Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): Los voluntarios organizan una campaña para prevenir incendios en el bosque. - The volunteers organize a campaign to prevent fires in the forest.

Actions happening now:
- Los voluntarios organizan una campaña.
  = The volunteers are organizing a campaign (right now / around now).
Planned or scheduled future actions, especially when context makes the time clear:
- Mañana los voluntarios organizan una campaña.
  = Tomorrow the volunteers are organizing a campaign.

You could also say:

Los voluntarios van a organizar una campaña. (They are going to organize…)
Los voluntarios organizarán una campaña. (They will organize…)

All are possible, but the simple present organizan is very common and natural in Spanish for both current and near-future planned actions, especially when no specific time is mentioned. It just states the fact in a neutral way.

Why do we say Los voluntarios and not just Voluntarios organizan una campaña?

In Spanish, when talking about a specific group of people that the speaker has in mind, it’s normal to use the definite article:

Los voluntarios organizan una campaña.
= The (particular) volunteers are organizing a campaign.

If you drop the article:

Voluntarios organizan una campaña.

This sounds incomplete or stylistic, a bit like a newspaper headline. In normal spoken Spanish, you almost always need the article here.

Compare:

Los niños juegan en el parque. (The children are playing in the park.)
A bare plural subject like Niños juegan en el parque is not natural in everyday speech; it sounds like a title or a fragment.

Why is it los voluntarios and not las voluntarias? How does gender work here?

Voluntario/voluntaria changes with gender:

el voluntario = male volunteer
la voluntaria = female volunteer
los voluntarios = group of volunteers including at least one man, or generic “volunteers”
las voluntarias = group of volunteers that are all women

In traditional grammar:

If the group is mixed or you don’t know the genders, the default plural is los voluntarios (masculine plural).

In Spain, in some contexts (especially formal or inclusive language), you might see:

los y las voluntarias
las personas voluntarias (avoiding gendered endings)

But in standard, everyday usage, los voluntarios is the normal form for “the volunteers” in general.

Why is it una campaña (feminine) and not un campaña?

Every Spanish noun has a fixed grammatical gender, masculine or feminine, which you must memorize with the word:

la campaña = the campaign (always feminine)
una campaña = a campaign

Because campaña is feminine, it must take feminine articles and adjectives:

la campaña informativa (the information campaign)
una campaña importante (an important campaign)

Using un campaña would be grammatically wrong; un is the masculine form and can’t go with the feminine noun campaña.

Why do we use para in para prevenir and not por? What is the difference?

Para and por often both translate as “for”, but they express different ideas.

Here, para introduces a purpose or goal:

organizan una campaña para prevenir incendios
= they organize a campaign in order to prevent fires.

Para + infinitive is the standard way to say “in order to do something”.

Por usually expresses cause, reason, exchange, route, etc., not purpose:

Lo hacen por los bosques. = They do it for the forests (on behalf of / because of love for the forests).
Lo multaron por provocar un incendio. = They fined him for causing a fire.

So here, para prevenir is correct because we are talking about the intended goal of the campaign.

Why is prevenir in the infinitive (para prevenir) and not a conjugated verb?

After para (when it means “in order to”), Spanish uses an infinitive:

para prevenir = in order to prevent
para comer = in order to eat
para ahorrar dinero = in order to save money

You do not conjugate the verb after para in this structure:

❌ para previenen incendios
✅ para prevenir incendios

If you wanted a clause with its own subject, you’d use para que + subjunctive:

Organizan una campaña para que se prevengan los incendios.
= They organize a campaign so that fires are prevented.

But the simpler and more natural version in most cases is para + infinitive.

Why is it just prevenir incendios and not prevenir los incendios?

Spanish often uses a bare plural (no article) when speaking in a general or indefinite way about “fires”:

prevenir incendios = to prevent fires (fires in general, any fires)

If you say prevenir los incendios, this tends to sound more like:

preventing the fires (some specific or known fires, or all the fires in a specific context).

Examples:

Quieren prevenir accidentes. = They want to prevent accidents (in general).
Quieren prevenir los accidentes de tráfico en esta carretera.
= They want to prevent traffic accidents on this road (more specific).

In your sentence, the idea is general prevention, so prevenir incendios (without article) is the most natural.

Why is it en el bosque and not en bosque or en un bosque?

Spanish usually needs an article in places where English can drop it.

en el bosque
- Literally: in the forest / in the woods
- Refers to a forest that is known by context, or to “the forest” as a general environment.
en un bosque
- in a forest (one forest, not specified which)
- Focuses on one particular, but unspecified forest.
en bosque
- This is incorrect in normal Spanish; you almost always need an article here.

In your sentence, en el bosque can be understood in two ways, depending on context:

A specific forest: “the forest near our town”
Forest environment in general: “in the forest” as a typical place where fires can happen

If you wanted to emphasize forests in general (plural), you could also say:

para prevenir incendios en los bosques = to prevent fires in forests.

Can word order change? Could I say Los voluntarios organizan para prevenir incendios una campaña en el bosque?

Spanish word order is more flexible than English, but not everything sounds natural.

The neutral, most natural order here is:

Los voluntarios organizan una campaña para prevenir incendios en el bosque.

Reordering too much can sound odd or overly literary:

Los voluntarios organizan para prevenir incendios una campaña en el bosque.
This is grammatically possible, but it sounds marked, like you’re trying to emphasize para prevenir incendios in a poetic or rhetorical way.

Other variations that are still quite natural:

Los voluntarios organizan una campaña en el bosque para prevenir incendios.
Para prevenir incendios en el bosque, los voluntarios organizan una campaña.

In everyday speech, the original order is the clearest and most common.

What is the difference between prevenir incendios and evitar incendios?

Both can be translated as “to prevent fires”, but they focus on slightly different aspects:

prevenir
- Emphasizes taking precautions in advance, planning, education.
- Often used in contexts like prevenir enfermedades, prevenir riesgos.
- Your sentence fits this idea well: a campaign is typically educational/preventive.
evitar
- Emphasizes avoiding something, making sure it doesn’t happen, often by reacting or steering clear.
- Common in evitar problemas, evitar accidentes, evitar errores.

In your example:

Una campaña para prevenir incendios en el bosque
suggests awareness, education, and preventive measures.

Una campaña para evitar incendios is also possible and understandable, but prevenir incendios is the more typical collocation in this kind of “public safety / awareness” context.

Could we say una campaña contra los incendios instead of para prevenir incendios? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say it, but the nuance changes slightly:

una campaña para prevenir incendios
- Focus on the goal: preventing fires.
- Very clear about the purpose: “in order to prevent fires”.
una campaña contra los incendios
- Literally: “a campaign against fires”
- Slightly more general and slogan-like; it sounds like a public campaign that opposes or fights fires conceptually.

Both would be understood as a fire-prevention campaign, but:

para prevenir incendios sounds more precise and neutral.
contra los incendios sounds more like a punchy motto or headline.

In everyday description, para prevenir incendios is more straightforward and typical.

How is organizan pronounced in Spain, and why is the stress on that syllable?

organizan is pronounced approximately:

[or-ga-NI-zan] in Latin America
[or-ga-NI-θan] in most of Spain (the z = θ like English th in think).

Syllable division: or-ga-ni-zan

The stress falls on ni because:

Words ending in a vowel, n, or s are stressed on the second-to-last syllable by default.
organizan ends in -n, so the natural stress is or-ga-NI-zan (no written accent needed).

Similarly:

organizo → or-ga-NI-zo
organizas → or-ga-NI-zas
organizamos → or-ga-na-MOs

Is there anything irregular about prevenir that I should know when conjugating it?

Yes. Prevenir is related to venir, and it’s irregular in many forms.

Key points (present indicative):

yo prevengo
tú previenes
él / ella / usted previene
nosotros/as prevenimos
vosotros/as prevenís
ellos / ellas / ustedes previenen

Notice:

Stem change e → ie in most forms: prevenir → previen-
The yo form has a -g-: prevengo (like vengo).

In your sentence, you don’t see the irregularity because it’s in the infinitive: prevenir. But when you conjugate it, you must remember these changes.