Breakdown of En diciembre preferimos un hotel en una ciudad con mercado de Navidad.
Questions & Answers about En diciembre preferimos un hotel en una ciudad con mercado de Navidad.
In Spanish, when you talk about months in general, you normally do not use an article:
- En diciembre hace frío. – In December it’s cold.
- Trabajo mucho en enero. – I work a lot in January.
You add el only when you specify a particular December:
- En el diciembre de 2020 viajé a España. – In the December of 2020 I travelled to Spain.
Also, month names in Spanish are written with a lowercase letter: diciembre, not Diciembre.
Yes, but there’s a nuance:
- En diciembre = “in December” (neutral, most common).
- Durante diciembre = “during December” (emphasises the whole period more).
In your sentence, both are correct:
- En diciembre preferimos un hotel…
- Durante diciembre preferimos un hotel…
The version with en is more natural and more common in everyday speech.
Preferimos is the present simple of preferir:
- preferimos = we prefer.
Spanish present simple can mean:
- A general/habitual preference:
- En diciembre preferimos un hotel… = Every December, our preference is a hotel…
- A current preference connected to the present time or a plan:
- Este año, en diciembre preferimos un hotel… = This year, for December, we prefer a hotel…
Context decides whether it’s “in general” or “this time”, but the tense form is the same.
Yes, preferir is an e → ie stem‑changing verb:
- yo prefiero
- tú prefieres
- él/ella prefiere
- ellos/ellas prefieren
But in nosotros and vosotros, there is no stem change in the present tense:
- nosotros preferimos
- vosotros preferís
This is normal for Spanish stem‑changing verbs:
pensar → pienso, piensas, piensa, pensamos, pensáis, piensan
querer → quiero, quieres, quiere, queremos, queréis, quieren
So preferimos is exactly the correct, regular pattern.
Spanish usually omits subject pronouns because the verb ending already tells you who the subject is:
- preferimos → clearly “we” (nosotros / nosotras).
You would add nosotros mainly for:
- Emphasis or contrast:
- En diciembre nosotros preferimos un hotel, pero ellos prefieren un apartamento.
- Clarity if the context is confusing (less common here).
In your sentence, En diciembre preferimos… is the most natural: short and not redundant.
Spanish uses the “personal a” only with people (and some pets) as direct objects:
- Veo a María. – I see María.
- Queremos a nuestros hijos. – We love our children.
Hotel is an inanimate thing, so you must not use the personal a:
- ✅ Preferimos un hotel.
- ❌ Preferimos a un hotel.
If you compare two things, you’d use a in a different structure:
- Preferimos un hotel a un apartamento. – We prefer a hotel to an apartment.
Un hotel = “a hotel” (unspecified, any hotel of that type).
El hotel = “the hotel” (a specific one the listener already knows about).
In your sentence you’re talking about any hotel with certain characteristics, not a particular one:
- En diciembre preferimos un hotel en una ciudad con mercado de Navidad.
→ We don’t have a specific hotel in mind; just any hotel in that kind of place.
If you had already identified the hotel, you would use el:
- En diciembre preferimos el hotel que está en la plaza.
You say una ciudad because ciudad is a feminine noun, so it takes feminine articles:
- la ciudad, una ciudad.
Most nouns ending in -dad are feminine:
- la ciudad (city)
- la universidad (university)
- la verdad (truth)
So:
- ✅ una ciudad con mercado de Navidad
- ❌ un ciudad con mercado de Navidad
The preposition en is used for location: “in / at / on”.
- en una ciudad = in a city.
- Vivimos en Madrid. – We live in Madrid.
de una ciudad means “from / of a city”:
- la gente de una ciudad grande – the people from a big city.
a una ciudad is about movement towards the city:
- Viajamos a una ciudad grande. – We travel to a big city.
Here you are describing where the hotel is located, so en una ciudad is the correct choice.
Both are grammatically possible, but there’s a nuance:
- con mercado de Navidad
- More general; describes a feature/characteristic of the city.
- Similar to: “with Christmas market(s)” in a generic way.
- con un mercado de Navidad
- Emphasises one specific (or countable) market.
- Sounds a bit more concrete: “with a Christmas market (one market).”
Spanish often drops the indefinite article after con when describing typical features:
- una casa con jardín – a house with a garden
- un piso con terraza – a flat with a terrace
- una ciudad con mercado de Navidad – a city with a Christmas market
So the version without un is very natural here.
De is often used to mean “of / related to / associated with”:
- árbol de Navidad – Christmas tree
- canción de Navidad – Christmas carol
- mercado de Navidad – Christmas market
Mercado en Navidad would literally be “a market in Christmas (time)”, which sounds unusual; the standard collocation is mercado de Navidad for this kind of seasonal event.
Yes, both are used and correct:
- mercado de Navidad – literally “market of Christmas”.
- mercado navideño – “Christmas market”, with the adjective navideño (Christmas‑related, festive).
The meaning is essentially the same. In Spain, both forms are heard; mercado navideño may sound a bit more “adjectival” and sometimes slightly more formal or descriptive, but you can treat them as near synonyms.
In Spanish, names of religious feasts and holidays are capitalized:
- Navidad – Christmas
- Semana Santa – Holy Week
- Ramadán – Ramadan
But the word navidad can also mean just “birth” in a non‑holiday sense; then it’s lowercase (and rare in everyday speech).
In mercado de Navidad, it refers to the holiday, so Navidad is capitalized.
Yes, that’s grammatically correct:
- En diciembre preferimos un hotel…
- Preferimos un hotel… en diciembre.
Putting En diciembre at the beginning:
- Sounds very natural.
- Emphasizes the time frame a little more.
Putting en diciembre at the end is also fine, but with long sentences it can feel slightly heavier. Native speakers often place time expressions at the beginning or right after the verb.
Yes, both are correct:
- una ciudad con mercado de Navidad
- una ciudad que tiene un mercado de Navidad
Differences:
con + noun is:
- Shorter and very natural to describe features.
- Common in descriptions: un piso con balcón, un hotel con piscina.
que tiene + noun:
- A bit longer and more explicit: “that has…”.
- Slightly more emphatic about the fact that it possesses this thing.
In everyday speech, con mercado de Navidad is simpler and sounds very idiomatic in Spanish.