Breakdown of Los domingos juego al ajedrez con mi abuelo en un tablero viejo pero bonito.
Questions & Answers about Los domingos juego al ajedrez con mi abuelo en un tablero viejo pero bonito.
In Spanish, to say “on Sundays” in a general, habitual sense, the normal structure is:
- Los + day of the week (plural)
- Los domingos = on Sundays (every Sunday / usually on Sundays)
Some notes:
- Los domingos (plural) → repeated habit, every Sunday (or most Sundays).
- El domingo (singular) → on Sunday (this coming Sunday / a specific one).
- You normally don’t say en los domingos for this meaning; that sounds unnatural in this context.
- You also don’t drop los: Domingos juego… sounds odd; you normally keep the article.
So Los domingos juego… = I (usually) play… on Sundays.
Juego is the simple present tense of jugar for yo (I).
- Juego = I play (habit, routine).
- Estoy jugando = I am playing (right now / at this moment).
In this sentence, the idea is a repeated habit (every Sunday), so the normal choice is the simple present:
- Los domingos juego al ajedrez…
= On Sundays I play chess…
If you said Los domingos estoy jugando al ajedrez, it would sound strange, as if you were describing what you are doing right now every Sunday, which doesn’t fit as a general statement of habit.
Spanish usually drops the subject pronoun (yo, tú, él…) because the verb ending already shows who the subject is:
- (Yo) juego – the -o ending already tells us it’s I.
So:
- Los domingos juego al ajedrez… is perfectly normal and natural.
You can say:
- Yo los domingos juego al ajedrez…
but then yo is a bit more emphatic, like:
- Me, on Sundays, I play chess with my grandfather… (maybe contrasting with what someone else does).
In neutral, everyday speech, the version without yo is preferred.
With jugar (to play) when you talk about games and sports, Spanish normally uses:
- jugar + a + [article] + game/sport
So:
- jugar al ajedrez = to play chess
- jugar al fútbol = to play football/soccer
- jugar a las cartas = to play cards
Here, al = a + el (a contraction):
- a (to) + el (the, masculine singular) → al
So:
- juego al ajedrez = I play (at) the chess → idiomatically just I play chess.
juego ajedrez is not standard Spanish; it sounds wrong.
juego el ajedrez (without a) is also wrong with jugar in this meaning.
Al is a contraction of the preposition a and the masculine singular article el:
- a + el = al
So the full underlying structure is:
- juego a el ajedrez → spoken and written as juego al ajedrez
Spanish always contracts a + el → al, and de + el → del:
- voy al cine (a + el)
- vengo del trabajo (de + el)
Languages don’t match article usage one-to-one.
In Spanish:
- Many sports and games normally appear with the article:
- el ajedrez – chess
- el tenis – tennis
- el fútbol – football/soccer
So jugar al ajedrez is the standard fixed expression.
In English, chess is typically used without “the” in this context:
- I play chess with my grandfather.
You can find jugar ajedrez in some Latin American speech, but in Spain the most natural and correct form is jugar al ajedrez.
The preposition con means “with” and is used to show accompaniment:
- con mi abuelo = with my grandfather
The preposition a would usually indicate:
- movement towards someone: Voy a mi abuelo (I go to my grandfather – sounds odd; you’d usually say a casa de mi abuelo), or
- an indirect object: Le doy el libro a mi abuelo (I give the book to my grandfather).
In playing chess with someone, you want the idea of togetherness / partnership / opponent, so you use con:
- juego al ajedrez con mi abuelo = I play chess with my grandfather.
Spanish possessive adjectives (mi, tu, su, nuestro, etc.) just replace the article; you don’t use both together:
- mi abuelo – my grandfather
NOT: el mi abuelo
Similarly:
- tu casa – your house (not la tu casa)
- nuestro coche – our car (not el nuestro coche)
You only combine the article and possessive with stressed/long forms like mío, tuyo, suyo, for emphasis or after a noun:
- el abuelo mío – that grandfather of mine (more emphatic / expressive)
- but the normal, neutral form is just mi abuelo.
Tablero is not “table” (table is mesa).
Tablero is generally “board” – a flat board or panel used for:
- games: tablero de ajedrez – chessboard
- control panels: tablero de mandos – control panel
- notice boards, etc.
In this sentence:
- un tablero viejo pero bonito = an old but pretty board,
and from context (chess), it specifically means chessboard.
All three prepositions can appear with tablero, but they express slightly different ideas:
- en un tablero – literally in/on a board; here it simply means “on a board” and is very natural and common.
- sobre un tablero – more literally on top of a board; also correct, a bit more explicit or formal in some contexts.
- con un tablero – with a board; this would focus on having or using a board, not so much the location.
In practice:
- jugar al ajedrez en un tablero → emphasizes the place where the pieces are.
- jugar al ajedrez sobre un tablero → perfectly correct, maybe a touch more literal.
- jugar al ajedrez con un tablero → sounds a bit odd; obviously chess involves a board, so saying with a board is not the usual way to phrase it.
So en un tablero is simple and idiomatic.
In Spanish, the normal/default position of descriptive adjectives is after the noun:
- un tablero viejo – an old board
- una casa grande – a big house
So un tablero viejo pero bonito (an old but pretty board) uses the usual order: noun + adjectives.
You can say un viejo tablero, but:
- Adjectives placed before the noun often sound more literary, emotional, or subjective, or they may slightly change meaning.
- With viejo:
- un viejo amigo often means a long-time / long-standing friend, not literally old in age.
- un amigo viejo emphasizes that the friend is old (in age).
With tablero, the difference is weaker, but:
- un tablero viejo → more neutral, simply an old board (in condition/age).
- un viejo tablero → can sound a bit more expressive, like that old board we’ve had forever.
In everyday speech, un tablero viejo pero bonito is the most natural.
Adjectives in Spanish agree with the gender and number of the noun they describe.
- tablero is masculine singular: el tablero.
- Therefore the adjectives must also be masculine singular:
- viejo (not vieja)
- bonito (not bonita)
So:
- un tablero viejo pero bonito
If the noun were feminine plural, everything would change:
- una mesa vieja pero bonita – an old but pretty table
- unas mesas viejas pero bonitas – some old but pretty tables
Pero means “but” in the additive/contrast sense:
- viejo pero bonito = old but (still) pretty
You use pero to add a contrasting fact that doesn’t completely negate the first statement.
Sino is closer to “but rather / but instead” and is used after a negation to correct or replace what came before:
- No quiero café, sino té.
= I don’t want coffee, but (rather) tea.
In your sentence, there is no negation, so sino cannot be used:
- ✔ viejo pero bonito
- ✘ viejo sino bonito (incorrect)
In this sentence:
- al ajedrez = a + el ajedrez, so ajedrez takes el → it is masculine.
There is no reliable rule from the ending -ez to gender, so you simply have to learn it with the article:
- el ajedrez – chess
- la vejez – old age (feminine), also ends in -ez
In general, when learning new nouns, it’s best to memorize them together with el or la.
In Spanish, days of the week are normally written with a lowercase letter:
- los domingos juego al ajedrez…
If Los appears with a capital L at the start of a sentence, that’s only because it’s the first word of the sentence, not because “domingo” is a proper noun that must be capitalized.
So:
- Start of sentence: Los domingos juego… (capital L)
- In the middle: Me gusta, y los domingos juego… (lowercase l)