Why do we say un "jugo de naranja" instead of "naranja jugo"?

Question

Un jugo de naranja means "the juice of orange." Why don't we say naranja jugo, which means "orange juice"?

instead - 0074b507, Aug 21, 2011

Proper spelling and grammar are necessary on the forum :) - SonrisaDelSol, Aug 21, 2011

Answer 1

Besides the fact that most adjectives in Spanish come after the noun, we also have a construction in Spanish when you want to say that an object is made out of some material:

object + de + material the object is made out of

jugo de naranja = orange juice [juice made out of oranges]

mesa de madera = wooden table [table made out of wood]

muro de piedra = stone wall [wall made out of stone]

This was in my game of the "de" post, - pacofinkler, Aug 21, 2011

Answer 2

Naranja and jugo, in this case, are both nouns.

While English nouns can function like adjectives when placed before other nouns, Spanish nouns must be preceded by a preposition in order to modify another noun.

Un libro de español - a spanish book *

Una mesa de vidrio - a glass table

Una bolsa de papel - a paper bag

Una casa de adobe - an adobe house

*Un libro de español is a book for learning Spanish. Un libro español is a book written, manufactured, or published in Spain.

There are exceptions, however, as Lazarus noted:

This is a rule that I keep repeating all the time, but people keep ignoring it. However, there are a few cases where you can put two nouns together without a preposition:

when one noun is the name of the other, as in "río Amazonas".

with colours: color café, color piedra,...

certain fixed terms like hombre rana, cartón piedra,... (not many)

Answer 3

Un jugo de naranja in English would probably mean "one [glass of] orange juice" as if you were placing an order.

We have several previous discussions here explaining of the effect of the location of adjectives and also the use of definite and indefinite articles.

el jugo de naranja means "the juice of the orange" or orange juice.

Try to avoid literal, word-for-word translations unless you are trying to learn the grammar behind it as you are here.

Answer 4

Even if you wanted to refer to a juice which was colored orange - as opposed to a juice made from oranges - it wouldn't be naranja jugo.

I would be jugo naranja, or even

jugo anaranjado.

In other words, what you suggested except with the adjective coming after the noun, which is usually the case with colors.

And, as was pointed out previously so nicely by Gintar, the default for orange juice is juice made from oranges - jugo de naranja.