La guía recomienda una excursión por el centro urbano por la noche.

The guide recommends a trip through the city center at night.

Breakdown of La guía recomienda una excursión por el centro urbano por la noche.

• una: a
• la noche: the night
• el centro: the center
• recomendar: to recommend
• .: period
• por: through
• por: at
• la excursión: the excursion
• urbano: urban
• la guía: the guide

Questions & Answers about La guía recomienda una excursión por el centro urbano por la noche.

Why is it la guía and not el guía? Does guía always refer to a woman?

Guía is one of those nouns that can be both masculine and feminine depending on who it refers to and the article you use:

• la guía

  • can mean a female guide (the person), or
  • a guidebook / brochure / written guide (always feminine thing)

• el guía

  • means a male guide (the person)

In your sentence:

La guía recomienda una excursión…

this could mean either:

• The (female) guide recommends…, or
• The guidebook recommends…

Spanish allows this ambiguity; only context tells you which one is meant.

Why is it recomienda (present) and not something like está recomendando like English “is recommending”?

Spanish uses the simple present much more often than English to express:

• general facts or habits
• what a text, guidebook, article, etc. says

So:

• La guía recomienda una excursión…
  = The guide (book) recommends an excursion…
  (natural and standard)

You could say:

• La guía está recomendando una excursión…

but that would usually sound like:

• you’re watching the guide right now, in the middle of recommending it, or
• you’re emphasising the action as in progress in this moment.

For written recommendations or general statements, recomienda (simple present) is the normal choice.

Why is it una excursión and not un excursión? How do I know the gender?

Excursión is a feminine noun, so it takes una, la, esta, etc.

• una excursión, la excursión, esta excursión

There’s no 100% reliable rule for gender from endings, but many nouns ending in:

• -ción / -sión are feminine:
  la excursión, la nación, la televisión, la decisión

So you just have to learn:

• excursión = feminine → una excursión.

Meaning-wise, excursión is usually:

• a trip / outing / tour, often shorter, sometimes organised, not a big long-distance journey (that would more often be viaje).

Why do we say por el centro urbano and not en el centro urbano or al centro urbano?

Each preposition gives a different nuance:

• por el centro urbano
  → movement through / around the urban centre
  (an excursion through the town centre)

• en el centro urbano
  → being in the urban centre, located there
  (an excursion in the town centre, focusing more on location, less on movement)

• al centro urbano
  → going to the urban centre (destination)
  (a trip to the town centre)

In your sentence, the idea is moving around/through that area, so por is the most natural:
> una excursión por el centro urbano = a tour through the town centre

Why is por used again in por la noche? Could I say en la noche or de noche instead?

Por la noche is the standard way to say “at night / in the evening” when you’re talking about when something happens, in a fairly general way:

• por la mañana – in the morning
• por la tarde – in the afternoon/evening
• por la noche – at night

Alternatives:

• de noche

  • also means at night, often more general or descriptive:
    
    • Me gusta pasear de noche. – I like walking at night.

• en la noche

  • grammatically possible but much less common in Spain. It’s used more in some Latin American varieties, and often in more literary or specific contexts, like en la noche del 24 de diciembre.

In Peninsular Spanish, for your sentence, por la noche is the most natural choice: > una excursión … por la noche = an excursion … at night.

What is the difference between centro urbano and centro de la ciudad?

Both are often translated as “city centre” or “town centre”, but there’s a slight nuance:

• el centro de la ciudad

  • very common everyday phrase
  • literally “the centre of the city”
  • clearly refers to the downtown / central area of that particular city

• el centro urbano

  • sounds a bit more technical / formal / planning-related
  • can mean the built-up urban centre, not necessarily tied to a single city name
  • often used in guides, official documents, planning, tourism descriptions

In practice, in a tourist sentence like this, both could work:

• una excursión por el centro urbano
• una excursión por el centro de la ciudad

The first just sounds a bit more like “tourist-guide / official brochure” style.

Why is it centro urbano and not centro urbana or urbana centro? How does agreement work here?

Agreement works like this:

• centro is a masculine singular noun.
• The adjective urbano must match the noun it describes in gender and number.

So:

• el centro urbano (masculine singular)
• los centros urbanos (masculine plural)
• If the noun were feminine, the adjective would change:
  
  • la zona urbana, la área urbana, etc.

Position-wise:

• the most neutral pattern is noun + adjective:
  
  • centro urbano, coche rojo, casa grande.

You couldn’t say centro urbana, because centro is masculine, and urbana is feminine → mismatch.

Could the sentence also be La guía recomienda una excursión por la noche por el centro urbano? Does the order of the two por phrases matter?

Yes, you can say:

• La guía recomienda una excursión por la noche por el centro urbano.

Grammatically it’s fine. But in terms of style and clarity:

• La guía recomienda una excursión por el centro urbano por la noche.

  • feels a bit smoother: “an excursion through the town centre, at night”.

• La guía recomienda una excursión por la noche por el centro urbano.

  • puts the time (por la noche) closer to excursión, which is also logical, but the repetition of por right after another por can sound slightly heavier.

Both orders are understandable; the original is a bit more natural-sounding, but this is largely a matter of rhythm and preference.

Could I replace por el centro urbano with por el casco antiguo or por el centro histórico? Are these similar?

Yes, and these are common in Spanish tourism contexts:

• el casco antiguo

  • “the old town”, old quarter, historic area

• el centro histórico

  • “the historic centre”

They don’t mean exactly the same as centro urbano:

• centro urbano = the urban centre, possibly including modern parts
• casco antiguo / centro histórico = specifically the older, historic part

So depending on what you actually mean, you could say:

• La guía recomienda una excursión por el casco antiguo por la noche.
• La guía recomienda una excursión por el centro histórico por la noche.

These are very typical phrases in tourist Spanish.

Could we say La guía recomienda que hagamos una excursión… instead? How would that change the grammar?

Yes, that’s another very natural pattern with recomendar:

1. Recomendar + noun (your original sentence):

   • La guía recomienda una excursión…
   • “The guide recommends an excursion…”

2. Recomendar que + subjunctive:

   • La guía recomienda que hagamos una excursión por el centro urbano por la noche.
   • “The guide recommends that we do / take an excursion through the town centre at night.”

Key differences:

• In the original, excursión is a direct object noun.
• In the second, you’re focusing on someone doing the action (we = hagamos), so you use que + subjunctive after recomendar.

How is guía pronounced and why does it have an accent on the í?

Pronunciation: guía = [ˈɡi.a], roughly GEE-ah in two syllables.

• The í has an accent because:
  • gui without an accent would normally form one syllable (a diphthong) like guitarra.
  • With guía, the accent on í breaks this into two syllables: gu‑í‑a → gu‑ía (actually guía = gu-ía, two syllables).

Stress rules:

• In guía, the stress falls on í, not on the gu.
• That’s why the written accent is needed.

So you say it as two clear vowel sounds: gu‑í‑a / GEE‑ah (without an English y sound in between).