La maison

¡Hola, bienvenidos! Welcome back to Spanish for Beginners. This is lesson thirty of course one. I'm your teacher, Isabella. Let's get started.

Let's begin by reviewing the vocabulary from the previous lesson. Repeat after me. El supermercado. El precio. La rebaja. La bolsa de plástico. La bolsa de papel. El pasillo. La caja. El carrito. Las frutas y verduras. La carne. Los productos lácteos. La pasta. El pan. Los dulces. Comprar. Costar. Hay. Muy bien.

So today's lesson is all about "la casa", the house. I will teach you different types of vocabulary for the rooms in the house, the items in the house, and how to clean the house.

Our first vocabulary word is "la cocina". Kitchen. El salón. Living room. El comedor. Dining room.

Now the word "bedroom" has three different possible words in Spanish, and unfortunately all three are used quite evenly, so I couldn't narrow it down. You don't have to use all three. When I learned Spanish in the US, I was taught "dormitorio". Now that I live in Spain, I use "habitación", because that's what people around me use. You can say "habitación", "dormitorio", or "cuarto". All three are correct, and anyone anywhere will understand. For our purposes moving forward, I'm going to use "habitación".

El baño. Bathroom. El sótano. Basement. Las escaleras. Stairs. La puerta. Door. La ventana. Window. El techo. Roof or ceiling. In English, roof and ceiling are two different things. In Spanish, they don't bother to differentiate : it's just one word. La lámpara. Lamp. El reloj. Clock (or watch). La televisión. Television. La cama. Bed. El armario. Wardrobe / closet.

Now, just like with bedroom, "refrigerator" has two words used pretty evenly. "Refrigerador" (Latin American) and "frigorífico" (Spain Spanish, my default). I personally find "frigorífico" easier to say.

El fregadero. Sink. Specifically, the kitchen sink. We will learn the word for bathroom sink in the next lesson.

Limpiar. To clean. Regular verb. Limpio, limpias, limpia, limpiamos, limpiáis, limpian.

Lavar. To wash. The difference between "lavar" and "limpiar" is the same as "wash" vs "clean" in English. They function the same way. You wouldn't say "limpiar las manos", you say "lavar las manos" (wash the hands). Regular verb : lavo, lavas, lava, lavamos, laváis, lavan.

Barrer. To sweep. ER verb, also regular. Barro, barres, barre, barremos, barréis, barren.

Muy bien. Let's look at this picture : what room is this? El salón. Same thing : la cocina. El baño. La habitación. El comedor. Dining room. This word is clever : "comer" means to eat, so "comedor" is literally "room of eating".

Now : this is the kitchen, yes? La cocina. Please come up with a sentence about cleaning the kitchen. One sentence.

Possible answers : "Necesito limpiar la cocina" (I need to clean the kitchen). "Voy a limpiar la cocina" (I'm going to clean the kitchen). "Quiero limpiar la cocina" (I want to clean the kitchen). Any of these three would have been perfect.

Take a look at this picture and describe what she's doing. Possible answers : "Voy a barrer el baño" (I am going to sweep the bathroom). Or, since she's already doing it, present progressive : "Estoy barriendo el baño" (I am sweeping the bathroom). "Necesito barrer el baño" or "quiero barrer el baño" would have been OK too, but these are better.

Muy bien. Let's review the vocabulary. La casa. La cocina. El salón. El comedor. El cuarto. El dormitorio. La habitación. El baño. El sótano. Las escaleras. La puerta. La ventana. El techo. La lámpara. El reloj. La televisión. La cama. El armario. El refrigerador. El frigorífico. El fregadero. Limpiar. Lavar. Barrer.

Muy bien. ¡Felicidades! You did it. You're now halfway through the second course. Great job. In the next lesson, we will learn vocabulary specifically for the bathroom. Until next time, hasta luego.