Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): Si llueve, jugamos a un juego de mesa con un dado y muchas fichas de colores. - If it rains, we play a board game with a die and many colorful pieces.

Habits / general truths
- Si llueve, jugamos a un juego de mesa.
  → Whenever it rains, we (usually) play a board game.
Future situations (where English often uses “will”)
- Si llueve, jugamos a un juego de mesa.
  → If it rains, we’ll play a board game.

Spanish often uses the present tense where English would use the future. So jugamos can correspond to either “we play” or “we will play”, depending on context.

Could we say “Si llueve, jugaremos a un juego de mesa” instead? What’s the difference in meaning?

Yes, “Si llueve, jugaremos a un juego de mesa” is grammatically correct.

Si llueve, jugamos…
– Slightly more neutral; very common in everyday speech.
– Can sound like a plan for the near future or a habit.
Si llueve, jugaremos…
– Emphasizes that the action is in the future.
– Sounds a bit more like a specific plan or prediction.

In many contexts, both are possible and the difference is subtle. In normal conversation, Spaniards often prefer present in both clauses.

Why do we say “jugamos a un juego de mesa” instead of “jugamos un juego de mesa”?

With jugar meaning “to play (a game or a sport)”, Spanish normally uses the preposition a:

jugar a un juego de mesa – to play a board game
jugar al fútbol – to play football/soccer
jugar a las cartas – to play cards

So:

✅ jugamos a un juego de mesa (natural)
❌ jugamos un juego de mesa (understandable, but sounds wrong/foreign to most native speakers)

When jugar means something slightly different, the a may disappear, for example:

jugar un papel importante – to play an important role
jugar una carta – to play a card (in a game, but referring to the move)

Is “a” after jugar always required with sports and games?

Practically always, yes, when you are talking about playing a game or a sport:

jugar a un juego
jugar al tenis (a + el → al)
jugar a la oca (the game “La oca”)
jugar a la consola (to play on the games console)

But there are some fixed expressions where jugar is used differently and a is not used:

jugar un partido – to play a match
jugar la final – to play the final
jugarse la vida – to risk one’s life

In your sentence, because it’s clearly about a game, you need jugar a.

What exactly is a “juego de mesa”? Is it always a board game?

Juego de mesa literally means “table game”. It normally refers to what English speakers call board games and similar things played sitting at a table, such as:

Classic board games (Monopoly, chess, etc.)
Many modern tabletop games
Sometimes card games are also included in the broad category juegos de mesa

More specific terms exist:

juego de tablero – game specifically with a board
juego de cartas – card game

But juego de mesa is the common general term people use in Spain for most tabletop/board games.

Why is it “con un dado” and not something like “con un cubo” for “a cube”?

In games, the word for “die / dice” is dado (plural dados), regardless of its geometric shape:

un dado – one die
dos dados – two dice

A cubo is a cube in the geometric or physical sense (a cube of sugar, a box shaped like a cube). But in the context of games, you always say dado, not cubo.

Also note that dado is masculine:

un dado, el dado, los dados

I’ve seen “dado que” meaning “since / given that”. Is that related to “un dado” here?

They’re actually two different words that just look the same:

dado (noun) – die / dice
- un dado, dos dados
dado que (fixed expression) – since / given that
- Dado que llueve, nos quedamos en casa. – Since it’s raining, we’re staying home.

In your sentence, dado is clearly the noun (a game die), not the conjunction-like phrase dado que.

What are “fichas” in this context? Are they pieces, counters, chips…?

In games, ficha is a very flexible word. It can mean:

A counter / token you move around a board
A small piece representing your character, vehicle, etc.
In some contexts, also a chip (like a casino chip)

So muchas fichas de colores here means something like “lots of coloured pieces/tokens” used in the game.

Grammar note:

Singular: la ficha
Plural: las fichas
It’s feminine, so you say mucha ficha / muchas fichas, not mucho ficha.

Why is it “muchas fichas” and not “muchos fichas”?

Adjectives in Spanish must agree in gender and number with the noun:

ficha is feminine singular → la ficha
fichas is feminine plural → las fichas

The adjective mucho changes form:

mucho (masc. sing.)
mucha (fem. sing.)
muchos (masc. pl.)
muchas (fem. pl.)

So:

muchas fichas – correct (fem. pl. + fem. pl.)
muchos fichas – incorrect (masc. pl. + fem. pl.)

Why do we say “fichas de colores” and not just “fichas de color”?

Both are possible, but they suggest slightly different ideas:

fichas de colores – literally “pieces of colours”
- Emphasizes variety: pieces of different colours (red, blue, yellow, etc.)
fichas de color – more like “coloured pieces”
- Could mean simply that they’re not transparent/white, but it doesn’t highlight the idea of multiple different colours as strongly.

In everyday Spanish, when people want to say “pieces in many different colours”, they very often use de colores.

Could we change the word order, like “con muchas fichas de colores y un dado” instead of “con un dado y muchas fichas de colores”?

Yes. Both are fine:

…con un dado y muchas fichas de colores.
…con muchas fichas de colores y un dado.

Spanish is quite flexible with the order of items in a list. Changing the order here doesn’t change the meaning, only the emphasis (slightly): whatever comes first may feel a bit more prominent.

Why is there a comma after “Si llueve,”?

In Spanish, when a si-clause (the if clause) comes first, it is normally followed by a comma:

Si llueve, jugamos a un juego de mesa.
Si tengo tiempo, te llamo.

If the main clause comes first, you usually don’t use a comma:

Jugamos a un juego de mesa si llueve.
Te llamo si tengo tiempo.

Could we use the subjunctive, like “Si lloviera, jugaríamos a un juego de mesa”? How would that differ?

Yes, that’s another valid structure. Compare:

Si llueve, jugamos/jugaremos a un juego de mesa.
- Real, likely, or normal condition.
- “If it rains, we (will) play a board game.”
Si lloviera, jugaríamos a un juego de mesa.
- More hypothetical / less likely; often translated with English “would”.
- “If it rained, we would play a board game.”

So your original sentence describes a normal plan or habit for whenever it actually rains. The lloviera / jugaríamos version sounds more like imagining a situation or speaking about something less real or less certain.

How do you pronounce “llueve”, “jugamos”, “dado” and “fichas” in Spain?

Approximate pronunciation for standard peninsular (Spain) Spanish:

llueve → /ˈʝwe.βe/
- ll is like an English y in “yes” for most speakers in Spain.
- Sounds roughly like “YWEH-veh”.
jugamos → /xuˈɣa.mos/
- j is a strong kh sound in the throat, like Scottish “loch”: .
- g between vowels (as in ga) is a softer [ɣ], but you don’t need to worry too much about that as a learner.
- Roughly “khoo-GAH-mos”.
dado → /ˈda.ðo/
- The d between vowels (the second one) is softer, like the “th” in “this”.
- Roughly “DAH-tho” (but with a softer, quicker th).
fichas → /ˈfi.tʃas/
- ch is like English ch in “church”.
- Roughly “FEE-chas”.

None of these words carry stress on a strange syllable; the stressed syllable is marked by the bold part in the rough guides above.