Breakdown of Los sábados voy al cajero automático que está frente al banco.
Questions & Answers about Los sábados voy al cajero automático que está frente al banco.
In Spanish, to say “on Saturdays” in a general, habitual sense, you normally use:
- el + day = on (that) day
- los + day (plural) = on (those days) / on X‑days in general
So:
- El sábado = on Saturday (usually one specific Saturday, or “this/next Saturday”)
- Los sábados = on Saturdays (every / generally on Saturdays)
You do not need a separate word for “on.” The article los does that job here.
En los sábados is not natural; it sounds like “in the Saturdays.”
Yes, but the meaning changes:
Los sábados voy al cajero automático…
→ I go to the ATM on Saturdays (as a habit, regularly).El sábado voy al cajero automático…
→ I’m going to the ATM on Saturday (this coming Saturday / that specific Saturday).
So the plural sábados tells us it’s a regular, repeated action, not just a one‑time plan.
In Spanish, names of days of the week are not capitalized, unlike in English.
- Spanish: lunes, martes, miércoles, jueves, viernes, sábado, domingo
- English: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday…
In Los sábados voy…, Los is capitalized only because it’s the first word of the sentence. If the sentence were in the middle of a paragraph, you would write los sábados (lowercase l).
Spanish verb endings already show who the subject is:
- voy = I go
- vas = you go (singular, informal)
- va = he/she/it goes, you (formal) go, etc.
Because voy clearly means “I go”, the pronoun yo is normally optional and often omitted:
- Voy al cajero automático. = I go to the ATM.
- Yo voy al cajero automático. (also correct, but sounds more emphatic: I go to the ATM.)
You add yo when you want to emphasize contrast or clarity:
Yo voy al cajero, pero ella no. – I go to the ATM, but she doesn’t.
Spanish uses the simple present very often for:
Habits / routines:
Los sábados voy al cajero. = On Saturdays I (usually) go to the ATM.Near future (in some contexts):
Mañana voy al banco. = I’m going to the bank tomorrow.
So voy here means “I go (habitually)”, not just “I am going right now.”
You don’t need an extra word like “usually” unless you want extra emphasis (Normalmente los sábados voy…).
Al is a mandatory contraction of:
- a + el = al
So:
- Voy a el cajero automático. → grammatically wrong / not used
- Voy al cajero automático. → correct
Any time a is followed directly by el (the masculine singular article), it contracts to al in standard Spanish:
- al banco (a + el banco)
- al médico (a + el médico)
- al supermercado (a + el supermercado)
Yes:
- cajero by itself usually means “cashier” (the person at the cash register).
- cajero automático literally means “automatic cashier” and is the standard term for an ATM / cash machine in Spain and most of the Spanish‑speaking world.
So:
- cajero = cashier (person)
- cajero automático = ATM (machine)
Because cajero is masculine (ends in ‑o and is historically masculine), you say:
- el cajero automático (singular)
- los cajeros automáticos (plural)
In Spanish, adjectives usually go after the noun:
- cajero automático = automatic cashier
- banco grande = big bank
- tarjeta nueva = new card
Putting the adjective first (automático cajero) is ungrammatical here.
There are exceptions where the adjective can go before the noun (often changing the nuance: gran banco vs banco grande), but for something like a technical term (cajero automático), the normal order is noun + adjective.
Here que is a relative pronoun meaning “that / which / who” and introduces a clause that describes cajero automático.
- el cajero automático que está frente al banco
= the ATM that is in front of the bank
You cannot drop que here;
✗ el cajero automático está frente al banco inside the same noun phrase would break the sentence.
So:
- Voy al cajero automático. (complete sentence)
- Voy al cajero automático que está frente al banco. (now you specify which ATM)
Both ser and estar translate as “to be,” but they’re used differently.
- estar is used for location (where something/someone is).
- ser is for more permanent characteristics, identity, time, etc.
Location → estar:
- El cajero está frente al banco. = The ATM is (located) in front of the bank.
Using es here (El cajero es frente al banco) is incorrect in standard Spanish because we’re talking about where the ATM is, not what it is.
Frente a literally means “facing” or “opposite / in front of.”
In your sentence:
- frente al banco = in front of / opposite the bank
Some very similar options:
- enfrente de = opposite / in front of
Está enfrente del banco. - delante de = in front of (more “in front” than “opposite”)
Está delante del banco.
In practice:
- frente a and enfrente de often suggest facing it, across from it.
- delante de can be just “in front of it,” maybe on the same side, not necessarily across the street.
In many everyday contexts, they can all describe roughly the same physical relation, and all three are common in Spain.
Two things happen here:
- The fixed expression is frente a (in front of / opposite).
- a + el must contract to al.
So:
- frente a el banco → sounds like three separate words, but standard Spanish contracts it to
frente al banco = frente a + el banco
Frente el banco is missing the preposition a, so it’s incorrect in this meaning.
Yes, Spanish word order is fairly flexible for things like time expressions. All of these are natural, with slightly different emphasis:
Los sábados voy al cajero automático que está frente al banco.
(Neutral: “On Saturdays I go…”)Voy los sábados al cajero automático que está frente al banco.
(Slightly more focus on voy at the start.)Voy al cajero automático que está frente al banco los sábados.
(Time at the end; still fine, but can sound like you’re adding the detail after.)
All three are grammatically correct. The original is a very typical pattern: [time] + [verb] + [rest].
Each accent mark shows where the stress (spoken emphasis) falls and sometimes breaks the normal rules:
sábados:
Without an accent, normal rules would stress the next‑to‑last syllable (SA‑ba‑dos), which matches the spoken form. However, because the word ends in ‑s and has three syllables, the accent also helps keep the correct stress clear: SÁ‑ba‑dos.automático:
Ends in a vowel, so normal stress would be on the second‑to‑last syllable (au‑to‑MA‑ti‑co). But we need stress on TA: au‑to‑MÁ‑ti‑co, so an accent is written.está:
Ends in a vowel, so normal stress would be ES‑ta.
But the real pronunciation is es‑TÁ, so an accent is required.
Accents in Spanish are mainly about where you stress the word, and sometimes about distinguishing words that would otherwise be identical (e.g. esta vs está).