Breakdown of Buscamos un sitio tranquilo en el parque para estudiar.
Questions & Answers about Buscamos un sitio tranquilo en el parque para estudiar.
In Spanish, buscar already includes the idea of for.
- English: to look for / to search for
- Spanish: buscar
So:
- Buscamos un sitio tranquilo… = We are looking for a quiet place…
- You do not say ✗ buscamos por un sitio or ✗ buscamos para un sitio in this meaning.
The form buscamos is the same for:
- present tense, nosotros: we look for / we are looking for
- preterite (simple past), nosotros: we looked for
Spanish often has identical forms for 1st person plural in present and preterite.
You know which one it is from context or from time expressions:
- Cada día buscamos un sitio tranquilo. → present (every day)
- Ayer buscamos un sitio tranquilo. → past (yesterday)
In your sentence, with no time marker, most people will understand it as present unless the context clearly talks about a past event.
Spanish usually omits subject pronouns (yo, tú, él, nosotros…) because the verb ending already tells you who the subject is.
- Buscamos un sitio tranquilo… → the -mos ending shows we.
- Nosotros buscamos… is also correct, but it adds emphasis or contrast, like:
- Nosotros buscamos un sitio tranquilo, ellos buscan uno ruidoso.
So leaving out nosotros is the most natural option here.
Yes, you can say:
- Buscamos un sitio tranquilo…
- Estamos buscando un sitio tranquilo…
Both can correspond to English We are looking for a quiet place…, but:
- Buscamos (simple present) is more general or habitual, and in Spanish it can also describe an action happening right now.
- Estamos buscando (present progressive) puts extra focus on the ongoing action right now, similar to English we are currently in the process of looking.
In everyday Spanish (including Spain), the simple present buscamos is very common even for actions happening at this moment. The progressive is used, but a bit less than in English.
- un sitio tranquilo = a quiet place (any quiet place, not specified)
- el sitio tranquilo = the quiet place (a specific one that speaker and listener already know)
In your sentence, you are not talking about a specific known place; you are looking for any place that is quiet. That’s why the indefinite article un is used.
The normal word order in Spanish is:
- noun + adjective: sitio tranquilo
So un sitio tranquilo is the natural choice.
You can sometimes place adjectives before the noun, but:
- It’s less common with adjectives like tranquilo here.
- Putting the adjective first often gives it a more emotional, poetic, or subjective feel.
Something like un tranquilo sitio might sound literary or marked, not like an everyday sentence about studying in the park. For neutral, everyday speech, use un sitio tranquilo.
In Spanish, adjectives must agree in gender and number with the noun they describe.
- sitio is masculine singular
- tranquilo must therefore also be masculine singular
Patterns:
- Masculine singular: sitio tranquilo
- Feminine singular: zona tranquila
- Masculine plural: sitios tranquilos
- Feminine plural: zonas tranquilas
So tranquilo (not tranquila) matches sitio.
Both can mean place, but there are nuances:
sitio
- Very common in Spain in everyday speech.
- Can mean spot, place, even seat:
- No hay sitio. = There’s no room / no space.
- Este es un buen sitio para estudiar. = This is a good spot to study.
lugar
- Slightly more formal or neutral.
- Often used in written language, descriptions, geography, etc.:
- un lugar histórico = a historic place
- un lugar tranquilo is also correct and common.
In your sentence, sitio sounds very natural in European Spanish: Buscamos un sitio tranquilo…
- en el parque = in / at the park (location)
- al parque = to the park (direction, movement), from a + el parque
Your sentence describes where you are looking for a place, not where you are going:
- Buscamos un sitio tranquilo en el parque.
You are already in the park, and inside it you are looking for a spot.
If you wanted to say We are going to the park to look for a quiet place, you would use:
- Vamos al parque para buscar un sitio tranquilo.
In Spanish, singular countable nouns almost always need an article (el, la, un, una) unless there is a special reason not to use one.
- en el parque = in the park (a specific type of place, understood generically)
- ✗ en parque is not idiomatic Spanish.
There are some fixed expressions without articles (e.g. en casa, en clase) but parque does not belong to that small group, so you need el.
Yes. para + infinitive often expresses purpose:
- Buscamos un sitio tranquilo en el parque para estudiar.
→ We are looking for a quiet place in the park in order to study / so we can study.
Structure:
- para + infinitive = for / in order to + verb
It tells you why you want a quiet place: the purpose is studying.
para and por are both translated as for, but they’re used differently.
para + infinitive → purpose / goal
- Buscamos un sitio… para estudiar.
= We want the place in order to study there.
- Buscamos un sitio… para estudiar.
por + infinitive is rare and has special uses (motivation, cause), and would not be correct in this sentence.
So in almost all cases of in order to + verb, you should use para + infinitive, not por.
Spanish word order is relatively flexible. These are all grammatically correct, with small differences in emphasis:
- Buscamos un sitio tranquilo en el parque para estudiar. (neutral)
- Buscamos en el parque un sitio tranquilo para estudiar. (slight emphasis on in the park)
- Buscamos un sitio tranquilo para estudiar en el parque. (can sound like a quiet place to study in the park, focus on the activity studying in the park)
You can also front the purpose:
- Para estudiar, buscamos un sitio tranquilo en el parque.
(emphasis on for studying)
The original sentence is the most straightforward and natural for everyday speech.
Yes, if the place has already been mentioned before, you can replace un sitio tranquilo with lo:
- Buscamos un sitio tranquilo en el parque para estudiar.
Later: - Lo buscamos en el parque para estudiar.
(Lo refers to that place.)
Rules to remember:
- lo is the direct object pronoun for masculine singular nouns (like sitio).
- In a simple sentence with one conjugated verb, the pronoun goes before the verb:
- Lo buscamos…, not ✗ Buscamos lo…
In your original sentence, because you are introducing un sitio tranquilo for the first time, you use the full noun phrase, not a pronoun.