Estamos cocinando las patatas y los tomates.

Breakdown of Estamos cocinando las patatas y los tomates.

y
and
estar
to be (location/state)
cocinar
to cook
el tomate
the tomato
la patata
the potato

Questions & Answers about Estamos cocinando las patatas y los tomates.

Why do we use estamos here instead of somos?
Estamos comes from the verb estar. In Spanish, you always use estar (not ser) to talk about actions that are happening right now.
How do we form the word cocinando?
Cocinando translates to cooking. To make this form for verbs that end in -ar like cocinar, you remove the -ar and add -ando.
Why is there no word for we at the start of the sentence?
In Spanish, the verb usually tells you who is doing the action. Because estamos already means we are, the pronoun nosotros can be left out.
Why does the sentence use las patatas but los tomates?
Spanish nouns have a gender. Patata is feminine, so its plural uses the feminine word for the, which is las. Tomate is masculine, so its plural uses los.
Is patatas the standard word for potatoes everywhere?
In Spain, patatas is the standard word. However, in Latin America, you will almost always hear papas instead.

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