Breakdown of La familia viaja al pueblo el sábado.
la familia
the family
viajar
to travel
al
to the
el sábado
Saturday
el pueblo
the town
Questions & Answers about La familia viaja al pueblo el sábado.
Why do we use al instead of a el here?
In Spanish, when the preposition a (to) comes right before the masculine word for "the" (el), they must combine into the single word al. Since pueblo (town) is masculine, we say al pueblo. This is a mandatory rule! Note that this only happens with el; if it were a feminine noun, you would just keep them separate and say a la.
Since a family is made up of multiple people, why is the verb viaja singular instead of plural?
The English translation says "is traveling". Why doesn't the Spanish sentence use an "-ing" equivalent?
In Spanish, the simple present tense (viaja) is much more flexible than in English. It can mean "travels", "does travel", or "is traveling". Native Spanish speakers constantly use the simple present tense to talk about actions happening right now or in the near future.
Why does the sentence use el before sábado? Isn't there a Spanish word for "on"?
When talking about doing something on a specific day of the week, Spanish doesn't use a preposition like "on". Instead, you just use the masculine article el (the). So to say "on Saturday", you literally say "the Saturday" (el sábado).
Learn La familia viaja al pueblo el sábado and more in Spanish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free