How to use in Spanish:Quedar

quedar de Zeta Hache

“Quedar” is a jack-of-all-trades, ready to handle a variety of situations in everyday conversations in Spanish.

To stay

When someone says “me quedo… en casa/en la oficina/aquí…”, it means to stay or not moving from a place. This use takes on the pronominal form “quedarse”.

To meet

However, when someone asks “¿quedamos luego?”, means ” shall we meet later?”, since “quedar” it’s the verb to arrange appointments, meetings…

Colloquially a casual meet-up is called “una quedada”

To agree

Adding “en” shows agreement to do something, as in “quedamos en ir pronto”, “we agreed to go early”.

To be left

To express availability of anything, time, distances, things in general. For example:

¿Cuánto tiempo queda para…?/ How much time is left to…

Quedan 50 km/  50 km left

No queda café/ There’s no coffee left

Queda poco tiempo/There’s not much time left…

To be located

To enquire about locations, “¿dónde queda…. la parada de autobús/ tu casa/la oficina?”, “where is the bus stop/ your home/ your office…?”

To suit or fit

Following the pattern of verbs like gustar, it means to suit or fit, regarding appearence.

In this sense, when it refers to people works like “gustar”,”¿me quedan bien esos pantalones?”, ” do these trousers suit me?” or ” no te queda bien esta chaqueta”, “this jacket doesn’t fit you”.

Talking about things, it’s like a standard verb: “esta mesa queda bien aquí”.

To tease

In casual settings, “quedarse con alguien” , means to tease somebody, “¿te estás quedando conmigo?”, “are you teasing me?”.

To keep

A very frequent use, again in the pronominal form “quedarse”, is to keep, to choose or buy: “me quedo con esto”, ” I´m keeping/choosing/ buying this”.

Quedar playlist

“Quedar” is so widely used, you could make a long playlist out of it. Here just a few…

“Me quedo contigo” a renowed song with many covers. The most recent by Rosalía, famous for her captivating performance at the 2019 Goya Awards ceremony.

The tittle takes on the meaning ” to stay” or  “to keep” and it could be translated as “I choose you” or ” I stay with you”.

🎵Me quedo contigo (Rosalía, 2019)
🎵Me quedo contigo (Manu Chao, 2009)
🎵Me quedo contigo (Los Chunguitos, 1981)

“TQG”, meaning “Te quedé grande”. “Te queda grande” is used when a piece of clothing looks big on someone. In a figurative way, it’s similar to the expression ” to be out of someone’s league”.

🎵TQM (Karol G and Shakira, 2023)

“Unx100to”, meaning “un por ciento” or “one percent”. In its catchy chorus, “me queda un por ciento”, I have one percent battery left, as an example of “to be left”.

🎵Unx100to (Grupo Frontera and Bad Bunny,2023)

“Quedar” common sentences practice

To wrap up, some common sentences with “Quedar” in Spanish to match with English ones. This is not an extensive list, there are more usages, expressions, nuances…que quedan para otra ocasión…left for another time.