Learn Spanish (Latin America): Viajamos a la ciudad en autobús.

Viajamos a la ciudad en autobús.

We travel to the city by bus.

Breakdown of Viajamos a la ciudad en autobús.

Questions & Answers about Viajamos a la ciudad en autobús.

Why does the sentence use en to mean by?

In Spanish, the preposition en is used to talk about your mode of transportation. While English speakers say by bus or by car, Spanish speakers say en autobús or en carro.

Could I use en la ciudad instead of a la ciudad?

Only if you are already inside the city! The preposition a means to and shows movement toward a destination. Because we are traveling to the city, we must use a la ciudad. If we were driving around within the city limits, then we would say en la ciudad.

Where is the word for we in this sentence?

The ending of the verb tells you who is doing the action. The -amos ending in viajamos already means we travel, so the pronoun nosotros (we) is optional and usually dropped to sound more natural.

How do we know to use la with ciudad since it does not end in -a?

While many feminine words end in -a, there are other patterns to learn. Nouns that end in the letters -dad, like ciudad (city) and universidad (university), are almost always feminine. That is why it takes the feminine word for the, which is la.