Breakdown of El sábado iremos al campo por una carretera estrecha pero muy bonita.
Questions & Answers about El sábado iremos al campo por una carretera estrecha pero muy bonita.
In Spanish, when you say something will happen on a specific day, you normally use the definite article el before the day:
- El sábado iremos al campo. – On Saturday we will go to the countryside.
- El lunes trabajo. – I work on Monday.
If you talk about something that happens regularly on that day, you usually use the plural with los:
- Los sábados vamos al cine. – On Saturdays we go to the cinema.
So El sábado here means On Saturday (this coming Saturday).
Both are correct, but they have slightly different nuances:
- Iremos al campo. – Simple future. Often feels a bit more formal or neutral, and can sound like a clear plan or decision.
- Vamos a ir al campo. – Near future with ir a + infinitive. Very common in spoken Spanish and can sound slightly more colloquial or immediate.
In this context, both:
- El sábado iremos al campo...
- El sábado vamos a ir al campo...
mean On Saturday we will go to the countryside...
The choice here is mostly stylistic; using iremos is perfectly natural Spanish.
Spanish usually omits subject pronouns (yo, tú, él, nosotros, etc.) because the verb ending already shows the subject:
- iremos ends in -emos, which clearly indicates we (nosotros).
You would only add nosotros if you want to emphasize it:
- El sábado nosotros iremos al campo... – We (as opposed to someone else) will go on Saturday.
But in normal, neutral speech, El sábado iremos... is more natural.
In Spain, el campo usually means the countryside / rural area, not a single field:
- Vivir en el campo – to live in the countryside.
It can also mean a field in some contexts (e.g. sports: campo de fútbol – football pitch), but in this sentence, al campo clearly means to the countryside.
Note: al is the contraction of a + el:
- a + el campo → al campo.
Here por expresses the idea of movement along / through / via a place:
- ir por una carretera – to go along a road / to travel via a road.
Compare:
- ir en coche – to go by car (means of transport).
- ir a la ciudad – to go to the city (destination).
- ir por la ciudad – to go around / through the city (movement within / along it).
So por una carretera estrecha = along a narrow road or via a narrow road.
Adjectives in Spanish must agree in gender and number with the noun they describe.
- carretera is a feminine, singular noun (it ends in -a and is feminine).
- Therefore, the adjectives must also be feminine singular:
- estrecha (not estrecho)
- bonita (not bonito)
So:
- una carretera estrecha – a narrow road.
- una carretera muy bonita – a very beautiful road.
- Together: una carretera estrecha pero muy bonita.
In Spanish, adjectives normally go after the noun:
- una carretera estrecha – a narrow road.
Putting most adjectives before the noun is possible but either changes the nuance or sounds poetic/unusual.
estrecha pero muy bonita carretera would sound like very marked, literary style.
So the natural order is:
- una carretera estrecha pero muy bonita – a narrow but very beautiful road.
This is the standard, everyday structure: noun + adjective (+ more adjectives).
Pero means but and is used to contrast two ideas, often both true:
- estrecha pero muy bonita – narrow but very beautiful.
Sino is used when you negate something and then correct it:
- No es ancha, sino estrecha. – It’s not wide, but (rather) narrow.
In the sentence, nothing is being negated; we’re just contrasting two qualities of the same road. So we use pero, not sino.
muy means very. It intensifies the adjective that comes after it:
- muy bonita – very beautiful.
There is no muy before estrecha simply because the speaker doesn’t want to intensify narrow, only beautiful. If you wanted to intensify both, you could say:
- por una carretera muy estrecha pero muy bonita.
But in the original sentence, only bonita is intensified.
In Spanish, days of the week (and months and languages) are not capitalized unless they start a sentence:
- El sábado iremos al campo.
- Los sábados estudio español.
In English:
- On Saturday we will go...
So sábado is correctly written with a lowercase s here.
Yes, you can say both:
- El sábado iremos al campo...
- Iremos al campo el sábado...
The meaning is the same: On Saturday we will go to the countryside...
Spanish word order is quite flexible. Putting El sábado at the beginning slightly emphasizes when it happens, but both are completely natural.
You could use other words, but they don’t mean exactly the same:
- carretera – a road for cars, often between towns (a main or secondary road).
- camino – a path / track / way, often smaller or more rural, not always paved.
- calle – a street inside a town or city.
In this sentence, carretera fits best because it’s about driving to the countryside:
- por una carretera estrecha pero muy bonita – along a narrow but very beautiful road.