la vivienda
“la vivienda” — housing in Spanish. Noun, level A1, topic — home and things. From vivir, to live. The official word for housing: listings, contracts, the news. In a live sentence: “La vivienda en el centro está por las nubes” — Housing downtown costs a fortune. You can hear how it sounds right here. One of 191 words in the set “home and things” in the Spanish course.
In short
| Written in Spanish | la vivienda |
| Translation | housing |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
- la viviendahousing
Why it looks that way
From vivir, to live. The official word for housing: listings, contracts, the news
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- La vivienda en el centro está por las nubesHousing downtown costs a fortune
Nearby words: home and things
Room, key, water, electricity. You will need them on your first day in a rented flat.
- la casahouseEn casa without the article means at home; en la casa means inside the specific building. Your ear learns the difference
- la habitaciónroomThe h is silent: ah-bee-tah-SYON
- la cocinakitchenThe kitchen, the stove and the skill of cooking in one word: cocinar is to cook
- el bañobathroomThe ñ is a soft ny: BAH-nyoh
- el balcónbalconyEnglish borrowed balcony from the same root. Stress on the last syllable
- la plantafloor (story)A floor of a building. Careful: in Spain el piso is a flat, not a floor — Latin America has it the other way round
- el ascensorelevatorThe sc is a plain s: ah-sen-SOR
- la escalerastairsStairs in a building and a stepladder. Por la escalera — on foot, no elevator
- la mesatableAny table: dining, desk, or the one at a bar
- la sillachairThe ll sounds like y: SEE-yah
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “home and things”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “housing” in Spanish?
From vivir, to live. The official word for housing: listings, contracts, the news
- How do you say “elevator” in Spanish?
In Latin America el elevador is more common. The root is the one in ascend — going up
- How do you say “kitchen” in Spanish?
The kitchen, the stove and the skill of cooking in one word: cocinar is to cook
- How do you say “chair” in Spanish?
A chair. An armchair is el sillón — literally a big chair
- How do you say “floor (story)” in Spanish?
A floor of a building. Careful: in Spain el piso is a flat, not a floor — Latin America has it the other way round
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “housing” in Spanish?
«la vivienda». In a live sentence: “La vivienda en el centro está por las nubes” — Housing downtown costs a fortune. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Noun, level A1, from the set “home and things”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
From vivir, to live. The official word for housing: listings, contracts, the news. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
Can I hear how it sounds?
Yes, right on this page: click the word and it will play. The sound works on any phone, and nothing needs to be installed.