Word
Termino de enjuagar la vajilla y luego guardo la cubertería en el cajón.
Meaning
I finish rinsing the crockery and then I put the cutlery away in the drawer.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Termino de enjuagar la vajilla y luego guardo la cubertería en el cajón.
yo
I
en
in
y
and
de
of
Questions & Answers about Termino de enjuagar la vajilla y luego guardo la cubertería en el cajón.
Why is there a de after termino?
Because terminar de + infinitive is the normal structure for to finish doing something.
So here:
- termino = I finish
- de enjuagar = rinsing
Together, termino de enjuagar means I finish rinsing.
A useful warning: this is different from acabo de + infinitive, which means I have just done something. So:
- Termino de enjuagar = I finish rinsing
- Acabo de enjuagar = I’ve just rinsed
Why are termino and guardo in the present tense?
Spanish often uses the present tense to talk about:
- habitual actions
- routines
- a sequence of actions being described in a general way
So this sentence can sound like someone describing their usual kitchen routine: first this, then that.
If you wanted to describe one completed event in the past, you would normally use the preterite:
Why isn’t yo included?