Quiero recoger la mesa después de cenar.

I want to clear the table after dinner.

Breakdown of Quiero recoger la mesa después de cenar.

• yo: I
• querer: to want
• después de: after
• la mesa: the table

Questions & Answers about Quiero recoger la mesa después de cenar.

What does recoger la mesa mean exactly? Does it literally mean “pick up the table”?

Recoger la mesa is an idiomatic expression that means “to clear the table” (remove plates, glasses, cutlery, leftover food, etc. after a meal).

Literally, recoger = “to pick up / to gather / to collect,” and la mesa = “the table,” but Spanish speakers don’t understand this as physically picking the table up. In everyday use in Spain, recoger la mesa is the normal way to say “clear the table after eating.”

Why is it la mesa and not just mesa or something like recogerla?

Spanish almost always uses an article with countable nouns when a specific thing is meant, so la mesa = “the table” (the one we just ate at). Dropping the article (recoger mesa) would sound very odd here.

You could replace la mesa with a pronoun if it’s already clear from context:

• Quiero recogerla después de cenar. = “I want to clear it after dinner.”

But in a neutral, standalone sentence, recoger la mesa is the most natural.

Why is it quiero recoger and not something like quiero recojo?