At the Office—En la oficina

Many people work in offices, so this last section on jobs includes lots of vocabulary to help you find your way around the office.

English	Spanish
briefcase	un maletín
calculator	una calculadora
chair	una silla
copy machine	una copiadora
desk	un escritorio
fax machine	un fax
file folder	una carpeta
filing cabinet	un fichero
highlighter	un marcador
index card	una ficha
mail	el correo
office	una oficina
paper clip	un clip
rubber band	una goma
staple	una grapa
stapler	una grapadora
telephone	un teléfono
typewriter	una máquina de escribir

¿Cómo?—
Say What?

Remember un pupitre from the section on school? That’s a special kind of desk found in classrooms. But a regular desk, like adults use, is called un escritorio.

¡CUIDADO!

Mistake to Avoid

Be careful with carpeta and grapa—they don’t mean “carpet” and “grape,” but rather “folder” and “staple.” These are just two of many “false friends” in English and Spanish.

Did you know that some people do their work from home? Maybe you have a parent who does this from an office right in your house. Whether your parents work at home or someplace else, chances are you have some office supplies in different places in your house. Let’s take a look around!

The following list contains the Spanish words for different office supplies. If you can’t remember what a word means, you can look back at the vocabulary lists that appear earlier in this chapter. Search around your house until you find each of the items in the list. Then, fill in the blank spaces with the room or rooms where you found each item and how many you found. Here’s the tricky part: You must write down the rooms and the numbers in Spanish! Go back to Chapter 5 if you’re having trouble remembering how to say the different rooms in Spanish. The first one is done as an example.

Item in Spanish	Location(s)	Number of Items Found
un teléfono	la cocina	uno
una goma	__________________________________
una grapa	__________________________________
un clip	__________________________________
un ratón	__________________________________
una grapadora	__________________________________
una pluma	__________________________________
una ficha	__________________________________
un marcador	__________________________________
unas tijeras	__________________________________
una calculadora	__________________________________
una computadora	__________________________________