Breakdown of ¿Las mujeres viajan en barco?
en
in / on / at
las
the (feminine plural)
la mujer
the woman
viajar
to travel
Questions & Answers about ¿Las mujeres viajan en barco?
Why does the sentence use en instead of a word for 'by'?
In English we say 'by boat' or 'by train', but Spanish uses en for almost all modes of transportation. You can think of it as saying the women travel 'in boat'. This rule applies to vehicles like cars (en carro), trains (en tren), and planes (en avión).
Should it be en un barco instead of just en barco?
No, when you use en to talk about a mode of transportation in general, you do not use words like un (a) or el (the). You just put the vehicle right after the preposition, making it simply en barco (by boat) or en autobús (by bus).
Why is there no word for 'Do' at the start of this question?
Spanish doesn't have a helper word like 'do' or 'does' for questions. To turn a statement into a question, you just add the upside-down and regular question marks and raise your voice at the end when speaking. The exact same words (Las mujeres viajan) can mean both 'The women travel' and 'Do the women travel?'
Why is the plural of mujer spelled mujeres instead of just adding an 's'?