Palabra Lexi · common words in Spanish

How to say "market" in Spanish

"Market" in Spanish is mercado, pronounced mehr-KAH-doh (stress on the syllable in capitals). It is a masculine noun (el mercado, plural los mercados).

Pronunciation is spelled out in English, one syllable at a time, with the stressed syllable in capitals. The speaker button uses your browser's built-in Spanish voice. Gender and plural: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

How to pronounce mercado

Mercado is pronounced mehr-KAH-doh, in IPA /meɾˈkado/. Mercado has three syllables, mehr-KAH-doh, with the stress on the second. There is no written accent because the word follows the basic rule: words ending in a vowel, -n or -s are stressed on the second-to-last syllable.

Listen: normal and slow speed, in your browser's Spanish voice. IPA: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Is mercado masculine or feminine?

Mercado is masculine, so it takes el (the) and un (a): el mercado. The plural is los mercados. That fits the usual pattern: most nouns ending in -o are masculine.

Example sentences

Vamos al mercado
let's go to the market

Hay muchas tiendas en el mercado.
There are many shops in the market.

El mercado está cerca
The market is nearby

How to remember mercado

mercado [mehr-KAH-doh] sounds like the English “mer-cargo”. Picture this:

The market unloads its cargo at dawn: crates of peaches stacked like treasure.

A sound-alike plus a vivid scene is the keyword method, a well-studied way to learn vocabulary. How it works.

Practice mercado

Two quick games, right here: no sign-up, nothing is sent anywhere.

Word web: mercado

Words that live next to mercado in the Palabra word web, each with its own English sound-alike and scene. Learning them together makes each one easier to recall.