toallas sucias
/toaʝas suθjas/from spelling rules
In Spanish, "dirty towels" is translated as toallas sucias.
The phrase refers to towels that are not clean and require washing. You might use this when discussing lavandería (laundry) or needing to use a lavadora (washing machine) to make them limpio (clean).
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase is composed of toallas (towels) and sucias (dirty).
How does it change in a sentence?
In Spanish, the adjective sucias must agree in both gender (feminine) and number (plural) with the noun toallas.
How do you pronounce it?
/toaʝas suθjas/
Did you know?
- While toallas sucias refers to laundry, the phrase lavar los trapos sucios means 'to wash dirty laundry' in the sense of airing out family secrets or private grievances.
- In some regional dialects, the word sucio can be used as a slang term to describe something that is 'shady' or 'unfair' rather than physically soiled.
- The word toalla is a linguistic relative of the English word 'towel', but it entered Spanish via the Old French toale and the Latin tovalia.
Examples in context
- Señora Rodríguez, necesito que las toallas sucias del baño sean reemplazadas.Mrs. Rodríguez, I need the dirty towels in the bathroom to be replaced.
- ¡Por favor, cambia estas toallas asquerosas en el baño, están horribles!Please, change these disgusting towels in the bathroom, they're awful!
- Hay que lavar las toallas sucias.The dirty towels must be washed.
- Tengo muchas toallas sucias en la cesta.I have many dirty towels in the basket.
- ¿Dónde pusiste las toallas sucias?Where did you put the dirty towels?
- Hay que lavar estas toallas sucias.These dirty towels need to be washed.
Example conversation
Elena and Alejandro are cleaning the bathroom.
- ElenaAlejandro, recoge las toallas sucias, por favor.Alejandro, pick up the dirty towels, please.
- AlejandroSí, Elena. ¿Dónde las pongo?Yes, Elena. Where do I put them?
- ElenaLlévalas al lavadero ahora.Take them to the laundry room now.
- AlejandroEstá bien, voy con las toallas sucias.Alright, I'm going with the dirty towels.
Sources
- IPA marked “from spelling rules” is derived from standard Spanish spelling, where Wiktionary gives none.
