Have a Barbecue in Spanish

Quick Answer

¡Hola!Learn how to have a barbecue in Spanish! Specifically, learn how to do the following in Spanish:

• talk about the supplies you have and need

• talk about what food you want

• describe how the food tastes

Vocabulary

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

Nouns

Spanish	English
el arroz	rice
la barbacoa	barbecue
el bistec	steak
la botella	bottle
la carne	meat
la cuchara	spoon
el cuchillo	knife
el helado	ice cream
el jamón	ham
el jugo	juice
el pan	bread
el plato	plate
el pollo	chicken
el queso	cheese
la sal	salt
el tenedor	fork
la tortilla	tortilla
la uva	grape

examples
Hoy tenemos una barbacoa. We have a barbecue today.
Hay cinco botellas. There are five bottles.
Necesito un tenedor. I need a fork.

Adjectives

Spanish	English
caliente	hot
delicioso	delicious
picante	spicy
salado	salty

examples
Está muy caliente. It’s very hot.
Está delicioso. It’s delicious.
Están muy picantes. They’re very spicy.

While caliente is an adjective that means hot, it refers to objects. If you want to say I am hot, you use the phrase tengo calor.

Gender Tip

In Spanish, adjectives must agree with the noun (or pronoun) they describe in gender and number. If the noun an adjective describes is feminine, the adjective must be feminine. If that same noun is also plural, the adjective will be feminine and plural.

However, some adjectives do not change according to the gender of the noun they describe. For example, caliente and picante are adjectives that end in e, and thus do not change when describing a masculine or feminine noun.

Let’s take a look at some examples:

examples
El pollo está muy picante. The chicken is very spicy.
La carne está muy picante. The meat is very spicy.

examples

El pollo está muy picante.

The chicken is very spicy.

La carne está muy picante.

The meat is very spicy.

Verbs

Estar

In these lessons you review some of the present tense conjugations of estar, an irregular verb that means to be.

Estar Conjugations

Pronoun(s)	Conjugation	Translation	Notes
yo	estoy	I am
tú	estás	you are	informal singular you
vos	estás	you are	informal singular you (in parts of Latin America)
él, ella	está	he, she is
usted	está	you are	formal singular you
nosotros, nosotras	estamos	we are
vosotros, vosotras	estáis	you are	informal plural you (in Spain)
ellos, ellas	están	they are
ustedes	están	you are	plural you (in Latin America), formal plural you (in Spain)

For example:

examples
Está delicioso. It’s delicious.

Accent Tip

Remember to write an accent over the a when conjugating estar in the present tense. If you leave off the accent, you'll be writing a different word altogether!

Phrases

Here is one of the phrases used in these lessons!

Spanish	English
un poco de	a little bit of

examples
Quiero un poco de helado. I want a little bit of ice cream.

Culture

Did you know that there are different types of tortillas in the Spanish-speaking world? Throughout most of Latin America, tortilla refers to the thin corn- or wheat-based food that we know as tortilla in English. However, in Spain, tortilla refers to a thick omelet made with fried potatoes!