House Parts in Spanish – Useful Household Vocabulary

How do you learn new vocabulary? Do you make lists you later memorize, or do you stick post-it notes with new words and phrases all-around your room?

What has always worked best with me, and what I always recommend to my students, is building topic vocabulary groups. 

In this way, whenever you want to participate in a Spanish conversation on a given topic, you’ll have enough vocabulary to get through.

If you feel this system might actually work for you, let me show you how to go about this vocabulary building exercise.

Let’s take house parts in Spanish as our main topic. 

To start with, we need to build our core vocabulary, which in this case will be:

House parts in Spanish – Basics

• la casa – house, home
• el apartamento, el piso, el departamento – apartment
• la cocina – kitchen
• el baño – bathroom 
• el dormitorio, el cuarto, la pieza, la habitación – bedroom
• el comedor –  dining room 
• la sala de estar / el living – living room
• el cuarto de lavado, la lavandería – laundry room
• el ático – attic
• el sótano, el subterráneo – basement
• el techo – roof
• las ventanas – windows
• las puertas – doors
• las paredes – walls
• el piso – floor
• el pasillo – hall, corridor
• patio – yard
• jardín – garden

If you wonder why sometimes there is more than one alternative to an English word, it is because different Spanish speaking countries may use different names for the same places or objects. 

Now, these 18 words alone will already allow you to start building simple sentences.

Este es mi cuarto.
This is my room. 

Hay 3 dormitorios y dos baños en esta casa.
There are three bedrooms and two bathrooms in this house. 

Busco una casa de dos pisos. 
I am looking for a two-story house. 

You can also use this core vocabulary group in questions, using some of the common Spanish question words:

¿Dónde está la cocina?
Where is the kitchen?

¿Cuántos dormitorios tiene esta casa?
How many bedrooms does this house have?

¿Qué tan grande es la sala de estar?
How big is the living room?

¿El baño de visita está el el piso de arriba o abajo?
Is the guest bathroom upstairs or downstairs?

When visiting someone’s house for the first time, or receiving guests in yours, you’ll indeed find that directions in Spanish come in handy: 

A: Disculpa, ¿me indicas dónde está la cocina?
B: Claro, al final del pasillo, a la derecha.

A: Sorry, can you indicate where the kitchen is?
B: Sure, at the end of the hall, to the right. 

A: ¿Puedo ocupar el baño, por favor?
B: Por supuesto, está en el piso de arriba, al lado del cuarto de Juan.

A: Can I use the bathroom, please?
B: Of course, it is upstairs, next to Juan’s bedroom. 

Parts of the house in Spanish – common verbs

The next step in our vocabulary-building exercise is to come up with verbs that are commonly associated with the main topic. 

In the case of house-related vocabulary, some of these verbs will be:

• comprar – to buy
• construir – to build
• arrendar, alquilar, rentar – to rent
• vender – to sell
• renovar – renovate
• limpiar – to clean
• pintar – to paint
• remodelar– to remodel
• decorar – to decorate

All these verbs describe what you can do TO a house.

Now, let’s ask ourselves what we typically do IN a house, including house chores – tareas domésticas. 

• vivir – to live
• descansar – to rest
• dormir- to sleep
• ver tele – to watch TV
• cocinar– to cook
• lavar la loza – to wash the dishes 
• pasar la aspiradora – to vacuum
• planchar – to iron
• lavar la ropa – to do laundry
• barrer el piso – to sweep the floor
• trapear – to mop

Of course, these are only a few examples; feel free to add as many verbs as you want to this list. 

What you can actually do with all these verbs will depend on your level of Spanish and the grammar structures you know. 

These are some of my ideas:

He vivido toda mi vida en esta casa. 
I’ve lived all my life in this house. 

Ayer por fin vendimos nuestro departamento. 
Yesterday we finally sold our apartment. 

Vamos a arrendar una casa cerca del colegio. 
We’re going to rent a house close to the school. 

Si compramos esta casa, tendremos que renovarla y remodelarla entera.  
If we buy this house, we’ll have to renovate it and remodel it completely.

¿Puedes pasar la aspiradora en la sala de estar, por favor?
Can you please vacuum the living room?

Lleva tu plato a la cocina y lava toda la loza.
Take your plate to the kitchen and wash all the dishes. 

Pedro pasa todo el día en su pieza: allí duerme, come, estudia y descansa.
Pedro spends all day in his room: he sleeps, eats, studies, and rests there.

Describing a house and its parts in Spanish

Great job with the verbs! 

Time for the next step in our vocabulary building. 

What do you say if we now turn to adjectives? They are extremely useful in real-life conversations allowing us to describe better the things we talk about.

To see what adjectives are typically related to housing parts in Spanish, ask yourself, “what a house can be like.”

It can be big, expensive, modern, well-located, and so on and so forth.

What would some of these adjectives sound like in Spanish?

Positive features	Negative features
grande – big hermosa – beautiful moderna – modern barata – cheap bien ubicada – well-located cómoda – comfortable acogedora – cosy espaciosa – spacious bien diseñada – well-designed amoblada – furnished nueva – new bien iluminada – well-lit ordenada – tidy limpia – clean	pequeña, chica – small fea – ugly anticuada – old-fashioned cara – expensive alejada – remote incómoda – cramped fría- cold vacía – empty bien diseñada – well-designed sin muebles – unfurnished vieja – old dark – oscura desordenada – messy sucia – dirty

Have you noticed how I used the feminine form in all the adjectives from the table? Do you know why?

It’s because we describe a house – una casa, which in Spanish is a feminine noun. 

If I were talking about an apartment – un departamento, I would have put these adjectives in the masculine form. 

If you are struggling with the gender forms in Spanish, let me assure you it is a frequent difficulty for English speakers, leading to many common mistakes. 

Unlike English, Spanish nouns and adjectives can be either masculine or feminine. Moreover, not only nouns pluralize – adjectives do too.

That means you have to adjust their form when describing more than one object, place, or person. 

Have a look at the sentences below to see how it works:

La cocina es grande y espaciosa, pero los dormitorios parecen muy oscuros y chicos. 
The kitchen is big and spacious, but the bedrooms seem very dark and small. 

No podría vivir en la casa de Pablo. Es siempre tan desordenada y sucia. 
I couldn’t live at Pablo’s house. It is always so messy and dirty. 

Me encanta este departamento. Es hermoso y moderno, pero demasiado caro. 
I love this apartment! It is beautiful and modern, but too expensive. 

Si buscas una casa bien ubicada, no esperes que sea barata. 
If you are looking for a well-located house, don’t expect it to be cheap. 

El departamento de mis abuelos es un poco anticuado, pero muy acogedor. 
My grandparents’ apartment is a little old-fashioned but very cozy. 

Las casas en este sector no son muy grandes, porque el terreno es muy caro. 
Houses in this sector are not very big because the land is pricey. 

Typical furniture, household appliances, and ornaments in different parts of the house in Spanish

Have you noticed how our sentences have been getting increasingly longer? That proves that our vocabulary is increasing!

The last part of our task is to add specific words related to our key-topic. If we were talking about a car, for instance, it would be its different parts. In the case of supermarket-themed vocabulary, it would be various aisles and products.

But since we are talking about parts of the house, our specific vocabulary will describe typical furniture and appliances – los muebles y los electrodomésticos. 

Cocina – Kitchen

• un refrigerador – a fridge
• una cocina – a stove, a cooker
• un horno – an oven
• un microondas – a microwave oven
• un lavaplatos – a sink
• un lavavajillas – a dishwasher
• una tostadora – a toaster
• un mueble de cocina – a cupboard, a kitchen cabinet
• una mesa – a table
• un taburete – a kitchen stool

If you’d like to learn more food-related vocabulary, check out my posts on shopping and restaurants. 

Baño – Bathroom

• una tina – a bathtub
• una ducha – a shower
• una taza de baño – a toilet
• un espejo – a mirror
• un lavamano – a washing basin
• un secador de pelo – a hairdryer
• un gabinete de baño – bathroom cabinet
• una toalla – a towel

Sala de estar – Living room

• un sofá – a couch, a sofa
• un sillón – an armchair
• una mesa de centro – a coffee table
• una lámpara – a lamp
• una alfombra – a carpet, a rug
• una estantería – a bookcase
• una tele – a TV set
• las cortinas – curtains, drapes
• las persianas – blinds
• las cortinas enrollables – roller-blinds
• una tele – a TV set
• un cuadro – a painting

Dormitorio – Bedroom

• una cama – a bed
• un camarote – a bunk bed
• un escritorio – a desk
• una silla – a chair
• un armario, un guardaropa – a wardrobe
• un closet – a closet
• una repisa – a shelf
• un afiche – a poster

Lavanderia y bodega – Laundry and storage room

• una lavadora – a washing machine
• una secadora – a dryer
• una plancha – an iron
• una tabla de planchar – an ironing board
• una aspiradora – a vacuum cleaner
• una escoba – a broom
• una mopa, un trapero – a mop

As you see, we have started with less than 20 essential words, and now we have almost a hundred! Plus, plenty of real-life use examples. 

I hope you’ve enjoyed this exercise, and I encourage you to repeat it with other key-topics as well. 

For some extra practice, I am leaving you with a few more sample sentences:

Si nos cambiamos de casa, tendremos que comprar un refrigerador nuevo. 
If we move house, we’ll have to buy a new fridge. 

La aspiradora se ha echado a perder. Hay que llevarla al servicio técnico.
The vacuum cleaner has broken down. We need to get it serviced.

Este sofá no combina con el color de las cortinas.
This couch doesn’t match with the color of the drapes. 

Prefieres dormir en la parte de arriba, o la parte de abajo del camarote?
Do you prefer to sleep in the top or bottom part of the bunk bed?

¿Puedo usar tu secador de pelo? El mío no funciona.
Can I use your hairdryer? Mine is not working.

Ya no caben más libros en esta estantería.
You can’t fit any more books in this bookshelf. 

Ordena tu guardaropa, por favor y mete la ropa sucia en la lavadora.
Tidy your wardrobe, please, and toss your dirty clothes in the washing machine.