Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): La profesora hizo una propuesta: crear pequeños grupos y elegir la opción que prefiramos. - The teacher made a proposal: to create small groups and choose the option we prefer.

Why does it say “La profesora” with “la”? In English we’d just say “Professor X / the teacher” or just “Professor”—do you always need the article in Spanish?

In Spanish, it’s very common (and natural) to use the definite article el / la before professions when you’re talking about a specific person:

La profesora hizo una propuesta.
El médico llegó tarde.
La directora habló con los padres.

In English, we often drop the article (“Professor made a suggestion” sounds odd, but “Professor Smith made a suggestion” is fine). In Spanish, if you know which teacher you’re talking about (she’s already known in the context), la profesora is normal and sounds complete.

You can say just “Profesora, ¿puede venir?” when addressing her directly (like saying “Professor, can you come here?”), but in narrative sentences like this one, using la is standard and sounds natural.

What tense is “hizo” and why is it used instead of “hace”?

Hizo is the 3rd person singular preterite (past simple) of hacer:

hacer → hizo (he/she/it did / made) in the completed past.

It’s used here because the sentence is telling us about a finished action in the past:

La profesora hizo una propuesta…
→ The teacher made a suggestion… (at some specific time in the past)

If you said:

La profesora hace una propuesta…

that would be present tense (“The teacher is making / makes a suggestion”), which changes the time frame of the sentence.

Why “hizo una propuesta” instead of simply “propuso”?

Both are correct; they’re just different ways to say almost the same thing:

La profesora hizo una propuesta.
La profesora propuso algo.

Hacer una propuesta = to make a proposal / suggestion
Proponer = to propose / to suggest

Stylistically:

Hizo una propuesta feels a bit more noun-based and neutral.
Propuso is a bit more direct and concise, verb-based.

Many speakers would use them interchangeably in this context. The chosen form here sets up nicely for the colon and the detailed description that follows.

What’s the function of the colon (:) in “hizo una propuesta: crear…”?

The colon here introduces the content of the proposal, similar to English:

La profesora hizo una propuesta: crear pequeños grupos y elegir la opción que prefiramos.
→ The teacher made a suggestion: to create small groups and choose whichever option we prefer.

You could think of it as standing in for something like:

…hizo una propuesta, que consistía en crear pequeños grupos…
(…made a suggestion, which consisted of creating small groups…)

So the colon means: “Now I’m going to explain exactly what the proposal is.”

Why are “crear” and “elegir” in the infinitive instead of conjugated (like “creamos” or “elijamos”)?

Spanish often uses infinitives to describe plans, proposals, and instructions in a general, non‑personal way—especially after expressions like:

la idea es… (the idea is…)
el plan consiste en… (the plan consists of…)
la propuesta es… (the proposal is…)

Here, after “hizo una propuesta:”, the infinitives crear and elegir express what the proposal consists of, in a neutral way:

…una propuesta: crear pequeños grupos y elegir la opción que prefiramos.
→ literally: a proposal: to create small groups and to choose the option we prefer.

If you conjugated them, you’d usually need to add more structure:

…propuso que creáramos pequeños grupos y que eligiéramos la opción que prefiriéramos.
(Notice how this becomes a full “propuso que…” + subjunctive sentence.)

The infinitive version is shorter and more “headline-like,” very natural in Spanish.

Why is it “pequeños grupos” instead of “grupos pequeños”? Does the word order change the meaning?

Both word orders are correct:

pequeños grupos
grupos pequeños

The difference is mostly style and nuance, not basic meaning.

In general:

Adjectives after the noun (grupos pequeños) are more neutral / descriptive.
Some adjectives before the noun (pequeños grupos) can sound a bit more emphatic, general, or “conceptual”.

In this context:

pequeños grupos feels like a set phrase: small groups (as a standard classroom technique).
grupos pequeños would also be completely fine and mean the same thing for most learners’ purposes.

So you can safely read them as equivalent here.

Why is it “la opción” and not “una opción”?

La opción points to a specific set of options already known from context (for example, options the class has to choose from).

la opción que prefiramos
→ the option (from the available ones) that we prefer

If you said:

una opción que prefiramos

it would sound more like “any option that we might prefer”, without the sense of choosing from a defined list. Using la suggests:

there is a limited, understood group of options, and
we will choose one of them, the one we prefer.

Why is “prefiramos” used instead of “preferimos”?

Prefiramos is the present subjunctive, 1st person plural of preferir:

nosotros preferimos → indicative (“we prefer”)
que nosotros prefiramos → subjunctive (“that we (may) prefer”)

It appears in:

…la opción que prefiramos.

This is a relative clause (“that we prefer”) referring to an option that is not yet chosen or defined—it’s an unknown / future / hypothetical option. In Spanish, this often triggers the subjunctive:

Escogeremos el libro que prefiramos.
→ We’ll choose whichever book we prefer. (book not known yet → subjunctive)

If the option were already known and specific, you’d more likely use the indicative:

Elegimos la opción que preferimos.
→ We choose the option that we prefer. (talking about an already established, specific option)

What exactly does “la opción que prefiramos” mean? Is it “the option that we prefer” or “whichever option we prefer”?

In this sentence, “la opción que prefiramos” is best understood as:

“whichever option we prefer” / “the option we end up preferring.”

The subjunctive prefiramos signals that the option:

is not yet chosen,
is not specifically identified; it depends on our future preference.

So the full idea is:

…y elegir la opción que prefiramos.
→ …and to choose whichever option we prefer (when the time comes).

If it said “la opción que preferimos”, that would feel more like a known, stable preference we already have.

How is “prefiramos” formed from “preferir”? It doesn’t look like a simple stem + ending.

Preferir is a stem‑changing verb: e → ie in most present‑tense forms (prefiero, prefieres, etc.), and it also has a vowel change in some subjunctive forms.

To form “prefiramos”:

Start from the yo form of the present indicative:
- yo prefiero
Use that stem (prefier‑) as the base for most present subjunctive forms, but nosotros and vosotros often take a slightly different stem in these ‑ir verbs: prefir‑.
Add the nosotros subjunctive ending ‑amos (because it’s an ‑ir verb in the present subjunctive):
- prefir‑ + amos → prefiramos

So the pattern is:

preferir → prefiramos (we may prefer / that we prefer) – subjunctive
preferir → preferimos (we prefer) – indicative

Who does “prefiramos” refer to? Just the students, or the teacher as well?

Prefiramos is 1st person plural (“we”). In Spanish, the subject pronoun nosotros is often dropped because the verb ending already tells you who the subject is.

So:

…la opción que prefiramos.
→ …the option that we prefer.

Who exactly is included in “we” depends on context:

It could be the students only, if the teacher is letting them decide.
It could be the whole group including the teacher, if she is part of the decision.

Spanish doesn’t clarify this in the verb itself; you’d need more context from the conversation.

Could you say “la opción que preferimos” instead of “la opción que prefiramos”? Would that be wrong?

It’s not ungrammatical, but it changes the nuance.

la opción que prefiramos (subjunctive)
→ emphasizes that the option is not yet known / chosen, it depends on our future choice.
la opción que preferimos (indicative)
→ suggests a more fixed, known preference, like “the option that we (usually) prefer” or “the option that we already prefer.”

In the context of a proposal about what to do next, Spanish strongly favors the subjunctive:

crear pequeños grupos y elegir la opción que prefiramos
sounds natural and expected.

Using preferimos would feel a bit off here, unless you were talking about some already established preference.

Is there any difference between “elegir” and “escoger” here? And is “profesora” the same as “maestra” in Spain?

Elegir vs. escoger:

Both verbs mean “to choose / to pick.”
In this context, “elegir la opción que prefiramos” and “escoger la opción que prefiramos” are effectively interchangeable.
Usage can vary by region and style; in Spain, elegir is very common and maybe a bit more formal or neutral in writing.

Profesora vs. maestra (Spain):

profesora = normally used for secondary school, high school, and university teachers.
maestra = more commonly used for primary school (elementary) teachers.

In everyday speech in Spain, la profe is a very common colloquial form of la profesora. The sentence uses la profesora, which is standard and neutral.