At the market
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| la cereza | the cherry |
| la piña | the pineapple |
| la seta | the mushroom |
| la salchicha | the sausage |
| la mostaza | the mustard |
| la vainilla | the vanilla |
All six are feminine, so they take la and una.
| I want half a kilo of cherries, please. | Quiero medio kilo de cerezas, por favor. |
At a market stall, fruit and mushrooms are usually sold by weight. After a quantity, de usually comes before the noun, with no article: medio kilo de cerezas, una lata de piña.
| Two hundred grams of mushrooms, please. | Doscientos gramos de setas, por favor. |
Flavors with de
To say what something tastes of or is made with, Spanish puts de and the noun after it, again with no article. English puts the flavor first.
| A vanilla ice cream, please. | Un helado de vainilla, por favor. |
| Do you like pineapple juice? | ¿Te gusta el zumo de piña? |
So un helado de vainilla is a vanilla ice cream, and un bocadillo de salchicha is a sausage sandwich.
Sausages and mushrooms
La salchicha is usually a fresh sausage that you cook, or a frankfurter. El chorizo is usually cured, red from paprika, and often eaten cold.
| At the butcher's they sell sausages. | En la carnicería venden salchichas. |
Setas are mushrooms in general, and especially the wild ones; the small white ones sold in trays are often called champiñones. Picking setas in autumn is a favorite outing in many parts of Spain.
| In autumn we look for mushrooms in the forest. | En otoño buscamos setas en el bosque. |
