Los voluntarios de esa ONG visitan a personas mayores en el barrio.

The volunteers from that NGO visit elderly people in the neighborhood.

Breakdown of Los voluntarios de esa ONG visitan a personas mayores en el barrio.

• en: in
• a: to
• de: from
• esa: that
• el barrio: the neighborhood
• visitar: to visit
• la persona: the person
• el voluntario: the volunteer
• la ONG: the NGO
• mayor: elderly

Questions & Answers about Los voluntarios de esa ONG visitan a personas mayores en el barrio.

Why do we say Los voluntarios and not just Voluntarios or Unos voluntarios?

In Spanish, you normally need an article in front of a noun, much more often than in English.

• Los voluntarios = the volunteers (a specific group, or volunteers as a known group in general).
  Here it likely means “the volunteers (from that NGO we’re talking about).”

• Unos voluntarios = some volunteers, an indefinite, not-previously-known group.

• Just Voluntarios visitan… is not natural in standard Spanish; you almost always need an article (or another determiner) with a plural countable noun as the subject.

So Los voluntarios is used because we’re talking about a specific, identifiable set of volunteers, not just “some volunteers” in general.

What does ONG mean in Spanish, and how is it pronounced?

ONG stands for organización no gubernamental, the Spanish equivalent of NGO (non-governmental organization).

• It is treated as feminine in Spanish: la ONG, esa ONG, una ONG.
• In Spain it’s pronounced by spelling out the letters:
  /o – ene – ge/, often flowing together as [oeneˈxe].

So esa ONG literally means that NGO.

Why is it de esa ONG and not para esa ONG?

Both are grammatically possible, but they mean different things.

• Los voluntarios de esa ONG
  = volunteers of / from that NGO (they belong to it, they are part of it).
  This is what the sentence is saying.

• Los voluntarios para esa ONG
  = volunteers for that NGO (for its benefit, or destined for it), but not necessarily belonging to it. For example, “We’re recruiting volunteers for that NGO.”

So de esa ONG emphasizes membership/association; para esa ONG emphasizes purpose/benefit.

Why do we say esa ONG and not este ONG or aquel ONG?

In Spanish, demonstratives agree in gender and number with the noun:

• este / esta = this (near the speaker)
• ese / esa = that (near the listener, or not especially near either)
• aquel / aquella = that … over there / more distant (physically or mentally)

ONG is feminine, so:

• esta ONG – this NGO (very close in space, time, or discourse)
• esa ONG – that NGO (previously mentioned, or not especially close)
• aquella ONG – that NGO (more distant, maybe from the past or far away)

In the sentence, esa ONG refers to a specific NGO already known in the context, but not as “here and now” as esta ONG would sound.

Why is there an a before personas mayores? Isn’t visitar a direct object verb?

Yes, visitar takes a direct object, but in Spanish, when a person or people are the direct object, you normally add the “personal a”:

• Visito a mi abuela. – I visit my grandmother.
• Visitan a sus amigos. – They visit their friends.

So here:

• visitan a personas mayores
  The direct object is personas mayores (elderly people), and because it refers to people, we usually add a.

This a does not mean to in an English prepositional sense; it’s marking a human direct object. That’s why you can’t translate it literally as “visit to elderly people” in English.

Could we say visitan personas mayores without the a? Would that be wrong?

You may occasionally see visitar used without a before plural, generic people, but:

• In standard, careful Spanish, especially in Spain, the most natural and common form is with the personal a:
  visitan a personas mayores.

Without a, it can sound either:

• slightly less natural, or
• more like you’re talking about people in a very abstract, non-personal way.

So:

• Recommended / most natural: visitan a personas mayores
• Without a: grammatically possible in some contexts, but not the best choice in this sentence.

What exactly does personas mayores mean? How is it different from ancianos, gente mayor, or viejos?

All of these can refer to “old people,” but they differ in tone and usage:

• personas mayores

  • Literally: older people / elderly people.
  • Neutral and polite, commonly used in Spain in formal and respectful contexts (healthcare, social services, media).

• gente mayor

  • Literally: older people (gente = people in general).
  • Also neutral and quite common, a bit more colloquial than personas mayores.

• ancianos / ancianas / los ancianos

  • Also means elderly people.
  • Can be neutral, but often sounds more old-fashioned or a bit clinical / institutional (e.g. residencia de ancianos = care home).

• viejos / viejas (about people)

  • Literally: old people / old men / old women.
  • Often sounds informal and can easily be rude or disrespectful, unless used jokingly with someone you’re close to, or in specific expressions.

In this sentence, personas mayores is chosen because it’s respectful, neutral, and very typical wording in Spain for talking about elderly people in a social-service context.

How does mayores work grammatically here? Does it agree with personas in gender and number?

Yes, mayores is an adjective modifying personas:

• persona mayor – one elderly person
• personas mayores – elderly people (plural)

A few details:

• Number:

  • Singular: mayor
  • Plural: mayores

• Gender:

  • mayor does not change for masculine/feminine; it’s the same form:
    
    • una persona mayor, un señor mayor, una señora mayor
    • Plural: señores mayores, señoras mayores, personas mayores

So in personas mayores, mayores is simply the plural of mayor, agreeing in number with personas.

Why is the verb in simple present visitan and not something like están visitando?

In Spanish, the simple present (visitan) is used more broadly than in English. It can express:

• Habitual actions:
  Los voluntarios […] visitan a personas mayores
  → The volunteers regularly / usually visit elderly people.

• Actions happening around now, depending on context.

The present progressive (están visitando) is used more narrowly, typically for an action that is happening right now:

• Los voluntarios… están visitando a personas mayores ahora mismo.
  → They are visiting elderly people right now.

In this sentence, we’re describing a regular activity, so visitan (simple present) is the natural choice.

Why is there no subject pronoun like ellos? Why don’t we say Ellos visitan…?

Spanish is a “pro-drop” language: subject pronouns are usually omitted when the verb ending already tells you who the subject is.

• visitan clearly shows 3rd person plural (they).
• We already know from context that the subject is Los voluntarios de esa ONG.

You normally use ellos / ellas only for:

• emphasis:
  • Ellos visitan a personas mayores (and not someone else).
• contrast:
  • Ellos visitan a personas mayores y nosotros visitamos a niños.

In neutral statements like this one, the pronoun is simply dropped.

Why is it en el barrio and not something like al barrio or por el barrio?

Each preposition adds a different nuance:

• en el barrio – in the neighbourhood

  • Focus: the visits take place within that local area.

• al barrio – to the neighbourhood

  • Focus: movement towards the neighbourhood:
    
    • Van al barrio – They go to the neighbourhood.
  • You wouldn’t usually say visitan al barrio to mean “they visit elderly people in the neighbourhood”; it would sound like they visit the neighbourhood itself as a place.

• por el barrio – around the neighbourhood / through the neighbourhood

  • Focus: movement through the area:
    
    • Pasean por el barrio. – They walk around the neighbourhood.
  • Visitan a personas mayores por el barrio is possible and would suggest going around the neighbourhood visiting various elderly people, emphasizing the movement and dispersion.

In this sentence, the neutral, most direct way to say where the activity happens is en el barrio.

What does el barrio mean here? Is it always just “neighbourhood”?

Barrio is usually translated as neighbourhood, but there are some nuances, especially in Spain:

• It’s a sub-division of a town or city, often with a shared identity:
  • el barrio de Gràcia (Barcelona), el barrio de Salamanca (Madrid), etc.
• El barrio can mean:
  • a specific, known neighbourhood in the context (the one everyone in the conversation knows), or
  • simply the local area, the part of town where these people live.

Spanish often uses the definite article in a way English doesn’t. En el barrio here is like saying:

• “in the neighbourhood (around here)” / “in the local neighbourhood”,

even if English might drop the in some contexts.

Could we move parts of the sentence around, like En el barrio, los voluntarios de esa ONG visitan a personas mayores? Does that change the meaning?

You can change the order of phrases in Spanish fairly freely, and the basic meaning remains the same, as long as you don’t create ambiguity:

• Los voluntarios de esa ONG visitan a personas mayores en el barrio.
• En el barrio, los voluntarios de esa ONG visitan a personas mayores.
• Los voluntarios de esa ONG, en el barrio, visitan a personas mayores.

All of these still mean that:

• the volunteers (from that NGO)
• visit elderly people
• and this happens in the neighbourhood.

What you should not do is move de esa ONG so it attaches to the wrong noun:

• Los voluntarios visitan a personas mayores de esa ONG en el barrio.

This sounds like the elderly people are the ones from that NGO (elderly members of the NGO), which is a different meaning. So the position of de esa ONG is important to show that it modifies los voluntarios, not personas mayores.