Lesson 6 — ¿Qué comes?

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Dialogue

Vocabulary
Me he agotado	I've run out
Necesitar	To need
Zumo de	Juice of

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Food and Drink

; 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.
• 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").
• 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 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.

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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?").

Español	Inglés
Comer	To eat
Beber	To drink
Tomar	To have (food/drink)
Desayunar	To (eat) breakfast
Almorzar	To (eat) lunch
Cenar	To dine (eat dinner)

; 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 las uvas.
• : I like to eat grapes.
• ¿Bebes leche?
• : Do you drink milk?

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A bottle of wine

Español	Inglés
Algo de	Some
Un vaso de	A glass of
Una copa de
Una botella de	A bottle of
Una barra de	A loaf of
Un kilo de	A kilo of
Un kilo y mediο de	One and a half kilos of
Un kilo y cuarto de	One and a quarter kilos of
Μedio kilo de	Half a kilo of
Un cuarto de kilo de	A quarter of a kilo of

; Notes

• You will have noticed "some" on the list, but "unos/unas" is some! Yes, it would be unas manzanas ("some apples") but that only works for plurals. "Some bread" has to be translated as algo de 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 media de patatas
• : Five and a half kilos of potatoes

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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 for when shopping for food.

Español	Inglés
Quisiera	I would like
Querría
Me gustaría
Ahí está(n)	There you go; voila.
Comprar	To buy
La cuenta	The receipt
Costar	To cost
Una tienda	A shop

; Notes

• Comprar is a totally regular verb (compro, compras, compra, compramos, compráis, compran).
• With ahí está(n), the n is for plural. Without is for singular.
• 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).

; 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?

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Adjectives

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"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
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Colours

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

Inglés	Español
Red		Rojo
Orange		Naranja
Yellow		Amarillo
Green		Verde
Blue		Azul
Purple		Morado
Brown		Marrón
Pink		Rosa
White		Blanco
Grey		Gris
Black		Negro

; Notes

• All of these will function as nouns, if you add an article in front of them. For example, el morado means "the purple one".
• The plural form of marrón is marrones (without the accent); las zanahorias marrones means "the brown carrots".
• The colours naranja and rosa end in "a" even if they are applied to a masculine; el coche naranja, "the orange car"; la casa rosa, "the pink house"

; Examples

• La manzana verde
• : The green apple
• Los huevos blancos
• : The white eggs
• El queso amarillo
• : The yellow cheese
• Las naranjas naranjas
• : The orange oranges

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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)