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Let’s learn some fun nouns in Spanish, including the words for “train”, “boat”, “airplane”, “movie”, and “photo”. We’ll get lots of practice using these nouns in real Spanish sentences.
¡Mira esta foto!
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Today we’re going to learn some fun, concrete terms for simple things such as “train”, “boat”, and “movie”.
Let’s begin with the word for “air”, which is aire. This is a masculine noun, and it’s spelled like the English word but with an E at the end. So for example:
Let’s get out of here, I need a little air.
Salgamos de aquí, necesito un poco de aire.
Try it yourself with this one:
It seems to me that here the air is better.
Me parece que aquí el aire es mejor.
Our next word is the word película, which means “movie” or “film”. This is a feminine noun, and it’s spelled p-e-l-i-c-u-l-a, with an accent over the I. Película. So for example:
I watched a film with his family.
Vi una película con su familia.
And then the word for “photo” is foto, spelled with an F. This is actually a feminine noun, even though it ends with the letter O. So for example:
Look at this photo!
¡Mira esta foto!
In English, we sometimes use the word “picture” to refer to “photos”; this very frequently applies when we’re talking about the pictures on our phones. For example:
She was looking at all the pictures on my phone.
Ella estaba mirando todas las fotos en mi teléfono.
Let’s practice aire, película, and foto.
Listen! The air there isn’t good, so don’t go.
¡Oye! El aire ahí no es bueno, así que no vayas.
It’s possible for us to look at a picture before the movie.
Es posible que miremos una foto antes de la película.
(Formal) Listen! You have to have some fresh air.
¡Oiga! Tiene que tener aire fresco.
The movie doesn’t look like the picture.
La película no se parece a la foto.
Next let’s learn some more terms for means of transportation. The word for “train” is tren, spelled t-r-e-n. This is a masculine noun. So for example:
I heard a train pass.
Oí pasar un tren.
Literally “I heard to pass a train”; this is a common structure for sentences like this.
The word for “plane” is avión, spelled a-v-i-o-n, with an accent on the O. Avión. This is a masculine noun. So for example:
We saw a plane go by.
Vimos pasar un avión.
Also note that if you go somewhere “by train” or “by plane”, you’re likely just to use en tren or en avión. So for example:
No, we went there by plane.
No, fuimos allí en avión.
Try it yourself in this next example:
We went to the city by train.
Fuimos a la ciudad en tren.
Let’s get a little more practice with all the nouns we’ve learned so far.
We heard the movie is good.
Oímos que la película es buena.
(Plural) Listen! We’re not going by train, we’re going by plane.
¡Oigan! No vamos en tren, vamos en avión.
She works in a place where she has to go by train.
Trabaja en un lugar donde tiene que ir en tren.
The plane is in the air, look at the picture.
El avión está en el aire, mira la foto.
Next, let’s learn the word for “boat”, which is barco. For example:
We threw a party on their boat.
Hicimos una fiesta en su barco.
Another mode of transportation that has more than one name is “car”, which we’ve already learned as auto. A synonym is coche. This actually literally means “coach” or “carriage”, but in some regions it’s a common way to refer to a “car”, specifically in Spain and some parts of Mexico. The word coche is a masculine noun. So for example:
She has a car that’s very unique.
Tiene un coche que es muy único.
For today’s quizzing, we’re not going to use auto; we’ll stick with coche. So let’s practice barco and coche.
This is my car.
Este es mi coche.
They heard the boat pass by.
Oyeron pasar el barco.
We have to go on the fourth boat.
Tenemos que ir en el cuarto barco.
I want them to listen to this car.
Quiero que escuchen este coche.
For more practice with any of this, feel free to dig deeper with the free online flashcards here! Or if you’re ready, let’s go on to today’s final quiz.
You don’t hear what there is in the air.
No oyes lo que hay en el aire.
He didn’t hear the boat.
No oyó el barco.
(Plural) Listen! I think the second one is older.
¡Oigan! Creo que el segundo es mayor.
The picture is small.
La foto es pequeña.
(Plural) Listen! I know it’s not easy, but we have to do it.
¡Escuchen! Sé que no es fácil, pero lo tenemos que hacer.
They listen to the trains and the planes go by.
Oyen pasar los trenes y los aviones.
She doesn’t listen to what they say in the movie.
No escucha lo que dicen en la película.
She looks like her mom in this picture.
Se parece a su mamá en esta foto.
(Formal) Listen! You are working on a plane.
¡Escuche! Está trabajando en un avión.
Listen to me, we can watch a movie when we are on the plane.
Escúchame, podemos ver una película cuando estemos en el avión.
She works at that place, but she has to work a lot.
Trabaja en ese lugar, pero tiene que trabajar mucho.
We don’t hear the boat, have you heard it?
No oímos el barco, ¿lo has oído?
You don’t work on the train where I used to work.
No trabajas en el tren donde yo trabajaba.
She used to work on the third boat.
Ella trabajaba en el tercer barco.
Hey! Be careful with the car! It’s extremely long!
¡Oye! ¡Ten cuidado con el coche! ¡Es demasiado largo!
We looked at more than ten pictures when we were in the air.
Miramos más de diez fotos cuando estábamos en el aire.
She is very strong, she and her mother are alike.
Es muy fuerte, ella y su madre se parecen.
I work in a place where I have to listen to people all day.
Trabajo en un lugar donde tengo que escuchar a las personas todo el día.
I want him to hear my car.
Quiero que oiga mi coche.
I want him to listen to more than he listens to now.
Quiero que escuche más de lo que escucha ahora.
I like more going by train than by car.
Me gusta más ir en tren que en coche.
I listened to everything the movie said.
Escuché todo lo que la película dijo.
I don’t hear it now, but I heard it before.
No lo oigo ahora, pero lo oí antes.
Listen up! I have to tell you why it’s so difficult.
¡Escucha! Tengo que decirte por qué es tan difícil.
She doesn’t hear anything she doesn’t want.
No oye nada que no quiere.
To get more practice with these sentences, join the free course here and quiz yourself with them until you’re acing this. Or tune in tomorrow for a big quiz to practice everything we’ve learned this week.
This show is brought to you by LearnCraftSpanish.com. Our music was provided by the Seattle Marimba Quartet, and I’m Timothy, encouraging you to do the hard work of learning Spanish. Acquiring a second language is one of the most fulfilling things you can do, so start your fluency journey today using our free course — join here.
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