Breakdown of Mi madre guarda el pan orgánico en una bolsa de tela y lleva el cartón al contenedor azul.
Questions & Answers about Mi madre guarda el pan orgánico en una bolsa de tela y lleva el cartón al contenedor azul.
In modern standard Spanish, you normally use a possessive adjective directly before the noun:
- mi madre = my mother
- tu hermano = your brother
- su casa = his/her/their/your (formal) house
You do not add a definite article before this type of possessive:
✗ la mi madre (sounds very old-fashioned / literary or dialectal)
La madre mía is possible but it changes the nuance. It sounds more emotional or emphatic, like “my poor mother / that mother of mine,” not a neutral “my mother” as a subject of the sentence. For a simple, neutral subject, mi madre is what you want.
Guardar usually means:
- to put something away
- to store/keep something somewhere
In this sentence, Mi madre guarda el pan orgánico en una bolsa de tela suggests a habitual way of storing the bread: she puts it in a cloth bag and keeps it there.
Alternatives:
- pone el pan… = she puts the bread… (more about the act of putting it there right now)
- mantiene el pan… = she keeps/maintains the bread… (less natural here; sounds more like “keeps the bread fresh / in good condition” than “puts it away there”)
So guardar is the most natural verb for “store/keep (regularly) in a specific place.”
Both are possible, but they mean slightly different things:
- el pan orgánico = the organic bread (a specific bread, e.g. the bread she bought or usually has at home)
- pan orgánico (no article) = organic bread in general, or some amount of organic bread, not a specific, identified batch
In this sentence, el pan orgánico sounds like we are talking about “the bread she has at home” or “the bread she buys,” so the definite article el is natural.
If you were speaking more generally, you might say:
- En casa siempre guardamos pan orgánico en una bolsa de tela.
“At home we always store organic bread in a cloth bag.”
In Spanish, the normal/default position for most adjectives is after the noun:
- pan orgánico = organic bread
- contenedor azul = blue container
Adjectives can go before the noun, but then the nuance often changes, or it’s limited to certain common adjectives.
- un gran contenedor azul = a big blue container
- gran (short form of grande) is very commonly placed before nouns.
- mi querida madre = my dear mother
(querida often goes before a person’s name or kinship term)
With orgánico and azul, the normal, neutral form is after the noun: pan orgánico, contenedor azul. Putting them before (orgánico pan, azul contenedor) would sound wrong.
For materials, Spanish normally uses de + material (without article):
- bolsa de tela = cloth bag / fabric bag
- mesa de madera = wooden table
- cuchara de plástico = plastic spoon
You only add an article (de la tela, de la madera) if you mean “of the fabric / wood (that we were talking about)”—a specific material already known in the context.
Here we just say that the bag is made of cloth, so una bolsa de tela is the standard, generic form.
Common related words:
- bolsa: bag in general (plastic bag, paper bag, cloth bag, shopping bag)
- bolso: handbag / purse (the bag someone carries their personal items in)
- bolsillo: pocket (in clothing)
- saco: sack/bag (often larger, like a potato sack; also “coat” in some regions)
For something you put bread in, like a cloth or reusable shopping bag, bolsa is the natural choice, so una bolsa de tela fits perfectly.
Both verbs are about moving something, but they differ in direction:
- llevar = to take (from here to there)
- traer = to bring (from there to here)
We imagine the speaker at home or in a neutral place, and the contenedor azul (recycling bin) is somewhere else. From that point of view, your mother takes the cardboard there, so lleva is correct.
You would use traer if you were already at the container and someone brought the cardboard to where you are:
- Mi madre trae el cartón al contenedor azul (donde estoy yo).
“My mother brings the cardboard to the blue container (where I am).”
Al is a contraction of a + el:
- a + el contenedor → al contenedor
Spanish always contracts a + el and de + el:
- Voy a el parque. → ✗ incorrect
Voy al parque. → ✓ correct - Vengo de el médico. → ✗ incorrect
Vengo del médico. → ✓ correct
So al contenedor azul literally means “to the container (blue).”
Both are possible, but they’re used slightly differently:
- en una bolsa de tela = in a cloth bag (very general: location/placement)
- dentro de una bolsa de tela = inside a cloth bag (emphasizes the “inside” part)
In everyday speech, en is enough to express the idea that something is in/inside a container, so en una bolsa de tela is shorter and fully natural.
You might use dentro de if you want to stress “inside (and not outside)”:
- El pan no está fuera, está dentro de la bolsa.
“The bread isn’t outside, it’s inside the bag.”
In Spanish, cartón can work as both:
- a material (uncountable idea), and
- a countable mass of that material we’re dealing with.
When we say lleva el cartón al contenedor azul, we mean “the cardboard we have at home / that she has collected.” Spanish often uses a singular noun with a definite article for this kind of “household waste” idea:
- Sacamos el vidrio y el papel al contenedor de reciclaje.
“We take the glass and paper to the recycling bin.”
So el cartón here basically means “the cardboard (waste) we have.”
The Spanish present simple (presente de indicativo) can express:
Actions happening now:
- Mi madre guarda el pan ahora.
“My mother is putting the bread away now.”
- Mi madre guarda el pan ahora.
Habits / routines (very common use):
- Mi madre guarda el pan orgánico en una bolsa de tela y lleva el cartón al contenedor azul.
“My mother keeps organic bread in a cloth bag and takes the cardboard to the blue container (as her usual habit).”
- Mi madre guarda el pan orgánico en una bolsa de tela y lleva el cartón al contenedor azul.
In this sentence, the most natural reading is a habitual action, just like English present simple: “My mother keeps… and takes…”. Spanish doesn’t need a separate form like “is keeping / is taking” for that meaning here.
Spanish nouns have gender (masculine or feminine), and many adjectives change form to agree with the noun.
- pan is masculine → el pan orgánico
- orgánico is masculine singular to match pan.
- bolsa is feminine → una bolsa de tela
- tela is also feminine, but here it’s just the material in a de + noun phrase, so no adjective agreement issue.
- contenedor is masculine → el contenedor azul
- azul is an adjective that has the same form for masculine and feminine (only changes for plural: azules).
So the key pattern is:
- masculine singular noun → masculine singular adjective (pan orgánico)
- feminine singular noun → feminine singular adjective (bolsa grande, bolsa ecológica)
Color adjectives like azul, gris, beige usually only change for plural, not for gender:
- contenedor azul, bolsa azul
- contenedores azules, bolsas azules