón
comedor – dining room
habitación / dormitorio – bedroom

In much of Latin America, people often say la sala where in Spain you’d hear el salón.

Why is it el salón (masculine) but un cuadro (also masculine) and not something feminine?

In Spanish, every noun has a grammatical gender (masculine or feminine), and the article must agree with it.

salón is masculine → el salón
cuadro is masculine → un cuadro
silla (chair) is feminine → la silla / una silla

So here both nouns happen to be masculine, but for different reasons: it’s just part of the word’s definition.

The choice of el vs un is not about gender, it’s about definiteness:

el salón – the living room (a specific one: the one in the house we’re talking about)
un cuadro – a picture (not specified which picture; you’re introducing it)

Why do we say un cuadro and not una pintura or un póster?

Several words are possible, but they’re not exact synonyms:

un cuadro
Normally: a framed picture, especially a painting or artwork that hangs on the wall.
una pintura
Literally “a painting” (the work of art itself). Can also be used, but cuadro is more everyday for something hanging on the wall.
un póster / un cartel
A poster, usually printed, often not in a traditional frame.

In a typical living room, you are more likely to have un cuadro with a landscape than un póster, so un cuadro sounds natural.

Why is it un cuadro con un paisaje and not un cuadro de un paisaje?

Both are possible, but they emphasise slightly different things:

un cuadro con un paisaje
Literally “a picture with a landscape”.
Focuses on the idea that the picture includes or contains a landscape (among other possible elements).
un cuadro de un paisaje
Literally “a picture of a landscape”.
Focuses more on the subject or theme of the picture being “a landscape”.

In everyday speech, con is very common to describe what appears inside a picture:

un cuadro con flores
un cuadro con un paisaje y un río

Using de is also correct:

un cuadro de un paisaje

It may sound a little more like you’re classifying the type of picture (its subject), but the difference is subtle.

In un paisaje y un río muy tranquilo, does muy tranquilo describe the river only or also the landscape?

In the sentence:

…un cuadro con un paisaje y un río muy tranquilo.

Grammatically, muy tranquilo clearly refers to un río, because:

tranquilo is singular and masculine, like río.
It comes right after río, the closest noun.

So the most natural reading is:

a picture with a landscape and a very calm river.

If you wanted to say that both the landscape and the river are calm, you could say:

…con un paisaje y un río muy tranquilos.
(adjective in plural masculine to agree with both paisaje and río)

or rephrase:

…con un paisaje muy tranquilo y un río muy tranquilo.

Why does tranquilo come after río instead of before, like in English?

In Spanish, descriptive adjectives usually come after the noun:

un río tranquilo – a calm river
una casa grande – a big house
un paisaje bonito – a beautiful landscape

So un río muy tranquilo follows the normal pattern.

Some adjectives can go before the noun (and sometimes change meaning a little), but the “default” position for most descriptive adjectives is after the noun, unlike in English.

Why is it tranquilo and not tranquila or tranquilos?

Adjectives in Spanish must agree with the noun in:

gender (masculine / feminine)
number (singular / plural)

Here:

río is masculine and singular.
So the adjective must be masculine singular → tranquilo.

If the noun were:

una ciudad (feminine, singular) → una ciudad tranquila
dos ríos (masculine, plural) → dos ríos tranquilos
unas playas (feminine, plural) → unas playas tranquilas

Why do we use muy before tranquilo? Could we just say un río tranquilo?

Yes, you could say:

…un río tranquilo. – “a calm river”

Adding muy intensifies the adjective:

muy tranquilo – “very calm / very peaceful”

So muy simply makes the calmness stronger. It doesn’t change the grammar, just the degree of the quality.

Could I say En el salón está un cuadro instead of En el salón hay un cuadro?

Grammatically, En el salón está un cuadro is possible, but in normal usage it sounds unusual if you are just introducing the existence of “a picture”.

Use:

hay when you introduce something non-specific:
- En el salón hay un cuadro. – There is a picture in the living room.

Use está / están when:

The thing is already known or specific:
- El cuadro está en el salón. – The (known) picture is in the living room.
You put a specific thing first and then its location:
- En el salón está el cuadro que me regalaste.

So with un cuadro (indefinite, new information), hay is the natural choice.

Should there be a comma before y in un paisaje y un río muy tranquilo?

No comma is needed there.

Spanish uses commas in lists like English, but:

In a simple list of two items joined by y or o, you do not put a comma before the conjunction:
- un paisaje y un río muy tranquilo
- pan, agua y vino

You might use a comma before y in longer, more complex sentences, but not in this short, simple coordination.