Describing Your Home: Rooms, Furniture, and Everyday Objects in Spanish

Describing your home: rooms, furniture, and everyday objects in Spanish

In this lesson, you will learn useful Spanish vocabulary for the main rooms in a home, common furniture, and everyday household objects. You will use familiar grammar to identify and describe these things without introducing the new structure hay, which comes in the next lesson.

Common rooms in a home

Learn each room together with its article.

• la casa — the house / home
• la habitación — the room / bedroom
• el dormitorio — the bedroom
• la cocina — the kitchen
• el baño — the bathroom
• el salón — the living room
• el comedor — the dining room

Different Spanish-speaking regions may prefer different words for some rooms. For this lesson, use these common forms consistently.

Vivienda, casa, and habitación

These three words are related, but they do not name exactly the same thing.

• vivienda — dwelling / home: a general word for the place where someone lives.
• casa — house / home: often a house, and also a very common everyday way to talk about home.
• habitación — room / bedroom: one room inside a home; in many everyday contexts it can mean bedroom.

Compare these simple examples:

• La vivienda tiene dos habitaciones. — The dwelling / home has two rooms.
• Mi casa es pequeña. — My house / home is small.
• Mi habitación es pequeña. — My room is small.

Do not use habitación for the whole home. It names a room inside it.

Talking about your home with familiar possessives

You already know possessive adjectives such as mi — my and nuestro — our. Use them with home vocabulary.

• mi casa — my house / home
• mi habitación — my room
• mi cocina — my kitchen
• nuestro salón — our living room

These phrases tell the listener which home or room you are talking about.

Common furniture

Furniture words are useful for identifying the main objects inside each room.

• la mesa — the table
• la silla — the chair
• la cama — the bed
• el sofá — the sofa
• el armario — the wardrobe / cupboard
• el escritorio — the desk

Learn the article with the noun so that grammatical gender stays part of the vocabulary.

Everyday household objects

These common objects appear in many homes.

• la puerta — the door
• la ventana — the window
• la lámpara — the lamp
• el libro — the book
• el teléfono — the phone
• la televisión — the television

You already know some of these words from earlier lessons. Here, the goal is to place them in a home context.

Identifying a room or object with ser

Use ser when the task is simply to identify what something is.

• Es la cocina. — It is the kitchen.
• Es el baño. — It is the bathroom.
• Es una mesa. — It is a table.
• Es una silla. — It is a chair.
• Es un sofá. — It is a sofa.

This identifies the thing. It does not yet say what exists in a room; that new structure comes in the next lesson.

Describing rooms with familiar adjectives

You can use adjectives you already know to give a simple description of a room.

• La cocina es pequeña. — The kitchen is small.
• El salón es grande. — The living room is large.
• La habitación es bonita. — The room is pretty / nice.
• El baño es pequeño. — The bathroom is small.

The adjective agrees with the noun in gender and number.

Describing furniture with familiar adjectives

The same agreement rules apply to furniture and objects.

• La mesa es grande. — The table is large.
• La silla es pequeña. — The chair is small.
• El sofá es grande. — The sofa is large.
• La lámpara es bonita. — The lamp is pretty / nice.

Keep the adjective matched to the noun you are describing.

Using tener to talk about possessions at home

You already know tener — to have. You can use it to say which household objects you possess.

• Tengo una mesa. — I have a table.
• Tengo dos sillas. — I have two chairs.
• Tengo una cama. — I have a bed.
• Tengo un sofá. — I have a sofa.
• Tengo una lámpara. — I have a lamp.

This is a possession pattern. It is different from the existence pattern taught in the next lesson.

Using plural forms for more than one object

Make the noun and article plural when you refer to more than one item.

• una silla — a chair → dos sillas — two chairs
• un libro — a book → tres libros — three books
• la ventana — the window → las ventanas — the windows
• la habitación — the room → las habitaciones — the rooms

You already know the regular plural patterns, so apply them to this new vocabulary.

Grouping objects by room

It is useful to connect objects mentally with the rooms where you commonly find them.

In the bedroom:

• la cama — the bed
• el armario — the wardrobe
• la lámpara — the lamp

In the living room:

• el sofá — the sofa
• la mesa — the table
• la televisión — the television

In a study area:

• el escritorio — the desk
• la silla — the chair
• el libro — the book

These groupings help you organize vocabulary. They are not rigid rules about where every object must be.

Describing your own home simply

You can combine room vocabulary, familiar adjectives, and tener in a short description.

Mi casa es pequeña. Mi habitación es bonita. Tengo una cama, una mesa y una silla. — My home is small. My room is nice. I have a bed, a table, and a chair.

Another example:

Mi casa es grande. El salón es grande. Tengo un sofá y una televisión. — My home is large. The living room is large. I have a sofa and a television.

Describing another person’s home

Use familiar subject and possessive forms when the home belongs to someone else.

Su casa es pequeña. La cocina es bonita. Tiene una mesa y dos sillas. — His / Her house is small. The kitchen is nice. He / She has a table and two chairs.

The context tells you who su — his / her and tiene — has refer to.

A short home-description model

Mi casa es pequeña, pero bonita. El salón es grande y la cocina es pequeña. Tengo una mesa, cuatro sillas, un sofá y una televisión. Mi habitación es pequeña. Tengo una cama, un escritorio y una lámpara. — My home is small, but nice. The living room is large and the kitchen is small. I have a table, four chairs, a sofa, and a television. My room is small. I have a bed, a desk, and a lamp.

This description uses vocabulary from the lesson with ser, tener, adjective agreement, numbers, and connectors you already know.

Building your own description

To describe your home at this stage, choose a simple sequence:

1. Say whether the home is large or small.
2. Name two or three rooms.
3. Describe one or two rooms with familiar adjectives.
4. Use tener to mention a few pieces of furniture or household objects you possess.

Keep the description short and accurate rather than adding grammar that has not been taught yet.

From home vocabulary to saying what exists

You can now distinguish vivienda, casa, and habitación, identify common rooms, furniture, and household objects, and describe a home with familiar forms of ser and tener. The next lesson introduces hay so you can say what exists or is present in a room or place.