Describing a Kitchen in Spanish: Objects and IR A

LA COCINA or the kitchen in Spanish is another important room in the house. There are many different items and utensils that can be found in a kitchen, from simple objects like UNA CUCHARA (a spoon) to appliances like UNA REFRIGERADORA (a refrigerator). In this lesson, you will learn some common kitchen objects in Spanish through pictures and several audio examples. Besides, this vocabulary will be used along with a few common adjectives and verbs to describe a kitchen in Spanish. Comencemos…

Vocabulary Introduction: Common Kitchen Objects in Spanish

We will begin by learning how to write a few kitchen objects in Spanish with the picture below. In order to learn these words faster and meaningfully, please go to your kitchen and try to look or touch the items that appear in the picture, and then say the name of these things in Spanish. We will be using the throughout the rest of the lesson.

The basics for Requests and IR A for the future tense

PODER for requests in Spanish

First, we will discuss a few important things so you can get the best out of the examples. Knowing how to make requests in Spanish may help you a lot in real conversations. In English, we use MAY and other modal verbs, but in Spanish we use the verb PODER which plays the role of MAY, CAN and BE ABLE TO. A simple request in Spanish follows this structure:

¿Poder(conjugation) + verb in infinitive + preposition/article/demonstrative adjective + kitchen objects in Spanish?
e.g. ¿Puedes poner eso en la gaveta? and ¿Puedes abrir la puerta?

In some cases, we can use direct object pronouns like “te, se, me” in requests to make clear who the person that will receive help is. For instance, here is a requests using kitchen objects in Spanish: ¿Me puedes pasar el cuchillo verde?. In the last example, ME is an object pronoun. Know that in a real conversation, the structure presented for requests in Spanish may be slightly different, but not so hard to understand if you master three basic things: how to make questions, the right conjugations for the stem-changing verb PODER and direct object pronouns.

IR A + Infinitive for future actions

Second, the verb IR plus the preposition “A” plays the role of GOING TO in Spanish. The verb IR will be conjugated depending on the subject pronoun in the sentence and then we will add the main action in infinitive form, for example: Yo voy a cocinar (I am going to cook), Nosotros vamos a limpiar la cocina (we are going to clean the kitchen) and so on. Basically, IR A will be used to say the chores that you are going to do later in the kitchen.

Below, there are several sentences using kitchen utensils and appliances in Spanish. Some of the sentences include structures we have studied in other lessons including likes and dislikes, some verbs in the past tense and many other important topics. Focus on the meaning of the sentences and try to see if you can learn one or more new expressions.

Some sentences and questions with kitchen objects in Spanish

Describing a kitchen in Spanish – Describiendo la cocina en español

In previous, lessons we covered how to describe a living room and a bedroom and talk about basic descriptions of houses in Spanish. That being said, in order to describe a kitchen in Spanish we need to know some objects we can find in it and also some adjectives to describe how the room looks, as well as the basics about LUCIR (to look), SER (to be), TENER (to have) and HAY (there is/there are). You must be very careful to use the right definite article or indefinite article before the object or room you are referring to, for example, saying LA PLATO would be wrong as PLATO is a masculine, singular noun, and for that we have to use the article EL and say “El plato”.

SER is typically used in its conjugation ES to say things like “La cocina ES grande”(being grande an adjective). TENER and HAY will be used to talk about the objects in the kitchen in Spanish and point out something special about the room or the house itself. These verbs are usually accompanied by quantifiers (muchos, pocos, un, unos…) and  adverbs (muy, bastante, realmente…) to make the adjectives weaker or stronger when describing something.

Kitchen descriptions in Spanish

Now, let’s see how we used all these things to create two descriptions of a kitchen in Spanish including the vocabulary for kitchen objects presented above. Press the PLAY button to listen to the examples.

Example No. 1

¿Cómo describiría mi cocina? Bueno, mi cocina es mi lugar favorito de la casa porque me gusta cocinar todo tipo de comidas. Tiene un gabinete de madera de color café con suficientes gavetas para guardar las cucharas, los tenedores, los platos y otros utensilios de cocina. La cocina es pequeña, pero está bien iluminada. Hay algunos electrodomésticos como una refrigeradora, un horno microondas y una licuadora. La cocina de gas es algo vieja pero todavía funciona.

Example No. 2

La cocina de mi casa es bastante espaciosa. Eso nos permite cocinar con más facilidad. Mi mamá ha comprado varias cacerolas de todo tipo y también varias colecciones de vasos, platos, panas y cubiertos. La cocina luce elegante. Las paredes son de color amarillo claro y todos los electrodomésticos funcionan bien y son muy modernos también. Siempre está ordenada, llena de luz y de olores deliciosos.

Listening Activity: Talking about the kitchen in Spanish

Key expressions in the conversations:

• Espero que seas bueno(a) en + actividad means “I hope you are good at + activity”
• No te preocupes means “Don´t worry”

Related Spanish Worksheets:

• Kitchen Utensils in Spanish – PDF Worksheet
• Kitchen Appliances in Spanish – PDF Worksheet
• House objects and Furniture in Spanish – PDF Worksheet
• Rooms and Parts of the House in Spanish: PDF Worksheet
• The House and Prepositions of Place – Spanish Worksheet PDF