Design Your Dream Home in Spanish

Quick Answer

¡Hola!Learn how to design your dream home in Spanish in this article and the lessons above! Specifically, learn how to do the following in Spanish:

• talk about apartments

• describe one’s ideal home

• use vocabulary related to living quarters

Vocabulary

Let's start off with the vocab words in these lessons!

Adjectives

Spanish	English
acogedor	cozy
amueblado	furnished
climatizado	heated
comunicado	accessible
exterior	exterior
reciente	recent
reformado	renovated
renovado	renovated
rústico	rustic
silencioso	quiet

examples
Busco un piso que sea acogedor. I'm looking for an apartment that's cozy.
Busco un departamento que esté amueblado. I'm looking for an apartment that's furnished.
Busco una casa que tenga piscina climatizada. I'm looking for a house that has a heated pool.

Adverb

Spanish	English
recién	recently

examples
Busco un apartamento que esté recién pintado. I'm looking for an apartment that was recently painted.

Nouns

Spanish	English
las afueras	outskirts, suburbs
el ascensor	elevator
el ático	attic, attic apartment
el balcón	balcony
la bodega	pantry
la chimenea	fireplace
la construcción	construction
el departamento	apartment
el jacuzzi	hot tub
la moqueta	wall-to-wall carpeting
el parquet	parquet
la persiana	blind
el sótano	basement
el techo	ceiling
la urbanización	development
la ventilación	ventilation

examples
Busco una casa que esté en las afueras. I'm looking for a house that's in the suburbs.
Busco un piso que tenga ascensor. I'm looking for an apartment that has an elevator.
Busco un piso que sea un ático. I'm looking for an attic apartment.

Abstruse Apartment Appellations

Are you wondering why we’ve provided three Spanish words for apartment? The word you should use for apartment depends on the country you’re in! Let’s take a look at where you use which word; ¡Ojo!(Watch out!) The word’s meaning can change depending on where you are!

Word for Apartment	Where to Use It	Notes
apartamento	Latin America	In Spain, apartamento refers to a small apartment!
departamento	Latin America
piso	Spain	In Latin America, piso means *floor*!

Noun Phrase

Spanish	English
la planta baja	ground floor

examples
Busco un apartamento que esté en la planta baja. I'm looking for an apartment that's on the ground floor.

Prepositional Phrase

Spanish	English
a la venta	for sale

examples
Busco una casa que esté a la venta. I'm looking for a house that's for sale.

Verb Phrase

In this skill, you learn the following verb phrase!

Hacer Esquina

Hacer esquina(to be on a corner) is an -er verb phrase that has a stem change in the present subjunctive.

Pronoun(s)	Conjugation	Translation	Notes
él, ella, ello	haga esquina	it is on a corner
ellos, ellas	hagan esquina	they are on a corner

The Present Subjunctive

The Spanish present subjunctive (el presente de subjuntivo) is used to talk about situations of doubt, desire, emotion, necessity, or uncertainty.

Unlike the present indicative, the present subjunctive is generally subjective.

Conjugating Verbs in the Present Subjunctive

To conjugate a verb in the present subjunctive, you must first remember what the present indicative yo form of the verb in question is. This is because the stem of present subjunctive verbs comes from the yo form of the present indicative. For many verbs, this will be the same as the infinitive stem, but for many others, such as verbs with spelling changes, stem-changing verbs, and irregular verbs, it will be different.

Present Subjunctive Stem Formula

The formula for finding the present subjunctive stem of a verb is the following:

present subjunctive stem = yo form of present indicative minus o ending

Regular Present Subjunctive Endings

Once you have the stem, you will add the present subjunctive ending that matches your subject. There are only two ending sets for the present subjunctive: one for -ar verbs and one for both -er and -ir verbs.

Subject	-ar Verb Endings	-er and -ir Verb Endings
yo	e	a
tú, vos	es	as
usted, él, ella	e	a
nosotros, nosotras	emos	amos
vosotros, vosotras	éis	áis
ustedes, ellos, ellas	en	an

Irregular Verbs in the Present Subjunctive

There are only six truly irregular verbs in the subjunctive. You'll find the conjugations for each of these verbs in the tables below.

Present Subjunctive Conjugations of Dar, Estar, and Ser

Subject	Dar	Estar	Ser
yo	dé	esté	sea
tú, vos	des	estés	seas
usted, él, ella	dé	esté	sea
nosotros, nosotras	demos	estemos	seamos
vosotros, vosotras	deis	estéis	seáis
ustedes, ellos, ellas	den	estén	sean

Present Subjunctive Conjugations of Haber, Ir, and Saber

Subject	Haber	Ir	Saber
yo	haya	vaya	sepa
tú, vos	hayas	vayas	sepas
usted, él, ella	haya	vaya	sepa
nosotros, nosotras	hayamos	vayamos	sepamos
vosotros, vosotras	hayáis	vayáis	sepáis
ustedes, ellos, ellas	hayan	vayan	sepan

To remember these six verbs, just think of the mnemonic DISHES:

Dar

Saber

Haber

Estar

Ser

Stem Changes and the Present Subjunctive

While they’re not entirely irregular, the following verbs do have certain changes that we need to keep in mind while conjugating verbs in the subjunctive:

1. e> ie and o> ue Stem Changes with -ar and -er Verbs

For verbs in this group, the e in the last syllable of the stem (the yo form of the present indicative) changes to ie, or the o in the last syllable of the stem (the yo form of the present indicative) changes to ue. All subjunctive forms follow the stem change except for nosotros and vosotros, which use the infinitive stem.

2. e> ie and o> ue Stem Changes with -ir Verbs

All e> ie and o> ue stem-changing -ir verbs follow the same changes as in the present indicative, except the nosotros and vosotros forms, in which the e changes to i and the o changes to u.