Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): Cuando termine la película, seguiré estudiando español en mi cuarto. - When I finish the movie, I will keep studying Spanish in my room.

Because in Spanish, when you talk about a future event introduced by time words like cuando, después de que, en cuanto, hasta que, etc., you usually use the present subjunctive, not the future or the present indicative.

Cuando termine la película = When the movie finishes / is over (in the future, uncertain moment)
If you said Cuando termina la película, it would sound like:
- a general fact / repeated action: When the movie (usually) ends…, or
- something scheduled or very certain (and even then, future reference with cuando
  - indicative is much less common than in English).
Cuando terminará la película is wrong in this structure; Spanish does not use the future tense after cuando to talk about future time in this way.

So the rule here is:
Future main clause + time conjunction (cuando, etc.) → present subjunctive in the time clause
→ Cuando termine la película, seguiré…

Is cuando termine la película the same as cuando la película termine?

Yes, they mean the same thing, and both are correct.

Cuando termine la película, seguiré estudiando…
Cuando la película termine, seguiré estudiando…

The difference is just word order:

Putting la película earlier (cuando la película termine) makes the subject slightly more prominent, but in everyday speech and writing, both versions sound perfectly natural and interchangeable.

Spanish allows some flexibility in word order inside subordinate clauses, especially when there’s no ambiguity about the subject (here la película) and the verb (termine).

Could I say después de que termine la película instead? Does the grammar change?

You can say it, and the grammar pattern stays essentially the same:

Después de que termine la película, seguiré estudiando español en mi cuarto.

Here:

después de que
- future reference → present subjunctive (termine), just like with cuando.
Meaning is basically: After the movie (has) finished, I’ll keep studying Spanish in my room.

If you want something a bit simpler and more “noun-like”, you can also say:

Después de la película, seguiré estudiando español en mi cuarto.

In that version, después de is followed by a noun phrase (la película), so there’s no verb and no subjunctive.

What exactly does seguiré estudiando mean compared to just estudiaré?

Both talk about the future, but they focus on slightly different ideas:

Estudiaré español en mi cuarto.
- Simple future: I will study Spanish in my room (at that time / later).
- Neutral about whether you were already studying before.
Seguiré estudiando español en mi cuarto.
- Seguir + gerund expresses continuation of an ongoing action.
- It implies you are already studying Spanish, and after the movie ends, you will continue doing so.

So your original sentence highlights continuity: you were studying, you watch a movie, then you go on studying.

Why is it seguiré estudiando and not something like seguiré estudio?

Because with seguir (to continue/keep), Spanish uses a gerund (‑ando/‑iendo) to express a continuing action:

seguir + gerund
- seguir estudiando (keep studying)
- seguir trabajando (keep working)
- seguir hablando (keep talking)

You don’t say:

✗ seguir estudio (wrong for keep studying)
✗ seguir estudio español (wrong)

Some examples with different tenses:

Sigo estudiando español. – I keep / I’m still studying Spanish.
Seguirás trabajando allí. – You will keep working there.
Seguíamos hablando. – We kept / were still talking.

So seguiré estudiando fits this pattern: seguir (future) + gerund.

Could I use an infinitive and say: Cuando terminar la película, seguir estudiando español en mi cuarto?

No, that’s ungrammatical in standard Spanish for two reasons:

After cuando introducing a clause (with its own subject and verb), you need a conjugated verb, not an infinitive:
- ✔ Cuando termine la película…
- ✗ Cuando terminar la película…
In the main clause, you also need a conjugated verb:
- ✔ …seguiré estudiando español en mi cuarto.
- ✗ …seguir estudiando español en mi cuarto. (unless it depends on another conjugated verb, e.g. voy a seguir estudiando).

Infinitives can follow prepositions (like después de ver, antes de estudiar) or other verbs (quiero estudiar), but cuando + clause needs a finite (conjugated) verb.

Do I need to capitalize español in Spanish?

No. In Spanish, names of languages are written with a lowercase letter, unlike in English.

So:

✔ español, inglés, francés, alemán
✗ Español, Inglés, Francés, Alemán (wrong in standard Spanish orthography)

Nationalities and adjectives of nationality are also lowercase:

Soy español.
Una estudiante inglesa.

What’s the nuance of cuarto here? Could I say habitación or dormitorio in Spain?

In Spain, all of these are understandable, with slightly different usual uses:

cuarto
- Very common in speech for room, especially a bedroom.
- mi cuarto ≈ my room (what you’d typically say at home).
habitación
- Neutral word for room, often used in more formal / general contexts.
- Also used for hotel rooms: una habitación de hotel.
- en mi habitación is perfectly natural as “in my room”.
dormitorio
- Literally bedroom, slightly more technical or descriptive.
- Common in descriptions of houses: un piso con tres dormitorios.

So you could also say:

…seguiré estudiando español en mi habitación.
…seguiré estudiando español en mi dormitorio.

In everyday Peninsular Spanish, mi cuarto and mi habitación are probably the most natural-sounding equivalents of my room.

Can I omit any words, like the subject pronoun or mi?

You can omit the subject pronoun (yo), but not mi here:

In Spanish, you usually omit subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows the subject:
- Seguiré estudiando… already tells us it’s yo (I).
- Saying Yo seguiré estudiando… is not wrong, but it’s usually only used for emphasis or contrast.
You cannot normally omit mi in en mi cuarto if you specifically mean in my room:
- en mi cuarto = in my room.
- en el cuarto = in the room (unspecified whose room). Different meaning.

So a natural version without any unnecessary pronouns is exactly the original:

Cuando termine la película, seguiré estudiando español en mi cuarto.

Why is the gerund estudiando used, and can I move español to another position?

Why the gerund?
- After seguir, you use a gerund to show a continuing action: seguir estudiando.
- The gerund itself (estudiando) is like English “studying” after “keep/continue”.
Word order with español
The default, most natural order is:
- seguiré estudiando español (verb + gerund + object)
Other possibilities:
- seguiré estudiando español en mi cuarto ✔ (original sentence)
- seguiré estudiando en mi cuarto español ✗ (very unnatural)
- seguiré estudiando español allí, en mi cuarto ✔ (if you want to add allí for emphasis)
In general:
- Keep español right after estudiando.
- Place adverbials of place/time (en mi cuarto, mañana, etc.) after the verb phrase:
  seguiré estudiando español en mi cuarto mañana.

So: seguiré estudiando español en mi cuarto is exactly the natural order.

How would the sentence change if I put it in the past, like “When the movie finished, I kept studying Spanish in my room”?

Then you usually switch to the indicative in the cuando clause, because the action is seen as completed / real, not future/uncertain:

Cuando terminó la película, seguí estudiando español en mi cuarto.
= When the movie finished, I kept studying Spanish in my room.

Points to notice:

terminó (preterite indicative) instead of termine (present subjunctive).
seguí is the preterite of seguir (yo seguí = I kept / I continued).
Pattern:
- Future reference → cuando + present subjunctive
  - Cuando termine la película, seguiré…
- Past, completed event → cuando + past indicative
  - Cuando terminó la película, seguí…