Question 1

Why do the verbs mezcla and hornea end in an 'a' if they are commands for 'you'?

Accepted Answer

These are informal tú commands. For regular verbs, the affirmative tú command looks exactly like the he/she/it form of the present tense. Since mezclar and hornear are -ar verbs, you use the -a ending instead of the -as ending you normally use for tú.

Question 2

Wait, doesn't mezcla also mean 'he or she mixes'? How do I know it's a command?

Accepted Answer

You are exactly right! Mezcla can mean 'he/she/it mixes' or it can be the command 'mix!'. You can tell which one it is from the context. Because this sentence gives a list of direct instructions, similar to a recipe, it's clear that it is commanding someone to do the action.

Question 3

How do I pronounce the 'h' in huevo and hornea?

Accepted Answer

You don't! The letter 'h' is always silent in Spanish. You just start pronouncing the word from the first vowel. So, huevo sounds like WEH-vo, and hornea sounds like or-NEH-ah.

Question 4

I learned that cake is torta. Can I use that instead of pastel?

Accepted Answer

Yes, but it depends on the country! In Mexico and parts of Central America, pastel means cake, and torta is a type of sandwich. In much of South America, torta is the standard word for cake. Both are completely correct, so you can use whichever is most common where you plan to speak Spanish.

Mezcla el huevo y hornea el pastel.

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