Spanish/Lessons/¿Qué comes?

Catedral de Jaén in Spain.

Dialogue

Raúl: Hola. ¿Qué compras?

Sofía: Hola, Raúl. Compro una barra de pan y una botella de leche.

Raúl: Vale. Así, ¿tomas leche y pan tostada para tu desayuno?

Sofía: Sí. Y tú, ¿qué desayunas?

Raúl: Normalmente, tomo zumo de naranja y una manzana.

Sofía: Y ¿tienes la comida que necesitas?

Raúl: Sí. Adiós.

Sofía: ¡Hasta luego!

Translation (wait until the end of the lesson).

Food and Drink

Pan (m)	Queso (m)	Huevo (m)	Arroz (m)	Pasta (f)
Tomate (m)	Lechuga (f)	Pepino (m)	Zanahoria (f)	Patata (f)
Manzana (f)	Plátano (m)	Naranja (f)	Pera (f)	Uva (f)
Agua (m)	Leche (f)	Vino (m)	Café (m)	Té (m)

Notes

• m indicates that the noun is masculine (el queso — "the cheese"; los plátanos — "the bananas"), whereas f indicates that it is feminine (la lechuga — "the lettuce"; las uvas — "the grapes")
• In South America, papa is used instead of patata and Plátano refers to a plantain or cooking banana whereas a normal sweet banana is known as a banana or banano.
• While agua is feminine, it takes the masculine articles un and el. For example, el agua curiosa ("the strange water") and las aguas curiosas ("the strange waters"). This is because agua starts with an accented a.
• Con means "with", sin means without (café con leche means "coffee with milk", café sin leche means "coffee without milk").
• Wine comes in two varieties, "red" and "white". In Spanish, they are called vino tinto and vino blanco.

Examples

• Me gustan los huevos.

  I like eggs.

• No me gusta nada la lechuga.

  I don't like lettuce at all.

• Me encanta el té con leche.

  I love tea with milk

• Me gustan mucho las zanahorias, pero los pepinos son aburridos.

  I like carrots a lot, but cucumbers are boring.

What do you eat?

To ask what someone else eats, use Qué followed by a form of one of the verbs below (¿Qué comes? means "What do you eat?"). To ask what someone likes to eat, use Qué te gusta then any of the verbs below (¿Qué te gusta comer? means "What do you like to eat?").

Note

All of these verbs are regular except almorzar, which is one of the UE Verbs we learnt about in the last chapter; almuerzo, almuerzas, almuerza, almorzamos, almorzáis, almuerzan.

Examples

• ¿Qué te gusta almorzar?

  What do you like to eat for lunch?

• Como naranjas y plátanos, pero no me gustan las peras.

  I eat oranges and bananas, but I don't like pears.

• Me gusta comer uvas.

  I like to eat grapes.

• ¿Bebes leche?

  Do you drink milk?

A bottle of wine

Notes

• We previously learnt "unos/unas" as the translation for "some", e.g. unas manzanas ("some apples"), but this only works for plural nouns. "Some bread" has to be translated as algo de pan or just pan.
• Also, there are two ways of saying "a glass of". Copa is for glasses with a stem (mostly wine: una copa de vino), and vaso is used for without a stem.
• Obviously, in all these phrases, the un can be replaced with any number (Dos vasos de leche means "two glasses of milk").

Examples

• Tres botellas de vino tinto

  Three bottles of red wine

• Un medio kilo de arroz

  Half a kilo of rice

• Una barra de pan

  A loaf of bread

• Cinco kilos y medio de patatas

  Five and a half kilos of potatoes

Go to the exercises.

In the Shop

In Spanish, as in English, there are many ways of expressing what you would like to buy, some of which are listed below. You will also see some other useful words and phrases to use when shopping for food.

Notes

• Comprar is a regular verb (compro, compras, compra, compramos, compráis, compran).
• With ahí está(n), the n is added if the noun is plural.
• Costar is a O => UE verb (cuesto, cuestas, cuesta, costamos, costáis, cuestan), but obviously, you only use the third person.

  Also, if you want to say "How much does it cost?" you use ¿Cuánto cuesta(n)? (cuesta is for singular things, cuestan for plurals, as seen below).

• In a bar or café in Spain, one usually pays for everything on leaving ¿La cuenta, por favor? is to ask for the bill and it relates to the verb contar - to count or to tell. Alternatively cobrar (collect) relates to payment (or cash) ¿me cobra? = may I pay?

Examples

• Quisiera una manzana, por favor.

  I would like an apple, please.

• Querría comprar una barra de pan.

  I'd like to buy a loaf of bread.

• Me gustaría comprar una botella de vino tinto, por favor.

  I'd like to buy a bottle of red wine, please.

• ¿Cuánto cuestan las uvas?

  How much do the grapes cost?

• ¿Cuánto cuesta un kilo de patatas?

  What does a kilo of potatoes cost?

Go to the exercises.

Adjectives

"E" and Consonant Adjectives

In Spanish, clearly not all adjectives end in "o" or "a". The good thing about these is that they stay the same, irrespective of gender.

• Adjectives ending in "e" add an "s" when in the plural.
• Adjectives ending in a consonant add an "es" when in the plural.

Notes

• When an adjective (or indeed a noun) ends in z, it changes to a c in plural, then adds the "es" (feliz/felices — "happy").

Examples

Colours

Colours in Spanish are just adjectives, so they still have to agree and go after the noun. They are shown below.

Notes

• Adjectives can function as nouns if you add an article in front of them. For example, el morado means "the purple one".
• Take care with Brown!
  • The plural form of marrón is marrones (without the accent); las zanahorias marrones means "the brown carrots".
  • Marrones glacés are (in Spanish as in Italian) candied chestnuts.
  • Hair and eyes color brown is usually Castaño (chesnut). Brown skin color is Moreno (tanned).
• The adjective negrita (Literally:little black/bold face) is a term of familiarity or endearment is in Spanish and not to be confused with an offensive English expression.
• Naranja is only the noun form of the word; when used as an adjective, anaranjado is used.
• The color rosa ends in "a" even if applied to a masculine noun; el balón rosa, "the pink ball"

Examples

• La manzana verde

  The green apple

• Los huevos blancos

  The white eggs

• El queso amarillo

  The yellow cheese

• Las naranjas anaranjadas

  The orange oranges

Go to the exercises.

Summary

In this lesson, you have learnt

• How to say some foods and drinks (la lechuga; una manzana; la leche).
• How to say you eat and drink things (como, comes, come, comemos, coméis, comen).
• How to say some simple quantities (un kilo de patatas; una copa de vino tinto)
• What to say in a shop (quisiera; querría; la cuenta).
• How to form adjectives that don't end in "O" or "A" (la tienda verde; los quesos azules)

You should now do the exercise related to each section (found here), and translate the dialogue at the top before moving on.

You have now completed this chapter! Return to the Contents...

¡Aprovéchalo! Learn the Spanish language Contents • Introduction Lesson one • Lesson two • Lesson three Lesson four • Lesson five • Lesson six Lesson seven • Lesson eight • Lesson nine Pronunciation • Contributors