Breakdown of Esta tarde pasaré por la frutería, la pescadería y la carnicería antes de volver a casa.
Questions & Answers about Esta tarde pasaré por la frutería, la pescadería y la carnicería antes de volver a casa.
Here pasar por means to stop by, to go by, or to drop in at a place.
So pasaré por la frutería does not literally mean only I will pass through the greengrocer’s. In everyday Spanish, it often means I’ll stop by there briefly, especially while doing errands.
In this sentence, it suggests:
- I’ll stop by the greengrocer’s
- I’ll stop by the fishmonger’s
- I’ll stop by the butcher’s
Pasaré is the 1st person singular simple future of pasar:
- yo pasaré = I will stop by / I will go by
The ending -é tells you it means I will.
This is a very normal tense here. A speaker could also say:
- Esta tarde voy a pasar por...
That would also mean This afternoon I’m going to stop by... and may sound a bit more conversational in some contexts.
Spanish often uses time expressions without a preposition when they mean something like this morning / this afternoon / tomorrow / next week.
So:
- esta tarde = this afternoon / later today
- esta noche = tonight
- mañana = tomorrow
- este verano = this summer
That is why the sentence says:
- Esta tarde pasaré...
and not something like En esta tarde pasaré..., which would sound unnatural here.
In Spain, la tarde usually covers the period after lunch and often extends into the early evening. So esta tarde can sometimes feel a little broader than English this afternoon.
Depending on context, it may mean:
- this afternoon
- later this afternoon
- sometimes even later today / early this evening
In this sentence, this afternoon is the clearest basic translation.
Spanish normally includes the article with each noun in a list when naming places like this.
So this is natural:
- la frutería, la pescadería y la carnicería
It would sound less natural to say:
- la frutería, pescadería y carnicería
Repeating the article makes the list sound complete and idiomatic.
They are names of specialist food shops:
- la frutería = greengrocer’s / fruit and vegetable shop
- la pescadería = fishmonger’s / fish shop
- la carnicería = butcher’s / butcher shop
In Spain, it is very common to talk about these as separate neighborhood shops.
Also, the ending -ería often appears in names of shops:
- panadería = bakery
- librería = bookshop
- zapatería = shoe shop
Because the verb phrase here is pasar por.
- pasar por + place = to stop by / go by / pass by
- ir a + place = to go to
So:
- Pasaré por la frutería = I’ll stop by the greengrocer’s
- Iré a la frutería = I’ll go to the greengrocer’s
Both can be correct in different situations, but they mean slightly different things.
Yes. You could say:
- Esta tarde pasaré por la frutería, por la pescadería y por la carnicería...
That is grammatically correct. But it is also very normal to mention por only once and let it apply to the whole list:
- pasaré por la frutería, la pescadería y la carnicería
The original version sounds natural and efficient.
After antes de, Spanish uses an infinitive when the subject stays the same.
So:
- antes de volver a casa = before going back home
The de is required here.
Compare:
- antes de salir = before leaving
- antes de comer = before eating
If the subject changes, Spanish usually uses antes de que + subjunctive:
- antes de que vuelvas a casa = before you go back home
In Spanish, a casa is the normal way to say home as a destination.
So:
- ir a casa = to go home
- volver a casa = to go back home
- llegar a casa = to get home
Using la would usually make it sound like a specific house or building:
- volver a la casa = go back to the house
So in this sentence, a casa is exactly what you would expect.
Because frutería, pescadería, and carnicería are feminine nouns.
That is why they take la:
- la frutería
- la pescadería
- la carnicería
Many nouns ending in -ía are feminine:
- la panadería
- la librería
- la cafetería
The accent marks show where the stress goes.
- pasaré → stress on the last syllable: pa-sa-RÉ
- frutería → fru-te-RÍ-a
- pescadería → pes-ca-de-RÍ-a
- carnicería → car-ni-ce-RÍ-a
These written accents are important because they tell you the correct pronunciation and sometimes distinguish forms.
For example:
- pasare and pasaré would not be pronounced the same way
Yes, grammatically that is fine:
- antes de volver a casa = before returning home
But in natural English, before going back home or before heading back home often sounds more everyday.
In Spanish, volver is a very common and natural verb for to return / to go back.
Yes, it feels very natural for Spain because it mentions specialist food shops that are very common in Spanish daily life:
- frutería
- pescadería
- carnicería
A learner from an English-speaking background might expect something more like the supermarket, but in Spain it is very normal to refer to these individual shops. That gives the sentence a distinctly Spain-based everyday feel.